THE YOUNGEST SHEAR TECTONIC NETWORK AND SEISMIC ZONING IN NORTH CHINA

On the basis of the distribution of recent and historical epicenters and synthetic ann lysis of the Landsat images in North China, it can be inferred that there is a youngest brittle -ductile shear tectonic network developing within the earth's crust.It is aproduct of recent tectonic stress field and is controlling the pattern of the seismic activity in North China.
The data of historical earthquakes since 231 B.C.have indicated that the intersectional positions of the network are major places where moderately-strong earthquakes occur and the "meshes" are safer locations.
Finally, the possible origin of tectonic model proposed in this paper and applicability to the seismic zoning and the earthquake prediction in North China have been diseussed.