UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL SEISMICITY BASED ON MAPPING OF THE GLOBAL EARTHQUAKE ENERGY RELEASE

摘要

We examine the location and magnitude parameters of 486,364 events of the NEIC earthquake catalog with magnitude equal to or greater than 1.0 over the time period from 1973 to 2007, with a focus to understand the global seismicity based on mapping of the global earthquake energy release. The spatial distribution of earthquake energy release is mapped using the standard empirical magnitude-energy relation. The global earthquake energy release map shows the basic patterns of global seismicity, which are generally consistent with plate tectonics. We also map the earthquake energy release in China and neighbors based on parameters of 48,066 events of China Seismograph Network catalog with magnitude equal to or greater than 0.7 from 1970 to 2007, in the range of 60°E-150°E longitude and 15°N-60°N latitude, to understand the seismicity in China and neighbors from a global point of view. Results show that a major part of intraplate earthquake energy release on the earth occurred in China and neighbors in the time period from 1970 to 2007. The relatively high energy release is usually occurred at shallow depths, and distributed close to places where moderate earthquake energy release occurred at relatively deep depths.