The July 9 and 23, 1905, Mongolian earthquakes: A surface wave investigation

Synthetic Love wave seismograms for a series of reasonable models of the catastrophic earthquakes of July 1905 in Mongolia are generated and compared to observed data, to help constrain the source parameters suggested from older field reports. The most probable models suggested are pure strike-slip, striking N280°E, dipping north 50° to 90°, with an eastward rupture on the order of 200 km for the first event and 300 km for the second one. A seismic moment of 3-8 × 10²⁸ dynes cm, together with a redetermined M_s value of 7.9 ± 0.2 clearly give the first event an "interplate" behavior, consistent with actual theories of Chinese tectonics. Although figures are less accurate, the second event (M₀ {reversed tilde equals} 5 × 10²⁸; M_s {reversed tilde equals} 8.25) probably falls into the same category.