Future earthquake potential in the Bohai–Zhangjiakou Seismotectonic Zone (BZSZ) in North Chinadeserves close attention. Tectonic stress accumulation state is an important indicator for earthquakes;therefore, this study aims to analyse the stress accumulation state in the BZSZ via three-dimensionalvisco-elastic numerical modelling. The results reveal that the maximum shear stress in the BZSZ increasesgradually as the depth increases, and the stress range is wider in the lower layer. In the upper layer, themaximum shear stress is high in the Zhangjiakou area, whereas in the lower layer, relatively high valuesoccur in the Penglai–Yantai area, which may be affected by the depth of the Moho surface. Besides,weak fault zones will be easily fractured when the maximum shear stress is not sufficiently high due totheir low strengths, resulting in earthquakes. Therefore, based on the modelling results, the upper layerof the Zhangjiakou area and the lower layer of the Penglai–Yantai area in the BZSZ in North China aremore likely to experience earthquakes.

The tectonic stress pattern in the Chinese Mainland and kinematic models have been subjected to much debate. In the past several decades, several tectonic stress maps have been figured out; however, they generally suffer a poor time control. In the present study, 421 focal mechanism data up to January 2010 were compiled from the Global/Harvard CMT catalogue, and 396 of them were grouped into 23 distinct regions in function of geographic proximity. Reduced stress tensors were obtained from formal stress inversion for each region. The results indicated that, in the Chinese Mainland, the directions of maximum principal stress were ∼NE–SW-trending in the northeastern region, ∼NEE–SWW-trending in the North China region, ∼N–S-trending in western Xinjiang, southern Tibet and the southern Yunnan region, ∼NNE–SSW-trending in the northern Tibet and Qinghai region, ∼NW–SE-trending in Gansu region, and ∼E–W-trending in the western Sichuan region. The average tectonic stress regime was strikeslip faulting (SS) in the eastern Chinese Mainland and northern Tibet region, normal faulting (NF) in the southern Tibet, western Xinjiang and Yunnan region, and thrust faulting (TF) in most regions of Xinjiang, Qinghai and Gansu. The results of the present study combined with GPS velocities in the Chinese Mainland supported and could provide new insights into previous tectonic models (e.g., the extrusion model). From the perspective of tectonics, the mutual actions among the Eurasian plate, Pacific plate and Indian plate caused the present-day tectonic stress field in the Chinese Mainland.

Earthquakes occurred on the surface of the Earth contain comprehensive and abundant geodynamic connotations, and can serve as important sources for describing the present-day stress field and regime. An important advantage of the earthquake focal mechanism solution is the ability to obtain the stress pattern information at depth in the lithosphere. During the past several decades, an increasing number of focal mechanisms were available for estimating the present-day stress field and regime. In the present study, altogether 553 focal mechanism data ranging from the year 1976 to 2017 with $Mw \ge7.0$ were compiled in the Global/Harvard centroid moment tensor (CMT) catalogue, the characteristics of global strong earthquakes and the present-day stress pattern were analyzed based on these data. The majority of global strong earthquakes are located around the plate boundaries, shallow-focus, and thrust faulting (TF) regime. We grouped 518 of them into 12 regions (Boxes) based on their geographical proximity and tectonic setting. For each box, the present-day stress field and regime were obtained by formal stress inversion. The results indicated that the maximum horizontal principal stress direction was ∼N–S-trending in western North America continent and southwestern Indonesia, ∼NNE–SSW-trending in western Middle America and central Asia, ∼NE–SW in southeastern South America continent and northeastern Australia, ∼NEE–SWW-trending in western South America continent and southeastern Asia, ∼E–W-trending in southeastern Australia, and ∼NW–SE-trending in eastern Asia. The results can provide additional constraints to the driving forces and geodynamic models, allowing them to explain the current plate interactions and crustal tectonic complexities better.