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P-wave waveforms in the distance range between 12° and 30° were analyzed to investigate upper-mantle P velocity structures beneath the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas. The waveform data from 504 earthquakes with magnitudes larger than 5.0 between 1990 and 2005 that occurred within 30° from the center of the Plateau were modelled. We divided the study area into 6 regions and modeled upper-mantle-distance P waveforms with turning points beneath each region separately. The results show that the upper-mantle P-wave velocity structures beneath India, the Himalayas, and the Lhasa Terrane are similar and contain a high-velocity lid about 250 km thick. The upper-mantle velocities down to 200 km beneath the Qiangtang Terrane, the Tarim Basin, and especially the Songpan-Garzê Terrane are lower than those in the south. The 410-km discontinuity beneath these two terranes is elevated by about 20 km. High-velocity anomalies are found in the transition zone below 500 km under the Lhasa and Qiangtang Terranes. The results suggest that the Tibetan Plateau was generated by thrusting of the Indian mantle lithosphere under the southern part of Tibet. Portions of the thickened Eurasian mantle lithosphere were delaminated; they are now sitting in the transition zone beneath southern Tibet and atop of the 410-km discontinuity underneath northern Tibet.

The triggering mechanism of deep seismicity in Tibet remains unclear. Here the authors use experiments to show that granulite when deformed becomes brittle as it passes into the ecologite stability field developing macroscopic riedel fault zones thus providing an explanation for deep seismicity in Southern Tibet.

On 4 March 2008, a moderate earthquake (ML = 5.2) occurred in southern Taiwan and named as the Taoyuan earthquake, preceded by foreshocks and followed by numerous aftershocks. This earthquake sequence occurred during the TAIGER (TAiwan Integrated GEodynamics Research) controlled-source seismic experiment. Consequently, several seismic networks were deployed in the Taiwan area at this time and many stations recorded this earthquake sequence in the near-source region. We archived and processed near-source observations to determine the fault orientation. To locate the events more accurately, station corrections, waveform cross-correlation to pick seismic phases, and a double-difference earthquake location algorithm were used to compute earthquake hypocenters. Over a 50-hour recording period, beginning half an hour before the start of the main shock, 2340 events were identified within the earthquake sequence. The identified aftershocks reveal a clear fault plane with a strike of N37°E and a dip of 45°SE. This plane corresponds to one of the focal mechanism nodal planes determined by the Broadband Array in Taiwan for Seismology (BATS) (strike = 37°, dip = 48°, and rake = 96°). Based on the main shock focal mechanism, the aftershock distribution, and the regional geological reports, we suggest that faulting on the northern extension of the major regional active fault, the Chishan Fault, caused the Taoyuan earthquake sequence.