Jing-Yi Lin

Distribution of the East China Sea continental shelf basins and depths of magnetic sources

The acoustic basement map of the East China Sea, established by the Shanghai Offshore Petroleum Bureau with all available industry seismic data, shows the existence of a 30-km-wide, 10-km-deep basin, that we named the Ho Basin. The Ho Basin belongs to a series of elongated deep basins extending over 600 km east of the Taiwan-Sinzi Ridge and flanked to the East by a ridge named the Longwan Ridge in its northern part. This new system of basin and ridge was probably formed during middle Miocene, sometimes in between rifting episodes occurring in the Taipei Basin and Okinawa Trough. It complements the already defined system of five belts of backarc basins and associated arc volcanic ridges in the East China Sea, which are progressively younger from the Mainland China shoreline (late Cretaceous/early Tertiary) to the Okinawa Trough (Present). In order to determine the crustal thickness beneath the East China Sea continental shelf, we used a power spectrum method to calculate the depth of the top (Zt) and the centroid (Zo) of the magnetic basement by fitting a straight line through the high- and low-wave number portions of the power spectrum, respectively. Then, the depth of the base (Zb) is estimated from Zt and Zo. After optimizing the size of the data squares, we demonstrate that, except for basins more than 10 km deep, Zt corresponds to the basement depths and Zb, the depth of the Curie point, to the Moho depth. As wide-angle reflection and refraction data are scarce in the East China Sea, this method provides a way to characterize the crustal thickness of the East China Sea and to compute the theoretical heat flow values.

Could a Sumatra-like megathrust earthquake occur in the south Ryukyu subduction zone?

A comparison of the geological and geophysical environments between the Himalaya-Sumatra and Taiwan-Ryukyu collision-subduction systems revealed close tectonic similarities. Both regions are characterized by strongly oblique convergent processes and dominated by similar tectonic stress regimes. In the two areas, the intersections of the oceanic fracture zones with the subduction systems are characterized by trench-parallel high free-air gravity anomaly features in the fore-arcs and the epicenters of large earthquakes were located at the boundary between the positive and negative gravity anomalies. These event distributions and high-gravity anomalies indicate a strong coupling degree of the intersection area, which was probably induced by a strong resistance of the fracture features during the subduction. Moreover, the seismicity distribution in the Ryukyu area was very similar to the pre-seismic activity pattern of the 2004 Sumatra event. That is, thrust-type earthquakes with a trench-normal P-axis occurred frequently along the oceanward side of the mainshock, whereas only a few thrust earthquakes occurred along the continentward side. Therefore, the aseismic area located west of 128°E in the western Ryukyu subduction zone could have resulted from the strong plate locking effect beneath the high gravity anomaly zone. By analogy with the tectonic environment of the Sumatra subduction zone, the occurrence of a potential Sumatra-like earthquake in the south Ryukyu arc is highly likely and the rupture will mainly propagate continentward to fulfill the region of low seismicity (approximately 125° E to 129° E; 23° N to 26.5° N), which may generate a hazardous tsunami.

Spatial variations in the frequency-magnitude distribution of earthquakes in the southwestern Okinawa Trough

The relations between the frequency of occurrence and the magnitude of earthquakes are established in the southern Okinawa Trough for 2823 relocated earthquakes recorded during a passive ocean bottom seismometer experiment. Three high b-values areas are identified: (1) for an area offshore of the Ilan Plain, south of the andesitic Kueishantao Island from a depth of 50 km to the surface, thereby confirming the subduction component of the island andesites; (2) for a body lying along the 123.3°E meridian at depths ranging from 0 to 50 km that may reflect the high temperature inflow rising up from a slab tear; (3) for a third cylindrical body about 15 km in diameter beneath the Cross Backarc Volcanic Trail, at depths ranging from 0 to 15 km. This anomaly might be related to the presence of a magma chamber at the base of the crust already evidenced by tomographic and geochemical results. The high b-values are generally linked to magmatic and geothermal activities, although most of the seismicity is linked to normal faulting processes in the southern Okinawa Trough.

Spatio-temporal distribution of seismic moment release near the source area of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake

To understand the generation mechanism of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, we analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution of the cumulative seismic moment (ΣM0) for all earthquakes along the Japan Trench listed in the global centroid moment tensor catalog between January 1976 and November 2011. Three areas with distinct characteristics of ΣM0 are identified: (1) in the 2011 Tohoku-Oki source area, the ΣM0 released in the down-dip portion (≥30 km) was greater than that in the up-dip portion (<30 km) before the mainshock; (2) the Σ M0 of the up-dip portion in the region where slow slip activity prevails is greater than that of the down-dip portion throughout the study period; (3) in the surroundings of the source area, where interplate coupling is relatively low and the largest foreshock occurred, values of ΣM0 for the down-dip and up-dip portions are both intermediate. Our results show that a megathrust rupture could be generated by large accumulations of strain energy at the subduction interface, resulting from the differential strain energy released in the down-dip and up-dip portions during the interseismic interval. We propose that the variation pattern of ΣM0 may offer spatial constraints for seismic hazard assessment in the future.

Active normal faults and submarine landslides in the Keelung Shelf off NE Taiwan

The westernmost Okinawa Trough back-arc basin is located to the north of the Ryukyu islands and is situated above the northward dipping Ryukyu subducted slab. In the northern continental margin of the Okinawa Trough, the continental slope between the Keelung Valley and the Mein-Hua Submarine Canyon shows a steep angle and future slope failures are expected. The question is how slope failures will proceed? A sudden deep-seated slump or landslide would probably cause local tsunami and hit northern coast of Taiwan. To understand the probable submarine landslides, we conducted multi-channel seismic reflection, sub-bottom profilers, and multi-beam bathymetry surveys off NE Taiwan. Two general trends of shallow crustal faults are observed. The NE-SW trending faults generally follow the main structural trend of the Taiwan mountain belt. These faults are products of inversion tectonics of reverse faults from the former collisional thrust faults to post-collisional normal faults. Another trend of roughly E-W faults is consistent with the current N-S extension of the southern Okinawa Trough. The fault offsets in the eastern portion of the study area are more pronounced. No obvious basal surface of sliding is found beneath the continental margin. We conclude that the movement of the submarine landslides in the Keelung Shelf off northeastern Taiwan could be in a spread type. The submarine landslides mainly occur in the continental slope area and it is more obvious in the east than in the west of the Keelung Shelf. Article history: Received 1 October 2016 Revised 21 March 2017 Accepted 2 July 2017