A STUDY ON PRESEISMIC FAULT CREEP AND GROUND TEMPRATURE ANOMALY

A preseismic fault creep model (without considering the effect of underground water) is applied to study the observed ground temperature anomaly before the Tangshan earthquake. We suggest that a possible cause of the anomaly is the accelerating creep of the fault. After many trial computations, the more reasonable result obtained is:displacement rate caused by the preseismic fault creep is 12.1 cm/day, while the accumulated maximum difference of ground temperature between Tangshan and Yutian reaches the observed value of 2.5℃. Our investigation shows that it is possible to apply temperature anomaly in the study of preseismic creep and earthquake prediction.