Study on spatio-temporal characteristics of earthquakes in southwest China based on z-value

Abstract

In this study, earthquakes with magnitudes above 3.0 on the Richter scale in southwest China from 1900 to 2013 are taken as research objects. The spatio-temporal migration characteristics of seismic activity in the area of concern are studied by using geostatistics method to explore the rules of seismic activity. From the perspective of geostatistics and based on z-value, eight major seismic zones in southwest China were studied zone-wise by using the geostatistics tool ArcGIS and the seismic analysis tool ZMAP to explore the spatial and temporal migration characteristics of earthquakes. It was found that each seismic zone had its own quiet period with relatively inactive seismic activity. Simultaneously, through the study of the time-varying characteristics of the seismic belt, it was found that the time-varying regularity of the seismic frequency of the fault belt with the same or related geological structure background is roughly consistent. In conclusion, the seismic activity in southwest China will still be active in the future.

Keywords

• seismic activity
• time-space propagation characteristics
• z-value