Special Issue: Special section for IUGG workshop: Lithospheric Structure of a Supercontinent:Gondwana
- Article
- Open Access
- Published:
Seismological evidence of simultaneous mountain-building and crust-thickening from the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw=7.6)
Earth, Planets and Space volume 56, pages 163–167 (2004)
Abstract
High-quality seismic data recorded during the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw=7.6) show that a small-scale orogenic process of both mountain-building and crust-thickening was simultaneously accomplished along one set of crustal-scale conjugated faults. Mountain-building near the surface was primarily produced by the main shock along an eastward low-angle thrust fault in the upper crust. In the meanwhile, a sequence of aftershocks along a westward high-angle reverse fault in the lower crust could increase crustal thickness even though major crustal deformation in generally taken place under ductile deformation. Also, velocity structures inverted from seismic tomography suggest that the crustal deformation in the form of both mountain-building and crust-thickening has been repeatedly generated by a similar orogenic process during the past million years. The dynamic dual process observed here contributes to the growth of the orogenic zone in the near the surface and deep crust in Taiwan.
References
Chang, H. C., Geological surveys for the 921 earthquake, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipei, Taiwan, 314 pp., 2000.
Chen, C. H., W. H. Wang, and T. L. Teng, 3D velocity structure around the source area of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake: before and after the mainshock, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 91, 1013–1027, 2001a.
Chen, K. C., B. S. Huang, and J. H. Wang, Conjugate thrust faulting associated with the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake sequence, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 118–121, 2002.
Chen, W. S., B. S. Huang, Y. G. Chen, Y. H. Lee, C. N. Yang, C. H. Lo, H. C. Chang, Q. C. Sung, N. W. Huang, C. C. Lin, S. H. Sung, and K. J. Lee, 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake: A case study on the role of thrust-ramp structures for generating earthquakes, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 91, 986–994, 2001b.
Cheng, W. B., Three-dimensional crustal structure around the source area of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan and its relation to aftershock locations, Terr. Atmos. Oceanic Sci., 11, 643–660, 2000.
Dewey, J. F., R. M. Shackleton, C. Chang, and Y Sun, The tectonic evolution of the Tibetan Plateau, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., 327, 379–413, 1988.
Hirata, N., S. Sakai, Z. S. Liaw, Y B. Tsai, and S. B. Yu, Aftershock observations of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake, Bull. Earthq. Res. Inst. Tokyo Univ., 75, 33–46, 2000.
Johnson, S., Y J. Hsu, P. Segall, and S. B. Yu, Fault geometry and slip distribution of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake imaged from inversion of GPS data, Geophy. Res. Lett., 28, 2285–2288, 2001.
Kao, H. and W. P. Chen, The Chi-Chi earthquake sequence: active, out-of-sequence thrust faulting in Taiwan, Science, 288, 2346–2349, 2000.
Lin, C. H., Seismic tomography of crustal structures across the Chelungpu fault, submitted to Tectonophysics, 2004.
Lin, C. H. and S. W. Roecker, Three-dimensional P-wave velocity structure of the Bear Valley region of central California, Pure and Applied Geophy., 149, 4, 667–688, 1997.
Lin, C. H., Y H. Yeh, B. S. Huang, R. C. Shih, H. L. Lai, C. S. Huang, S. S. Yu, H. Y. Yen, C. S. Liu, and F. T. Wu, Deep crustal structures inferred from wide-angle seismic data in Taiwan, International conference and Sino-American symposium on tectonics of East Asia, Chungli, Taiwan, 1997.
Lin, C. H., Y H. Yeh, H. Y. Yen, K. C. Chen, B. S. Huang, S. W. Roecker, and J. M. Chiu, Three-dimensional elastic wave velocity structures of the Hualien region of Taiwan: Evidence of active crustal exhumation, Tectonics, 17, 1, 89–103, 1998.
Ma, K. F, J. Mori, S. J. Lee, and S. B. Yu, Spatial and temporal distribution of slip for the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 91, 1069–1087, 2001.
Molnar, P., A review of geophysical constraints on the deep structure of the Tibetan Plateau, the Himalaya, and the Karakorum and their tectonic implications, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 326, 33–88, 1988.
Rau, R. J. and F T. Wu, Tomographic imaging of lithospheric structures under Taiwan, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 133, 517–532, 1995.
Roecker, S. W., Y H. Yeh, and Y B. Tsai, Three-dimensional P and S wave velocity structures beneath Taiwan: deep structure beneath an arc-continent collision, J. Geophys. Res., 92, 10,547–10,570, 1987.
Schelling, S. and K. Arita, Thrust tectonics, crustal shortening and the structure of the far eastern Nepal Himalaya, Tectonics, 10, 851–862, 1991.
Shin, T. C, K. W. Kuo, W. H. K. Lee, T. L. Teng, and Y B. Tsai, A preliminary report on the 1999 Chi-Chi (Taiwan) earthquake, Seism. Res. Letters, 71, 1, 23–29, 2
Srivastava, P. and G. Mitra, Thrust geometries and deep structure of the outer and lesser Himalaya, Kumaon and Garwal (India): Implications for evolution of the Himalayan fold-and-thrust belt, Tectonics, 13, 89–109, 1994.
Turcotte, D. and G. Schubert, Geodynamics: Applications of Continuum Physics to Geological Problems, New York: Wiley, pp. 225–228, 1982.
Wang, C. Y, C. L. Li, F C. Su, M. T. Leu, M. S. Wu, S. H. Lai, and C. C. Chen, Structural mapping of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake fault, Taiwan by seismic reflection methods, Terr. Atmos. Oceanic Sci., 13, 211–226, 2002.
Yeh, Y H., R. C. Shih, C. H. Lin, C. C. Liu, H. Y. Yen, B. S. Huang, C. S. Liu, and F. T. Wu, Onshore/offshore wide-angle deep seismic profiling in Taiwan, Terr. Atm. Ocean., 9, 301–316, 1
Author information
Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, CH., Ando, M. Seismological evidence of simultaneous mountain-building and crust-thickening from the 1999 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw=7.6). Earth Planet Sp 56, 163–167 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353400
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353400
Key words
- Chi-Chi earthquake
- crust-thickening
- mountain-building