EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS – SEISMOLOGY, SEISMOTECTONIC AND EARTHQUAKE GEOLOGY Edited by Sebastiano D'Amico Earthquake Research and Analysis – Seismology, Seismotectonic and Earthquake Geology Edited by Sebastiano D'Amico Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Igor Babic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published February, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected] Earthquake Research and Analysis – Seismology, Seismotectonic and Earthquake Geology, Edited by Sebastiano D'Amico p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-991-2 Contents Preface IX Chapter 1 Earthquakes in History – Ways to Find out About the Seismic Past of a Region 1 Friedrich Barnikel and Mark Vetter Chapter 2 The Traces of Earthquake (Seismites): Examples from Lake Van Deposits (Turkey) 21 Serkan Üner, Çetin Yeşilova and Türker Yakupoğlu Chapter 3 Parameters of the Strong Paleoearthquakes Along the Talas-Fergana Fault, the Kyrgyz Tien Shan 33 A.M. Korjenkov, D. Rust, A. Tibaldi and S.V. Abdieva Chapter 4 Generation Mechanism of Giant Earthquakes in Subduction Zones with Smaller-Size Interplate Earthquakes During Interseismic Period 53 Takane Hori, Mamoru Hyodo and Shin’ichi Miyazaki Chapter 5 Frictional Characteristics in Deeper Part of Seismogenic Transition Zones on a Subduction Plate Boundary 73 Keisuke Ariyoshi and Yoshiyuki Kaneda Chapter 6 Characteristics of Coseismic Thrust-Related Folding from Paleoseismic Investigation Responsible for the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake of Central Taiwan 93 Wen-Shan Chen, Nobuhisa Matsuta and Chih-Cheng Yang Chapter 7 Focal Depth Determination for Moderate and Small Earthquakes by Modeling Regional Depth Phases sPg, sPmP, and sPn 111 Shutian Ma Chapter 8 Relating Crustal Structure and Stress Indicators in the Azores Islands 135 Nuno Dias and Luís Matias VI Contents Chapter 9 Electromagnetic View of the Seismogenic Zones Beneath Island Arcs 151 Hiroaki Toh and Takuto Minami Chapter 10 S Wave Velocity Structure in Non-Tectonic SE Asia by Seismogram Analysis of the Earthquakes in Sumatra-Java at TATO Station, Taiwan 167 Bagus Jaya Santosa Chapter 11 Tectonic Background of the Wenchuan Earthquake 183 Yunsheng Wang, Runqiu Huang, Yonghong Luo, Hongbiao Xu, Shitian Wang, Liangwen Jiang and Yusheng Li Chapter 12 Non-Linear Analysis of Point Processes Seismic Sequences in Guerrero, Mexico: Characterization of Earthquakes and Fractal Properties 203 E. Leticia Flores-Marquez and Sharon M. Valverde-Esparza Chapter 13 Rock-Fluid Interaction Along Seismogenic Faults Infered from Clay Minerals in Okitsu Mélange, the Cretaceous Shimanto Belt, SW Japan 221 Yoshitaka Hashimoto and Umihiko Kaji Chapter 14 Some Complexity Studies of Electroseismic Signals from Mexican Subduction Zone 239 L. Guzmán-Vargas, R. Hernández-Pérez, F. Angulo-Brown and A. Ramírez-Rojas Chapter 15 Hydrological and Geochemical Changes Related to Earthquakes - Examples: Three Great Earthquakes of the XX Century in the Southern Apennines (Italy) 261 Raimondo Pece and Giuseppe Tranfaglia Chapter 16 ESR Techniques for the Detection of Seismic Frictional Heat 285 Tatsuro Fukuchi Chapter 17 Change of Pore Fluid Pressure Versus Frictional Coefficient During Fault Slip 309 Yuta Mitsui Chapter 18 Integrated Morphometric Analysis in GIS Environment Applied to Active Tectonic Areas 325 Rosa Nappi and Giuliana Alessio Chapter 19 The Automated Identification of Volcanic Earthquakes: Concepts, Applications and Challenges 345 Mauricio Orozco-Alzate, Carolina Acosta-Muñoz and John Makario Londoño-Bonilla Preface This book presents different aspects of earthquake research. In includes syntheses of recent works combined with new results and interpretations, applicable to diverse branches of earthquake seismology and geology. The destructive potential of earthquakes depends on their magnitude and the placement of the hypocenter. Worldwide efforts, such as the Global Seismographic Network of seismological and geophysical sensors and data centers, provides information that is essential to identify earthquake locations, understand the physics of the earthquakes and faulting mechanisms, as well as studies on paleoseismicity and earthquakes in the human history. These types of studies play a key role in mitigating earthquake hazards and planning emergency response. Geological studies on tectonic landforms and advances in the theoretical and applied physics of seismology have led to the creation of numerical models for seismic activity, improvement of design methods and testing practices for earthquake-resistant construction and seismic retrofit, as well as observation and monitoring. The study of earthquakes combines science, technology and expertise in infrastructure and engineering in an effort to minimize human and material losses when their occurrence is inevitable. The chapters in this book are devoted to various aspects of earthquake research and analysis, such as seismology, seismotectonic and earthquake geology. The first chapter presents a study on ways to find out about the seismic past of a region. This is really important because identification and reliable description of past earthquakes is of great importance for the seismic assessment in a particular area and it represents a reliable projection of future earthquakes. Even though the paper focuses on, but is not limited to, German attempts, it offers a clear picture of historical earthquakes and their reception history, ancient and early modern attempts to collect earthquake information, early earthquake catalogue compilation and open source ways to collect earthquake information. Chapters 2 and 3 discuss the trace of earthquakes through some examples of seismites from Turkey and through studies on paleoearthquakes in Central Asia. The authors describe sedimentary beds disturbed by seismic shaking known as seismites. The main goal of chapter 2 is to determine the different deformation structures in Lake Van X Preface deposits, interpret the triggering mechanism and discuss the importance of these structures in regional tectonic. Chapter 3 focuses on strong paleoearthquakes along the Talas-Fergana Fault to improve the understanding of the intracontinental deformation of the Tien Shan mountain belt as a whole, and the occurrence of strong earthquakes along the largest wrench structure in Central Asia. Chapter 4 presents some study on paleoseismic investigation. The authors analyzed the paleoseismic evidence for earthquake rupture at four excavated sites along the fault responsible for the destructive earthquake in Taiwan in 1999 (Mw=7.6). They suggest that “the evolutionary path of thrust-related folds develops from fault- propagation folding to breakthrough fault-propagation folding, and finally to fault- bend folding”. Chapter 5 deals with the generation mechanism of giant earthquakes in subduction zones. The authors discuss a numerical simulation approach in order to set up a model in subduciton zones. They were able to quantitatively explain the features of the 2011 M9 earthquake in Japan using a hierarchical asperity model. Chapter 6 also deals with earthquakes in subduction zones by investigating the process and mechanisms of slow-earthquake migration. The chapter presents a comparison of results obtained by observation and numerical simulations. Furthermore, the authors discuss a new method for detecting changes around important asperities before megathrust earthquake. Chapter 7 is an example of a seismology paper and deals with the determination of focal depth of small and moderate earthquakes using teleseismic depth phases, which is crucial information for many studies in seismology. The chapter shows several examples and comparisons among the focal depth obtained using teleseismic phase as well as other results obtained using other methods, and the consistency in the comparisons is good. Chapter 8 investigates the crustal structure of the Azorean plateau region, describing the results obtained by using 1-D and 3-D inversions. It illustrates the use of several techniques well-known in earthquake seismology and shows the results of intense seismic and volcanic activity. Chapter 9 deals with identifications of structure in non-tectonic areas inferred using seismogram analysis of earthquakes recorded in Taiwan. Chapter 10 presents results on the tectonic background of the Wenchuan earthquake area. Due to the complicated tectonic environment of northwestern Sichuan, several different results are presented. The paper sheds light on the tectonic process of the area and tries to clarify several hypotheses. Chapter 11 reports statistical studies applied to seismology. In particular, two different approaches are used to investigate non-linear analysis. Fractal approach to characterize