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The concentration, complexity, and significant anisotropy of in-situ stress make it a pressing and challenging issue in engineering geology safety in strong tectonic activity areas. This paper firstly analyzes the application and existing problems of in-situ stress measurement in deep-buried underground engineering in strong tectonic activity areas. Then, it focuses on the application method, technology, and roles of real-time in-situ stress monitoring in deep underground engineering within tectonically active regions. Finally, it discusses the problems that need to be considered in the application of in-situ stress measurement and real-time monitoring. The results show that in the strong tectonic activity area, relying solely on limited deep hole in-situ stress measurements to determine overall stress design parameters for deep underground engineering is inadequate. A comprehensive study of the three-dimensional in-situ stress field is necessary to reveal its spatial distribution characteristics. Different in-situ stress design parameters should be used for different positions of the deep-buried underground project to avoid engineering waste or engineering damages caused by large or small in-situ stress design parameters. In the strong tectonic activity area, the disk core density is inversely proportional to the measured magnitude of the in-situ stress, and the depth range that has yet to form in the cake-shaped core often has the highest in-situ stress and the most concentrated stress, and the deep underground engineering should avoid this depth range. While a major earthquake or major engineering geological problem occurs, real-time monitoring of in-situ stress can dynamically reveal the relative change trend and evolution process of the in-situ stress magnitude of a specific structural site. It can calculate the absolute value of the in-situ stress state in different time domains during the real-time monitoring period without carrying out new absolute in-situ stress measurements. Regional crust stability and deep-buried engineering geological safety risks can be quickly evaluated, and quantitative in-situ stress design parameters and the stress-strain reserved threshold for preventing deformation and breaking can be provided for the damage repair of deep-buried engineering and the risk of fault activity can also be assessed. The research results will offer geological security for the planning, construction, and safe operation and maintenance of major projects in strong tectonic activity areas.

This study aims to solve the significant deformation issue in the soft surrounding rocks under high in-situ stress encountered during the construction of the Muzhailing Tunnel on the Weiyuan–Wudu Expressway. We established a three-dimensional geological model to invert the in-situ stress field using ANSYS based on measured in-situ stress data in the engineering area. Then, we calculated and analyzed the deformation of the surrounding rocks by combining the inverted results with the Hoek deformation prediction formula. The result showed that the in-situ stress field in the engineering area was primarily controlled by faults, with secondary influences from rock strength and topography. In the intense tectonic deformation zone, horizontal principal stress values are generally lower than in the weak structural deformation zone. The relationship between the three principal stresses along the tunnel axis is SH>Sh>SV. The maximum horizontal principal stress in the intense tectonic deformation zone was the highest in the G8 section and the lowest in the G6 and G11 sections. In the weak structural deformation zone, horizontal principal stress gradually increases from the G12 section until it decreases due to reduced burial depth starting from the middle of the G14 section. The maximum horizontal principal stress orientation was generally in the NE direction, and the extruded structural belt between the faults was mostly deflected to the NEE –nearly EW direction. The deformation of the surrounding rocks was affected by rock mass strength and in-situ stress field, with rock mass strength playing a dominant role. The deformation of the surrounding rocks is mainly concentrated in the range of 20 to 80 cm, and the deformation levels are mainly moderate and intense.

Objective The stability of underground chambers such as mine tunnels and transportation tunnels is closely related to the stress environment of the surrounding rock mass and the geological conditions of the area. Analyzing the relationship between deep-seated stress and factors such as the orientation and shape of underground chambers can help to proactively mitigate the risks associated with chamber excavation. Methods This study, set against the background of the rock burst accident on October 20th in the Longyun Coal Industry area in Shandong, reveals the current stress environment of the shallow crustal layers in western Shandong through in-situ stress measurement and monitoring work. Results According to the characteristics of the current ground stress field near the Longyun coal mining area, the study investigates the regional stress background that led to the rock burst accident and proposes corresponding prevention and control suggestions from the perspective of ground stress. The results indicate that the magnitude of the principal stress generally increases linearly with depth within the measurement range, with the maximum horizontal principal stress ranging from 3.48 to 20.76 MPa and a gradient of 0.0182 MPa/m with increasing depth, while the minimum horizontal principal stress ranges from 3.44 to 14.95 MPa with a gradient of 0.0130 MPa/m. The maximum horizontal principal stress azimuth in the area ranges from NE 43°to 89°, with an average azimuth of NE 75°. The tectonic action in the shallow crust is mainly horizontal, but with increasing depth, they gradually transition to vertical. Conclusion The triggering mechanism of the rock burst accident in the Longyun Coal Industry area on 20th October is primarily attributed to the vertical stress exceeding the horizontal principal stress, indicating a current extensional stress environment, especially when the tunnel orientation is parallel to the direction of maximum horizontal principal stress. It is suggested that the angle between the tunnel axis and the direction of maximum horizontal principal stress in the Longyun Coal Industry area should be between 60° and 90°, and that the tunnel roof can be designed as an arch-shaped roof to ensure the stability of the tunnel rock mass.

The Shunyi fault in the Beijing Plain region is a significant late Pleistocene active fault. The Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) is situated within the central segment of the Shunyi Fault. Since 2010, ground fissures on the airport's runway have progressively worsened, with a maximum vertical displacement difference of up to 20 cm, severely affecting airport safety. Presently, the impact of Shunyi fault activity on the ground fissures at the BCIA is primarily described qualitatively. This paper, based on research regarding the geometric structure of the Shunyi Fault, Quaternary activity, and investigations of the ground fissures at the Capital Airport, employs the fault dislocation model to quantitatively analyze the influence of the Shunyi Fault's creep-sliding activity as well as the 1996 Shunyi ML 4.5 earthquake on the formation of airport ground fissures. The study also discusses the increasing risk of ground fissure hazards in the event of a potential strong earthquake along the Shunyi fault in the future. The preliminary results suggest that with a vertical activity rate of 0.6 mm/year, 46 years of Shunyi Fault's creep-sliding activity results in differential subsidence of no more than 2.5 cm on both sides of the airport ground fissures, contributing to approximately 20% of the formation and development of these fissures. The impact of the Shunyi ML 4.5 earthquake on the formation of airport ground fissures is minimal. However, if a future M 7.0 earthquake occurs on the Shunyi fault, the estimated maximum land differential subsidence between two sides of the fault could reach 104 cm, increasing the risk of airport ground fissure disasters by a factor of five. Ground differential settlement due to groundwater extraction from the upper and deeper layers of the Shunyi fault's hanging wall contributes about 70% to the formation and development of airport ground fissures, remaining the primary factor. The study's results provide essential scientific references for precise prevention and control of ground fissure disasters at BCIA. Furthermore, to further reveal the causes and mechanisms of delayed geological disasters along the Shunyi fault, such as ground fissures and land differential subsidence, it is recommended to implement dynamic monitoring of cross-fault crustal displacement or deformation at crucial segments.

Recently, water injection-induced earthquakes caused by faulting instability have become a prominent geological safety issue for safely exploiting deep geothermal resources. This study investigates whether the future large-scale development of deep geothermal resources in the Gaoyang uplift will destabilize buried faults. There has a great amount of karst thermal reservoir in the Gaoyang low uplift, Hebei province. To find out whether the large-scale deep geothermal exploitation in the future will induce faults distributed in and around Gaoyang geothermal reservoir to become unstable, firstly, we calculate the initial stable state of the main buried faults based on Mohr-Coulomb criteria using the comprehensive in-situ stress field of North China; then, under Hsieh and Bredehoeft hydrological model, we calculate the possible excess pore pressure caused by water injection for 10~40 years at representative geothermal wells; subsequently, combing this perturbation with the initial stable state, we obtain the fault slip potential of the main buried faults from 2022 to 2062 based on a probabilistic approach; ultimately, we discuss the impact on the changes of fault slip potential due to varying angles between the maximum horizontal principal stress and the fault orientation. The main conclusions of this work can be drawn as follows. With the injection rate of 170 m3/h, the maximum excess pore pressure caused by a single geothermal well does not surpass 11 MPa, and it obeys a power decrease distribution with increasing distance from the center of the injection well; its influence scope is no more than 8 km. Continuous water injection strongly changes the stability of those buried faults distributed 2 km within the geothermal wells, and fault-slip potentials of some segmental faults even exceed 85%, corresponding to high unstable risk. Under 50 years of water injection at an injection well, the fault-slip potential of faults with different strikes within 2 km from the injection well increases rapidly with the declining angle among its orientation and the regional maximum horizontal principal stress. This paper's study methodology and associated findings can offer geoscientific justification for the safe exploration and exploitation of deep geothermal resources domestically and internationally. This study can provide a method reference for the location of injection wells and the selection of faults in different orientations in geothermal fields at home and abroad, thus promoting the safe and efficient development and utilization of geothermal resources.

The Namjag Barwa syntaxis is in the eastern Himalayan syntaxis area with the most intensive neotectonic activity. There are many late Quaternary active fault belts and strong seismicities. The tectonic stability of these active fault belts, such as the Jiali, Dongjiu-Milin, and Motuo fault belts, may influence the project's construction. In-situ stress is a critical parameter for estimating regional tectonic stability. Currently, there is a lack of abundant in-situ stress results about the Namjag Barwa syntaxis. It is challenging to assess geological safety risks for major projects. Based on focal mechanism solutions, the paper reveals the orientation of the maximum principal stress surrounding the Namjag Barwa syntaxis using the stress tensor inversion method. According to the critical condition of fault instability, the magnitudes of principal stresses around the Namjag Barwa syntaxis are also estimated by combining the inversion of the stress shape ratio and the frictional coefficient. The results indicate that the maximum principal stress direction in the Namjag Barwa syntaxis area is NE-NNE. The maximum and minimum horizontal principal stresses increase linearly with depth at a gradient of 0.032~0.0355 MPa/m and 0.0227~0.0236 MPa/m, respectively. Heterogeneous features of the in-situ stress field still exist. Generally, the results estimated in this study are in good concordance with the in-situ stress measurements. They can provide reliable in-situ stress parameters for evaluating the tectonic stability in the Namcha Barwa region.

[Objective] The stability of underground chambers such as mine tunnels and transportation tunnels is closely related to the stress environment of the surrounding rock mass and the geological conditions of the area. Analyzing the relationship between deep-seated stress and factors such as the orientation and shape of underground chambers can help to proactively mitigate the risks associated with chamber excavation. [Methods] This study, set against the background of the rock burst accident on October 20th in the Longyun Coal Industry area in Shandong, reveals the current stress environment of the shallow crustal layers in western Shandong through in-situ stress measurement and monitoring work. [Results] According to the characteristics of the current ground stress field near the Longyun coal mining area, the study investigates the regional stress background that led to the rock burst accident and proposes corresponding prevention and control suggestions from the perspective of ground stress. The results indicate that the magnitude of the principal stress generally increases linearly with depth within the measurement range' with the maximum horizontal principal stress ranging from 3.48 to 20.76 MPa and a gradient of 0.0182 MPa/m with increasing depth, while the minimum horizontal principal stress ranges from 3.44 to 14.95 MPa with a gradient of 0.0130 MPa/m. The maximum horizontal principal stress azimuth in the area ranges from NE 43°to 89°, with an average azimuth of NE 75°. The tectonic action in the shallow crust is mainly horizontal, but with increasing depth, they gradually transition to vertical. [Conclusion] The triggering mechanism of the rock burst accident in the Longyun Coal Industry area on 20th October is primarily attributed to the vertical stress exceeding the horizontal principal stress, indicating a current extensional stress environment, especially when the tunnel orientation is parallel to the direction of maximum horizontal principal stress. It is suggested that the angle between the tunnel axis and the direction of maximum horizontal principal stress in the Longyun Coal Industry area should be between 60° and 90°, and that the tunnel roof can be designed as an arch-shaped roof to ensure the stability of the tunnel rock mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the US Geological Survey (USGS) finite fault model, the co-seismic horizontal displacement and horizontal principal stress field in North and Northeast China generated by the Tohoku-Oki M9.0 earthquake of March 11th, 2011, were retrieved by linear elastic finite element numerical simulation. On this basis, the static Coulomb failure stress variations of the main active faults and tectonic zones in North and Northeast China were calculated, and the triggering effect of the earthquake on seismicity in North and Northeast China was discussed. Results were as follows: (1) the co-seismic horizontal displacement field caused by the great earthquake was eastward in North China; the maximum value, which occurred in the Shandong Peninsula and north Jiangsu Province, was about 12 mm; and the values gradually decreased from east to west. The co-seismic horizontal displacement field in Northeast China was SE-SEE and the maximum value, which occurred in northeast Jilin Province, was about 30 mm. The simulated results for the co-seismic horizontal displacement field were in good agreement with GPS observational results. (2) The near-surface co-seismic maximum horizontal principal stress (ΔσHmax) was tensile stress ranging from 0 to 2.0 KPa. From Northeast China to North China, the direction gradually altered from NW to NWW to nearly EW to NEE. The co-seismic minimum horizontal principal stress (ΔσHmax) was compressive as well as tensile stress, with a magnitude of 0-0.75 KPa, which is approximately equal to zero. From Northeast China to North China, the direction gradually changed to NNW from NE to NNE to nearly NS. Although the co-seismic stress effect generated by the great earthquake had some effect on the present tectonic stress field of North and Northeast China, its influence was too slight to change the present framework of the regional tectonic stress field. (3) Coulomb failure stress variations on active fault zones in North and Northeast China mainly increased; however, the amount of increase was less than 1 KPa. The increases were largest in the middle and northeastern segments of the Tancheng-Lushan fault zone and the Mishan-Dunhua fault zone. The Tohoku-Oki Mw9.0 earthquake did have some triggering effect on seismic activity in North and Northeast China, but the effects were limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]