Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons are the major natural disas ters in the world, among which the least understood are seismogenic processes_ With highly concentrated populations and rapidly developing economy, social requirements for earthquake prediction are becoming more and more pressing. The seismic region in Mainland China is situated at the eastern edge of the Eurasian seismic system, and is the largest intracontinental region of shallow strong earthquakes in the world, as a result of the collision of the Indian Ocean plate and the underthrusting of the west Pacific Ocean...