Abstract:
To explore the correlation between small earthquakes and gravity field changes in Shandong Province under the background of weak seismic activity, this study takes the area around the Yishu Fault Zone as the core region. It selects earthquakes with magnitudes of
ML3.0 and above, including the 2013 Laizhou
ML4.9 earthquake, the 2015 Pingyi
ML3.9 (collapse-induced) earthquake, and the 2020 Changqing
ML4.6 earthquake, . Based on the data from the provincial mobile gravity observation network of Shandong Earthquake Agency , the data were processed using the classical adjustment method of LGADJ software. Subsequently, the characteristics of gravity field changes before and after the earthquakes were analyzed across different time scales, including adjacent phases (with an interval of approximately 0.5 years) and multi-year accumulations (1-year, 2-year, and 5-year).The results show that: In the gravity field changes between adjacent phases before and after the occurrence of small earthquakes, areas with changes exceeding the threshold (50 μGal for adjacent phases and 80 μGal for 1-year scale) appear around the epicenters, and the epicenters are mostly located at the bends of the 0 μGal contour line or 10 μGal contour line. In terms of time scales, the changes near the epicenters are significant in the maps of adjacent phases and 1-year interval changes, while the changes are not obvious in the maps of multi-year accumulations (2 years and above). The measuring points with significant changes only show drastic variations before and after the earthquakes, and remain stable at other times.In conclusion, before and after the occurrence of small earthquakes around the Yishu Fault Zone in Shandong Province, significant anomalies in the gravity field usually appear within 6 months to 1 year, and the epicenter location is highly correlated with the bends of the 0 μGal contour line or 10 μGal contour line. This study can provide a scientific basis for the monitoring and medium-term prediction of small earthquakes in this region.