Effects of the 1975 Haicheng Earthquake on the Korean Peninsula

1975년에 발생한 중국 해성지진이 한반도에 미친 영향

In the period from the year 1500 to 1980. at least 14 large earthquake with epicenters in the northeastern China and Yellow Sea were felt or destructive in the Korean Peninsula. The most sigmificant events among them were the 1668 July 25 Tancheng earthquake of mamnitude 8.5, and the 1975 Feb. 4 Haicheng earthquake of magnitude 7.3. The Haicheng earthquake of the year 1975 in am extraordinary one among those occurred in the northeastern China in the 20th century in the sense the Shake of the event affected all over the Korean Peninsula. The tremor was felt even at the southeastern tip of the Korea and northern part of Kyushu 700km far away from the epicenter. In order to see the variation and trend of the effect of the Haicheng earthquake on the Korean Peninsula, the two data sets of the northern and southern parts of the peninsula were merged into one combined data set. The spatial variation of intensity shows smooth decrease from the value 4 of the northwestern region near the source to the value 1 of the Cheju Island and Kjushu. However, there are four regions of locally high intensity value. They are the region along downstream of Abrok(Yalu) River with intensity 5, the region around Shinpo of intensity 4, the area comprising Seoul and Chuncheon Cities of intensity 4, and Pohang-Pusan area of intensity 3. We suppose that there might be three types of possible mechanisms. The first one is concerned with the lateral inhomogeneity of velocity in the crust caused by wide distribution of relatively fractured rock. The second one is related with reflections of surface waves caused by the crestal thinning effect at border regions of the Peninsular in contact with the Ulleung Basin and the Japan Basin. The third possibility is local site effect caused by thick Tertiary or Quaternary rocks and soil layers.