Strain-Rates from GPS Measurements in the Ordos Block, China: Implications for Geodynamics and Seismic Hazards

A number of devastating earthquakes have occurred around the Ordos Block in recent history. For the purpose of studying where the next major event will occur surrounding the Ordos Block, much work has been done, particularly in the investigation of the Earth’s surface strain rates based on GPS measurements. However, there exist striking differences between the results from different authors although they used almost the same GPS data. Therefore, we validated the method for the calculation of GPS strain rates developed by Zhu et al. (2005, 2006) and found that the method is feasible and has high precision. With this approach and the updated GPS data, we calculated the strain rates in the region around the Ordos Block. The computed results show that the total strain rates in the interior of the Block are very small, and the high values are mainly concentrated on the peripheral zones of the Ordos Block and along the large-scale active faults, such as the Haiyuan fault, which are closely aligned to the results by geological and geophysical observations. Additionally, the strain rate results demonstrated that all rifted grabens on the margin of the Ordos Block exhibit extensional deformation. Finally, based on the strain rate, seismicity, and tectonic structures, we present some areas of high earthquake risk surrounding the Ordos Block in the future, which are located on the westernmost of the Weihe Graben, both the east and westernmost of the Hetao Graben, and in the middle of the Shanxi Graben. Hence, this work is significant in contributing to a better understanding of the geodynamics and seismic hazard assessment.