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Secondary seismic fractures activated during the Wenchuan earthquake

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Abstract

Whilst the Yingxiu-Beichuan fracture is considered to be the primary seismic fracture of the Wenchuan earthquake, surface ruptures, geohazards, abnormal hydrological phenomena and aftershocks occurred not only along this central fracture but also along the so-called “secondary seismic fractures” parallel to it. The paper reports some of the geohazards associated with these secondary seismic fractures and concludes that the contribution of these is important in the overall scale of the effect of the Wenchuan earthquake.

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Acknowledgments

This study is financially supported by the National Basic Research Program “973” Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2008CB425801), and the National Foundation for Natural Science of China (40772206). The authors would like to thank Niek Rengers for revising the article and his many helpful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, 610059, Chengdu, China

    Yunsheng Wang, Yonghong Luo, Xiangjun Pei, Junfeng Wu & Weile Li

Authors
  1. Yunsheng Wang
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  2. Yonghong Luo
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  3. Xiangjun Pei
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  4. Junfeng Wu
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  5. Weile Li
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Correspondence to Yunsheng Wang.

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Wang, Y., Luo, Y., Pei, X. et al. Secondary seismic fractures activated during the Wenchuan earthquake. Bull Eng Geol Environ 68, 443–447 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-009-0219-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-009-0219-9

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