Variation Characteristics of Focal Mechanisms of Small Earthquakes before Four Strong Earthquakes in Xinjiang

With the point source dislocation model and the velocity structure of a layered medium,focal mechanisms of small earthquakes are calculated using the maximum amplitude of the direct P- and S-waves in the vertical component. By system clustering,and using the vector synthesis method,the average focal mechanism solution is obtained. Using the above method,this paper analyzes the variation characteristics of the source ruptures and the P-axis azimuths of small earthquakes around the seismic zones before four strong earthquakes occurring since 2003 in the western part of north Tianshan and the middle part of Tianshan. The result shows that 2 ~ 3 years before the strong earthquakes,the focal mechanism types of small earthquakes are distributed randomly, and obvious dominant distributions are observed one year before the strong earthquakes. There are obvious changes in the P-axis azimuth.