Lithospheric Equilibrium, Environmental Changes, and Potential Induced-Earthquake Risk around the Newly Impounded Baihetan Reservoir, China

Abstract

The Baihetan hydropower station is the second largest hydropower station worldwide. It began to store water in April 2021. We conducted a dense hybrid gravity and GNSS survey at 223 stations, obtained the free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies, inversed the lithospheric density structure, and calculated the isostatic additional force (IAF) borne by lithosphere in the reservoir area. Moreover, we studied the gravity change and Coulomb stress change around the Baihetan reservoir due to impoundment. The main findings are the following. (1) Hybrid gravity and GNSS observations significantly improved the spatial resolution of the gravity field, and the maximum improvement reached up to 150 mGal. (2) A new method for risk assessment of reservoir-induced earthquakes is proposed from the perspective of lithospheric equilibrium. It was found that there is an IAF of −30 MPa at approximately 20 km upstream of the Baihetan dam, and the risk of a reservoir-induced earthquake in this area warrants attention. (3) It was found that the Coulomb stress variation on the Xiaojiang fault near Qiaojia at a depth of 10 km exceeded the threshold for inducing an earthquake (0.1 bar).