Towards better seismic hazard resilience in Southwest China

 Exploring the past to prepare for the future

 The first step of Dr. Xuhua Shi’s project is thus to use state-of-the-art technology to precisely map the 350 km-long fault, and to provide a high-resolution fault location map. « Then, I aim to use the maps and the high-resolution digital elevation models to determine spatial distribution of co-seismic slips of historic earthquakes along the fault », he specifies. « This will give us insight into the behaviour of the fault in case of an earthquake, whether it differs from one earthquake to another, or stays substantially the same ». Once the first step is completed, Dr. Xuhua Shi and his team will be able to identity key sites to conduct field studies. Using radiocarbon dating of sediments, the second objective will be to investigate the recurrence characteristics and rupture behaviours of large historic earthquakes.

 Mitigating the impact of future earthquakes along the Xiaojiang fault has extremely high stakes.   Its geographic position, in the mountainous area connecting China to Myanmar, Thailand, Lao and Vietnam, places it in a strategically important area for Chinese economical development. Furthermore, the combination of rugged terrain and dense populations urgently calls for a modern evaluation of seismic hazard. By providing decision-makers with a solid basis to assess seismic hazard in the southwestern region of China, Dr. Xuhua Shi’s project will fill a critical gap and contribute greatly to hazard resilience.