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Graphical abstract Highlights • Seismogenic characteristics near the NE rifted margin of the South China Sea are revealed. • NW-SE tensional stress controls the Taiwan collision-Manila subduction transition. • Intraslab pre-existing faults affect the seismogenic behavior of a convergent system. Abstract Based on the distribution of an earthquake swarm determined from an ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) network deployed from 20 August to 5 September 2015 in the northernmost part of the South China Sea (SCS) and data from inland seismic stations in Taiwan, we resolved a M L 4.1 earthquake occurring on 1 September 2015 as a NE-SW-trending left-lateral strike-slip event that ruptured along the pre-existing normal faults generated during the SCS opening phases. The direction of the T-axes derived from the M L 4.1 earthquake and the background seismicity off SW Taiwan present high consistency, indicating a stable dominant NW-SE tensional stress for the subducted Eurasian Plate (EUP). The distinct stress variations on the two sides of these reactivated NE-SW trending features suggest that the presence of pre-existing normal faults and other related processes may lessen the lateral resistance between the Taiwan collision and Manila subduction system, and facilitate the slab-pull process for the subducting portion, which may explain the NW-SE tensional stress environment near the transition boundary in the northernmost part of the SCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: New marine seismic reflection and coincident wide-angle ocean-bottom seismometer data acquired offshore Taiwan provide high-resolution constraints on the crustal structure of an incipient mountain belt during the earliest stage of arc–continent collision. The new seismic reflection image and travel-time tomography velocity model show evidence for crust of the distal southern Chinese continental margin being subducted eastward beneath the Manila trench and underplated to the accretionary wedge before collision with the southern Chinese continental shelf. The distal margin crust consists of highly extended continental crust interspersed with volcanic bodies and a high-velocity lower crustal layer of likely magmatic intrusions. The distal margin crust is 10–14km thick outboard of the trench, but thins to 6km thick beneath the lower slope of the Manila trench accretionary wedge. Along the lower slope of the accretionary prism, we image westward-verging imbricate thrusts and folded strata up to 10km thick. A sharp decrease in bathymetry marks the transition from lower to upper slope, where we observe a fast (>6.0km/s) seismic velocity anomaly at the base of the wedge that we interpret as structurally underplated crust from the distal continental margin. Our results support a model of arc–continent collision in Taiwan where the accretionary wedge is first thickened by structural underplating of distal margin crust prior to collision with the continental shelf. The crustal rocks exposed throughout the Central Range in Taiwan may be similarly derived from subducted and structurally underplated crust from the highly extended distal continental margin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Kueishantao is a volcanic island located offshore the northeastern coast of Taiwan and lies at the tip of the southern Okinawa Trough which is the back-arc basin of the Ryukyu subduction zone. Its last eruption occurred during the Holocene (~7ka), hence Kueishantao can be considered as an active volcano. In an effort to better understand how magmatic processes may interact with the regional tectonics, a seismic network was installed in the area during early January 2008. This network consisted of 16 three-component seismometers located both on Kueishantao and the coast of northeastern Taiwan. One year of data was analyzed yielding 425 earthquakes whose P and S arrival times were manually picked and each event was located using a nonlinear probabilistic location method. In order to improve the location accuracy, the minimum 1-D velocity model for this dataset was derived and all earthquakes were relocated using this model. The results show a tight cluster of events near Kueishantao while the remaining earthquakes are scattered between the island and mainland Taiwan. The majority of hypocentral depths range between 2.5 and 10km where the former depth coincides with the bottom of the shallow sedimentary layer and the latter with the ductile lower crust. Waveforms of the three largest events were also inverted for the determination of their deviatoric and full moment tensor. No statistically significant isotropic component was found, while two of the events can be explained by a double-couple source. The third event exhibited a low frequency content (<10Hz) and a large non-double-couple component suggesting fluid involvement at its source. A stress inversion of all available focal mechanisms in the area shows that fluid circulation in the upper crust generates a local stress field around Kueishantao facilitating the opening of cracks along the NW–SE direction of regional extension. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper investigates velocity structure of the active plate boundary in southern Taiwan by joint analysis of gravity anomaly and seismic arrival time data. P and S–P arrival time data from 3238 earthquakes were used. In addition to CWBSN permanent networks, seismic data include the Central Weather Bureau permanent networks and a temporary network consisting of 11 ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs) that was deployed to detect the aftershocks of the 2006 (ML7.1) Henchun earthquake occurred beneath southern Taiwan. The total available OBS data set consists of ~700 detected earthquakes, from which around 500 could be well located where about 450 events have been used in simultaneous inversion for hypocenters, three-dimensional Vp and Vp/Vs models for the study area. The main objective of incorporating gravity analysis is used to improve the velocity model for the offshore area, where it is poorly sampled by local earthquakes. This study found a low-velocity zone existing above the subducting South China Sea slab in the mantle wedge. Based on gravity modeling and our resulting velocity and Poisson''s ratio models suggest that the subduction complex, which is characterized with a low P-wave velocity and low Poisson''s ratios beneath the southern Taiwan. This duplex structure is characterized by a zone of low P-wave velocities in the range of 6.2–6.8km/s between 25 and 40km depth. It also shows that earthquake hypocenters do not fall within this low velocity zone. We have also used seismic tomography velocities to estimate the volume percentage of serpentinite and silica concentrations in southern Taiwan. The calculated serpentinite is about 30% and the volume percentage of quartz estimated is about 20% at the base of the forearc lower crust. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]