Coseismic hydrological changes associated with dislocation of the September 21, 1999 Chichi earthquake, Taiwan

Min Lee, Tsung Kwei Liu, Kuo Fong Ma, Yen Ming Chang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Being situated in the immediate vicinity of the 1999 Chichi earthquake epicenter, 178 automatic-recording monitoring wells of the Choshui fan-delta provided a very valuable data set for testing whether the coseismic water-level changes in confined aquifers can be explained as a poroelastic response of well-aquifer systems to coseismic volumetric strain. This study demonstrates that the polarities of the observed coseismic water-level and river discharge changes are in good agreement with those of the static volumetric strain calculated by a dislocation model, using the well-constrained rupture model of the seismogenic Chelungpu fault. The puzzling "bull-eye" patterns formed by the equipotential lines of the coseismic water-level changes in the confined aquifers in the middle parts of the fan-delta represent pressure enhancement due to their being situated at the pinch-out ends of conglomeratic layers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-1-5-4
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume29
Issue number17
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2002

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