This study uses different techniques to constrain the characteristics of active
structures in southwestern Taiwan around the Meinong earthquake deformation region.
The analyses of topography and surface deformation show that two deformational
lineaments triggered during the Meinong earthquake fit topographic lineaments,
implying multiple seismic events along the two lineaments. The relocation and focal
mechanism solutions of aftershocks show that most seismicity occur around a region
of high Vp/Vs ratio, implying faulting or fracturing around a mudstone region.
In addition, the spatiotemporal pattern of the aftershock migration around the main
shock indicates fluid-driven processes involved. This is the first-time ones can observe
fluid-driven seismicity migration at the lower crust. The slip of the mainshock fault
may cause the mid-to-lower crustal permeability to be transiently higher than the
long-term average by three to four orders of magnitude. Such episodic and large fluctuations
of permeability could therefore be important and need to be taken into account when
estimating the efficiency of water and carbon cycles from the subduing lithosphere to
the Earth’s surface.
The mechanisms controlling the active structures at the shallow depths and the deep
depths are different and dynamic. The shallow crustal deformation is dominant by
active structure. However, the deeper crustal deformation is induced by both tectonic
movements and fluid diffusion. It indicates the complexity of the frontal fold-and-thrust
belt of the southwestern Taiwan, and mudstone and fluid may play an important role in
deformation and seismic behaviors in southwestern Taiwan.
Acknowledgment
I thank Kyoto University for providing the coseismal data of Meinong Earthquake and
National Cheng Kung University for assistant RTK-GPS. I thank T. Chiba for providing
tools to produce RRIM on the Internet. I thank Hsin-Hua Huang for providing the
methods for aftershock relocation, the velocity model and the instruction and discussion.
I thank Mong-Han Huang for providing the mainshock fault of the 2016 Meinong
earthquake. Last, I thank Hsin-Hua Huang, Ray Chuang, Kuan-Fu Feng and Mong-Han
Huang for helping me to analyze the data and discuss the research together. Thanks to
yours, I can finish this research.
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