The seismogenic structure of the Ji-Chi earthquake sequence in

June 2012, in eastern Taiwan

Chang, S. S.
d01224002@ntu.edu.tw
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Chen, Y. G.
ygchen@ntu.edu.tw
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Kuo, Y. T.
yutingkuo@ntu.edu.tw
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Shyu, J.B.H.
jbhs@ntu.edu.tw
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Huang, H. H.
d98224004@ntu.edu.tw
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Wu, Y. M.
drymwu@ntu.edu.tw
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Chang, C. H.
gensin@scman.cwb.gov.tw
Central Weather Bureau, Taipei, Taiwan

The Longitudinal Valley (LV) in eastern Taiwan presents the plate suture of two
collided plates: the Philippine Sea plate and the Eurasian plate. Since this collisional
tectonics is still on-going,, therefore, seismicity in the eastern Taiwan is therefore
seismically very active due to the convergence of the two plates. , especially along In
the Longitudinal Valley (LV)., tThe earthquake sequences of 1951 are one of the
disastrous earthquakes in the history,the most significant in the records. This sequence
of 1951 which was mainly consisted ofby two magnitudeM > 7 events in the October
and November and respectively. The October 1951 earthquake produced twothe
surface ruptures from 24.03N to 23.97N respectively inalong the northernmost of
and central the LV, then, the surface ruptured from 23.65N to 23.53N and 23.23N
to 23.12N in the middle part of the LV in November 1951. . On 14th of June
2012,The Ji-Chi (J-C) earthquake (Mw = 5.3) sequence struck northern LV and tailed
with a large number of aftershocks distributedoccurred from 23.76N to 23.67N in
the northern end of the LV in the June 2012 , where didntthe 1951 surface rupture in
the 1951 did not reach and relatively seismic-quiescent. and the magnitude of the
main shock was Mw = 5.3 on June 14, 2012. However, the subsurface structure in this
region of the LV remains poorly known. Thus, ourWe plan to take this opportunity
using seismicity analysis attempt is to obtain a better understating of the tectonic
frameworksubsurface structure in this region through discussing of the J-C earthquake
sequence.
There were 734 events recorded in the J-C sequence andwhich distributed in a
west-plunging belt orientedtoward NE-SW direction. After the main shock occurred,
tThe number of the aftershocksevents significantly increased immediately in the 12-

29 hour and the 75-81 hour. There were 82 and 30 events ofwhich MW2.0 were
recorded in each period to spatially form two clusters occurred in the 12-29 hour, in
addition, there were 30 events which MW2.0 occurred in the 75-81 hour
respectively. Hence, the Mw2.0 events of this sequence can be divided into two
seismic clusters. The cluster 1 is the events occurred in the 12-29 hour which is
located in the western part and dominatedcharacterized by trust event,
whilecomponent and the cluster 2 located in the eastern part and characterized by is
the events occurred in the 75-81 hour that has mainly mixed thrust type and strike-slip
types components. In spatial distribution, theAll Mw4 events in the cluster 1 are
distributed inhas an average focal depths ofabout 8 km, but and the focal mechanism
of these events were dominated by west-dipping . As a result, the Mw4 events of
the cluster 1 should present a structure zone. On the other hand, t the Mw4 events
of the cluster 2 occurred showed in the depth of 5-7 km in the eastern side of the J-C
sequence and the focal mechanism has two different types as mentioned above. By
the relations aboveThus, the cluster 2 may be considered aswas perhaps triggered by
the cluster 1 and it was considered as the fractures under the ground. Such a new
finding is quite unusual to fit in general tectonic model published before. Although
Tthe meaning tectonic role of the Ji-Chi earthquake sequence is stillis still unclear,
this study brings up with a unclear especially in such tectonic background in eastern
Taiwan. In order to understand the mechanism of the Ji-Chi earthquake sequence
correlated with the structures in the LV, we need more seismic profiles and drilling
dataconclusion that tectonic framework within the plate suture is much more
complicated than we thought.