Abstract:The earthquake of M=8.0 in the Nilke county,Xinjiang,on March 8, 1812,caused the violent deformation of the earth surface and produced a zone of the seismical fault about 65 km long.Within the zone,the maxim-um vertical offset measured is 10 m and the right-lateral offset more 1.5m There are also many structural collapses,landslips eboulements in the ma-gistoseismic area where the largest collapse is about 2km2,the widest back margin of landslip about 2km long,and the epicenter intensity over 11.
In this paper,based on the field investigation,the data from the his-torical records and the interpretation of aerial photographs,we not only have plotted the isoseismic map but had a discussion and calculation about the magnititude of the earthquake,the epicentral location,the source depth,the seismic moment,the stress drop and the solution of focul me-chanism of the Nilke earthquake.Furthermore we have made preliminary research on the seismological background of the Nilke earthquake