Structural deformation and fault activity of the Tan-Lu Fault zone in the Bohai Sea since the late Pleistocene

The Tan-Lu Fault zone (TLFZ) is a significant fractural zone in eastern China and also a seismicity belt in North China. Based on total 4000-km-long shallow penetrated single seismic data with high-resolution, structural deformation and fault activity of the TLFZ in the Bohai Sea since the late Pleistocene are discussed in detail. The results show that the TLFZ with a discontinuous distribution and a general NNE-trending consists of 14 active subfaults with an NNE or NE strike in the Bohai Sea. Seismic data reveal that de-formation zones along the subfaults in the central Bohai Sea and the Laizhou Bay are wider and more complex than those in the Liaodong Gulf. Related folds and lots of secondary normal faults which are characterized by nearly vertical fault planes and a same or reverse dip construct the fractural zone in the Laizhou Bay and the central Bohai Sea. Usually, micro symmetrical grabens develop on the top of anticlines. In the Liaodong Gulf, subfault fractural zones usually consist of secondary normal faults with the same inclination or opposite inclination. Ages of seismic sequences and cutting relation between subfaults and seismic sequences suggest that the latest faulting age of the TLFZ is the end of the late Pleistocene in the Liaodong Gulf and the early Holocene in the Laizhou Bay and the central Bohai Sea. There is a good match between distribution of earthquakes and that of the subfaults in the Laizhou Bay and the central Bohai. Statistical result shows that total vertical offset of the TLFZ since the late Pleistocene ranges from 6 to 11 m. On the basis of offsets of the subfaults, the vertical slip rate is calculated and results show that average vertical slip rates in the central Bohai Sea are larger than those in the Liaodong Gulf and the Laizhou Bay. Slip rates more than 0.06 mm/a during 23–10 ka B.P. and 85–65 ka B.P. are larger than those in other stages. The TLFZ was mainly dominated by tensional normal component since the late Pleistocene. Synthesizing shallow deformation, activity and distribution of earthquakes, the TLFZ in the Bohai Sea can be divided into three segments: the Laizhou-Bay segment, the Bozhong segment, and the Liaodong-Gulf segment.