Spatiotemporal Evolution of Earthquakes in Longmenshan Fault and Adjacent Area, before and after the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake

Seismicity sequence following a main earthquake usually contains much meaningful information for unveiling the focal mechanism and predicting the reoccurrence interval of large earthquakes. The spatiotemporal evolution of earthquakes before and after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (Ms 8.0) is analysed comprehensively in this study. The frequency-magnitude relation of the 3493 earthquake events retrieved from the database of the International Seismological Centre indicates that the adopted catalogue is complete for magnitudes ≥Ms 3.4. The seismicity during the 10 years before the Wenchuan earthquake remained stable, including the magnitudes and focal depths. However, seismicity attenuated sharply in the year following the Wenchuan earthquake, and the magnitude of earthquakes before the Wenchuan earthquake decreased gradually. The area of the seismogenic zone of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was smaller than the earthquake stricken area. The earthquakes that occurred in the Longmenshan fault area and adjacent area in the study period were mainly shallow earthquakes. The focal depths of earthquakes in the study area became stable gradually after the Wenchuan earthquake, mainly within the range from 10 to 16 km. The earthquakes in the study area were mainly distributed with an along-dip distance of 0–20 km, and the seismicity was distributed uniformly along the fault strike.

Evolution of Rosaceae Plastomes Highlights Unique Cerasus Diversification and Independent Origins of Fruiting Cherry

Rosaceae comprises numerous types of economically important fruits, ornamentals, and timber. The lack of plastome characteristics has blocked our understanding of the evolution of plastome and plastid genes of Rosaceae crops. Using comparative genomics and phylogenomics, we analyzed 121 Rosaceae plastomes of 54 taxa from 13 genera, predominantly including Cerasus (true cherry) and its relatives. To our knowledge, we generated the first comprehensive map of genomic variation across Rosaceae plastomes. Contraction/expansion of inverted repeat regions and sequence losses of the two single-copy regions underlie large genomic variations in size among Rosaceae plastomes. Plastid protein-coding genes were characterized with a high proportion (over 50%) of synonymous variants and insertion-deletions with multiple triplets. Five photosynthesis-related genes were specially selected in perennial woody trees. Comparative genomic analyses implied divergent evolutionary patterns between pomaceous and drupaceous trees. Across all examined plastomes, unique and divergent evolution was detected in Cerasus plastomes. Phylogenomic analyses and molecular dating highlighted the relatively distant phylogenetic relationship between Cerasus and relatives (Microcerasus, Amygdalus, Prunus, and Armeniaca), which strongly supported treating the monophyletic true cherry group as a separate genus excluding dwarf cherry. High genetic differentiation and distinct phylogenetic relationships implied independent origins and domestication between fruiting cherries, particularly between Prunus pseudocerasus (Cerasus pseudocerasus) and P. avium (C. avium). Well-resolved maternal phylogeny suggested that cultivated P. pseudocerasus originated from Longmenshan Fault zone, the eastern edge of Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains, where it was subjected to frequent genomic introgression between its presumed wild ancestors and relatives.

The Effect of the Wenchuan and Lushan Earthquakes on the Size Distribution of Earthquakes along the Longmenshan Fault

Changes in the stress state of faults and their surroundings is a highly plausible mechanism explaining earthquake interaction. These stress changes can impact the seismicity rate and the size distribution of earthquakes. However, the effect of large earthquakes on the earthquake size distribution along the Longmenshan fault has not been quantified. We evaluated the levels of the b value for the stable state before and after the large earthquakes on 12 May 2008 (Wenchuan, MS 8.0) and 20 April 2013 (Lushan, MS 7.0) along the Longmenshan fault. We found that after the mainshocks, the size distribution of the subsequent earthquakes shifted toward relatively larger events in the Wenchuan aftershock zone (b value decreased from 1.21 to 0.84), and generally remained invariable in the Lushan aftershock zone (b value remained at 0.76). The time required for the b value to return to stable states after both mainshocks was entirely consistent with the time needed by the aftershock depth images to stop visibly changing. The result of the temporal variation of b values shows decreasing trends for the b value before both large earthquakes. Our results are available for assessing the potential seismic risk of the Longmenshan fault as a reference.

The Effect of the Wenchuan and Lushan Earthquakes on the Size Distribution of Earthquakes along the Longmenshan Fault

Changes in the stress state of faults and their surroundings is a highly plausible mechanism explaining earthquakes interaction. These stress changes can impact the seismicity rate and the size distribution of earthquakes. However, the effect of large earthquakes on the earthquake size distribution along the Longmenshan fault has not been quantified. We evaluated the levels of the b value for the stable state before and after the large earthquakes on 12 May 2008 (Wenchuan, MS 8.0) and 20 April 2013 (Lushan, MS 7.0) along the Longmenshan fault. We found that after the mainshocks, the size distribution of the subsequent earthquakes shifted toward relatively larger events in the Wenchuan aftershock zone (b value decreased from 1.03 to 0.84), and generally remained invariable in the Lushan aftershock zone (b value remained at 0.76). The time required for the b value to return to stable states after both mainshocks were entirely consistent with the time needed by the aftershock depth images to stop visibly changing. The result of the temporal variation of b values show decreasing trends for the b value before both large earthquakes. Our results are available for assessing the potential seismic risk of the Longmenshan fault as a reference.

Detecting Earthquake-Related Anomalies of a Borehole Strain Network Based on Multi-Channel Singular Spectrum Analysis

To investigate the nonlinear spatio-temporal behavior of earthquakes, a complex network has been built using borehole strain data from the southwestern endpoint of the Longmenshan fault zone, Sichuan-Yunnan region of China, and the topological structural properties of the network have been investigated based on data from 2011–2014. Herein, six observation sites were defined as nodes and their edges as the connections between them. We introduced Multi-channel Singular Spectrum Analysis (MSSA) to analyze periodic oscillations, earthquake-related strain, and noise in multi-site observations, and then defined the edges of the network by calculating the correlations between sites. The results of the daily degree centrality of the borehole strain network indicated that the strain network anomalies were correlatable with local seismicity associate with the earthquake energy in the strain network. Further investigation showed that strain network anomalies were more likely to appear before major earthquakes rather than after them, particularly within 30 days before an event. Anomaly acceleration rates were also found to be related to earthquake energy. This study has revealed the self-organizing pre-earthquake phenomena and verified the construction of borehole networks is a powerful tool for providing information on earthquake precursors and the dynamics of complex fault systems.