The Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake occurred on the Longmenshan fault which inclines at a dip angle exceeding 60 degrees. Since most thrust earthquakes occur on faults with dip angles of about 30 degrees, it is enigmatic why the Wenchuan earthquake occurred on such a steep fault. In this study we use a simple finite element model to investigate how the stress state in the fault changes with the variation of Poisson＇s ratio. The results show that, with the Poisson＇s ratio in the fault increasing, the magnitudes of the principal stresses increase and the maximum Shear stress decrease, and, especially, the angle between the maximum principal stress and the fault plane decreases, which will enhance the driving force to overcome the frictional resistance on the fault. The increase of Poisson＇s ratio in the fault may be an important factor to affect the occurrence of the fault earthquakes with large angles between maximum principal stress and fault plane.
Tsunami induced by earthquake is an interaction problem between liquid and solid.Shallow-water wave equation is often used to modeling the tsunami,and the boundary or initial condition of the problem is determined by the displacement or velocity field from the earthquake under sea floor,usually no interaction between them is consid-ered in pure liquid model.In this study,the potential flow theory and the finite element method with the interaction between liquid and solid are employed to model the dynamic processes of the earthquake and tsunami.For model-ing the earthquake,firstly the initial stress field to generate the earthquake is set up,and then the occurrence of the earthquake is simulated by suddenly reducing the elastic material parameters inside the earthquake fault.It is dif-ferent from seismic dislocation theory in which the relative slip on the fault is specified in advance.The modeling results reveal that P,SP and the surface wave can be found at the sea surface besides the tsunami wave.The surface wave arrives at the distance of 600 km from the epicenter earlier than the tsunami 48 minutes,and its maximum amplitude is 0.55 m,which is 2 times as large as that of the sea floor.Tsunami warning information can be taken from the surface wave on the sea surface,which is much earlier than that obtained from the seismograph stations on land.The tsunami speed on the open sea with 3 km depth is 175.8 m/s,which is a little greater than that pre-dicted by long wave theory,(gh)1/2=171.5 m,and its wavelength and amplitude in average are 32 km and 2 m,respectively.After the tsunami propagates to the continental shelf,its speed and wavelength is reduced,but its amplitude become greater,especially,it can elevate up to 10 m and run 55 m forward in vertical and horizontal directions at sea shore,respectively.The maximum vertical accelerations at the epicenter on the sea surface and on the earthquake fault are 5.9 m/s2 and 16.5 m/s2,respectively,the later is 2.8 times the former,and therefore,sea water is a good shock a
