Title: ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIAL TSUNAMI GENERATION IN CHINA'S BOHAI SEA FROM DIRECT GEOTECTONIC AND COLLATERAL SOURCE MECHANISMS
Abstract: The Bohai Sea borders northeastern China's most populous and highest economic value coastal areas where several megacities are located. Critical infrastructure facilities exist or are under construction, including a nuclear power plant and super port facilities. Large reserves of oil have been discovered and a number of offshore oil platforms have been built. The extent of development along coastal areas requires a better assessment of potential tsunami risks. Although tsunamis do not pose as much of a threat as earthquakes in this region, locally destructive tsunamis have been generated in the past and future events could have significant impacts on coastal populations and China's economy, particularly because most of the development has taken place in low-lying regions, including river deltas. The present study examines the geotectonics of the Bohai basin region, the impact of past historical events, and the potential for local tsunami generation from a variety of direct and collateral source mechanisms triggered by intra plate earthquakes. More specifically, the present study examines: a)major active faults bounding the Bohai Basin; b) the resulting crustal deformation patterns of tectonic structures that have resulted in catastrophic earthquakes in recent years; c) the basin-wide extension - with local inversion - extending into the Bohai Sea that generated tsunamigenic earthquakes in 1888 and 1969; and d) deformational future seismic events with the potential to generate local tsunamis directly or by collateral mechanisms of folding, en-echelon bookshelf failures, or from destabilization/dissociation of structural accumulations of gas hydrate deposits within the basin's thick sedimentary stratigraphic layers.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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