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A decrease in Q values within the hanging wall of the ruptured Chelungpu fault two years following the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake was revealed by Q tomography images and an analysis of single-path Q. The synthetic and sensitivity tests of the Q determination were carried out accordingly to justify the temporal variation. A Q value within the hanging wall above the hypocenter was determined to be 157 ± 18 two years following the Chi-Chi earthquake, which is significantly lower than the Q tomography values of 238 ± 17 and 289 ± 13 prior to and two years after the main shock, respectively. Similar values using a signal-path Q analysis from events within the ruptured fault zone to stations along the fault were obtained. The corresponding Q values were 247 ± 85 prior to the Chi-Chi earthquake. After the earthquake we obtained Q values of 158 ± 75 and 318 ± 80 for 2 years following and 2 years after the earthquake, respectively. Considering the two independent methods in determination of Q, the reduction in Q by 89 two years following the Chi-Chi earthquake in both methods is significant. Along with 1 % V reduction revealed by the analysis of repeating earthquakes our studies suggested possible reduction both in V and Q values within the fault zone after the Chi-Chi earthquake. Temporal changes in Q after the Chi-Chi earthquake imply variations of pore-fluid saturation in the ruptured fault zone. The reduction in Q two years following the Chi-Chi earthquake indicates high pore-fluid saturation within the fractured fault zone due to the postseismic fluid redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake (Mw = 7.6) was one of the strongest earthquakes in recent years recorded by a large number of strong-motion devices. Though only surface records are available, the obtained strong-motion database indicates the variety of ground responses in the near-fault zones. In this study, accelerograms of the Chi-Chi earthquake were simulated at rock and soil sites, and models of soil behavior were constructed at seven soil sites (TCU065, TCU072, TCU138, CHY026, CHY104, CHY074, and CHY015), for which parameters of the soil profiles are known down to depths of at least ~70 m and at 24 other soil sites, for which parameters of the soil profiles are known down to 30–40 m; all the sites were located within ~50 km from the fault. For reconstructing stresses and strains in the soil layers, we used a method similar to that developed for the estimation of soil behavior based on vertical array records. As input for the soil layers, acceleration time histories simulated by stochastic finite-fault modelling with a prescribed slip distribution over the fault plane were taken. In spite of the largeness of the earthquake’s magnitude and the proximity of the studied soil sites to the fault plane, the soil behavior at these sites was relatively simple, i.e., a fairly good agreement between the spectra of the observed and simulated accelerograms and between their waveforms was obtained even in cases where a single stress-strain relation was used to describe the behavior of whole soil thickness down to ~70–80 m during strong motion. Obviously, this is due to homogeneity in the characteristics of soil layers in depth. At all the studied sites, resonant phenomena in soil layers (down to ~40–60 m) and nonlinearity of soil response were the main factors defining soil behavior. At TCU065, TCU110, TCU115, CHY101, CHY036, and CHY039 liquefaction phenomena occurred in the upper soil layers, estimated strains achieved ~0.6–0.8%; at other stations, maximum strains in the soil layers were as high as 0.1–0.4%, according to our estimates. Thus, valuable data on the in situ soil behavior during the Chi-Chi earthquake was obtained. Similarity in the behavior of similar soils during the 1995 Kobe, 2000 Tottori (Japan), and Chi-Chi (Taiwan) earthquakes was found, indicating the possibility of forecasting soil behavior in future earthquakes. In the near-fault zones of the three earthquakes, “hard-type” soil behavior and resonant phenomena in the upper surface layers prevail, both leading to high acceleration amplitudes on the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1999 Chiayi M 6.4 earthquake sequence that occurred about one month after the 1999 Chi-Chi M 7.6 earthquake is remarkably similar to the Ruey-Li M 6.2 earthquake sequence which occurred one year before the big Chi-Chi event. Both sequences were energetic and short in duration; with events confined in small source volumes, and the fault-plane orientation of individual events in these sequences varied abruptly during the development of the dynamic rupture. Both occurred on the southern extension of the large Chelungpu rupture causal to the Chi-Chi event, and in an area of highly fractured upper crust. We consider that this faulting behavior is due to the rupture-induced dynamic stress that interacts with the pre-existing highly fractured upper crust and continually perturbs the local stress field. This phenomenon appears to be typical of particularly active plate boundary regions with a highly fractured upper crust under intense tectonic loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes of groundwater level, ranging from a fall of 11.10 m to a rise of 7.42 m, induced by thrust faulting during the 1999 Mw 7.6, Chi-Chi earthquake have been recorded in 276 monitoring wells in Taiwan. Most coseismic falls appeared near the seismogenic fault as well as other active faults, while coseismic rises prevailed away from the fault. Coseismic groundwater level rises and falls correlated fairly well with hypocentral distance in the vicinity of the thrust fault. We found a major difference of coseismic changes in wells of different depths at most multiple-well stations. The recovery process of coseismic groundwater level changes is associated with the confining condition of the aquifer. Cross-formational flow is likely to play an important role in groundwater level changes after the earthquake. In the hanging wall of the thrust fault, an abnormal decline of groundwater level was observed immediately before the earthquake. The underlying mechanism of the unique preseismic change warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]