Some Remarks on Seismotectonics and Geodynamics of the Chinese Continent

摘要

The contemporary tectonic movement in China is governed by both Tothys-1 limaluynn and Western Pacific ongoing geodymmiie processes, In the west, the tectonic driving force is primarily from Ihe collision between the Eurasia Plate and India I'late. This process also nll'ecls much of the East China. Whereas, the southeastern coastal region and the northeastern part of China are mainly altcclcd by the motion of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Pacific Plate, respectively. Under the present-day geodynamic regime, the Chinese Continent is divided into 6 inlraplate tectonic blocks: Qinghai-Tibet Block, Gansu-Xinjiang Block, Northeast China Block, North China Block, South China Hlock and Southeast China Block. Relative movements have been found along boundaries between the intraplntc blocks. The tectonic movement between intrnplate blocks is usually distributed over a wide area. The mechanism and style of these movements are considerably different (Void those along intcrplnte boundaries. The cmslal deformation inside these intraplale blocks arc mainly lour types: thrusting and cn.iE.tnl .shortening; conjugate strike-slip limiting1, localised pull-apart extension and block rotation. The prehistoric earthquake study shows that the recurrence interval of major earthquakes along major active faults in Chinese Continent is commonly much longer than one thousand years, Thus, the strain rate inferred from the earthquake data in Chinese Continent is much lower than that in the intcrplatc regions.