Fluid-driven seismicity in relatively stable continental regions: Insights from the February 3rd, 2020 MS5.1 Qingbaijiang isolated earthquake

Abstract

On February 3rd, 2020, an isolated MS5.1 earthquake occurred in the northern section of the Longquanshan fault zone. This study aims at defining the geometry of seismogenic structures of this earthquake. In detail, centroid moment tensor inversion results show that the earthquake is characterized by a focal depth of 3.8 ​km with no corresponding surface faults. The strike/dip/rake angles for the two nodal planes are 205°/54°/96° and 15°/36°/82°, respectively. With the analyses of coseismic deformation of the surface obtained from InSAR measurements, together with the information of relocated hypocenters for a small number of aftershocks, it is concluded that a northwest-dipping nodal plane corresponds well to the source fault. The fault is suggested to have a length of about 2.8 ​km and a depth range of 2–5 ​km, and the centroid of the earthquake is located at 104.48°E and 30.71°N. Furthermore, multiple pieces of evidence indicate that this earthquake is partly driven by the overpressure effect associated with the adjacent natural gas packets, which is similar to several other moderate natural earthquakes in Sichuan Basin.

Keywords

• Isolated earthquake
• InSAR
• Deep fluid
• Fault valve
• Sichuan Basin