NTUGeo

理學院

臺大

週一, 17 二月 2014 09:48

[演講]Investigating the possibility of tidal triggering of earthquakes in Taiwan

Invited Talk
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Speaker: Dr. Maxime Mouyen
Post-doctoral Fellow
Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica

Title: Investigating the possibility of tidal triggering of earthquakes in Taiwan

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Friday, Feb 21th, 2014
Location: Room 213, Department of Geosciences
Colloquium chair: Prof. Tai-Lin Tseng

Abstract: Tides periodically deform the Earth and consequently alter its state of stress. It has long been questioned whether this change of stress could trigger earthquakes. There is no clear agreement about the existence of such tidal triggering. It may only occur under specific circumstances, depending on the focal mechanism and the geographic location of the earthquakes. In this paper, we aim at assessing whether or not tidal triggering exist around Taiwan.

We take advantage of the high seismicity of this region to statistically test this hypothesis. We evidence tidal triggering of earthquakes, with 95% or more confidence, but only at very few locations, mostly on the eastern coast of Taiwan. We also note that this triggering is mostly favored when the tidal stress pushes in the same direction as the tectonic stress. Such feature was already observed at some locations around Japan and its observation in Taiwan gives more credit to the hypothesis that Earth tides are able to trigger earthquakes.