Triggering Relationship between Mud Volcanoes and Seismicity: Implications from Offshore Southwest Taiwan, China

Gege Hui

doi:10.1007/s12583-022-1677-2

Volume 36 Issue 3

Jun 2025

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Journal of Earth Science > 2025 > 36(3): 960-974.

Gege Hui. Triggering Relationship between Mud Volcanoes and Seismicity: Implications from Offshore Southwest Taiwan, China. Journal of Earth Science, 2025, 36(3): 960-974. doi: 10.1007/s12583-022-1677-2

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Gege Hui. Triggering Relationship between Mud Volcanoes and Seismicity: Implications from Offshore Southwest Taiwan, China. Journal of Earth Science, 2025, 36(3): 960-974. doi: 10.1007/s12583-022-1677-2

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Triggering Relationship between Mud Volcanoes and Seismicity: Implications from Offshore Southwest Taiwan, China

doi: 10.1007/s12583-022-1677-2

Gege Hui^{,
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School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Geodynamics and Geohazards, Sun Yat-sen University, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, China

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Corresponding author: Gege Hui, huigg@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Received Date: 18 Jan 2022
Accepted Date: 27 Apr 2022

Available Online: 11 Jun 2025

Issue Publish Date: 30 Jun 2025

Abstract

Abstract

The release of accumulated stress through earthquakes is known to devote to the mud volcanism occurrence, which may in turn affect subsequent regional seismicity. Mud volcanoes have been observed on the northeast continental margin of the South China Sea as well. Based on the mud volcanoes and earthquakes catalogue, we measured the spatial and temporal distribution of z and b values, to explore the geodynamic process of the repeated eruptions of mud volcanoes influence on the regional seismicity. The results suggest a close correlation between the b-z values and mud volcanism occurrence in the SW Taiwan. Generally, the z-value anomalies in where the mud volcanoes eruptions show unchanged negative values and indicate seismic quiescence before a big earthquake, whereas the b-values often show periodicity fluctuations around the value of 0.5. This may indicate a mutual triggering relationship between the mud volcanoes and earthquakes. We infer that mud volcano eruptions help to partition and release part of the regional stress accumulation from the seismogenic structures, thus balancing the local stress and mitigating large-magnitude seismicity occurring probability.
- mud volcano,
- SW Taiwan,
- coulomb stress change,
- b-z-value,
- mutual triggering relationship,
- earthquakes,
- geodynamics

Electronic Supplementary Materials: Supplementary materials (Table S1) are available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1677-2.
Conflict of Interest
The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

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References(78)

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