Séisme de Kokoxili - Faille du Kunlun (Tibet) 14 Novembre 2001 - Mw 7.9 Kokoxili Earthquake - Kunlun Fault (Tibet) 14 November 2001 - Mw 7.9

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bibliographie & liens en bas de page - references & links at page bottom

	Rupture of the 14 november Kokoxili earthquake probably near the Kunlun Pass ( ~ 94°E). If the location of the photograph is correct, the surface rupture of the earthquake, which appears to be locally purely strike-slip with several meters of sinistral slip, might reach a length of 250 km. Chinese news

	Localisations préliminaires (étoiles rouges) du séisme du 14 Novembre 2001 (magnitude M 7.8 à 8.1, USGS, Harvard, Chinese Seismological Bureau), dans la région de Kokoxili - près des deux plus hauts sommets de la chaîne du Kunlun (Buka Daban Feng ~6800m, Wei Xue Shan ~6000m); - près du lac Kusai Hu. Ces localisations, et deux mécanismes au foyer préliminaires (Harvard, ERI), suggèrent que le séisme a rompu un segment décrochant de la faille du Kunlun. La terminaison ouest de cette faille, sur le haut plateau tibetain (altitude moyenne ~4900m) est caractérisée par des failles normales obliques, orientées N à NE, connectant des segments décrochants sénestres plus longs orientés E-O (Van der Woerd et al., 1998, 2000). La faille du Kunlun se situe au sud des chevauchements actifs du Qiman Tagh qui marquent la limite sud bassin du Qaidam, à 2700m d'altitude. La faille du Kunlun et les failles inverses du Qimantagh, qui sont à peu près parallèles à l'est de 91°E, forment un exemple typique de partitionnement de la déformation au Tibet (Meyer et al., 1998 ; Tapponnier et al., Science, sous presse). Preliminary locations (red stars) of the 14 November 2001 earthquake (magnitude M 7.8 to 8.1, USGS, Harvard, Chinese Seismological Bureau). These locations, either near two of the highest summits of the Kunlun Range (Buka Daban Feng ~6800m, Wei Xue Shan ~6000m) or near Kusai Hu, and preliminary fault-plane solutions (Harvard, ERI), suggest that the earthquake might have ruptured a strike-slip strand of the Kunlun fault. The western termination of this Fault system, on the high Tibetan plateau (average elevation ~4900 m) is characterized by N to NE trending, oblique normal faults connecting, longer, roughly E-W left-lateral strike-slip strands (Van de Woerd et al., 1998, 2000). The Kunlun fault lies south of the Qiman Tagh active thrusts, which bound the southern edge of the 2700m- high Qaidam Basin. The roughly parallel Kunlun fault and Qimantagh thrusts are a typical example of large-scale slip-partitioning in Tibet (Meyer et al., 1998; Tapponnier et al., Science in press).		Failles actives et volcans récents dans la région où le décrochement sénestre du Kunlun se divise en différents segments (Meriaux et al., 2000).  Active faults and recent volcanoes, in the region where the main strand of the left-lateral Kunlun Fault divides into a horsetail of splays faults (Meriaux et al., 2000).
	NEW   Map of aftershocks... Carte des Répliques... Van der Woerd et al., 2000 G.R.L. paper (pdf)  En savoir plus...  A more detailed story...		Landsat image east of the Buka Daban Feng

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Recent publications:

Kunlun Fault:

Van-der-Woerd-J; Ryerson-FJ; Tapponnier-P; Meriaux-AS; Gaudemer-Y; Meyer-B; Finkel-RC;
Caffee-MW; Zhao-GG; Xu-ZQ. Uniform Slip-Rate along the Kunlun Fault: Implications for seismic behaviour and
large-scale tectonics. GEOPHYSICAL-RESEARCH-LETTERS. AUG 15 2000; 27 (16) : 2353-2356.

Abstract: A long-term slip-rate is derived from concordant Be-10, Al-26 and C-14 dating of cumulative offsets along
much of the length of the Kunlun Fault. Values at 6 sites indicate uniform slip (11.5+/-2.0 mm/yr) since similar
to 40 kyr BP. This relatively high slip rate corresponds to a first-order discontinuity in the Asian crustal velocity field.
M similar to 8 and M similar to 7.5 earthquakes on 2 segments of the fault recur with characteristic slip (similar to
10 +/- 2 m and 4.4 +/- 0.4 m) every similar to 850 and similar to 420 yrs, respectively.

GRL Front cover (SPOT image of Kunlun Fault), pdf version of the paper

Manyi Earthquake:

Peltzer, G., F. Crampé, and G. King, Evidence of nonlinear elasticity of the crust from the Mw7.6
Manyi (Tibet) Earthquake, SCIENCE, Vol. 286, 272-276, 1999.
Peltzer page on Manyi earthquake - Peltzer home page

Other publications:

R. Armijo, P. Tapponnier, T. Han, J. Geophys. Res. 94, 2787 (1989).
J. P. Avouac, P. Tapponnier, Geophys. Res. Lett. 20, 895 (1993).
W.P. Chen, C.Y. Chen, J.L. Nabelek, Tectonophysics 305, 165 (1999).
W.S.F. Kidd, P. Molnar, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, A327, 337, (1988).
A.S. Meriaux, F.J. Ryerson, P. Tapponnier, et al., RST 2000, Soc. Geol. France, 294, (2000)
B. Meyer et al., Geophys. J. Int. 135, 1 (1998).
G. Peltzer, F. Crampé, G. King, Science, 286, 272 (1999).
P. Tapponnier, P. Molnar, J. Geophys. Res. 82, 2905 (1977).
P. Tapponnier, Xu Zhiqin, F. Roger et al., Science, in press (modified figure from Science).
J. Van der Woerd et al., Geology 26, 695 (1998). pdf version of the paper.
J. Van der Woerd et al., Geophys. J. Int., to be published in December 2001 issue.
Zhao Guoguang, Continental dynamics institute of geology, Beijing, V1, 30, (1996).

Liens - Links :

IPGP Tectonique: RechercheTectonique continentale  Sismotectonique
IPGP home pageIPGP sismologie: Sismicité récente
IPG Strasbourg
USGS: NEIC Earthquake Bulletin NEIC home page
Harvard Seismology: CMT solution
Earthquake Information Center (ERI, Japan): special page with CMT
Seismo-Watch report
ASTER image of Kunlun Fault (NASA) This Aster image shows Kunlun Fault east of earthquake epicenter.

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Contacts: P. Tapponnier - A.S. Meriaux - Y. Klinger - R. Lacassin 

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Page conçue et réalisée par A.S. Meriaux, Y. Klinger, Li Haibing, P. Tapponnier et R. Lacassin - Mise à jour le 19 Novembre 2001.

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