The ground deformation field induced by a listric thrust fault with an overburden soil layer

Shaogang ZENG, Yong’en CAI

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PDF(255 KB)
Front. Earth Sci. ›› DOI: 10.1007/s11707-013-0383-x
RESEARCH ARTICLE
RESEARCH ARTICLE

The ground deformation field induced by a listric thrust fault with an overburden soil layer

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Abstract

The surface deformation field induced by a listric thrust fault with a thick, overburden soil layer is studied in this paper by the finite element method (FEM). The results show: (a) The maximum slip induced by the buried fault is not located at upper tip of the fault, but below it. (b) The vertical displacement changes remarkably near the fault, forming a fault scarp. With the increase of the soil layer thickness, the height of the scarp is decreased for the same earthquake magnitude. (c) The strong strain zone on the surface is localized near the projection of the fault tip on the ground surface. The horizontal strains in the zone are in tension above the hanging wall and in compression above the foot wall, and the vertical strains in the zone are vice versa, which is favorable for tensile-shear, compression-shear fissures above hanging wall and foot wall, respectively.

Keywords

listric thrust fault / earthquake / fault scarps / ground fissures / finite element method (FEM)

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Shaogang ZENG, Yong’en CAI. The ground deformation field induced by a listric thrust fault with an overburden soil layer. Front Earth Sci, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-013-0383-x

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Acknowledgements

The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41074070, SinoProbe-07). We are specially grateful to the three reviewers for providing constructive and insightful comments and suggestions on the manuscript.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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