Tec t onophysics608(2013)499

504

ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect

Tectonophysics
journalhomepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/tecto

Strike-slipintraplateearthquakesintheWesternPhilippineSeaPlate
a
Jing-YiLin a,,Yen-FuChen a,Chao-ShingLee b,Shu-KunHsu ,Chin-WeiLiang
a
a
Yi-ChinLin ,Hsin-SungHsieh
a
b

a,b

DepartmentofEarthSciencesandInstituteofGeophysics,NationalCentralUniversity,300JhongdaRoad,JhongliCity,TaoyuanCounty32001,Taiwan
InstituteofAppliedGeophysics,NationalTaiwanOceanUniversity,2Pei-NingRoad,Keelung202,Taiwan

article info

a b s t r a c t

Articlehistory:
Received27February2013
Receivedinrevisedform12July2013
Accepted29August2013
Availableonline7September2013

On26April2010,astrike-slipearthquake(Mw6.5)occurredintheWesternPhilippineSeaPlate.Wedeployed
14 ocean-bottomseismometerstorecordthecorrespondingaftershockstoacquireinformationregardingthese
intraplateevents.Ourresultsshowthattheaftershockswerelocatedalongtwolinearfeaturesthatintersectwith
anangleofapproximately120andareconsideredaconjugatefaultset.ThePaxisofthemainshockfocalmechanism is consistent with the compressive stress direction induced by the
continent
arc
collision occurring in
eastern Taiwan. The pre-existing oceanic fracture zones and tectonic fabrics do not appear to be reactivated
based on thedistinct rupturedirectionsdetermined fromtherelocatedaftershocks.However,the abrupthalt
oftheaftershocksattheborderofthefracturezonesuggeststhatpre-existingweakzonescouldactasabarrier
torupturepropagation.Moreover,mostlargeearthquakeshaveoccurrednearfracturezones,indicatingthatthe
pre-existingweaknessmay favor the generation ofearthquakescomparedtotheotherportionofthe oceanic
plateduetotherelativelylowrockstrengthofthiszone.
2013ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.

Keywords:
Strike-slipfault
Collision
Conjugatefault
WestPhilippineSeaPlate
Fracturezone
Ryukyusubductionsystem

1. Introduction

2. Geologicalbackground

The majority of large earthquakes that occur in oceans occur at

The Philippine Sea Plate (PHS) is moving northwestward (Yu
subductionzones,whereonetectonicplateisthrustingbeneathanoth- et a l., 1997) (~N306
312) relative to the Eurasian Plate (EU),
er.However,the11April2012,Mw8.6andMw8.2earthquakesoffthe
with an 89 cm/yr PHS/EU plate convergence vector near Taiwan
westcoastofnorthernSumatra,Indonesia,occurredasaresultofstrike- (Fig . 1). The northwestern corner of the PHS is colliding westward
slip faulting within theIndo-Australia plate. Is such a great strike-slip
with the EU margin and is creating the Taiwan orogen; however,
event within the oceanic lithosphere a special case, or could it occur
the PHS is also subducting northward beneath the Ryukyu Arc
elsewhereintheworld?Overthelastfewdecades,severalstrike-slip(Fig . 1a). Thus,mostearthquakesinandaroundTaiwanare related
type earthquakes have been observed within theWest PhilippineSea
to the convergence of these two plates (Kao and Jian, 2001; Kao
Plate (WPSP) (Fig. 1). Nearly all of these earthquakes possessed a e t al. , 1998, 2000; Kubo and Fukuyama, 2003). The Gagua Ridge,
similar focal mechanism pattern with one fault plane sub-parallel tolocated off the eastern shore of Taiwan, is a major narrow linear
approximately N35W
N45W (Fig . 1b). Based on bathymetric and high that enters the Ryukyu Arc and isolates the Huatung Basin
magneticanomalydata,previousstudieshaveidenti
edseveraldistinct to the west from the main West Philippine Basin (WPB) (Fig . 1b)
tectonic structures intheWPSP,suchastheGagua Ridge,whichisan (Deschamps and Lallemand, 2002 ; Dom i nguez et al ., 1998; Hsu
ancient spreading center, and oceanic fracture zones (Deschamps eta l., 1996).S i bue t etal . (2002)proposedthattheGaguaRidgeisa
e t a l .,2002 ; Hi l deandLee , 1984).However,lessinformationregarding
zone of weakness and could have been a plate boundary between
thepresentactivityofthesestructureshasbeenacquired.On26April
thePhilippineSeaand Huatungplates. Lin e t a l. (2004a , 2004b)
2010, an Mw 6.5 strike-slip-type earthquake occurred on the eastern
showedthattheGaguaRidgewasaformerplateboundaryandwas
sideofGaguaRidge(Fig.1b),wherethedetectableseismicactivityisgen- sheared beneath the Ryukyu subduction zone. East of the Gagua
erally low. To understand the earthquake mechanism, we conducted Ridge,severalmajorNE
SW-orientedfracturezoneshavebeende
ned
a passive ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) experiment approximately
usingbathymetricdata(Hsue t al.,2013).TheLuzon
OkinawaFracture
1 weekaftertheoccurrenceoftheearthquake.
Zone (LOFZ) is the largest of these structures based on the apparent
geomorphology (Fig . 1b). West of the LOFZ, the spreading fabric is
illustratedbytheN120E-trendingabyssalhills,whichlieperpendicular
to the fracture zones (Deschamps and La l lemand , 2002 ; Deschamps
Correspondingauthor.Tel.:+88634227151x65613.
E-mailaddresses:
jylin.gep@gmail.com,jylin@ncu.edu. t w(J.-Y.Lin).
e t al.,2002).
0040-1951/$ seefrontmatter2013ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.
ht t p: // dx.doi.org/10.1016 / j.tecto.2013.08.038

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Fig.1. (a)GeneralmapofthetectonicenvironmentintheWesternPhilippineBasin.Thedashedgrayrectangleshowsthepositionof(b).(b)FocalmechanismsfromtheGlobalCMTcatalog(ht t p: / /www.globalcmt.org /)fortheperiodbetweenJanuaryof1976andSeptemberof2012areplottedonthebathymetricmapoftheRyukyu-Taiwansubduction

collisionzone.
Thered,blueandyellowbeachball symbolsshowextensional,compressiveandstrike-slipfocalmechanisms,respectively.Blacklinesindicatetheoceanicfracturezonesdetermined
fromdetailedbathymetricdata(Hsue t a l., 2013).Thedetailedbathymetryofthearealocatedinthewhiterectanglein(b)andthetargetearthquake(c)areshown.WhitetrianglesindicatethepositionsofthedeployedOBSs.ThetwoopentrianglesaretheOBSsthatwerenotsuccessfullyrecovered.Thewhitearrowshowstherelativeplatemotion(Yue t al ., 1997).The
yellowfocalmechanismrepresentstheMw6.526April2010mainshockwithafocaldepthof24km.EU,Eurasia;GR,GaguaRidge;HB,HuatungBasin;LU,Luzon;LOFZ,Luzon
Okinawa
FractureZone;BMFZ,Batan-Miyakofracturezone;OT,OkinawaTrough;PHS,PhilippineSeaPlate;WPB,WestPhilippineBasin.

3. Dataprocessing

To avoid the inuence of arrivals from outside of our target area, only
124E;
those events that occurred around the epicenter area (~123.6
We deployed 16 OBSs from May 2 to 25, 2010, within a 250
22.122.5N) were used for the inversion. During the inversion, the
200 km2area covering parts of the West Philippine Sea Basin, Gagua RMSresidualdecreasedwitheachiterationandbecamestableafterthe
RidgeandtheHuatungBasin(Fig. 1c). Unfortunately, 2 OBSs were
fourthiteration
not
(Fig. 3a).Theinverted velocitymodelwasthenused as
successfully recovered (open triangles in Fig. 1c) and only 14 OBSsthe input for the hypoDD relocation. To ensure the stability of this
were used for the data processing. The spacing between OBSs varied
model, we repeated the inversion by altering the initial velocity value
from18to60km.Earthquakeeventswereselectedmanuallyfromcon- by asmuchas13%.Theresultshows that evenwhendifferentinitial
tinuousseismic records,and weightswere assignedtoP-and
S-wave
modelsareused,asimilarvelocityvaluecanbeobtained(Fig.3b).Finally,
arrivals based on the quality of the signal. Events possessing more326eventswererelocatedusingthehypoDDsoftwareandtheinverted
thansix arrivals wereinitiallyidenti
1-D velocity model (Fig. 2d). The magnitude ranged between 0.6 and
ed usinganIASP911-Dvelocity
model (Kennett and Engdahl , 1991). In total, 1476 earthquakes were
4.3,andthedepthrangedfrom5.4to34.4 km.Thespatialerrorsofthe
identiedandlocatedduringanapproximately22-dayrecord(Fig. 2a
relocation reported by hypoDD program are 13 to 558 m for theeast
south direction and 16 to 605 m for
and b). However, the use of only six wave arrivals and a global 1-Dwest, 15 to 247 m for the north
velocitymodelmayintroducemanualselectionandvelocityerrorsinto
thedepth.
our localization. To improve the accuracy of the hypocenter locations,
we applied the double-difference (hypoDD) method (Waldhauser and4. Results
Ellsworth, 2000) to the 527 earthquakes possessing at least 10 arrivals
(Fig.2c).Forthisprocess,anappropriate1-Dvelocitymodelofthearea
4.1.Epicenterdistribution
was derived using the seismic wave arrivals and the VELEST program
(Kisslingetal.,1994).TheinitialvelocitymodelinputfortheVELESTproOurresultsshowthatthemajorityodentiedearthquakesoccurred
gram was extracted from the results of a wide-angle seismic
ection
re
inthevicinityoftheApril26mainshockarea,andonlyasmallnumberof
survey conducted in the eastern part of the Gagua Ridge (Chen, 2009).
eventswerelocatedintheeasternTaiwanandRyukyusubductionzones

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501

Fig.2. Aftershockdistribution.(a)Epicentersof1476earthquakeswithatleastsixwavearrivalsrecordedbytheOBSnetworkandrelocatedbythe1-DIASP91globalvelocitymodel
(Kennet t andEngdahl , 1991).(b)Epicentersof1409earthquakeslocatedinthebluerectangleareain(a).(c)Positionof527earthquakespossessingatleast10arrivalsandrelocated
bytheIASP91velocitymodel.(d)Positionsof326earthquakesrelocatedusingthehypoDDprogram(Waldhau s erandE l lsworth,2000)andthe1-Dvelocitymodelinvertedusingthe
VELESTprogram(Kis s lingetal. , 1994).AA
andBB arethepositionsofthetwocrosssectionsshownin(f)and(g),respectively.(e)Possiblefaultgeometrydeterminedbythedistribution
ofaftershockclusters.F1,F2andF3arethethreemainclusters.Thebrownbroaddashedlinesshowtheancientfracturezoneandspreadingfabricsdeterminedfromdetailedbathymetry
data(Hsue t a l., 2013).ThefocalmechanismshowninyellowrepresentstheMw6.526April2010mainshock.(f)Earthquakeslocatedinthe10-km-widebandwidthsoneachsideofthe
AA proleareplotted.(g)Earthquakeslocatedinthe3-km-widebandwidthsoneachsideoftheBB
proleareplotted.Thegurelocatedintheupperportionof(f)and(g)showsthe
bathymetryofthetwocrosssections.

(Fig.2a).Thisresultcouldbeduetotherelativelygreatdistancebetween during the recording period, indicating the relatively small magnitude
ournetworkandthetwotectonicallyactiveareas.Noeventwasreported ofearthquakescollectedbyournetwork.Aftertherelocation,thedistribytheglobalCMTcatalog(http://www.globalcmt.org /)andonly8earth- bution of the aftershocks appeared to be more concentrated (Fig. 2d).
quakes have been recorded by the International Seismological CenterThemostobviousearthquakeclusterisaN45Wtrending,approximately
catalog (ISC, http://colossus.iris.washington.edu/) in our study area 19-km long feature (F1 in Fig. 2e) crossing the latitude range between

Fig.3. (a)RMSdistributionasafunctionofthenumberoterationsduringthe1-DvelocityinversionusingtheVELESTprogram.(b)Initialinputvelocitymodel(dashedlines)andtheir
correspondinginvertedmodel(solidlines).Theinversionwasperformedbyvaryingtheinitialvelocityvalueby13%.

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J.-Y. Linetal./Tectonophysics608(2013)499
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approximately22.25Nand22.35N.Southwestofthecluster,inthevismallbathymetricscrapetrendingalongF1isalsoindicativeofactivedecinity of 22.24N, is another cluster characterized by a relatively small

formation along this structure (Figs. 2dand4c).Therefore,wepropose
length of approximately 6 km (F2) that extends along a direction sub-thatthemainruptureshouldpropagateinaNW SEdirection,whichis
parallel to that of F1. The third cluster (F3), occurring along a 17-km-consistent with the NW
SE fault plane solution of the Global Centroid
longpath,intersectsF1atanangleofapproximately120.Regardlessof Moment Tensor (CMT) focal mechanism (http://www.globalcmt.org /)
the earthquake cluster, the western prolongation of these earthquakes
forthemainshock.Inthiscase,asinistralrupturealonganapproximately
appearstoberestrictedbyaNNESSW-trendingfracturezone(Fig.2d).
vertical fault plane is determined for the 26 April 2010 Mw 6.5 earthquake. Moreover, the strike-slip events, observed in the vicinity of the
4.2. Crosssection
LOFZareaapproximately200 kmeastofourstudyarea,arecharacterized
bysimilarfocalmechanisms(Fig . 4b)(Linetal.,2013).Thebackground
SWdirectionandthe
Twoverticalcrosssections,oneorientedinaNE
seismicity and swath-bathymetric features of this area also indicate a
otherinaNW SEdirection,areshowninFig.2fandg(AA andBB). The
NWSEfaultplane(Matsumotoetal.,2001).Consequently,thepredomvertical distribution of earthquakes alongle
ProAA showsthat the F1
inance of NWSE tectonic structures in the Western Philippine Basinis
andF2earthquakeclustersbelongtotwo3-km-widestrips(Fig.2f).F1
revealed. Meanwhile, some NWWSEE bathymetric lineaments,
ischaracterizedbyalargerdepthrangeof8 35 kmcomparedwiththe
representing the former tectonic fabrics, are observed on each side of
rangeof1525 kmfortheF2feature.Allotherearthquakesoccurredat
thefracturezone(thebrownlinesinFig.2e).Wenoticedthattheoriendepths of 10 to 25 km. The depth distribution pattern showsthat F1 is
tationofthesetectonicfabricsisnotinparallelwithF1andF2(Fig.2e),
likely the most important seismic structure, having the largest rupturesuggestingthattheoccurrenceofaftershockscouldnotbecorrelatedto
extent, and can pass through the oceanic crust to the lithosphere. The
thereactivationoftheancientpre-existingfeatures.
NWSEProleBB showsthattheearthquakesofF1becomedeepertoItisworthnotingthatF1 appearstobethemostwidelydistributed
ward the southeast (Fig. 2g). The lower limit is from 17 km for the
seismically active feature, along with the reported epicenter of the
most northwestern area, near the oceanic fracture zone, to 30km in mainshocklocated in F2, and is arelatively small cluster (Fig. 2d). This
the southeastern portion. In addition, bothles
pro show relatively low phenomenon can be discussed from two different perspectives: (1) In
seismicityinthedepthrangeof1114 km.
themarinearea,possibleearthquakelocationerrorscouldbegenerated
byaninaccuratevelocitymodelandpoorraycoverage.Thus,ahypocen5. Discussion
tralmislocationmayhaveoccurred,andthehypocenterofthemainshock
shouldbelocatedfarthernorthinthepositionofF1.(2)Themainshock
5.1. Faultplanedeterminationbasedontheaftershockdistribution
did occur in F2 and triggered the activity along F1. As determined by
theaftershockdistribution,thephysicaldimensionofF2isestimatedto
Basedontheconcentrationandsizeoftheaftershockdistribution,we be about 5km by 8km, whereas the F1 is about 15km by 20km
observedthatthemajorityofthepost-seismicactivityoccurredalongF1 (Fig. 4c). Given a normal value of rigidity at the source location and a
andF2,twoN45Wtrendinglinearfeatures(Fig.2e).Thepresenceofa
normal stress drop, the fault area of a Mw 6.5 event is expected to be

Fig.4.(a)Principalcompressivestressdistribution(redlines)invertedbyWuetal.(2010)intheRyukyuTaiwancollisionzone.Thelengthoftheredlinesisproportionaltothehorizontal
component.ThefocalmechanismshowninyellowcorrespondstotheMw6.526April2010mainshock.TheblackandwhitedotsshowthedirectionofthePandTaxesofthemainshock.
(b)FocalmechanismsoftheearthquakeslocatedinthePhilippineSeaPlatewithmagnitudeslargerthansixareplottedusingdifferentcolors.Aftershocksoccurringwithinonemonth
aftertheoccurrenceofthemainshockareplottedusingthesamecolor.Thewhitearrowshowstherelativeplatemotion(Yue t al ., 1997).(c)Relocatedaftershockdistributionplotted
asafunctionotsmagnitude.TrianglesindicatetheOBSpositions.

J.-Y. Linetal./Tectonophysics608(2013)499
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503

on the order of 100200 km2, which is closer to the dimension of F1. orientedinaNW SEdirection.ThisorientationindicatesthattheintraMoreover, the fault area inferred from aftershock distribution is someplatestressesintheregionareprimarilyinheritedfromtheIndia-Asia
what larger than that inferred from the theoretical fault model for collisionoveradistanceofapproximatelyseveralthousandkilometers
mostcase.Therefore,itseemsthatF1isabettercandidateforthepre(Dep l usetal ., 1998;Rob i nsone t a l., 2001).
ferred rupture plane. Furthermore, it is widely accepted that most of Toextendourdiscussion,weputforwardseveralquestions.
the accumulated stress on the rupture area has been released during First,inotheroceanicplatesaroundtheworld,suchasintheGulfof
the mainshock. Thus, it is expected that aftershocks inside the main
Alaska and the Wharton Basin, most intraplate earthquakes have
rupture zone are relatively smaller than those on the peripheral of occurredalongareactivatedrelictransformsandrelicridges.However,
therupturezone.Consequently,weidentifytheF1nodalplaneasthe
based on our results, no obvious seismic activity occurred along the
preferredruptureplaneratherthanF2.
formertectonicstructuresintheWPSParea(Fig.2a).Alloftheancient
tectonicstructuresintheWPSPappeartobeseismicallyinactiveinthe
5.2. Conjugatefaultandtectonicstressregime
presentday.Forexample,aportionoftheGaguaRidgeislocatedinour
networkandissurroundedbythesixwestern-mostOBSstations;howAsdescribedpreviously,therelocatedepicentersaremainlydistrib- ever,onlyafaintearthquakewasrecordedalongthisstructureduring
utedalongtwolinearfeaturesthatintersectatanglesofapproximately our recorded period. Moreover, the orientation of the earthquake
60 and 120 (Fig . 2e). This cross-cutting set of fault planes can be
clusters determined from the OBS data does not appear to extend
along the oceanic fracture zones or fabrics but has an intersecting
understoodasaconjugatefaultset:thedominantset,knownasF1and
F2,formsintheNWdirectionandisthenlinkedbyasecondset,theF3
angle(Fig.4b).Thus,therstquestionraisediswhytheoceanicfracture
feature, located along a NE alignment. This type of conjugate fault has
zones in the WPSP, which represent the tectonically weak area, have
beenreportedinseveraloceanicplates.Forexamples,thelargeJune18, notbeenreactivatedbytheearthquakesthathaveoccurredwithinthe
2000, Mw 7.9 (13.87S, 97.3E) earthquake in the Wharton basin and oceanic plate. In the WPSP as well as in the other tectonic areas, we
the 11 April 2012, Mw 8.6 and Mw 8.2 earthquakes off the west coastnotethatthePaxisofthefocalmechanismsisconsistentwiththedirecofnorthernSumatraappeartohaveinvolvedpredominantlyleft-lateral tionofcollisionregardlessoftheorientationofpre-existingweakzones.
SSWorientation,although Therefore,weproposethattheregionalprinciplestressdirectionisthe
strike-slipfaultingalongtheexpectedNNE
a second fault orientation was also activated (Po l litz e t al., 2012;mainfactorcontrollingtheactivefaultplaneorientationinthepresent
Robinsonetal ., 2001 ; Satr i anoe t al ., 2012 ; Yueetal ., 2012).Moreover,
day, and the inuence of the pre-existing fracture zones should be
inNovemberof1987,anMw7.2earthquakeonafaulttrendingapprox- minor.However, thepresenceofthepre-existingweaknesscontinues
imatelyEWintheGulfofAlaskawasfollowedlessthan2 weekslater
to have certain effects on the distribution of large strike-slip events.
by an Mw 7.8 earthquake on the conjugate N
S fault (Pegler and
Forexample,asshownbyourresults,almostalloftherecordedafterDas , 1996). Generally, if strike-slip faults are formed by the Coulomb
shocksstopsuddenlyontheeasternsideofafracturezone,indicating
fracture mechanism, which predicts the formation of X-shaped shear
thatthepre-existingfeaturescouldactasabarriertorupturepropaga1 direction, the intersection angles between tion. In addition, we note that the majority of relatively large earthfractures 30 from the
conjugate strike-slip faults should be approximately 60 and 120 quakes occurred within the vicinity of the oceanic fracture zones
(Donath , 1961 ; S i bsone t al ., 1988 ; Y i nandRana lli, 1992).Thismecha(F i g.4b),suggestingthatthepre-existingweakzonemayfavorthegennismisincompleteagreementwiththeresultobtainedfromourstudy. erationofearthquakesduetoitsrelativelylowrockstrengthcompared
Todeterminetheoriginofthepresent-daystressregimeofourstudy withthecompact,un-rupturedoceanicplate.
Inaddition,basedonthepreviousdiscussion,wefoundthatthetecarea,wecomparedthePaxisorientationobtainedfromthefocalmechtonic context within the WPSP area is similar to that in the Wharton
anismofthe2010mainshock(blackdotinFig . 4a)withtheprinciple
compressive stress directions inverted by Wu e t al . (2010) for the
Basin:shorteningbythrustearthquakesoccursonthewesternside,and
the oceanic lithosphere subducts along the trench system on the other
westernmostportionoftheWPSParea(redbarsinFig . 4a).Asshown
1 direction is maintained within 5 from the relative side.Thistectonicenvironmentcouldbethecauseofthesimilarcharacin Fig . 4a, the
plate motion for the majority of central Taiwan. However, due to the
teristics of the intraplate earthquakes located within the two oceanic
tectonic compression induced by the collision between theLuzon Arcareas.Consequently,analogousinteractionsbetweentheunderthrusting
1direcandtheEurasiaPlateinthesoutheasternregionofTaiwan,the
events at the subduction interface and intraplate deformation offshore
SE to an almost EW
tion deviated counterclockwise from an NW
maybeexpectedforthesetwoareas.Delescluseetal.(2012)demonstrated that the 11 April 2012 twin strike-slip earthquakes were part of a
direction(Wue t al.,2010),whichisconsistentwiththePaxisorientation of the mainshock and other strike-slip events occurring in the continuing enhancement of the intraplate deformation between India
WPSP. Based on the local seismicity and fault plane solutions, this and Australia that followed the Ache 2004 and Nias 2005 megathrust
approximatelyEW-trendingcompressionaldirectionwasalsoidenti- earthquakes.WillasimilartectonicprocessoccuralongtheRyukyusubduction system? What do these earthquakes reveal about earthquake
ed by Kao et al . (1998) for eastern Taiwan and offshore areas and
wasconsideredaneffectofcollision.TheevidenceofthisEWregional
physics,andhowmighttheychangeearthquakehazardassessment?All
stressregimecanalsobeobservedinthefaultinggeometriesshownby ofthesequestionsarecrucialandrequirefurtherinvestigation.
thethreemainearthquakeclustersdeterminedinourstudy.Thethree
clusters show steeply dipping strike-slip orientations having either 6.
a Conclusions
SE faults (Faults F1 and F2) or a right-lateral
left-lateral slip on NW
sliponENE WSWfaults(FaultF3),bothareconsistentwiththepervaOn26April2010,astrike-slip-typeearthquake(Mw6.5)occurredon
siveEWcompressionalstressorientationthroughouttheregion.Con- theeasternportionoftheGaguaRidge.Wedeployed14OBSstorecord
continent collision process between the Luzon Arc theaftershockstoacquireinformationregardingthesestrike-slipearthsequently, the arc
andtheEurasiaPlatemaybetheoriginofthestressregimefortheintra- quakes in the oceanic plate. A total of 326 aftershocks were relocated
plateeventslocatedwithintheWPSP.Hence,asimilarfocalmechanism based on the hypoDD analysis, and an appropriate 1-D velocity model
possessedbythestrike-slipevents,observedbetweenlongitudesofap- of the area was derived using the VELEST program. Our results show
proximately123and126,maysuggestthattheresistingforceofthe that the majority of identi
ed earthquakes occurred in the vicinity of
themainshock area. Three clusters ofearthquakes were identi
collisionistransmittedoveradistanceofapproximately 500 kmfrom
ed: two
eastern Taiwan to the LOFZ area (Fig. 4b). This type of stress transfer
of them trend along the N45W direction, and the other intersects the
waspreviouslyreportedfortheWhartonBasinandoffshorenorthern
rst two clusters at an angle of approximately 120. The origin of the
Sumatra,wherethecompressionalaxesofearthquakesareconsistentlystress regime is evidenced by the consistency of the P axis of the focal

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