Abstract:
A 2-D S-wave
QS values of the upper crust of Zigui-Badong segment beneath the Three Gorges Reservoir region are estimated by means of S wave attenuation tomography based on more than 6000 S wave-rays of 1300 small seismic events with
ML>1.5 recorded by digital seismic network of Three Gorges from January 2009 to February 2015. The results show that
QS exhibits a significantly lateral heterogeneity distribution in Three Gorges Reservoir region, with high
QS value mainly in the nearby riversides and low
QS value in the surrounding area in the northeast, northwest, southwest and southeast directions. Particularly, the low
QS value is closely related to seepage of reservoir water due to the conversion and fragment of rock stratum. The variation of
QS value in this paper is in accord with
Q value of rock stratum from rock-basement to the bottom of the upper crust from the Wushan-Zigui deep seismic sounding (DSS) profile, which reflects that the deep media of upper crust have influence on the seismic wave attenuation. The
MS5.1 Badong earthquake swarm in 2013 and the
MS4.5,
MS4.7 Zigui earthquake swarms in 2014 were basically converged to transitional edge regions of high and low
QS values. That is because that, the physical property of the crustal medium is located on the weak-soft transitional region, strain energy is prone to accumulate, and
QS value also decreses due to the permeation of the water, furthermore, the shear strength of the seismogenic fault is reduced so as to induce earthquakes.