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Tectonic stress pattern in the Chinese Mainland from the inversion of focal mechanism data

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Abstract

The tectonic stress pattern in the Chinese Mainland and kinematic models have been subjected to much debate. In the past several decades, several tectonic stress maps have been figured out; however, they generally suffer a poor time control. In the present study, 421 focal mechanism data up to January 2010 were compiled from the Global/Harvard CMT catalogue, and 396 of them were grouped into 23 distinct regions in function of geographic proximity. Reduced stress tensors were obtained from formal stress inversion for each region. The results indicated that, in the Chinese Mainland, the directions of maximum principal stress were ∼NE–SW-trending in the northeastern region, ∼NEE–SWW-trending in the North China region, ∼N–S-trending in western Xinjiang, southern Tibet and the southern Yunnan region, ∼NNE–SSW-trending in the northern Tibet and Qinghai region, ∼NW–SE-trending in Gansu region, and ∼E–W-trending in the western Sichuan region. The average tectonic stress regime was strike-slip faulting (SS) in the eastern Chinese Mainland and northern Tibet region, normal faulting (NF) in the southern Tibet, western Xinjiang and Yunnan region, and thrust faulting (TF) in most regions of Xinjiang, Qinghai and Gansu. The results of the present study combined with GPS velocities in the Chinese Mainland supported and could provide new insights into previous tectonic models (e.g., the extrusion model). From the perspective of tectonics, the mutual actions among the Eurasian plate, Pacific plate and Indian plate caused the present-day tectonic stress field in the Chinese Mainland.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for offering constructive comments which improved this manuscript in many aspects. Prof. Damien Delvaux and Saibal Gupta are thanked for the program and publication, respectively. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2015QNA69) and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Ju Wei & Sun Weifeng

  2. Key Laboratory of Coalbed Methane Resources and Reservoir Formation Process, Ministry of Education, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, China

    Ju Wei

  3. College of Resources, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang, 050031, China

    Ma Xiaojing

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  1. Ju Wei
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Correspondence to Ju Wei.

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Corresponding editor: Saibal Gupta

Appendix

Appendix

Table A1. Compiled data base of focal mechanisms used in this study grouped in 23 boxes.
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Wei, J., Weifeng, S. & Xiaojing, M. Tectonic stress pattern in the Chinese Mainland from the inversion of focal mechanism data. J Earth Syst Sci 126, 41 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-017-0814-2

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