Analysis of surface rupture caused by Wenchuan earthquake and reference to urban regional construction

512 Wenchuan earthquake had a surface-wave magnitude Ms8.0, which caused high rate collapse of building near the trace of surface rupture and induced large number of casualties. Characteristics of the earthquake fault distribution, motion form and that of the surface rupture, typical earthquake disaster are analyzed in this paper. To avoid the tragedy replay, a setback distance should be determined in reconstruction along the trace of surface rupture and urban regional construction. Based on the dislocations on the rupture point, the width of the surface rupture and the width of building total collapse originated from field investigation, the relationships among them are established and setback distance is determined. Influence of a on the non-causative fault at the same zone is also discussed. To know the influence, the geometric and kinetic characteristics of faults, material properties of fault gouge and the location of the faults are key factors in the analysis.