Great earthquakes of Chinese mainland and its vicinity usually cluster in certain regions during certain periods. We call it major regions of great earthquakes, or major regions briefly in this paper.The major regions of different periods can migrate through long distance in space. We have studied mechanism of formation of major regions. It is proposed that the ductile layer of the lithosphere is the place where the major regions form, and deformation of the ductile layer controls the locations and shape of major regions. and the actions of the plate boundaries around the continent are the main driving forces. A two-dimensional viscoelastic finite element model is established to model the deformation field and Stress field of the Chinese mainland and its vicinity The boundary of the model is divided into 12 segments to represent non-uniform of boundary conditions. The stress concentration areas in the continental ductile Iayer are simulated under various compoundings of different boundary scgments. Six models are worked out in which the stress con centration regions are consistent with the realistic major regions. It is proved that stress concentfation regions can be produced in the ductile layer which are roughly in agreement with the realistic major regions under various actions of different boundary segments.
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