The 2015 Ms 6.5 Pishan Earthquake, Northwest Tibetan Plateau: a Folding Event in the Western Kunlun Piedmont
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Research Paper GEOSPHERE The 2015 Ms 6.5 Pishan earthquake, Northwest Tibetan Plateau: A folding event in the western Kunlun piedmont 1,2 2 2 2 2 2 2 GEOSPHERE, v. 15, no. 3 Chuanyong Wu , Jianming Liu , Jin Li , Weihua Hu , Guodong Wu , Xiangde Chang , and Yuan Yao 1Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Geodynamics and Geohazards, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China 2Earthquake Agency of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, China https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02063.1 7 figures; 2 tables ■ ABSTRACT investigate whether the Pishan earthquake generated a surface fault and what the deformation characteristics of this event are. The surface rupture caused CORRESPONDENCE: [email protected] Folding earthquakes are a popular area of research in convergent orogenic by an earthquake can provide a unique opportunity to investigate the impact of belts because they can cause destruction without an obvious surface offset. coseismic faulting on landscape evolution and to refine regional deformation CITATION: Wu, C.Y., Liu, J.M., Li, J., Hu, W.H., Wu, G.D., Chang, X.D., and Yao, Y., The 2015 Ms 6.5 Pishan The Ms 6.5 Pishan earthquake (Ms represents Richter magnitude scale), which models (Wallace, 1977; Yeats et al., 1997; Bull, 2009). The tectonic deformation earthquake, Northwest Tibetan Plateau: A folding event occurred in the western Kunlun piedmont, Northwest Tibetan Plateau, caused and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau have been popular areas of research. Two in the western Kunlun piedmont: Geosphere, v. 15, no. 3, significant property losses. Based on surface deformation data combined main models of upper crustal shortening and faulting (e.g., Tapponnier et al., p. 935–945, https:// doi.org /10.1130 /GES02063.1. with earthquake relocation results, structural geology, and seismic reflection 2001; Hubbard and Shaw, 2009; Xu et al., 2009; Jiang et al., 2013) and lower profiles, we determined that the Pishan blind thrust anticline is a seismogenic crustal viscous flow (e.g., Clark and Royden, 2000; Royden et al., 2008) have Science Editor: David Fastovsky Associate Editor: Huaiyu Yuan structure. The surface deformation caused by this earthquake was dominated been used to explain the growth of the plateau. The tectonic deformation and by layer folding and surface uplift, which generated tensional ground fissures growth pattern of western Kunlun, which is the northwestern margin of the Received 18 September 2018 at the surface. Therefore, we suggest that the Ms 6.5 Pishan earthquake was Tibetan Plateau, are not currently well understood. A thorough study of the Revision received 14 December 2018 a folding event. The Pishan earthquake only ruptured part of the Pishan an- Ms 6.5 Pishan event will allow us to understand the tectonic deformation and Accepted 14 March 2019 ticline, and the main locked part between the Tekilik fault and the Pishan seismotectonic model in this region. anticline did not rupture. This area of the western Kunlun range front may In this paper, we first report the surface deformation caused by the Pishan Published online 17 April 2019 have significant seismic risk. earthquake based on our field investigations. We then utilize geologic data, seismic reflection profiles and earthquake relocation results to study the seis- mogenic structure of the Pishan earthquake and the deformation characteristics ■ INTRODUCTION of the Pishan blind thrust fold. Finally, we discuss the tectonic deformation along the western Kunlun range front and the seismic risk in this region. Folding earthquakes, which were observed in detail in the 1983 Coalinga earthquake, in Coalinga, California, USA (Stein and King, 1984), are a general type of rupture along foreland thrust systems. Although folding earthquakes ■ ACTIVE TECTONIC SETTING OF THE WESTERN KUNLUN RANGE are generally characterized by surface uplift and layer folding (Stein and Yeats, 1989; Yeats et al., 1997) without obvious surface fault offset, they also can The western Kunlun orogenic belt is located on the northwestern margin of cause destruction. Over the past several decades, this kind of hazard has been the Tibetan Plateau (Fig. 1). In response to the Cenozoic India-Eurasia collision, exemplified by the 1906M s 7.7 Manasi earthquake (Ms represents Richter the western Kunlun Range was uplifted rapidly, and the overthrusting of Paleo- magnitude scale) in the northern piedmont of the Chinese Tian Shan (Zhang zoic bedrock onto Cenozoic strata can be widely observed along the range-front et al., 1994), the 1985 Ms 7.1 Wuqia earthquake, in Xinjiang, China, along the Tekilik fault (Cowgill, 2001; Yin et al., 2002). The crustal thickness in this area Pamir front (Feng, 1997), and the 2013 Ms 7.0 Lushan earthquake in the Long- can reach ~70 km (Negredo et al., 2007; Tseng et al., 2009), and the Cenozoic men mountain piedmont, in Sichuan, China (Xu et al., 2013). sediments in the foreland basin are more than 12 km thick (Matte et al., 1996). The 2015 Ms 6.5 Pishan earthquake, which occurred in the western Kunlun The strong uplift landforms, thick Cenozoic deposits in the foreland basin, and Range piedmont (Fig. 1), caused significant casualties and property losses. widespread active faults (Fig. 1) all attest to the intensive tectonic deformation Previous studies (e.g., Li et al., 2016; Lu et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2016) have in this region (Sobel and Dumitru, 1997; Zheng et al., 2000; Chen et al., 2011). explored the seismogenic structure and rupture mechanism of this earthquake. Several strike-slip faults are present within the western Kunlun Range Based on the statistical results of seismic data, an earthquake with a magnitude (Fig. 1), which accommodate the different horizontal displacements of the This paper is published under the terms of the greater than 6.5 can generate an obvious surface rupture zone (Yeats et al., tectonic blocks. The Karakoram fault, which is 510 km long and has an aver- CC-BY-NC license. 1997). However, surface deformation of this event has not been reported. We age slip rate of 6.9–10.8 mm/yr (Robinson, 2009), is a large dextral strike-slip © 2019 The Authors GEOSPHERE | Volume 15 | Number 3 Wu et al. | Pishan earthquake Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/15/3/935/4708512/935.pdf 935 by guest on 25 September 2021 Research Paper 76° 78° 80° 82° A 70° 80° 90° 100° B N ▲ Tian Shan 40° Fig. 1B ian Shan Tagh fault T Altyn ▲KaKalppin Karakoram fault Tibetan Plateau ▲ 30° 40° 40° ▲ India ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ Artux ▲ Kashgar ▲ Tarim Basin 75˚ 76˚ 77˚ 78˚ 79˚ 80˚ 81˚ 39˚ M Z F ▲ ▲ 38° Fig. 2 ↓ 38˚ 38° Yecheng ▲T K F ▲Pishan Moyu ▲Fig. 3 ↓ ▲ Hotan Luopu YHTF ▲ CeC le 37˚ K K F Western Kunlun range ▲ ▲ K X F 36° 36˚ 36° 0 50 100km 76° 78° 80° 82° Focal mechanism Focal mechanism Ms = 4.0 - 4.9 Thrust Strike slip Normal Seismic solution of the Pishan solution of the Ms = 3.0 - 3.9 ▲ Ms = 2.0 - 2.9 fault fault fault station Ms 6.5 earthquake other earthquakes Ms = 1.0 - 1.9 Figure 1. Topographic relief map and distribution of major active faults in the western Kunlun and the adjacent region of China. The focal mechanism solutions of earthquakes with magnitudes greater than Ms 5 and the spatial distribution of the aftershocks of the Ms 6.5 Pishan earthquake are all shown in section B. Sixteen focal mechanism solutions (data from the U.S. Geological Survey, https://earthquake.usgs.gov /earthquakes/) of recent events with magnitudes greater than Ms 5 are shown with blue. KKF—Karakoram fault; TKF—Taxkorgan normal fault system; KXF—Kangxiwar fault; YHTF—Yech- eng-Hotan thrust fault-fold zone; MZF—Mazhatagh thrust fault-fold. Ms represents Richter magnitude scale. GEOSPHERE | Volume 15 | Number 3 Wu et al. | Pishan earthquake Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/15/3/935/4708512/935.pdf 936 by guest on 25 September 2021 Research Paper fault that has accommodated ~300 km of northward translation of the Pamir considered to be the frontal active belt of the western Kunlun nappe structure (Hamburger et al., 1992; Burtman and Molnar, 1993; Robinson et al., 2007; (Pan et al., 2010). The active foreland folds mainly formed during the Quaternary Strecker et al., 1995). The Kangxiwar fault is a large crustal-scale sinistral (Chen et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2004; Si et al., 2007) and are the main structures strike-slip fault (Tapponnier and Molnar, 1977; Peltzer et al., 1989; Fu et al., accommodating the N-S crustal shortening deformation. The total crustal 2006) that represents part of the northwestern boundary of the Tibetan Pla- shortening calculated based on a balanced section is 24.6–54 km (Jiang et al., teau. The sinistral slip rate determined by geological (e.g., Fu et al., 2006; Li 2013), and the crustal shortening rate in this region determined by GPS data et al., 2008) and geodetic (e.g., Shen et al., 2001; Wright et al., 2004; Elliott et is ~2 mm/yr (Shen et al., 2001; Li et al., 2016). al., 2008) methods is ~10 mm/yr. The Taxkorgan fault is an extensional dextral fault system (Brunel et al., 1994; Robinson et al., 2004; Cowgill, 2010; Zubovich et al., 2010) that is composed of several secondary faults (Li et al., 2011). The ■ TECTONIC DEFORMATION FEATURES OF THE PISHAN ANTICLINE rate of extension of this fault decreases gradually from north to south (Rob- inson et al., 2007; Li, 2013). A petroleum industry seismic profile (Fig. 3; Liang et al., 2012) shows two- Several rows of folds and thrust faults have developed along the western fold belts between the range front and Pishan city.