1957 Gobi-Altay, Mongolia, earthquake as a prototype for southern California's most devastating earthquake

Bayarsayhan, Ch.; Bayasgalan, A.; Enhtuvshin, B.; Hudnut, K. W.; Kurushin, R. A.; Molnár, Péter; Ölziybat, M.

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1996)024<0579:gameaa>2.3.co;2

Cited by 41 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Whether earthquakes that rupture multiple faults repeat this behavior while earthquakes that rupture a single fault zone are repeatedly confined to a single fault is an important question in understanding seismic hazard. Bayarsayhan et al [1996] suggest that the complexity of the 1957 Gobi Altay earthquake may be analogous to a potential future earthquake in southern California. They postulate that a future earthquake could simultaneously rupture the San Andreas fault along with the Sierra Madre and other nearby faults, producing a similar rupture pattern to that of the 1957 Gobi Altay earthquake.…”

Section: Discussion/conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prehistoric ruptures of the Gurvan Bulag fault, Gobi Altay, Mongolia

et al. 2002

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

[1] The 1957 Gobi Altay M8.3 earthquake in southern Mongolia was associated with the simultaneous rupture of several faults, including the Gurvan Bulag reverse fault, which is located about 25 km south of the main strike-slip Bogd fault. Our study of paleoseismic excavations across the Gurvan Bulag fault suggests that the penultimate surface rupture occurred after 6.0 ka, most likely between 2.6 and 4.4 ka, and a possible earlier rupture occurred after 7.3 ka. Our interpretation of the stratigraphic relations in one of the exposures suggests that at least five earthquakes have generated surface rupture of the Gurvan Bulag fault since the abandonment of an ancient alluvial fan surface. Luminescence dating of sediment associated with this surface indicates that it formed either 26.6 ± 2.1 ka or 16.1 ± 2.0 ka. These data imply that the recurrence intervals for surface faulting on the Gurvan Bulag and Bogd faults are similar, on the order of several thousands of years, but that the penultimate surface ruptures of the two faults did not occur during the same earthquake.

show abstract

Section: Discussion/conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prehistoric ruptures of the Gurvan Bulag fault, Gobi Altay, Mongolia

et al. 2002

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are also documented cases of large fault bend earthquakes (M . 7) having complex rupture mechanisms with multiple faults being activated within the bend, as well as major faults rupturing through the bend (Bayarsayhan et al 1996;Harris et al 2002). Because the length of fault segment rupture is proportional to earthquake magnitude (Scholz 1982), identification of fault bends between parallel strike-slip fault segments that may act as seismic propagation barriers is important in assessing the potential severity of future earthquakes in areas of active strike-slip faulting.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tectonics of strike-slip restraining and releasing bends

Cunningham

Mann²

2007

291

188

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…However, only one other welldocumented large continental earthquake clearly involved approximately simultaneous substantial thrust and strike-slip rupture. The 1957 M w 8.3 Gobi-Altay, Mongolia, mainshock involved significant slip on both the Bogd strike-slip fault and the Gurvan Bulag thrust fault (Florensov and Solonenko, 1965;Bayarsayhan et al, 1996;Kurushin et al, 1997;Prentice et al, 2002). The sequence of rupture is not known, but either is consistent with static-stress-transfer modeling (Kurushin et al, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Dynamic Rupture Modeling of the Transition from Thrust to Strike-Slip Motion in the 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake, Alaska

Aagaard

Anderson

Hudnut

2004

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We use three-dimensional dynamic (spontaneous) rupture models to investigate the nearly simultaneous ruptures of the Susitna Glacier thrust fault and the Denali strike-slip fault. With the 1957 M w 8.3 Gobi-Altay, Mongolia, earthquake as the only other well-documented case of significant, nearly simultaneous rupture of both thrust and strike-slip faults, this feature of the 2002 Denali fault earthquake provides a unique opportunity to investigate the mechanisms responsible for development of these large, complex events. We find that the geometry of the faults and the orientation of the regional stress field caused slip on the Susitna Glacier fault to load the Denali fault. Several different stress orientations with oblique right-lateral motion on the Susitna Glacier fault replicate the triggering of rupture on the Denali fault about 10 sec after the rupture nucleates on the Susitna Glacier fault. However, generating slip directions compatible with measured surface offsets and kinematic source inversions requires perturbing the stress orientation from that determined with focal mechanisms of regional events. Adjusting the vertical component of the principal stress tensor for the regional stress field so that it is more consistent with a mixture of strike-slip and reverse faulting significantly improves the fit of the sliprake angles to the data. Rotating the maximum horizontal compressive stress direction westward appears to improve the fit even further.

show abstract

1957 Gobi-Altay, Mongolia, earthquake as a prototype for southern California's most devastating earthquake

Cited by 41 publications

References 9 publications

Prehistoric ruptures of the Gurvan Bulag fault, Gobi Altay, Mongolia

Prehistoric ruptures of the Gurvan Bulag fault, Gobi Altay, Mongolia

Tectonics of strike-slip restraining and releasing bends

Dynamic Rupture Modeling of the Transition from Thrust to Strike-Slip Motion in the 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake, Alaska

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About