Dynamic mechanisms of the post-seismic deformation following large events: Case study of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan of China

The mechanism of postseismic deformation related to strong earthquakes is important in geodynamics, and presumably afterslip or viscoelastic relaxation is responsible for the postsesimic deformation. The 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan of China, earthquake occurred in the region where GPS observation station is most densely deployed in the world. The unprecedented GPS data provides a unique opportunity to study the physical processes of postseismic deformation. Here we assume that the interactions of viscoelastic relaxation, afterslip, fault zone collapse, poroelastic rebound, flow of underground fluids, and all these combined contribute to the surface displacements following the main shock. In order to know the essence of the postseismic deformation after the strong event, fault zone collapse, poroelastic rebound, flow of underground fluids, and so on, are represented equivalently by the variations of the focal medium properties. Therefore, the viscoelastic relaxation, afterslip, and the variations of the equivalent focal medium properties are inverted by applying the GPS temporal series measurement data with viscoelastic finite element method. Both the afterslip rate distribution along the fault and the afterslip evolution with time are obtained by means of inversion. Also, the preliminary result suggests that viscosities of the lower crust and the upper mantle in Taiwan region is 2.7×1018 and 4.2×1020 Pa·s, respectively. Moreover, the inversion results indicate that the afterslip contributing to postseismic deformation of 44.6% in 450 days after the Chi-Chi earthquake, with 34.7% caused by the viscous relaxation and 20.7% by other factors such as fault zone collapse, poroelastic rebound, and the flow of liquids.