relation: https://episodesplatform.eu/eprints/1309/
title: Did the Zipingpu Reservoir trigger the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake?
creator: Ge, Shemin
creator: Liu, Mian
creator: Lu, Ning
creator: Godt, Jonathan W.
creator: Luo, Gang
subject: Sichuan Province
subject: Reservoir impoundment
subject: Method and procesing
description: The devastating May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (Mw 7.9) resulted from thrust of the Tibet Plateau on the Longmen Shan fault zone, a consequence of the Indo-Asian continental collision. Many have speculated on the role played by the Zipingpu Reservoir, impounded in 2005 near the epicenter, in triggering the earthquake. This study evaluates the stress changes in response to the impoundment of the Zipingpu Reservoir and assesses their impact on the Wenchuan earthquake. We show that the impoundment could have changed the Coulomb stress by −0.01 to 0.05 MPa at locations and depth consistent with reported hypocenter positions. This level of stress change has been shown to be significant in triggering earthquakes on critically stressed faults. Because the loading rate on the Longmen Shan fault is <0.005 MPa/yr, we thus suggest that the Zipingpu Reservoir potentially hastened the occurrence of the Wenchuan earthquake by tens to hundreds of years.
publisher: American Geophysical Union
date: 2009-10
type: Article
type: PeerReviewed
identifier:   Ge, Shemin and Liu, Mian and Lu, Ning and Godt, Jonathan W. and Luo, Gang  (2009) Did the Zipingpu Reservoir trigger the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake?  Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (20).  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040349 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040349>     
relation: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040349
relation: doi:10.1029/2009GL040349