Neotectonics of interior Alaska and the late Quaternary slip rate along the Denali fault system

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haeussler, Peter J.; Matmon, Ari; Schwartz, David P.; Seitz, Gordon G.

2017-01-01

The neotectonics of southern Alaska (USA) are characterized by a several hundred kilometers–wide zone of dextral transpressional that spans the Alaska Range. The Denali fault system is the largest active strike-slip fault system in interior Alaska, and it produced a Mw 7.9 earthquake in 2002. To evaluate the late Quaternary slip rate on the Denali fault system, we collected samples for cosmogenic surface exposure dating from surfaces offset by the fault system. This study includes data from 107 samples at 19 sites, including 7 sites we previously reported, as well as an estimated slip rate at another site. We utilize the interpreted surface ages to provide estimated slip rates. These new slip rate data confirm that the highest late Quaternary slip rate is ∼13 mm/yr on the central Denali fault near its intersection with the eastern Denali and the Totschunda faults, with decreasing slip rate both to the east and west. The slip rate decreases westward along the central and western parts of the Denali fault system to 5 mm/yr over a length of ∼575 km. An additional site on the eastern Denali fault near Kluane Lake, Yukon, implies a slip rate of ∼2 mm/yr, based on geological considerations. The Totschunda fault has a maximum slip rate of ∼9 mm/yr. The Denali fault system is transpressional and there are active thrust faults on both the north and south sides of it. We explore four geometric models for southern Alaska tectonics to explain the slip rates along the Denali fault system and the active fault geometries: rotation, indentation, extrusion, and a combination of the three. We conclude that all three end-member models have strengths and shortcomings, and a combination of rotation, indentation, and extrusion best explains the slip rate observations.

Spontaneous Aseismic and Seismic Slip Transients on Evolving Faults Simulated in a Continuum-Mechanics Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrendoerfer, R.; Gerya, T.; van Dinther, Y.

2016-12-01

The convergent plate motion in subduction zones is accommodated by different slip modes: potentially dangerous seismic slip and imperceptible, but instrumentally detectable slow slip transients or steady slip. Despite an increasing number of observations and insights from laboratory experiments, it remains enigmatic which local on- and off-fault conditions favour slip modes of different source characteristics (i.e., slip velocity, duration, seismic moment). Therefore, we are working towards a numerical model that is able to simulate different slip modes in a consistent way with the long-term evolution of the fault system. We extended our 2D, continuum mechanics-based, visco-elasto-plastic seismo-thermo-mechanical (STM) model, which simulated cycles of earthquake-like ruptures, albeit only at plate tectonic slip rates (van Dinther et al, JGR, 2013). To model a wider slip spectrum including seismic slip rates, we, besides improving the general numerical approach, implemented an invariant reformulation of the conventional rate-and state dependent friction (RSF) and an adaptive time-stepping scheme (Lapusta and Rice, JGR, 2001). In a simple setup with predominantly elastic plates that are juxtaposed along a predefined fault of certain width, we vary the characteristic slip distance, the mean normal stress and the size of the rate-weakening zone. We show that the resulting stability transitions from decaying oscillations, periodic slow slip, complex periodic to seismic slip agree with those of conventional RSF seismic cycle simulations (e.g. Liu and Rice, JGR, 2007). Additionally, we will present results of the investigation concerning the effect of the fault width and geometry on the generation of different slip modes. Ultimately, instead of predefining a fault, we simulate the spatio-temporal evolution of a complex fault system that is consistent with the plate motions and rheology. For simplicity, we parametrize the fault development through linear slip-weakening of cohesion and apply RSF friction only in cohesionless material. We report preliminary results of the interaction between slip modes and the fault growth during different fault evolution stages.

The balance of frictional heat production, thermal pressurization, and slip resistance on exhumed mid-crustal faults (Adamello batholith, Southern Italian Alps)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffith, W. A.; di Toro, G.; Pollard, D. D.

2005-12-01

Exhumed faults cutting the Adamello batholith (Italian Alps) were active ca. 30 Ma at seismogenic depths of 9-11 km. The faults "exploited preexisting joints and can be classified into three groups containing: (A) only cataclasite (a fault rock with no evidence of melting), (B) cataclasite and pseudotachylyte (solidified friction-induced melts produced during earthquakes), and (C) only pseudotachylyte. The majority of pseudotachylyte-bearing faults in this outcrop overprint pre-existing cataclasites (Type B), suggesting a transition between slip styles; however, some faults exhibiting pseudotachylyte and no cataclasite (Type C) display evidence of only one episode of slip. Faults of Type A never transitioned to frictional melting. We attempt to compare faults of type A, B, and C in terms of a simple one-dimensional thermo-mechanical model introduced by Lachenbruch (1980) describing the interaction between frictional heating, pore fluid pressure, and shear resistance during slip. The interaction of these three parameters influences how much elastic strain is relieved during an earthquake. For a conceptualized fault zone of finite thickness, the interplay between the shear resistance, heat production, and pore fluid pressure can be expressed as a non-linear partial differential equation relating these processes to the strain rate acting within a fault zone during a slip event. The behavior of fault zones in terms of these coupled processes during an earthquake depends on a number of parameters, such as thickness of the principal slipping zone, net coseismic slip, fault rock permeability and thermal diffusivity. Ideally, the governing equations should be testable on real fault zones if the requisite parameters can be measured or reasonably estimated. The model can be further simplified if the peak temperature reached during slip and the coseismic slip rate can be constrained. The contrasting nature of slip on the three Adamello fault types highlights (1) important differences between slip processes on cataclastic and melt-producing faults at depth and (2) some limitations of applicability of such models to real faults.

The influence of fault geometry and frictional contact properties on slip surface behavior and off-fault damage: insights from quasi-static modeling of small strike-slip faults from the Sierra Nevada, CA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ritz, E.; Pollard, D. D.

2011-12-01

Geological and geophysical investigations demonstrate that faults are geometrically complex structures, and that the nature and intensity of off-fault damage is spatially correlated with geometric irregularities of the slip surfaces. Geologic observations of exhumed meter-scale strike-slip faults in the Bear Creek drainage, central Sierra Nevada, CA, provide insight into the relationship between non-planar fault geometry and frictional slip at depth. We investigate natural fault geometries in an otherwise homogeneous and isotropic elastic material with a two-dimensional displacement discontinuity method (DDM). Although the DDM is a powerful tool, frictional contact problems are beyond the scope of the elementary implementation because it allows interpenetration of the crack surfaces. By incorporating a complementarity algorithm, we are able to enforce appropriate contact boundary conditions along the model faults and include variable friction and frictional strength. This tool allows us to model quasi-static slip on non-planar faults and the resulting deformation of the surrounding rock. Both field observations and numerical investigations indicate that sliding along geometrically discontinuous or irregular faults may lead to opening of the fault and the formation of new fractures, affecting permeability in the nearby rock mass and consequently impacting pore fluid pressure. Numerical simulations of natural fault geometries provide local stress fields that are correlated to the style and spatial distribution of off-fault damage. We also show how varying the friction and frictional strength along the model faults affects slip surface behavior and consequently influences the stress distributions in the adjacent material.

The stress shadow effect: a mechanical analysis of the evenly-spaced parallel strike-slip faults in the San Andreas fault system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuza, A. V.; Yin, A.; Lin, J. C.

2015-12-01

Parallel evenly-spaced strike-slip faults are prominent in the southern San Andreas fault system, as well as other settings along plate boundaries (e.g., the Alpine fault) and within continental interiors (e.g., the North Anatolian, central Asian, and northern Tibetan faults). In southern California, the parallel San Jacinto, Elsinore, Rose Canyon, and San Clemente faults to the west of the San Andreas are regularly spaced at ~40 km. In the Eastern California Shear Zone, east of the San Andreas, faults are spaced at ~15 km. These characteristic spacings provide unique mechanical constraints on how the faults interact. Despite the common occurrence of parallel strike-slip faults, the fundamental questions of how and why these fault systems form remain unanswered. We address this issue by using the stress shadow concept of Lachenbruch (1961)—developed to explain extensional joints by using the stress-free condition on the crack surface—to present a mechanical analysis of the formation of parallel strike-slip faults that relates fault spacing and brittle-crust thickness to fault strength, crustal strength, and the crustal stress state. We discuss three independent models: (1) a fracture mechanics model, (2) an empirical stress-rise function model embedded in a plastic medium, and (3) an elastic-plate model. The assumptions and predictions of these models are quantitatively tested using scaled analogue sandbox experiments that show that strike-slip fault spacing is linearly related to the brittle-crust thickness. We derive constraints on the mechanical properties of the southern San Andreas strike-slip faults and fault-bounded crust (e.g., local fault strength and crustal/regional stress) given the observed fault spacing and brittle-crust thickness, which is obtained by defining the base of the seismogenic zone with high-resolution earthquake data. Our models allow direct comparison of the parallel faults in the southern San Andreas system with other similar strike-slip fault systems, both on Earth and throughout the solar system (e.g., the Tiger Stripe Fractures on Enceladus).

Fault connectivity, distributed shortening, and impacts on geologic- geodetic slip rate discrepancies in the central Mojave Desert, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selander, J.; Oskin, M. E.; Cooke, M. L.; Grette, K.

2015-12-01

Understanding off-fault deformation and distribution of displacement rates associated with disconnected strike-slip faults requires a three-dimensional view of fault geometries. We address problems associated with distributed faulting by studying the Mojave segment of the East California Shear Zone (ECSZ), a region dominated by northwest-directed dextral shear along disconnected northwest- southeast striking faults. We use a combination of cross-sectional interpretations, 3D Boundary Element Method (BEM) models, and slip-rate measurements to test new hypothesized fault connections. We find that reverse faulting acts as an important means of slip transfer between strike-slip faults, and show that the impacts of these structural connections on shortening, uplift, strike-slip rates, and off-fault deformation, help to reconcile the overall strain budget across this portion of the ECSZ. In detail, we focus on the Calico and Blackwater faults, which are hypothesized to together represent the longest linked fault system in the Mojave ECSZ, connected by a restraining step at 35°N. Across this restraining step the system displays a pronounced displacement gradient, where dextral offset decreases from ~11.5 to <2 km from south to north. Cross-section interpretations show that ~40% of this displacement is transferred from the Calico fault to the Harper Lake and Blackwater faults via a set of north-dipping thrust ramps. Late Quaternary dextral slip rates follow a similar pattern, where 1.4 +0.8/-0.4 mm/yr of slip along the Calico fault south of 35°N is distributed to the Harper Lake, Blackwater, and Tin Can Alley faults. BEM model results using revised fault geometries for the Mojave ECSZ show areas of uplift consistent with contractional structures, and fault slip-rates that more closely match geologic data. Overall, revised fault connections and addition of off-fault deformation greatly reduces the discrepancy between geodetic and geologic slip rates.

Using Remote Sensing Data to Constrain Models of Fault Interactions and Plate Boundary Deformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glasscoe, M. T.; Donnellan, A.; Lyzenga, G. A.; Parker, J. W.; Milliner, C. W. D.

2016-12-01

Determining the distribution of slip and behavior of fault interactions at plate boundaries is a complex problem. Field and remotely sensed data often lack the necessary coverage to fully resolve fault behavior. However, realistic physical models may be used to more accurately characterize the complex behavior of faults constrained with observed data, such as GPS, InSAR, and SfM. These results will improve the utility of using combined models and data to estimate earthquake potential and characterize plate boundary behavior. Plate boundary faults exhibit complex behavior, with partitioned slip and distributed deformation. To investigate what fraction of slip becomes distributed deformation off major faults, we examine a model fault embedded within a damage zone of reduced elastic rigidity that narrows with depth and forward model the slip and resulting surface deformation. The fault segments and slip distributions are modeled using the JPL GeoFEST software. GeoFEST (Geophysical Finite Element Simulation Tool) is a two- and three-dimensional finite element software package for modeling solid stress and strain in geophysical and other continuum domain applications [Lyzenga, et al., 2000; Glasscoe, et al., 2004; Parker, et al., 2008, 2010]. New methods to advance geohazards research using computer simulations and remotely sensed observations for model validation are required to understand fault slip, the complex nature of fault interaction and plate boundary deformation. These models help enhance our understanding of the underlying processes, such as transient deformation and fault creep, and can aid in developing observation strategies for sUAV, airborne, and upcoming satellite missions seeking to determine how faults behave and interact and assess their associated hazard. Models will also help to characterize this behavior, which will enable improvements in hazard estimation. Validating the model results against remotely sensed observations will allow us to better constrain fault zone rheology and physical properties, having implications for the overall understanding of earthquake physics, fault interactions, plate boundary deformation and earthquake hazard, preparedness and risk reduction.

Constraining fault constitutive behavior with slip and stress heterogeneity

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aagaard, Brad T.; Heaton, T.H.

2008-01-01

We study how enforcing self-consistency in the statistical properties of the preshear and postshear stress on a fault can be used to constrain fault constitutive behavior beyond that required to produce a desired spatial and temporal evolution of slip in a single event. We explore features of rupture dynamics that (1) lead to slip heterogeneity in earthquake ruptures and (2) maintain these conditions following rupture, so that the stress field is compatible with the generation of aftershocks and facilitates heterogeneous slip in subsequent events. Our three-dimensional fmite element simulations of magnitude 7 events on a vertical, planar strike-slip fault show that the conditions that lead to slip heterogeneity remain in place after large events when the dynamic stress drop (initial shear stress) and breakdown work (fracture energy) are spatially heterogeneous. In these models the breakdown work is on the order of MJ/m2, which is comparable to the radiated energy. These conditions producing slip heterogeneity also tend to produce narrower slip pulses independent of a slip rate dependence in the fault constitutive model. An alternative mechanism for generating these confined slip pulses appears to be fault constitutive models that have a stronger rate dependence, which also makes them difficult to implement in numerical models. We hypothesize that self-consistent ruptures could also be produced by very narrow slip pulses propagating in a self-sustaining heterogeneous stress field with breakdown work comparable to fracture energy estimates of kJ/M2. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

Secular Variation in Slip (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowgill, E.; Gold, R. D.

2010-12-01

Faults show temporal variations in slip rate at time scales ranging from the hours following a major rupture to the millions of years over which plate boundaries reorganize. One such behavior is secular variation in slip (SVS), which we define as a pulse of accelerated strain release along a single fault that occurs at a frequency that is > 1 order of magnitude longer than the recurrence interval of earthquakes within the pulse. Although numerous mechanical models have been proposed to explain SVS, it has proven much harder to measure long (5-500 kyr) records of fault displacement as a function of time. Such fault-slip histories may be obtained from morphochronologic data, which are measurements of offset and age obtained from faulted landforms. Here we describe slip-history modeling of morphochronologic data and show how this method holds promise for obtaining long records of fault slip. In detail we place SVS in the context of other types of time-varying fault-slip phenomena, explain the importance of measuring fault-slip histories, summarize models proposed to explain SVS, review current approaches for measuring SVS in the geologic record, and illustrate the slip-history modeling approach we advocate here using data from the active, left-slip Altyn Tagh fault in NW Tibet. In addition to SVS, other types of temporal variation in fault slip include post-seismic transients, discrepancies between geologic slip rates and those derived from geodetic and/or paleoseismic data, and single changes in slip rate resulting from plate reorganization. Investigating secular variation in slip is important for advancing understanding of long-term continental deformation, fault mechanics, and seismic risk. Mechanical models producing such behavior include self-driven mode switching, changes in pore-fluid pressure, viscoelasticity, postseismic reloading, and changes in local surface loads (e.g., ice sheets, large lakes, etc.) among others. However, a key problem in testing these models is the paucity of long records of fault slip. Paleoseismic data are unlikely to yield such histories because measurements of the slip associated with each event are generally unavailable and long records require large accumulated offsets, which can result in structural duplication or omission of the stratigraphic records of events. In contrast, morphochronologic data capture both the age and offset of individual piercing points, although this approach generally does not resolve individual earthquake events. Because the uncertainties in both age and offset are generally large (5-15%) for individual markers, SVS is best resolved by obtaining suites of such measurements, in which case the errors can be used to reduce the range of slip histories common to all such data points. A suite of such data from the central Altyn Tagh fault reveals a pulse of accelerated strain release in the mid Holocene, with ~20 m of slip being released from ~6.7 to ~5.9 ka at a short-term rate (~28 mm/yr) that is 3 times greater than the average rate (~9 mm/yr). We interpret this pulse to represent a cluster of two to six, Mw > 7.2 earthquakes. To our knowledge, this is the first possible earthquake cluster detected using morphochronologic techniques.

Simulating spontaneous aseismic and seismic slip events on evolving faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrendörfer, Robert; van Dinther, Ylona; Pranger, Casper; Gerya, Taras

2017-04-01

Plate motion along tectonic boundaries is accommodated by different slip modes: steady creep, seismic slip and slow slip transients. Due to mainly indirect observations and difficulties to scale results from laboratory experiments to nature, it remains enigmatic which fault conditions favour certain slip modes. Therefore, we are developing a numerical modelling approach that is capable of simulating different slip modes together with the long-term fault evolution in a large-scale tectonic setting. We extend the 2D, continuum mechanics-based, visco-elasto-plastic thermo-mechanical model that was designed to simulate slip transients in large-scale geodynamic simulations (van Dinther et al., JGR, 2013). We improve the numerical approach to accurately treat the non-linear problem of plasticity (see also EGU 2017 abstract by Pranger et al.). To resolve a wide slip rate spectrum on evolving faults, we develop an invariant reformulation of the conventional rate-and-state dependent friction (RSF) and adapt the time step (Lapusta et al., JGR, 2000). A crucial part of this development is a conceptual ductile fault zone model that relates slip rates along discrete planes to the effective macroscopic plastic strain rates in the continuum. We test our implementation first in a simple 2D setup with a single fault zone that has a predefined initial thickness. Results show that deformation localizes in case of steady creep and for very slow slip transients to a bell-shaped strain rate profile across the fault zone, which suggests that a length scale across the fault zone may exist. This continuum length scale would overcome the common mesh-dependency in plasticity simulations and question the conventional treatment of aseismic slip on infinitely thin fault zones. We test the introduction of a diffusion term (similar to the damage description in Lyakhovsky et al., JMPS, 2011) into the state evolution equation and its effect on (de-)localization during faster slip events. We compare the slip spectrum in our simulations to conventional RSF simulations (Liu and Rice, JGR, 2007). We further demonstrate the capability of simulating the evolution of a fault zone and simultaneous occurrence of slip transients. From small random initial distributions of the state variable in an otherwise homogeneous medium, deformation localizes and forms curved zones of reduced states. These spontaneously formed fault zones host slip transients, which in turn contribute to the growth of the fault zone.

The 2013, Mw 7.7 Balochistan earthquake, energetic strike-slip reactivation of a thrust fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avouac, Jean-Philippe; Ayoub, Francois; Wei, Shengji; Ampuero, Jean-Paul; Meng, Lingsen; Leprince, Sebastien; Jolivet, Romain; Duputel, Zacharie; Helmberger, Don

2014-04-01

We analyse the Mw 7.7 Balochistan earthquake of 09/24/2013 based on ground surface deformation measured from sub-pixel correlation of Landsat-8 images, combined with back-projection and finite source modeling of teleseismic waveforms. The earthquake nucleated south of the Chaman strike-slip fault and propagated southwestward along the Hoshab fault at the front of the Kech Band. The rupture was mostly unilateral, propagated at 3 km/s on average and produced a 200 km surface fault trace with purely strike-slip displacement peaking to 10 m and averaging around 6 m. The finite source model shows that slip was maximum near the surface. Although the Hoshab fault is dipping by 45° to the North, in accordance with its origin as a thrust fault within the Makran accretionary prism, slip was nearly purely strike-slip during that earthquake. Large seismic slip on such a non-optimally oriented fault was enhanced possibly due to the influence of the free surface on dynamic stresses or to particular properties of the fault zone allowing for strong dynamic weakening. Strike-slip faulting on thrust fault within the eastern Makran is interpreted as due to eastward extrusion of the accretionary prism as it bulges out over the Indian plate. Portions of the Makran megathrust, some thrust faults in the Kirthar range and strike-slip faults within the Chaman fault system have been brought closer to failure by this earthquake. Aftershocks cluster within the Chaman fault system north of the epicenter, opposite to the direction of rupture propagation. By contrast, few aftershocks were detected in the area of maximum moment release. In this example, aftershocks cannot be used to infer earthquake characteristics.

A general law of fault wear and its implication to gouge zone evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boneh, Yuval; Reches, Ze'ev

2017-04-01

Fault wear and gouge production are universal components of frictional sliding. Wear models commonly consider fault roughness, normal stress and rock strength, but ignore the effects of gouge presence and slip-velocity. In contrast, our experimental observations indicate that wear continues while gouge layer is fully developed, and that wear-rates vary by orders-of-magnitude during slip along experimental faults made of carbonites, sandstones and granites (Boneh et al., 2013, 2014). We derive here a new universal law for fault wear by incorporating the gouge layer and slip-velocity. Slip between two rock-blocks undergoes a transition from a 'two-body' mode, during which the blocks interact at surface roughness contacts, to 'three-body' mode, during which a gouge layer separates the two blocks. Our wear model considers 'effective roughness' as the mechanism for failure at resisting, interacting sites that control the global wear. The effective roughness is comprised of a time dependent, dynamic asperities which are different in population and scale from original surfaces asperities. The model assumes that the intensity of this failure is proportional to the mechanical impulse, which is the integrated force over loading time at the interacting sites. We use this concept to calculate the wear-rate as function of the impulse-density, which is the ratio [shear-stress/slip-velocity], during fault slip. The compilation of experimental wear-rates in a large range of slip-velocities (10 μm/s - 1 m/s) and normal stresses (0.2 - 200 MPa) reveal very good agreement with the model predictions. The model provides the first explanation why fault slip at seismic velocity, e.g., 1 m/s, generates significantly less wear and gouge than fault slip at creeping velocity. Thus, the model provides a tool to use the gouge thickness of fault-zones for estimation of paleo-velocity. Boneh, Y., Sagy, A., Reches, Z., 2013. Frictional strength and wear-rate of carbonate faults during high-velocity, steady-state sliding. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 381, 127-137. Boneh, Y., Chang, J.C., Lockner, D.A., Reches, Z., 2014. Evolution of Wear and Friction Along Experimental Faults. Pure and Applied Geophysics, 1-17.

Stability of faults with heterogeneous friction properties and effective normal stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Yingdi; Ampuero, Jean-Paul

2018-05-01

Abundant geological, seismological and experimental evidence of the heterogeneous structure of natural faults motivates the theoretical and computational study of the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous frictional fault interfaces. Fault zones are composed of a mixture of materials with contrasting strength, which may affect the spatial variability of seismic coupling, the location of high-frequency radiation and the diversity of slip behavior observed in natural faults. To develop a quantitative understanding of the effect of strength heterogeneity on the mechanical behavior of faults, here we investigate a fault model with spatially variable frictional properties and pore pressure. Conceptually, this model may correspond to two rough surfaces in contact along discrete asperities, the space in between being filled by compressed gouge. The asperities have different permeability than the gouge matrix and may be hydraulically sealed, resulting in different pore pressure. We consider faults governed by rate-and-state friction, with mixtures of velocity-weakening and velocity-strengthening materials and contrasts of effective normal stress. We systematically study the diversity of slip behaviors generated by this model through multi-cycle simulations and linear stability analysis. The fault can be either stable without spontaneous slip transients, or unstable with spontaneous rupture. When the fault is unstable, slip can rupture either part or the entire fault. In some cases the fault alternates between these behaviors throughout multiple cycles. We determine how the fault behavior is controlled by the proportion of velocity-weakening and velocity-strengthening materials, their relative strength and other frictional properties. We also develop, through heuristic approximations, closed-form equations to predict the stability of slip on heterogeneous faults. Our study shows that a fault model with heterogeneous materials and pore pressure contrasts is a viable framework to reproduce the full spectrum of fault behaviors observed in natural faults: from fast earthquakes, to slow transients, to stable sliding. In particular, this model constitutes a building block for models of episodic tremor and slow slip events.

Dynamic rupture modeling of the transition from thrust to strike-slip motion in the 2002 Denali fault earthquake, Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aagaard, Brad T.; Anderson, G.; Hudnut, K.W.

2004-01-01

We use three-dimensional dynamic (spontaneous) rupture models to investigate the nearly simultaneous ruptures of the Susitna Glacier thrust fault and the Denali strike-slip fault. With the 1957 Mw 8.3 Gobi-Altay, Mongolia, earthquake as the only other well-documented case of significant, nearly simultaneous rupture of both thrust and strike-slip faults, this feature of the 2002 Denali fault earthquake provides a unique opportunity to investigate the mechanisms responsible for development of these large, complex events. We find that the geometry of the faults and the orientation of the regional stress field caused slip on the Susitna Glacier fault to load the Denali fault. Several different stress orientations with oblique right-lateral motion on the Susitna Glacier fault replicate the triggering of rupture on the Denali fault about 10 sec after the rupture nucleates on the Susitna Glacier fault. However, generating slip directions compatible with measured surface offsets and kinematic source inversions requires perturbing the stress orientation from that determined with focal mechanisms of regional events. Adjusting the vertical component of the principal stress tensor for the regional stress field so that it is more consistent with a mixture of strike-slip and reverse faulting significantly improves the fit of the slip-rake angles to the data. Rotating the maximum horizontal compressive stress direction westward appears to improve the fit even further.

States of stress and slip partitioning in a continental scale strike-slip duplex: Tectonic and magmatic implications by means of finite element modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iturrieta, Pablo Cristián; Hurtado, Daniel E.; Cembrano, José; Stanton-Yonge, Ashley

2017-09-01

Orogenic belts at oblique convergent subduction margins accommodate deformation in several trench-parallel domains, one of which is the magmatic arc, commonly regarded as taking up the margin-parallel, strike-slip component. However, the stress state and kinematics of volcanic arcs is more complex than usually recognized, involving first- and second-order faults with distinctive slip senses and mutual interaction. These are usually organized into regional scale strike-slip duplexes, associated with both long-term and short-term heterogeneous deformation and magmatic activity. This is the case of the 1100 km-long Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault System in the Southern Andes, made up of two overlapping margin-parallel master faults joined by several NE-striking second-order faults. We present a finite element model addressing the nature and spatial distribution of stress across and along the volcanic arc in the Southern Andes to understand slip partitioning and the connection between tectonics and magmatism, particularly during the interseismic phase of the subduction earthquake cycle. We correlate the dynamics of the strike-slip duplex with geological, seismic and magma transport evidence documented by previous work, showing consistency between the model and the inferred fault system behavior. Our results show that maximum principal stress orientations are heterogeneously distributed within the continental margin, ranging from 15° to 25° counter-clockwise (with respect to the convergence vector) in the master faults and 10-19° clockwise in the forearc and backarc domains. We calculate the stress tensor ellipticity, indicating simple shearing in the eastern master fault and transpressional stress in the western master fault. Subsidiary faults undergo transtensional-to-extensional stress states. The eastern master fault displays slip rates of 5 to 10 mm/yr, whereas the western and subsidiary faults show slips rates of 1 to 5 mm/yr. Our results endorse that favorably oriented subsidiary faults serve as magma pathways, particularly where they are close to the intersection with a master fault. Also, the slip of a fault segment is enhanced when an adjacent fault kinematics is superimposed on the regional tectonic loading. Hence, finite element models help to understand coupled tectonics and volcanic processes, demonstrating that geological and geophysical observations can be accounted for by a small number of key first order boundary conditions.

Buried shallow fault slip from the South Napa earthquake revealed by near-field geodesy

PubMed Central

Brooks, Benjamin A.; Minson, Sarah E.; Glennie, Craig L.; Nevitt, Johanna M.; Dawson, Tim; Rubin, Ron; Ericksen, Todd L.; Lockner, David; Hudnut, Kenneth; Langenheim, Victoria; Lutz, Andrew; Mareschal, Maxime; Murray, Jessica; Schwartz, David; Zaccone, Dana

2017-01-01

Earthquake-related fault slip in the upper hundreds of meters of Earth’s surface has remained largely unstudied because of challenges measuring deformation in the near field of a fault rupture. We analyze centimeter-scale accuracy mobile laser scanning (MLS) data of deformed vine rows within ±300 m of the principal surface expression of the M (magnitude) 6.0 2014 South Napa earthquake. Rather than assuming surface displacement equivalence to fault slip, we invert the near-field data with a model that allows for, but does not require, the fault to be buried below the surface. The inversion maps the position on a preexisting fault plane of a slip front that terminates ~3 to 25 m below the surface coseismically and within a few hours postseismically. The lack of surface-breaching fault slip is verified by two trenches. We estimate near-surface slip ranging from ~0.5 to 1.25 m. Surface displacement can underestimate fault slip by as much as 30%. This implies that similar biases could be present in short-term geologic slip rates used in seismic hazard analyses. Along strike and downdip, we find deficits in slip: The along-strike deficit is erased after ~1 month by afterslip. We find no evidence of off-fault deformation and conclude that the downdip shallow slip deficit for this event is likely an artifact. As near-field geodetic data rapidly proliferate and will become commonplace, we suggest that analyses of near-surface fault rupture should also use more sophisticated mechanical models and subsurface geomechanical tests. PMID:28782026

Buried shallow fault slip from the South Napa earthquake revealed by near-field geodesy.

PubMed

Brooks, Benjamin A; Minson, Sarah E; Glennie, Craig L; Nevitt, Johanna M; Dawson, Tim; Rubin, Ron; Ericksen, Todd L; Lockner, David; Hudnut, Kenneth; Langenheim, Victoria; Lutz, Andrew; Mareschal, Maxime; Murray, Jessica; Schwartz, David; Zaccone, Dana

2017-07-01

Earthquake-related fault slip in the upper hundreds of meters of Earth's surface has remained largely unstudied because of challenges measuring deformation in the near field of a fault rupture. We analyze centimeter-scale accuracy mobile laser scanning (MLS) data of deformed vine rows within ±300 m of the principal surface expression of the M (magnitude) 6.0 2014 South Napa earthquake. Rather than assuming surface displacement equivalence to fault slip, we invert the near-field data with a model that allows for, but does not require, the fault to be buried below the surface. The inversion maps the position on a preexisting fault plane of a slip front that terminates ~3 to 25 m below the surface coseismically and within a few hours postseismically. The lack of surface-breaching fault slip is verified by two trenches. We estimate near-surface slip ranging from ~0.5 to 1.25 m. Surface displacement can underestimate fault slip by as much as 30%. This implies that similar biases could be present in short-term geologic slip rates used in seismic hazard analyses. Along strike and downdip, we find deficits in slip: The along-strike deficit is erased after ~1 month by afterslip. We find no evidence of off-fault deformation and conclude that the downdip shallow slip deficit for this event is likely an artifact. As near-field geodetic data rapidly proliferate and will become commonplace, we suggest that analyses of near-surface fault rupture should also use more sophisticated mechanical models and subsurface geomechanical tests.

On the role of fluids in stick-slip dynamics of saturated granular fault gouge using a coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element approach: STICK-SLIP IN SATURATED FAULT GOUGE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dorostkar, Omid; Guyer, Robert A.; Johnson, Paul A.

The presence of fault gouge has considerable influence on slip properties of tectonic faults and the physics of earthquake rupture. The presence of fluids within faults also plays a significant role in faulting and earthquake processes. In this study, we present 3-D discrete element simulations of dry and fluid-saturated granular fault gouge and analyze the effect of fluids on stick-slip behavior. Fluid flow is modeled using computational fluid dynamics based on the Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible fluid and modified to take into account the presence of particles. Analysis of a long time train of slip events shows that themore » (1) drop in shear stress, (2) compaction of granular layer, and (3) the kinetic energy release during slip all increase in magnitude in the presence of an incompressible fluid, compared to dry conditions. We also observe that on average, the recurrence interval between slip events is longer for fluid-saturated granular fault gouge compared to the dry case. This observation is consistent with the occurrence of larger events in the presence of fluid. It is found that the increase in kinetic energy during slip events for saturated conditions can be attributed to the increased fluid flow during slip. Finally, our observations emphasize the important role that fluid flow and fluid-particle interactions play in tectonic fault zones and show in particular how discrete element method (DEM) models can help understand the hydromechanical processes that dictate fault slip.« less

On the role of fluids in stick-slip dynamics of saturated granular fault gouge using a coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element approach: STICK-SLIP IN SATURATED FAULT GOUGE

DOE PAGES

Dorostkar, Omid; Guyer, Robert A.; Johnson, Paul A.; ...

2017-05-01

The presence of fault gouge has considerable influence on slip properties of tectonic faults and the physics of earthquake rupture. The presence of fluids within faults also plays a significant role in faulting and earthquake processes. In this study, we present 3-D discrete element simulations of dry and fluid-saturated granular fault gouge and analyze the effect of fluids on stick-slip behavior. Fluid flow is modeled using computational fluid dynamics based on the Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible fluid and modified to take into account the presence of particles. Analysis of a long time train of slip events shows that themore » (1) drop in shear stress, (2) compaction of granular layer, and (3) the kinetic energy release during slip all increase in magnitude in the presence of an incompressible fluid, compared to dry conditions. We also observe that on average, the recurrence interval between slip events is longer for fluid-saturated granular fault gouge compared to the dry case. This observation is consistent with the occurrence of larger events in the presence of fluid. It is found that the increase in kinetic energy during slip events for saturated conditions can be attributed to the increased fluid flow during slip. Finally, our observations emphasize the important role that fluid flow and fluid-particle interactions play in tectonic fault zones and show in particular how discrete element method (DEM) models can help understand the hydromechanical processes that dictate fault slip.« less

Buried shallow fault slip from the South Napa earthquake revealed by near-field geodesy

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brooks, Benjamin A.; Minson, Sarah E.; Glennie, Craig L.; Nevitt, Johanna; Dawson, Timothy E.; Rubin, Ron S.; Ericksen, Todd; Lockner, David A.; Hudnut, Kenneth W.; Langenheim, Victoria; Lutz, Andrew; Murray, Jessica R.; Schwartz, David P.; Zaccone, Dana

2017-01-01

Earthquake-related fault slip in the upper hundreds of meters of Earth’s surface has remained largely unstudied because of challenges measuring deformation in the near field of a fault rupture. We analyze centimeter-scale accuracy mobile laser scanning (MLS) data of deformed vine rows within ±300 m of the principal surface expression of the M (magnitude) 6.0 2014 South Napa earthquake. Rather than assuming surface displacement equivalence to fault slip, we invert the near-field data with a model that allows for, but does not require, the fault to be buried below the surface. The inversion maps the position on a preexisting fault plane of a slip front that terminates ~3 to 25 m below the surface coseismically and within a few hours postseismically. The lack of surface-breaching fault slip is verified by two trenches. We estimate near-surface slip ranging from ~0.5 to 1.25 m. Surface displacement can underestimate fault slip by as much as 30%. This implies that similar biases could be present in short-term geologic slip rates used in seismic hazard analyses. Along strike and downdip, we find deficits in slip: The along-strike deficit is erased after ~1 month by afterslip. We find no evidence of off-fault deformation and conclude that the downdip shallow slip deficit for this event is likely an artifact. As near-field geodetic data rapidly proliferate and will become commonplace, we suggest that analyses of near-surface fault rupture should also use more sophisticated mechanical models and subsurface geomechanical tests.

Volcanic facies architecture of an intra-arc strike-slip basin, Santa Rita Mountains, Southern Arizona

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Busby, Cathy J.; Bassett, Kari N.

2007-09-01

The three-dimensional arrangement of volcanic deposits in strike-slip basins is not only the product of volcanic processes, but also of tectonic processes. We use a strike-slip basin within the Jurassic arc of southern Arizona (Santa Rita Glance Conglomerate) to construct a facies model for a strike-slip basin dominated by volcanism. This model is applicable to releasing-bend strike-slip basins, bounded on one side by a curved and dipping strike-slip fault, and on the other by curved normal faults. Numerous, very deep unconformities are formed during localized uplift in the basin as it passes through smaller restraining bends along the strike-slip fault. In our facies model, the basin fill thins and volcanism decreases markedly away from the master strike-slip fault (“deep” end), where subsidence is greatest, toward the basin-bounding normal faults (“shallow” end). Talus cone-alluvial fan deposits are largely restricted to the master fault-proximal (deep) end of the basin. Volcanic centers are sited along the master fault and along splays of it within the master fault-proximal (deep) end of the basin. To a lesser degree, volcanic centers also form along the curved faults that form structural highs between sub-basins and those that bound the distal ends of the basin. Abundant volcanism along the master fault and its splays kept the deep (master fault-proximal) end of the basin overfilled, so that it could not provide accommodation for reworked tuffs and extrabasinally-sourced ignimbrites that dominate the shallow (underfilled) end of the basin. This pattern of basin fill contrasts markedly with that of nonvolcanic strike-slip basins on transform margins, where clastic sedimentation commonly cannot keep pace with subsidence in the master fault-proximal end. Volcanic and subvolcanic rocks in the strike-slip basin largely record polygenetic (explosive and effusive) small-volume eruptions from many vents in the complexly faulted basin, referred to here as multi-vent complexes. Multi-vent complexes like these reflect proximity to a continuously active fault zone, where numerous strands of the fault frequently plumb small batches of magma to the surface. Releasing-bend extension promotes small, multivent styles of volcanism in preference to caldera collapse, which is more likely to form at releasing step-overs along a strike-slip fault.

Equivalent strike-slip earthquake cycles in half-space and lithosphere-asthenosphere earth models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Savage, J.C.

1990-01-01

By virtue of the images used in the dislocation solution, the deformation at the free surface produced throughout the earthquake cycle by slippage on a long strike-slip fault in an Earth model consisting of an elastic plate (lithosphere) overlying a viscoelastic half-space (asthenosphere) can be duplicated by prescribed slip on a vertical fault embedded in an elastic half-space. Inversion of 1973-1988 geodetic measurements of deformation across the segment of the San Andreas fault in the Transverse Ranges north of Los Angeles for the half-space equivalent slip distribution suggests no significant slip on the fault above 30 km and a uniform slip rate of 36 mm/yr below 30 km. One equivalent lithosphere-asthenosphere model would have a 30-km thick lithosphere and an asthenosphere relaxation time greater than 33 years, but other models are possible. -from Author

Use of fault striations and dislocation models to infer tectonic shear stress during the 1995 Hyogo-Ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Spudich, P.; Guatteri, Mariagiovanna; Otsuki, K.; Minagawa, J.

1998-01-01

Dislocation models of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake derived by Yoshida et al. (1996) show substantial changes in direction of slip with time at specific points on the Nojima and Rokko fault systems, as do striations we observed on exposures of the Nojima fault surface on Awaji Island. Spudich (1992) showed that the initial stress, that is, the shear traction on the fault before the earthquake origin time, can be derived at points on the fault where the slip rake rotates with time if slip velocity and stress change are known at these points. From Yoshida's slip model, we calculated dynamic stress changes on the ruptured fault surfaces. To estimate errors, we compared the slip velocities and dynamic stress changes of several published models of the earthquake. The differences between these models had an exponential distribution, not gaussian. We developed a Bayesian method to estimate the probability density function (PDF) of initial stress from the striations and from Yoshida's slip model. Striations near Toshima and Hirabayashi give initial stresses of about 13 and 7 MPa, respectively. We obtained initial stresses of about 7 to 17 MPa at depths of 2 to 10 km on a subset of points on the Nojima and Rokko fault systems. Our initial stresses and coseismic stress changes agree well with postearthquake stresses measured by hydrofracturing in deep boreholes near Hirabayashi and Ogura on Awaji Island. Our results indicate that the Nojima fault slipped at very low shear stress, and fractional stress drop was complete near the surface and about 32% below depths of 2 km. Our results at depth depend on the accuracy of the rake rotations in Yoshida's model, which are probably correct on the Nojima fault but debatable on the Rokko fault. Our results imply that curved or cross-cutting fault striations can be formed in a single earthquake, contradicting a common assumption of structural geology.

Fault geometry and slip distribution of the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan, China earthquake, inferred from GPS and InSAR measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, Yongge; Shen, Zheng-Kang; Bürgmann, Roland; Sun, Jianbao; Wang, Min

2017-02-01

We revisit the problem of coseismic rupture of the 2008 Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. Precise determination of the fault structure and slip distribution provides critical information about the mechanical behaviour of the fault system and earthquake rupture. We use all the geodetic data available, craft a more realistic Earth structure and fault model compared to previous studies, and employ a nonlinear inversion scheme to optimally solve for the fault geometry and slip distribution. Compared to a homogeneous elastic half-space model and laterally uniform layered models, adopting separate layered elastic structure models on both sides of the Beichuan fault significantly improved data fitting. Our results reveal that: (1) The Beichuan fault is listric in shape, with near surface fault dip angles increasing from ˜36° at the southwest end to ˜83° at the northeast end of the rupture. (2) The fault rupture style changes from predominantly thrust at the southwest end to dextral at the northeast end of the fault rupture. (3) Fault slip peaks near the surface for most parts of the fault, with ˜8.4 m thrust and ˜5 m dextral slip near Hongkou and ˜6 m thrust and ˜8.4 m dextral slip near Beichuan, respectively. (4) The peak slips are located around fault geometric complexities, suggesting that earthquake style and rupture propagation were determined by fault zone geometric barriers. Such barriers exist primarily along restraining left stepping discontinuities of the dextral-compressional fault system. (5) The seismic moment released on the fault above 20 km depth is 8.2×1021 N m, corresponding to an Mw7.9 event. The seismic moments released on the local slip concentrations are equivalent to events of Mw7.5 at Yingxiu-Hongkou, Mw7.3 at Beichuan-Pingtong, Mw7.2 near Qingping, Mw7.1 near Qingchuan, and Mw6.7 near Nanba, respectively. (6) The fault geometry and kinematics are consistent with a model in which crustal deformation at the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau is decoupled by differential motion across a decollement in the mid crust, above which deformation is dominated by brittle reverse faulting and below which deformation occurs by viscous horizontal shortening and vertical thickening.

Evolving transpressional strain fields along the San Andreas fault in southern California: implications for fault branching, fault dip segmentation and strain partitioning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergh, Steffen; Sylvester, Arthur; Damte, Alula; Indrevær, Kjetil

2014-05-01

The San Andreas fault in southern California records only few large-magnitude earthquakes in historic time, and the recent activity is confined primarily on irregular and discontinuous strike-slip and thrust fault strands at shallow depths of ~5-20 km. Despite this fact, slip along the San Andreas fault is calculated to c. 35 mm/yr based on c.160 km total right lateral displacement for the southern segment of the fault in the last c. 8 Ma. Field observations also reveal complex fault strands and multiple events of deformation. The presently diffuse high-magnitude crustal movements may be explained by the deformation being largely distributed along more gently dipping reverse faults in fold-thrust belts, in contrast to regions to the north where deformation is less partitioned and localized to narrow strike-slip fault zones. In the Mecca Hills of the Salton trough transpressional deformation of an uplifted segment of the San Andreas fault in the last ca. 4.0 My is expressed by very complex fault-oblique and fault-parallel (en echelon) folding, and zones of uplift (fold-thrust belts), basement-involved reverse and strike-slip faults and accompanying multiple and pervasive cataclasis and conjugate fracturing of Miocene to Pleistocene sedimentary strata. Our structural analysis of the Mecca Hills addresses the kinematic nature of the San Andreas fault and mechanisms of uplift and strain-stress distribution along bent fault strands. The San Andreas fault and subsidiary faults define a wide spectrum of kinematic styles, from steep localized strike-slip faults, to moderate dipping faults related to oblique en echelon folds, and gently dipping faults distributed in fold-thrust belt domains. Therefore, the San Andreas fault is not a through-going, steep strike-slip crustal structure, which is commonly the basis for crustal modeling and earthquake rupture models. The fault trace was steep initially, but was later multiphase deformed/modified by oblique en echelon folding, renewed strike-slip movements and contractile fold-thrust belt structures. Notably, the strike-slip movements on the San Andreas fault were transformed outward into the surrounding rocks as oblique-reverse faults to link up with the subsidiary Skeleton Canyon fault in the Mecca Hills. Instead of a classic flower structure model for this transpressional uplift, the San Andreas fault strands were segmented into domains that record; (i) early strike-slip motion, (ii) later oblique shortening with distributed deformation (en echelon fold domains), followed by (iii) localized fault-parallel deformation (strike-slip) and (iv) superposed out-of-sequence faulting and fault-normal, partitioned deformation (fold-thrust belt domains). These results contribute well to the question if spatial and temporal fold-fault branching and migration patterns evolving along non-vertical strike-slip fault segments can play a role in the localization of earthquakes along the San Andreas fault.

How fault evolution changes strain partitioning and fault slip rates in Southern California: Results from geodynamic modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, Jiyang; Liu, Mian

2017-08-01

In Southern California, the Pacific-North America relative plate motion is accommodated by the complex southern San Andreas Fault system that includes many young faults (<2 Ma). The initiation of these young faults and their impact on strain partitioning and fault slip rates are important for understanding the evolution of this plate boundary zone and assessing earthquake hazard in Southern California. Using a three-dimensional viscoelastoplastic finite element model, we have investigated how this plate boundary fault system has evolved to accommodate the relative plate motion in Southern California. Our results show that when the plate boundary faults are not optimally configured to accommodate the relative plate motion, strain is localized in places where new faults would initiate to improve the mechanical efficiency of the fault system. In particular, the Eastern California Shear Zone, the San Jacinto Fault, the Elsinore Fault, and the offshore dextral faults all developed in places of highly localized strain. These younger faults compensate for the reduced fault slip on the San Andreas Fault proper because of the Big Bend, a major restraining bend. The evolution of the fault system changes the apportionment of fault slip rates over time, which may explain some of the slip rate discrepancy between geological and geodetic measurements in Southern California. For the present fault configuration, our model predicts localized strain in western Transverse Ranges and along the dextral faults across the Mojave Desert, where numerous damaging earthquakes occurred in recent years.

Slip accumulation and lateral propagation of active normal faults in Afar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manighetti, I.; King, G. C. P.; Gaudemer, Y.; Scholz, C. H.; Doubre, C.

2001-01-01

We investigate fault growth in Afar, where normal fault systems are known to be currently growing fast and most are propagating to the northwest. Using digital elevation models, we have examined the cumulative slip distribution along 255 faults with lengths ranging from 0.3 to 60 km. Faults exhibiting the elliptical or "bell-shaped" slip profiles predicted by simple linear elastic fracture mechanics or elastic-plastic theories are rare. Most slip profiles are roughly linear for more than half of their length, with overall slopes always <0.035. For the dominant population of NW striking faults and fault systems longer than 2 km, the slip profiles are asymmetric, with slip being maximum near the eastern ends of the profiles where it drops abruptly to zero, whereas slip decreases roughly linearly and tapers in the direction of overall Aden rift propagation. At a more detailed level, most faults appear to be composed of distinct, shorter subfaults or segments, whose slip profiles, while different from one to the next, combine to produce the roughly linear overall slip decrease along the entire fault. On a larger scale, faults cluster into kinematically coupled systems, along which the slip on any scale individual fault or fault system complements that of its neighbors, so that the total slip of the whole system is roughly linearly related to its length, with an average slope again <0.035. We discuss the origin of these quasilinear, asymmetric profiles in terms of "initiation points" where slip starts, and "barriers" where fault propagation is arrested. In the absence of a barrier, slip apparently extends with a roughly linear profile, tapered in the direction of fault propagation.

Effects of Strike-Slip Fault Segmentation on Earthquake Energy and Seismic Hazard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madden, E. H.; Cooke, M. L.; Savage, H. M.; McBeck, J.

2014-12-01

Many major strike-slip faults are segmented along strike, including those along plate boundaries in California and Turkey. Failure of distinct fault segments at depth may be the source of multiple pulses of seismic radiation observed for single earthquakes. However, how and when segmentation affects fault behavior and energy release is the basis of many outstanding questions related to the physics of faulting and seismic hazard. These include the probability for a single earthquake to rupture multiple fault segments and the effects of segmentation on earthquake magnitude, radiated seismic energy, and ground motions. Using numerical models, we quantify components of the earthquake energy budget, including the tectonic work acting externally on the system, the energy of internal rock strain, the energy required to overcome fault strength and initiate slip, the energy required to overcome frictional resistance during slip, and the radiated seismic energy. We compare the energy budgets of systems of two en echelon fault segments with various spacing that include both releasing and restraining steps. First, we allow the fault segments to fail simultaneously and capture the effects of segmentation geometry on the earthquake energy budget and on the efficiency with which applied displacement is accommodated. Assuming that higher efficiency correlates with higher probability for a single, larger earthquake, this approach has utility for assessing the seismic hazard of segmented faults. Second, we nucleate slip along a weak portion of one fault segment and let the quasi-static rupture propagate across the system. Allowing fractures to form near faults in these models shows that damage develops within releasing steps and promotes slip along the second fault, while damage develops outside of restraining steps and can prohibit slip along the second fault. Work is consumed in both the propagation of and frictional slip along these new fractures, impacting the energy available for further slip and for subsequent earthquakes. This suite of models reveals that efficiency may be a useful tool for determining the relative seismic hazard of different segmented fault systems, while accounting for coseismic damage zone production is critical in assessing fault interactions and the associated energy budgets of specific systems.

The Role of Near-Fault Relief in Creating and Maintaining Strike-Slip Landscape Features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harbert, S.; Duvall, A. R.; Tucker, G. E.

2016-12-01

Geomorphic landforms, such as shutter ridges, offset river terraces, and deflected stream channels, are often used to assess the activity and slip rates of strike-slip faults. However, in some systems, such as parts of the Marlborough Fault System (South Island, NZ), an active strike-slip fault does not leave a strong landscape signature. Here we explore the factors that dampen or enhance the landscape signature of strike-slip faulting using the Channel-Hillslope Integrated Landscape Development model (CHILD). We focus on variables affecting the length of channel offsets, which enhance the signature of strike-slip motion, and the frequency of stream captures, which eliminate offsets and reduce this signature. We model a strike-slip fault that passes through a mountain ridge, offsetting streams that drain across this fault. We use this setup to test the response of channel offset length and capture frequency to fault characteristics, such as slip rate and ratio of lateral to vertical motion, and to landscape characteristics, such as relief contrasts controlled by erodibility. Our experiments show that relief downhill of the fault, whether generated by differential uplift across the fault or by an erodibility contrast, has the strongest effect on offset length and capture frequency. This relief creates shutter ridges, which block and divert streams while being advected along a fault. Shutter ridges and the streams they divert have long been recognized as markers of strike-slip motion. Our results show specifically that the height of shutter ridges is most responsible for the degree to which they create long channel offsets by preventing stream captures. We compare these results to landscape metrics in the Marlborough Fault System, where shutter ridges are common and often lithologically controlled. We compare shutter ridge length and height to channel offset length in order to assess the influence of relief on offset channel features in a real landscape. Based on our model and field results, we conclude that vertical relief is important for generating and preserving offset features that are viewed as characteristic of a strike-slip fault. Therefore, the geomorphic expression of a fault may be dependent on characteristics of the surrounding landscape rather than primarily a function of the nature of slip on the fault.

Mechanics of slip and fracture along small faults and simple strike-slip fault zones in granitic rock

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martel, Stephen J.; Pollard, David D.

1989-07-01

We exploit quasi-static fracture mechanics models for slip along pre-existing faults to account for the fracture structure observed along small exhumed faults and small segmented fault zones in the Mount Abbot quadrangle of California and to estimate stress drop and shear fracture energy from geological field measurements. Along small strike-slip faults, cracks that splay from the faults are common only near fault ends. In contrast, many cracks splay from the boundary faults at the edges of a simple fault zone. Except near segment ends, the cracks preferentially splay into a zone. We infer that shear displacement discontinuities (slip patches) along a small fault propagated to near the fault ends and caused fracturing there. Based on elastic stress analyses, we suggest that slip on one boundary fault triggered slip on the adjacent boundary fault, and that the subsequent interaction of the slip patches preferentially led to the generation of fractures that splayed into the zones away from segment ends and out of the zones near segment ends. We estimate the average stress drops for slip events along the fault zones as ˜1 MPa and the shear fracture energy release rate during slip as 5 × 102 - 2 × 104 J/m2. This estimate is similar to those obtained from shear fracture of laboratory samples, but orders of magnitude less than those for large fault zones. These results suggest that the shear fracture energy release rate increases as the structural complexity of fault zones increases.

Pulsed strain release on the Altyn Tagh fault, northwest China

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gold, Ryan D.; Cowgill, Eric; Arrowsmith, J. Ramón; Friedrich, Anke M.

2017-01-01

Earthquake recurrence models assume that major surface-rupturing earthquakes are followed by periods of reduced rupture probability as stress rebuilds. Although purely periodic, time- or slip-predictable rupture models are known to be oversimplifications, a paucity of long records of fault slip clouds understanding of fault behavior and earthquake recurrence over multiple ruptures. Here, we report a 16 kyr history of fault slip—including a pulse of accelerated slip from 6.4 to 6.0 ka—determined using a Monte Carlo analysis of well-dated offset landforms along the central Altyn Tagh strike-slip fault (ATF) in northwest China. This pulse punctuates a median rate of 8.1+1.2/−0.9 mm/a and likely resulted from either a flurry of temporally clustered ∼Mw 7.5 ground-rupturing earthquakes or a single large >Mw 8.2 earthquake. The clustered earthquake scenario implies rapid re-rupture of a fault reach >195 km long and indicates decoupled rates of elastic strain energy accumulation versus dissipation, conceptualized as a crustal stress battery. If the pulse reflects a single event, slip-magnitude scaling implies that it ruptured much of the ATF with slip similar to, or exceeding, the largest documented historical ruptures. Both scenarios indicate fault rupture behavior that deviates from classic time- or slip-predictable models.

The Slip Behavior and Source Parameters for Spontaneous Slip Events on Rough Faults Subjected to Slow Tectonic Loading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tal, Yuval; Hager, Bradford H.

2018-02-01

We study the response to slow tectonic loading of rough faults governed by velocity weakening rate and state friction, using a 2-D plane strain model. Our numerical approach accounts for all stages in the seismic cycle, and in each simulation we model a sequence of two earthquakes or more. We focus on the global behavior of the faults and find that as the roughness amplitude, br, increases and the minimum wavelength of roughness decreases, there is a transition from seismic slip to aseismic slip, in which the load on the fault is released by more slip events but with lower slip rate, lower seismic moment per unit length, M0,1d, and lower average static stress drop on the fault, Δτt. Even larger decreases with roughness are observed when these source parameters are estimated only for the dynamic stage of the rupture. For br ≤ 0.002, the source parameters M0,1d and Δτt decrease mutually and the relationship between Δτt and the average fault strain is similar to that of a smooth fault. For faults with larger values of br that are completely ruptured during the slip events, the average fault strain generally decreases more rapidly with roughness than Δτt.

Various Slip Behaviors in the Frictionally Heterogeneous Fault Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yabe, S.; Ide, S.

2017-12-01

Diverse slip behaviors have been observed on the fault, including regular earthquakes followed by afterslip, and slow earthquakes. In Southwest Japan and Cascadia, hypocenters of slow earthquakes seem to be separated from the locked region of megathrust earthquakes (e.g., Liu et al., 2010). In contrary, M7 earthquakes and their afterslips and repeating occurrences of slow slip events were reported in the coseismic slip area of 2011 M9 earthquake in Tohoku region (Ohta et al., 2012; Ito et al., 2013). Understanding the physical mechanism of diverse slip behavior is important to understand the strain accumulation and release cycle in a whole subduction zone. Among various candidates to explain the slip diversity, including dynamic weakening (e.g., Noda and Lapusta, 2013), fluid-slip interactions (e.g., Segall, 2010), and along-dip variation of frictional property (e.g., Tse and Rice, 1986), we consider in this study frictional heterogeneity on the fault (e.g., Ando et al., 2010, 2012; Nakata et al., 2011; Skarbek et al., 2012; Dublanchet et al., 2013; Yabe and Ide, 2017). We have considered the finite linear fault governed by rate and state friction law on which velocity-weakening zone and velocity-strengthening zone are alternately distributed. The fault outside the model space slips stably, which loads stress to the model space. Such frictionally heterogeneous fault shows diverse slip behavior which cannot be observed in the frictionally homogeneous fault. In some parameter space, the entire faults including velocity-strengthening zones slips seismically (Skarbek et al., 2012; Dublanchet et al., 2013; Yabe and Ide, 2017). We have sometimes observed foreshocks and aftershocks within the mainshock slip area. We have also sometimes observed repeating slow slip events during the inter-seismic period around the rupture initiation point of the mainshock. We will report parameter studies to clarify the relation between diverse slip behavior and frictional heterogeneity.

Coseismic displacement caused by the Mw 6.1 Mashhad earthquake in NE Iran from Sentinel-1A TOPS radar images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Su, Z.; Hu, J. C.; Talebian, M.

2017-12-01

Determining the relationship between crustal movement and associated slip partitioning is essential for understanding earthquake source and addressing the proposed models of a potential earthquake hazard. An Mw 6.1 earthquake struck the southeastern margin of the Mashhad valley in the northeast of Iran on 5 April 2017. In this study, we use both the ascending and descending mode of Sentinel-1A TOPS satellite data to characterize coseismic deformation pattern and to inverse the coseismic slip distribution on the fault patches. The best fitting model predicts that the coseismic rupture occurs along a fault plane with strike of 324.4º and dip of 28.1ºE. Our results show the fault tip does not propagate to the ground surface, and the predicted coseismic slip on the surface is about 0.11 m located on the hanging wall of the fault. Significant slip is concentrated on the fault patches at depth of 4-8 km and an along-strike distance of 10 km with varying slip magnitude from 0.1 m to 0.9 m. The fault slip is composed by thrusting with right-lateral strike slip, which is consistent with the focal mechanism solution. The over-thrusting was occurred from the depth of 14 km and terminated at the 4 km depth. While the right-lateral strike slip was only concentrated at a shallower depth of 4 to 8 km depth with the maximum slip of 0.9 m. The seismic moment release of our preferred fault model is 1.71×1018 Nm, equivalent to Mw 6.16 event. The Coulomb failure stress (CFS) calculated by the preferred fault model predicts significant positive CFS change on the three paralleled subsidiary faults of the southernmost Mashhad and Kashafrud fault, the Tus, Sorkhdeh and Natu faults. Consequently, these segments should be considered to have increasing of risk for future seismic hazard. Although most of the northward motion of the Lut and Central Iranian Blocks have been absorbed by the crustal shortening (e.g. thrusting and folding along the Binalud and Kopeh Dagh), simple strike-slip faulting also play an important role in the slip partitioning from the north to the south in NE Iran.

On the role of fluids in stick-slip dynamics of saturated granular fault gouge using a coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dorostkar, Omid; Guyer, Robert A.; Johnson, Paul A.; Marone, Chris; Carmeliet, Jan

2017-05-01

The presence of fault gouge has considerable influence on slip properties of tectonic faults and the physics of earthquake rupture. The presence of fluids within faults also plays a significant role in faulting and earthquake processes. In this paper, we present 3-D discrete element simulations of dry and fluid-saturated granular fault gouge and analyze the effect of fluids on stick-slip behavior. Fluid flow is modeled using computational fluid dynamics based on the Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible fluid and modified to take into account the presence of particles. Analysis of a long time train of slip events shows that the (1) drop in shear stress, (2) compaction of granular layer, and (3) the kinetic energy release during slip all increase in magnitude in the presence of an incompressible fluid, compared to dry conditions. We also observe that on average, the recurrence interval between slip events is longer for fluid-saturated granular fault gouge compared to the dry case. This observation is consistent with the occurrence of larger events in the presence of fluid. It is found that the increase in kinetic energy during slip events for saturated conditions can be attributed to the increased fluid flow during slip. Our observations emphasize the important role that fluid flow and fluid-particle interactions play in tectonic fault zones and show in particular how discrete element method (DEM) models can help understand the hydromechanical processes that dictate fault slip.

Temporal variation in fault friction and its effects on the slip evolution of a thrust fault over several earthquake cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hampel, Andrea; Hetzel, Ralf

2013-04-01

The friction coefficient is a key parameter for the slip evolution of faults, but how temporal changes in friction affect fault slip is still poorly known. By using three-dimensional numerical models with a thrust fault that is alternately locked and released, we show that variations in the friction coefficient affect both coseismic and long-term fault slip (Hampel and Hetzel, 2012). Decreasing the friction coefficient by 5% while keeping the duration of the interseismic phase constant leads to a four-fold increase in coseismic slip, whereas a 5% increase nearly suppresses slip. A gradual decrease or increase of friction over several earthquake cycles (1-5% per earthquake) considerably alters the cumulative fault slip. In nature, the slip deficit (surplus) resulting from variations in the friction coefficient would presumably be compensated by a longer (shorter) interseismic phase, but the magnitude of the changes required for compensation render variations of the friction coefficient of >5% unlikely. Reference Hampel, A., R. Hetzel (2012) Temporal variation in fault friction and its effects on the slip evolution of a thrust fault over several earthquake cycles. Terra Nova, 24, 357-362, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3121.2012.01073.x.

Fault geometric complexity and how it may cause temporal slip-rate variation within an interacting fault system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zielke, Olaf; Arrowsmith, Ramon

2010-05-01

Slip-rates along individual faults may differ as a function of measurement time scale. Short-term slip-rates may be higher than the long term rate and vice versa. For example, vertical slip-rates along the Wasatch Fault, Utah are 1.7+/-0.5 mm/yr since 6ka, <0.6 mm/yr since 130ka, and 0.5-0.7 mm/yr since 10Ma (Friedrich et al., 2003). Following conventional earthquake recurrence models like the characteristic earthquake model, this observation implies that the driving strain accumulation rates may have changed over the respective time scales as well. While potential explanations for such slip-rate variations may be found for example in the reorganization of plate tectonic motion or mantle flow dynamics, causing changes in the crustal velocity field over long spatial wavelengths, no single geophysical explanation exists. Temporal changes in earthquake rate (i.e., event clustering) due to elastic interactions within a complex fault system may present an alternative explanation that requires neither variations in strain accumulation rate or nor changes in fault constitutive behavior for frictional sliding. In the presented study, we explore this scenario and investigate how fault geometric complexity, fault segmentation and fault (segment) interaction affect the seismic behavior and slip-rate along individual faults while keeping tectonic stressing-rate and frictional behavior constant in time. For that, we used FIMozFric--a physics-based numerical earthquake simulator, based on Okada's (1992) formulations for internal displacements and strains due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space. Faults are divided into a large number of equal-sized fault patches which communicate via elastic interaction, allowing implementation of geometrically complex, non-planar faults. Each patch has assigned a static and dynamic friction coefficient. The difference between those values is a function of depth--corresponding to the temperature-dependence of velocity-weakening that is observed in laboratory friction experiments and expressed in an [a-b] term in Rate-State-Friction (RSF) theory. Patches in the seismic zone are incrementally loaded during the interseismic phase. An earthquake initiates if shear stress along at least one (seismic) patch exceeds its static frictional strength and may grow in size due to elastic interaction with other fault patches (static stress transfer). Aside from investigating slip-rate variations due to the elastic interactions within a fault system with this tool, we want to show how such modeling results can be very useful in exploring the physics underlying the patterns that the paleoseismology sees and that those methods (simulation and observations) can be merged, with both making important contributions. Using FIMozFric, we generated synthetic seismic records for a large number of fault geometries and structural scenarios to investigate along-fault slip accumulation patterns and the variability of slip at a point. Our simulations show that fault geometric complexity and the accompanied fault interactions and multi-fault ruptures may cause temporal deviations from the average fault slip-rate, in other words phases of earthquake clustering or relative quiescence. Slip-rates along faults within an interacting fault system may change even when the loading function (stressing rate) remains constant and the magnitude of slip rate change is suggested to be proportional to the magnitude of fault interaction. Thus, spatially isolated and structurally mature faults are expected to experience less slip-rate changes than strongly interacting and less mature faults. The magnitude of slip-rate change may serve as a proxy for the magnitude of fault interaction and vice versa.

A fault-based model for crustal deformation, fault slip-rates and off-fault strain rate in California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zeng, Yuehua; Shen, Zheng-Kang

2016-01-01

We invert Global Positioning System (GPS) velocity data to estimate fault slip rates in California using a fault‐based crustal deformation model with geologic constraints. The model assumes buried elastic dislocations across the region using Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast Version 3 (UCERF3) fault geometries. New GPS velocity and geologic slip‐rate data were compiled by the UCERF3 deformation working group. The result of least‐squares inversion shows that the San Andreas fault slips at 19–22  mm/yr along Santa Cruz to the North Coast, 25–28  mm/yr along the central California creeping segment to the Carrizo Plain, 20–22  mm/yr along the Mojave, and 20–24  mm/yr along the Coachella to the Imperial Valley. Modeled slip rates are 7–16  mm/yr lower than the preferred geologic rates from the central California creeping section to the San Bernardino North section. For the Bartlett Springs section, fault slip rates of 7–9  mm/yr fall within the geologic bounds but are twice the preferred geologic rates. For the central and eastern Garlock, inverted slip rates of 7.5 and 4.9  mm/yr, respectively, match closely with the geologic rates. For the western Garlock, however, our result suggests a low slip rate of 1.7  mm/yr. Along the eastern California shear zone and southern Walker Lane, our model shows a cumulative slip rate of 6.2–6.9  mm/yr across its east–west transects, which is ∼1  mm/yr increase of the geologic estimates. For the off‐coast faults of central California, from Hosgri to San Gregorio, fault slips are modeled at 1–5  mm/yr, similar to the lower geologic bounds. For the off‐fault deformation, the total moment rate amounts to 0.88×1019  N·m/yr, with fast straining regions found around the Mendocino triple junction, Transverse Ranges and Garlock fault zones, Landers and Brawley seismic zones, and farther south. The overall California moment rate is 2.76×1019  N·m/yr, which is a 16% increase compared with the UCERF2 model.

Coseismic source model of the 2003 Mw 6.8 Chengkung earthquake, Taiwan, determined from GPS measurements

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ching, K.-E.; Rau, R.-J.; Zeng, Y.

2007-01-01

A coseismic source model of the 2003 Mw 6.8 Chengkung, Taiwan, earthquake was well determined with 213 GPS stations, providing a unique opportunity to study the characteristics of coseismic displacements of a high-angle buried reverse fault. Horizontal coseismic displacements show fault-normal shortening across the fault trace. Displacements on the hanging wall reveal fault-parallel and fault-normal lengthening. The largest horizontal and vertical GPS displacements reached 153 and 302 mm, respectively, in the middle part of the network. Fault geometry and slip distribution were determined by inverting GPS data using a three-dimensional (3-D) layered-elastic dislocation model. The slip is mainly concentrated within a 44 ?? 14 km slip patch centered at 15 km depth with peak amplitude of 126.6 cm. Results from 3-D forward-elastic model tests indicate that the dome-shaped folding on the hanging wall is reproduced with fault dips greater than 40??. Compared with the rupture area and average slip from slow slip earthquakes and a compilation of finite source models of 18 earthquakes, the Chengkung earthquake generated a larger rupture area and a lower stress drop, suggesting lower than average friction. Hence the Chengkung earthquake seems to be a transitional example between regular and slow slip earthquakes. The coseismic source model of this event indicates that the Chihshang fault is divided into a creeping segment in the north and the locked segment in the south. An average recurrence interval of 50 years for a magnitude 6.8 earthquake was estimated for the southern fault segment. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

Aseismic and seismic slip induced by fluid injection from poroelastic and rate-state friction modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Y.; Deng, K.; Harrington, R. M.; Clerc, F.

2016-12-01

Solid matrix stress change and pore pressure diffusion caused by fluid injection has been postulated as key factors for inducing earthquakes and aseismic slip on pre-existing faults. In this study, we have developed a numerical model that simulates aseismic and seismic slip in a rate-and-state friction framework with poroelastic stress perturbations from multi-stage hydraulic fracturing scenarios. We apply the physics-based model to the 2013-2015 earthquake sequences near Fox Creek, Alberta, Canada, where three magnitude 4.5 earthquakes were potentially induced by nearby hydraulic fracturing activity. In particular, we use the relocated December 2013 seismicity sequence to approximate the fault orientation, and find the seismicity migration spatiotemporally correlate with the positive Coulomb stress changes calculated from the poroelastic model. When the poroelastic stress changes are introduced to the rate-state friction model, we find that slip on the fault evolves from aseismic to seismic in a manner similar to the onset of seismicity. For a 15-stage hydraulic fracturing that lasted for 10 days, modeled fault slip rate starts to accelerate after 3 days of fracking, and rapidly develops into a seismic event, which also temporally coincides with the onset of induced seismicity. The poroelastic stress perturbation and consequently fault slip rate continue to evolve and remain high for several weeks after hydraulic fracturing has stopped, which may explain the continued seismicity after shut-in. In a comparison numerical experiment, fault slip rate quickly decreases to the interseismic level when stress perturbations are instantaneously returned to zero at shut-in. Furthermore, when stress perturbations are removed just a few hours after the fault slip rate starts to accelerate (that is, hydraulic fracturing is shut down prematurely), only aseismic slip is observed in the model. Our preliminary results thus suggest the design of fracturing duration and flow-back strategy, either allowing stress perturbations to passively dissipate in the medium or actively dropping to the pre-perturbation level, is essential to inducing seismic versus aseismic slip on pre-existing faults.

The co-seismic slip distribution of the Landers earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Freymueller, J.; King, N.E.; Segall, P.

1994-01-01

We derived a model for the co-seismic slip distribution on the faults which ruptured during the Landers earthquake sequence of 28 June 1992. The model is based on the inversion of surface geodetic measurements, primarily vector displacements measured using the Global Positioning System (GPS). The inversion procedure assumes that the slip distribution is to some extent smooth and purely right-lateral strike slip. For a given fault geometry, a family of solutions of varying smoothness can be generated.We choose the optimal model from this family based on cross-validation, which measures the predictive power of the data, and the trade-off of misfit and roughness. Solutions which give roughly equal weight to misfit and smoothness are preferred and have certain features in common: (1) there are two main patches of slip, on the Johnson Valley fault, and on the Homestead Valley, Emerson, and Camp Rock faults; (2) virtually all slip is in the upper 10 to 12 km; and (3) the model reproduces the general features of the geologically measured surface displacements, without prior constraints on the surface slip. In all models, regardless of smoothing, very little slip is required on the fault that represents the Big Bear event, and the total moment of the Landers event is 9 · 1019 N-m. The nearly simultaneous rupture of multiple distinct faults suggests that much of the crust in this region must have been close to failure prior to the earthquake.

Earthquake Clustering on Normal Faults: Insight from Rate-and-State Friction Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biemiller, J.; Lavier, L. L.; Wallace, L.

2016-12-01

Temporal variations in slip rate on normal faults have been recognized in Hawaii and the Basin and Range. The recurrence intervals of these slip transients range from 2 years on the flanks of Kilauea, Hawaii to 10 kyr timescale earthquake clustering on the Wasatch Fault in the eastern Basin and Range. In addition to these longer recurrence transients in the Basin and Range, recent GPS results there also suggest elevated deformation rate events with recurrence intervals of 2-4 years. These observations suggest that some active normal fault systems are dominated by slip behaviors that fall between the end-members of steady aseismic creep and periodic, purely elastic, seismic-cycle deformation. Recent studies propose that 200 year to 50 kyr timescale supercycles may control the magnitude, timing, and frequency of seismic-cycle earthquakes in subduction zones, where aseismic slip transients are known to play an important role in total deformation. Seismic cycle deformation of normal faults may be similarly influenced by its timing within long-period supercycles. We present numerical models (based on rate-and-state friction) of normal faults such as the Wasatch Fault showing that realistic rate-and-state parameter distributions along an extensional fault zone can give rise to earthquake clusters separated by 500 yr - 5 kyr periods of aseismic slip transients on some portions of the fault. The recurrence intervals of events within each earthquake cluster range from 200 to 400 years. Our results support the importance of stress and strain history as controls on a normal fault's present and future slip behavior and on the characteristics of its current seismic cycle. These models suggest that long- to medium-term fault slip history may influence the temporal distribution, recurrence interval, and earthquake magnitudes for a given normal fault segment.

Attempting to bridge the gap between laboratory and seismic estimates of fracture energy

USGS Publications Warehouse

McGarr, A.; Fletcher, Joe B.; Beeler, N.M.

2004-01-01

To investigate the behavior of the fracture energy associated with expanding the rupture zone of an earthquake, we have used the results of a large-scale, biaxial stick-slip friction experiment to set the parameters of an equivalent dynamic rupture model. This model is determined by matching the fault slip, the static stress drop and the apparent stress. After confirming that the fracture energy associated with this model earthquake is in reasonable agreement with corresponding laboratory values, we can use it to determine fracture energies for earthquakes as functions of stress drop, rupture velocity and fault slip. If we take account of the state of stress at seismogenic depths, the model extrapolation to larger fault slips yields fracture energies that agree with independent estimates by others based on dynamic rupture models for large earthquakes. For fixed stress drop and rupture speed, the fracture energy scales linearly with fault slip.

Aftershocks of the 2014 South Napa, California, Earthquake: Complex faulting on secondary faults

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hardebeck, Jeanne L.; Shelly, David R.

2016-01-01

We investigate the aftershock sequence of the 2014 MW6.0 South Napa, California, earthquake. Low-magnitude aftershocks missing from the network catalog are detected by applying a matched-filter approach to continuous seismic data, with the catalog earthquakes serving as the waveform templates. We measure precise differential arrival times between events, which we use for double-difference event relocation in a 3D seismic velocity model. Most aftershocks are deeper than the mainshock slip, and most occur west of the mapped surface rupture. While the mainshock coseismic and postseismic slip appears to have occurred on the near-vertical, strike-slip West Napa fault, many of the aftershocks occur in a complex zone of secondary faulting. Earthquake locations in the main aftershock zone, near the mainshock hypocenter, delineate multiple dipping secondary faults. Composite focal mechanisms indicate strike-slip and oblique-reverse faulting on the secondary features. The secondary faults were moved towards failure by Coulomb stress changes from the mainshock slip. Clusters of aftershocks north and south of the main aftershock zone exhibit vertical strike-slip faulting more consistent with the West Napa Fault. The northern aftershocks correspond to the area of largest mainshock coseismic slip, while the main aftershock zone is adjacent to the fault area that has primarily slipped postseismically. Unlike most creeping faults, the zone of postseismic slip does not appear to contain embedded stick-slip patches that would have produced on-fault aftershocks. The lack of stick-slip patches along this portion of the fault may contribute to the low productivity of the South Napa aftershock sequence.

The 1999 Hector Mine Earthquake, Southern California: Vector Near-Field Displacements from ERS InSAR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandwell, David T.; Sichoix, Lydie; Smith, Bridget

2002-01-01

Two components of fault slip are uniquely determined from two line-of-sight (LOS) radar interferograms by assuming that the fault-normal component of displacement is zero. We use this approach with ascending and descending interferograms from the ERS satellites to estimate surface slip along the Hector Mine earthquake rupture. The LOS displacement is determined by visually counting fringes to within 1 km of the outboard ruptures. These LOS estimates and uncertainties are then transformed into strike- and dip-slip estimates and uncertainties; the transformation is singular for a N-S oriented fault and optimal for an E-W oriented fault. In contrast to our previous strike-slip estimates, which were based only on a descending interferogram, we now find good agreement with the geological measurements, except at the ends of the rupture. The ascending interferogram reveals significant west-sidedown dip-slip (approximately 1.0 m) which reduces the strike-slip estimates by 1 to 2 m, especially along the northern half of the rupture. A spike in the strike-slip displacement of 6 m is observed in central part of the rupture. This large offset is confirmed by subpixel cross correlation of features in the before and after amplitude images. In addition to strike slip and dip slip, we identify uplift and subsidence along the fault, related to the restraining and releasing bends in the fault trace, respectively. Our main conclusion is that at least two look directions are required for accurate estimates of surface slip even along a pure strike-slip fault. Models and results based only on a single look direction could have major errors. Our new estimates of strike slip and dip slip along the rupture provide a boundary condition for dislocation modeling. A simple model, which has uniform slip to a depth of 12 km, shows good agreement with the observed ascending and descending interferograms.

Near-fault peak ground velocity from earthquake and laboratory data

USGS Publications Warehouse

McGarr, A.; Fletcher, Joe B.

2007-01-01

We test the hypothesis that peak ground velocity (PGV) has an upper bound independent of earthquake magnitude and that this bound is controlled primarily by the strength of the seismogenic crust. The highest PGVs, ranging up to several meters per second, have been measured at sites within a few kilometers of the causative faults. Because the database for near-fault PGV is small, we use earthquake slip models, laboratory experiments, and evidence from a mining-induced earthquake to investigate the factors influencing near-fault PGV and the nature of its scaling. For each earthquake slip model we have calculated the peak slip rates for all subfaults and then chosen the maximum of these rates as an estimate of twice the largest near-fault PGV. Nine slip models for eight earthquakes, with magnitudes ranging from 6.5 to 7.6, yielded maximum peak slip rates ranging from 2.3 to 12 m/sec with a median of 5.9 m/sec. By making several adjustments, PGVs for small earthquakes can be simulated from peak slip rates measured during laboratory stick-slip experiments. First, we adjust the PGV for differences in the state of stress (i.e., the difference between the laboratory loading stresses and those appropriate for faults at seismogenic depths). To do this, we multiply both the slip and the peak slip rate by the ratio of the effective normal stresses acting on fault planes measured at 6.8 km depth at the KTB site, Germany (deepest available in situ stress measurements), to those acting on the laboratory faults. We also adjust the seismic moment by replacing the laboratory fault with a buried circular shear crack whose radius is chosen to match the experimental unloading stiffness. An additional, less important adjustment is needed for experiments run in triaxial loading conditions. With these adjustments, peak slip rates for 10 stick-slip events, with scaled moment magnitudes from -2.9 to 1.0, range from 3.3 to 10.3 m/sec, with a median of 5.4 m/sec. Both the earthquake and laboratory results are consistent with typical maximum peak slip rates averaging between 5 and 6 m/sec or corresponding maximum near-fault PGVs between 2.5 and 3 m/sec at seismogenic depths, independent of magnitude. Our ability to replicate maximum slip rates in the fault zones of earthquakes by adjusting the corresponding laboratory rates using the ratio of effective normal stresses acting on the fault planes suggests that the strength of the seismogenic crust is the important factor limiting the near-fault PGV.

Multi-asperity models of slow slip and tremor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ampuero, Jean Paul; Luo, Yingdi; Lengline, Olivier; Inbal, Asaf

2016-04-01

Field observations of exhumed faults indicate that fault zones can comprise mixtures of materials with different dominant deformation mechanisms, including contrasts in strength, frictional stability and hydrothermal transport properties. Computational modeling helps quantify the potential effects of fault zone heterogeneity on fault slip styles from seismic to aseismic slip, including slow slip and tremor phenomena, foreshocks sequences and swarms, high- and low-frequency radiation during large earthquakes. We will summarize results of ongoing modeling studies of slow slip and tremor in which fault zone structure comprises a collection of frictionally unstable patches capable of seismic slip (tremorgenic asperities) embedded in a frictionally stable matrix hosting aseismic transient slips. Such models are consistent with the current view that tremors result from repeated shear failure of multiple asperities as Low Frequency Earthquakes (LFEs). The collective behavior of asperities embedded in creeping faults generate a rich spectrum of tremor migration patterns, as observed in natural faults, whose seismicity rate, recurrence time and migration speed can be mechanically related to the underlying transient slow slip rate. Tremor activity and slow slip also responds to periodic loadings induced by tides or surface waves, and models relate tremor tidal sensitivity to frictional properties, fluid pressure and creep rate. The overall behavior of a heterogeneous fault is affected by structural parameters, such as the ratio of stable to unstable materials, but also by time-dependent variables, such as pore pressure and loading rate. Some behaviors are well predicted by homogenization theory based on spatially-averaged frictional properties, but others are somewhat unexpected, such as seismic slip behavior found in asperities that are much smaller than their nucleation size. Two end-member regimes are obtained in rate-and-state models with velocity-weakening asperities embedded in a matrix with either (A) velocity-strengthening friction or (B) a transition from velocity-weakening to velocity-strengthening at increasing slip velocity. The most conventional regime is tremor driven by slow slip. However, if the interaction between asperities mediated by intervening transient creep is strong enough, a regime of slow slip driven by tremors emerges. These two regimes lead to different statistics of inter-event times of LFE sequences, which we confront to observations from LFE catalogs in Mexico, Cascadia and Parkfield. These models also suggest that the depth dependence of tremor and slow slip behavior, for instance their shorter recurrence time and weaker amplitude with increasing depth, are not necessarily related to depth dependent size distribution of asperities, but could be due to depth-dependence of the properties of the intervening creep materials. Simplified fracture mechanics models illustrate how the resistance of the fault zone matrix can control the effective distance of interaction between asperities, and lead to transitions between Gutenberg-Richter to size-bounded (exponential) frequency-magnitude distributions. Structural fault zone properties such as the thickness of the damage zone can also introduce characteristic length scales that may affect the size distribution of tremors. Earthquake cycle simulations on heterogeneous faults also provide insight into the conditions that allow asperities to generate foreshock activity and high-frequency radiation during large earthquakes.

Evidence for and implications of self-healing pulses of slip in earthquake rupture

USGS Publications Warehouse

Heaton, T.H.

1990-01-01

Dislocation time histories of models derived from waveforms of seven earthquakes are discussed. In each model, dislocation rise times (the duration of slip for a given point on the fault) are found to be short compared to the overall duration of the earthquake (??? 10%). However, in many crack-like numerical models of dynamic rupture, the slip duration at a given point is comparable to the overall duration of the rupture; i.e. slip at a given point continues until information is received that the rupture has stopped propagating. Alternative explanations for the discrepancy between the short slip durations used to model waveforms and the long slip durations inferred from dynamic crack models are: (1) the dislocation models are unable to resolve the relatively slow parts of earthquake slip and have seriously underestimated the dislocations for these earthquakes; (2) earthquakes are composed of a sequence of small-dimension (short duration) events that are separated by locked regions (barriers); (3) rupture occurs in a narrow self-healing pulse of slip that travels along the fault surface. Evidence is discussed that suggests that slip durations are indeed short and that the self-healing slip-pulse model is the most appropriate explanation. A qualitative model is presented that produces self-healing slip pulses. The key feature of the model is the assumption that friction on the fault surface is inversely related to the local slip velocity. The model has the following features: high static strength of materials (kilobar range), low static stress drops (in the range of tens of bars), and relatively low frictional stress during slip (less than several hundreds of bars). It is suggested that the reason that the average dislocation scales with fault length is because large-amplitude slip pulses are difficult to stop and hence tend to propagate large distances. This model may explain why seismicity and ambient stress are low along fault segments that have experienced large earthquakes. It also qualitatively explains why the recurrence time for large earthquakes may be irregular. ?? 1990.

Forecast model for great earthquakes at the Nankai Trough subduction zone

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stuart, W.D.

1988-01-01

An earthquake instability model is formulated for recurring great earthquakes at the Nankai Trough subduction zone in southwest Japan. The model is quasistatic, two-dimensional, and has a displacement and velocity dependent constitutive law applied at the fault plane. A constant rate of fault slip at depth represents forcing due to relative motion of the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates. The model simulates fault slip and stress for all parts of repeated earthquake cycles, including post-, inter-, pre- and coseismic stages. Calculated ground uplift is in agreement with most of the main features of elevation changes observed before and after the M=8.1 1946 Nankaido earthquake. In model simulations, accelerating fault slip has two time-scales. The first time-scale is several years long and is interpreted as an intermediate-term precursor. The second time-scale is a few days long and is interpreted as a short-term precursor. Accelerating fault slip on both time-scales causes anomalous elevation changes of the ground surface over the fault plane of 100 mm or less within 50 km of the fault trace. ?? 1988 Birkha??user Verlag.

Strike-slip Fault Structure in the Salton Trough and Deformation During and After the 2010 M7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah Earthquake from Geodetic and Seismic Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fielding, E. J.; Sun, J.; Gonzalez-Ortega, A.; González-Escobar, M.; Freed, A. M.; Burgmann, R.; Samsonov, S. V.; Gonzalez-Garcia, J.; Fletcher, J. M.; Hinojosa, A.

2013-12-01

The Pacific-North America plate boundary character changes southward from the strike-slip and transpressional configuration along most of California to oblique rifting in the Gulf of California, with a transitional zone of transtension beneath the Salton Trough in southernmost California and northern Mexico. The Salton Trough is characterized by extremely high heat flow and thin lithosphere with a thick fill of sedimentary material delivered by the Colorado River during the past 5-6 million years. Because of the rapid sedimentation, most of the faults in Salton Trough are buried and reveal themselves when they slip either seismically or aseismically. They can also be located by refraction and reflection of seismic waves. The 4 April 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake (Mw 7.2) in Baja California and Sonora, Mexico is probably the largest earthquake in the Salton Trough for at least 120 years, and had primarily right-lateral strike-slip motion. The earthquake ruptured a complex set of faults that lie to the west of the main plate boundary fault, the Cerro Prieto Fault, and shows that the strike-slip fault system in the southern Salton Trough has multiple sub-parallel active faults, similar to southern California. The Cerro Prieto Fault is still likely absorbing the majority of strain in the plate boundary. We study the coseismic and postseismic deformation of the 2010 earthquake with interferometric analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images (InSAR) and pixel tracking by subpixel correlation of SAR and optical images. We combine sampled InSAR and subpixel correlation results with GPS (Global Positioning System) offsets at PBO (Plate Boundary Observatory) stations to estimate the likely subsurface geometry of the major faults that slipped during the earthquake and to derive a static coseismic slip model. We constrained the surface locations of the fault segments to mapped locations in the Sierra Cucapah to the northwest of the epicenter. SAR along-track offsets, especially on ALOS images, show that there is a large amount of right-lateral slip (1-3 m) on a previously unmapped system of faults extending about 60 km to the southeast of the epicenter beneath the Colorado River Delta named the Indiviso Fault system. The finite fault slip modeling shows a bilateral rupture with coseismic fault slip shallower than 10 km on the faults to the NW (dipping NE) and SE (dipping SW) of the epicenter. The southeastern end of the coseismic ruptures has complex fault geometry, including both east- and west-dipping faults revealed by recently reprocessed seismic reflection profiles. This new coseismic fault geometry will be the basis for a new finite element model of the crust and mantle for modeling of the coseismic slip with realistic 3D elastic structure and the viscoelastic postseismic relaxation. Postseismic InSAR, including new Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle SAR (UAVSAR) data, and GPS show rapid shallow afterslip on faults at the north and south ends of the main coseismic rupture and down-dip from the area of largest coseismic slip. Longer wavelength postseismic relaxation will be best measured by GPS.

A new model for the initiation, crustal architecture, and extinction of pull-apart basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Wijk, J.; Axen, G. J.; Abera, R.

2015-12-01

We present a new model for the origin, crustal architecture, and evolution of pull-apart basins. The model is based on results of three-dimensional upper crustal numerical models of deformation, field observations, and fault theory, and answers many of the outstanding questions related to these rifts. In our model, geometric differences between pull-apart basins are inherited from the initial geometry of the strike-slip fault step which results from early geometry of the strike-slip fault system. As strike-slip motion accumulates, pull-apart basins are stationary with respect to underlying basement and the fault tips may propagate beyond the rift basin. Our model predicts that the sediment source areas may thus migrate over time. This implies that, although pull-apart basins lengthen over time, lengthening is accommodated by extension within the pull-apart basin, rather than formation of new faults outside of the rift zone. In this aspect pull-apart basins behave as narrow rifts: with increasing strike-slip the basins deepen but there is no significant younging outward. We explain why pull-apart basins do not go through previously proposed geometric evolutionary stages, which has not been documented in nature. Field studies predict that pull-apart basins become extinct when an active basin-crossing fault forms; this is the most likely fate of pull-apart basins, because strike-slip systems tend to straighten. The model predicts what the favorable step-dimensions are for the formation of such a fault system, and those for which a pull-apart basin may further develop into a short seafloor-spreading ridge. The model also shows that rift shoulder uplift is enhanced if the strike-slip rate is larger than the fault-propagation rate. Crustal compression then contributes to uplift of the rift flanks.

Simulated tsunami inundation for a range of Cascadia megathrust earthquake scenarios at Bandon, Oregon, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Witter, Robert C.; Zhang, Yinglong J.; Wang, Kelin; Priest, George R.; Goldfinger, Chris; Stimely, Laura; English, John T.; Ferro, Paul A.

2013-01-01

Characterizations of tsunami hazards along the Cascadia subduction zone hinge on uncertainties in megathrust rupture models used for simulating tsunami inundation. To explore these uncertainties, we constructed 15 megathrust earthquake scenarios using rupture models that supply the initial conditions for tsunami simulations at Bandon, Oregon. Tsunami inundation varies with the amount and distribution of fault slip assigned to rupture models, including models where slip is partitioned to a splay fault in the accretionary wedge and models that vary the updip limit of slip on a buried fault. Constraints on fault slip come from onshore and offshore paleoseismological evidence. We rank each rupture model using a logic tree that evaluates a model’s consistency with geological and geophysical data. The scenarios provide inputs to a hydrodynamic model, SELFE, used to simulate tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation on unstructured grids with <5–15 m resolution in coastal areas. Tsunami simulations delineate the likelihood that Cascadia tsunamis will exceed mapped inundation lines. Maximum wave elevations at the shoreline varied from ∼4 m to 25 m for earthquakes with 9–44 m slip and Mw 8.7–9.2. Simulated tsunami inundation agrees with sparse deposits left by the A.D. 1700 and older tsunamis. Tsunami simulations for large (22–30 m slip) and medium (14–19 m slip) splay fault scenarios encompass 80%–95% of all inundation scenarios and provide reasonable guidelines for land-use planning and coastal development. The maximum tsunami inundation simulated for the greatest splay fault scenario (36–44 m slip) can help to guide development of local tsunami evacuation zones.

Frictional stability and earthquake triggering during fluid pressure stimulation of an experimental fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scuderi, M. M.; Collettini, C.; Marone, C.

2017-11-01

It is widely recognized that the significant increase of M > 3.0 earthquakes in Western Canada and the Central United States is related to underground fluid injection. Following injection, fluid overpressure lubricates the fault and reduces the effective normal stress that holds the fault in place, promoting slip. Although, this basic physical mechanism for earthquake triggering and fault slip is well understood, there are many open questions related to induced seismicity. Models of earthquake nucleation based on rate- and state-friction predict that fluid overpressure should stabilize fault slip rather than trigger earthquakes. To address this controversy, we conducted laboratory creep experiments to monitor fault slip evolution at constant shear stress while the effective normal stress was systematically reduced via increasing fluid pressure. We sheared layers of carbonate-bearing fault gouge in a double direct shear configuration within a true-triaxial pressure vessel. We show that fault slip evolution is controlled by the stress state acting on the fault and that fluid pressurization can trigger dynamic instability even in cases of rate strengthening friction, which should favor aseismic creep. During fluid pressurization, when shear and effective normal stresses reach the failure condition, accelerated creep occurs in association with fault dilation; further pressurization leads to an exponential acceleration with fault compaction and slip localization. Our work indicates that fault weakening induced by fluid pressurization can overcome rate strengthening friction resulting in fast acceleration and earthquake slip. Our work points to modifications of the standard model for earthquake nucleation to account for the effect of fluid overpressure and to accurately predict the seismic risk associated with fluid injection.

Seismic and geodetic signatures of fault slip at the Slumgullion Landslide Natural Laboratory

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gomberg, J.; Schulz, W.; Bodin, P.; Kean, J.

2011-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that the Slumgullion landslide is a useful natural laboratory for observing fault slip, specifically that slip along its basal surface and side-bounding strike-slip faults occurs with comparable richness of aseismic and seismic modes as along crustal- and plate-scale boundaries. Our study provides new constraints on models governing landslide motion. We monitored landslide deformation with temporary deployments of a 29-element prism array surveyed by a robotic theodolite and an 88-station seismic network that complemented permanent extensometers and environmental instrumentation. Aseismic deformation observations show that large blocks of the landslide move steadily at approximately centimeters per day, possibly punctuated by variations of a few millimeters, while localized transient slip episodes of blocks less than a few tens of meters across occur frequently. We recorded a rich variety of seismic signals, nearly all of which originated outside the monitoring network boundaries or from the side-bounding strike-slip faults. The landslide basal surface beneath our seismic network likely slipped almost completely aseismically. Our results provide independent corroboration of previous inferences that dilatant strengthening along sections of the side-bounding strike-slip faults controls the overall landslide motion, acting as seismically radiating brakes that limit acceleration of the aseismically slipping basal surface. Dilatant strengthening has also been invoked in recent models of transient slip and tremor sources along crustal- and plate-scale faults suggesting that the landslide may indeed be a useful natural laboratory for testing predictions of specific mechanisms that control fault slip at all scales.

A kinematic model of patchy slip at depth explains observed tremor waveforms on the San Andreas fault near Parkfield, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gottschaemmer, E.; Harrington, R. M.; Cochran, E. S.; Bohlen, T.

2011-12-01

Recent observations of both triggered and ambient tremor suggest that tremor results from simple shear-failure. Tremor episodes on the San Andreas fault near Parkfield are thought to be comprised of clusters of individual events with frequencies between 2-8 Hz. Such low frequency earthquakes (LFEs) occur at depths where the frictional properties of the fault surface are primarily slip-strengthening with imbedded patches of slip weakening material that slip seismically when the surrounding fault creeps in a slow-slip event. Here we show new tremor waveforms from a temporary deployment of 13 broadband seismometers spaced at a maximum on the order of 30 km near Cholame, California are consistent with a series of small seismically slipping patches surrounded by an aseismic region along a fault surface. We model individual seismic events kinematically as small shear failures (M ~ 1) at depths exceeding 15 km. We use stress drop values of 1 MPa, based on a slip to fault area ratio. We simulate tremor recorded at the surface by our temporary array centered near Cholame, for frequencies up to 8 Hz using a staggered-grid finite-difference scheme to solve the elastic equations of motion, and the 3D velocity and density model from Thurber et al. (2006). Our simulations indicate that multiple seismically slipping patches in an aseismic region successfully recreate tremor characteristics observed in multiple studies, including individual tremor bursts, individual events, and episodic behavior. The kinematic model presented here will help to constrain the distribution and amplitude of the seismically slipping patches at depth, which will then be used in a dynamic model with variable frictional properties.

The 2014 update to the National Seismic Hazard Model in California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Powers, Peter; Field, Edward H.

2015-01-01

The 2014 update to the U. S. Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Model in California introduces a new earthquake rate model and new ground motion models (GMMs) that give rise to numerous changes to seismic hazard throughout the state. The updated earthquake rate model is the third version of the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3), wherein the rates of all ruptures are determined via a self-consistent inverse methodology. This approach accommodates multifault ruptures and reduces the overprediction of moderate earthquake rates exhibited by the previous model (UCERF2). UCERF3 introduces new faults, changes to slip or moment rates on existing faults, and adaptively smoothed gridded seismicity source models, all of which contribute to significant changes in hazard. New GMMs increase ground motion near large strike-slip faults and reduce hazard over dip-slip faults. The addition of very large strike-slip ruptures and decreased reverse fault rupture rates in UCERF3 further enhances these effects.

Comparison of GPS and Quaternary slip rates: Insights from a new Quaternary fault database for Central Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohadjer, Solmaz; Ehlers, Todd; Bendick, Rebecca; Mutz, Sebastian

2016-04-01

Previous studies related to the kinematics of deformation within the India-Asia collision zone have relied on slip rate data for major active faults to test kinematic models that explain the deformation of the region. The slip rate data, however, are generally disputed for many of the first-order faults in the region (e.g., Altyn Tagh and Karakorum faults). Several studies have also challenged the common assumption that geodetic slip rates are representative of Quaternary slip rates. What has received little attention is the degree to which geodetic slip rates relate to Quaternary slip rates for active faults in the India-Asia collision zone. In this study, we utilize slip rate data from a new Quaternary fault database for Central Asia to determine the overall relationship between Quaternary and GPS-derived slip rates for 18 faults. The preliminary analysis investigating this relationship uses weighted least squares and a re-sampling analysis to test the sensitivity of this relationship to different data point attributes (e.g., faults associated with data points and dating methods used for estimating Quaternary slip rates). The resulting sample subsets of data points yield a maximum possible Pearson correlation coefficient of ~0.6, suggesting moderate correlation between Quaternary and GPS-derived slip rates for some faults (e.g., Kunlun and Longmen Shan faults). Faults with poorly correlated Quaternary and GPS-derived slip rates were identified and dating methods used for the Quaternary slip rates were examined. Results indicate that a poor correlation between Quaternary and GPS-derived slip rates exist for the Karakorum and Chaman faults. Large differences between Quaternary and GPS slip rates for these faults appear to be connected to qualitative dating of landforms used in the estimation of the Quaternary slip rates and errors in the geomorphic and structural reconstruction of offset landforms (e.g., offset terrace riser reconstructions for Altyn Tagh fault). Other factors such as a low density in the GPS network (e.g., GPS rate based on data from a single station for the Karakorum fault) appear to also contribute to the mismatch observed between the slip rates. Taken together, these results suggest that GPS-derived slip rates are often (but not always) representative of Quaternary slip rates and that the dating methods and sampling approaches used to identify transients in a fault slip rate history should be heavily scrutinized before interpreting the seismic hazards for a region.

Slip re-orientation in the oblique Abiquiu embayment, northern Rio Grande rift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Y.; Murphy, M. A.; Andrea, R. A.

2015-12-01

Traditional models of oblique rifting predict that an oblique fault accommodates both dip-slip and strike-slip kinematics. However, recent analog experiments suggest that slip can be re-oriented to almost pure dip-slip on oblique faults if a preexisting weak zone is present at the onset of oblique extension. In this study, we use fault slip data from the Abiquiu embayment in northern Rio Grande rift to test the new model. The Rio Grande rift is a Cenozoic oblique rift extending from southern Colorado to New Mexico. From north to south, it comprises three major half grabens (San Luis, Española, and Albuquerque). The Abiquiu embayment is a sub-basin of the San Luis basin in northern New Mexico. Rift-border faults are generally older and oblique to the trend of the rift, whereas internal faults are younger and approximately N-S striking, i.e. orthogonal to the regional extension direction. Rift-border faults are deep-seated in the basement rocks while the internal faults only cut shallow stratigraphic sections. It has been suggested by many that inherited structures may influence the Rio Grande rifting. Particularly, Laramide structures (and possibly the Ancestral Rockies as well) that bound the Abiquiu embayment strike N- to NW. Our data show that internal faults in the Abiquiu embayment exhibit almost pure dip-slip (rake of slickenlines = 90º ± 15º), independent of their orientations with respect to the regional extension direction. On the contrary, border faults show two sets of rakes: almost pure dip-slip (rake = 90º ± 15º) where the fault is sub-parallel to the foliation, and moderately-oblique (rake = 30º ± 15º) where the fault is high angle to the foliation. We conclude that slip re-orientation occurs on most internal faults and some oblique border faults under the influence of inherited structures. Regarding those border faults on which slip is not re-oriented, we hypothesize that it may be caused by the Jemez volcanism or small-scale mantle convection.

Rupture dynamics with energy loss outside the slip zone

USGS Publications Warehouse

Andrews, D.J.

2005-01-01

Energy loss in a fault damage zone, outside the slip zone, contributes to the fracture energy that determines rupture velocity of an earthquake. A nonelastic two-dimensional dynamic calculation is done in which the slip zone is modeled as a fault plane and material off the fault is subject to a Coulomb yield condition. In a mode 2 crack-like solution in which an abrupt uniform drop of shear traction on the fault spreads from a point, Coulomb yielding occurs on the extensional side of the fault. Plastic strain is distributed with uniform magnitude along the fault, and it has a thickness normal to the fault proportional to propagation distance. Energy loss off the fault is also proportional to propagation distance, and it can become much larger than energy loss on the fault specified by the fault constitutive relation. The slip velocity function could be produced in an equivalent elastic problem by a slip-weakening friction law with breakdown slip Dc increasing with distance. Fracture energy G and equivalent Dc will be different in ruptures with different initiation points and stress drops, so they are not constitutive properties; they are determined by the dynamic solution that arrives at a particular point. Peak slip velocity is, however, a property of a fault location. Nonelastic response can be mimicked by imposing a limit on slip velocity on a fault in an elastic medium.

Coseismic temporal changes of slip direction: the effect of absolute stress on dynamic rupture

USGS Publications Warehouse

Guatteri, Mariagiovanna; Spudich, P.

1998-01-01

We investigate the dynamics of rupture at low-stress level. We show that one main difference between the dynamics of high- and low-stress events is the amount of coseismic temporal rake rotation occurring at given points on the fault. Curved striations on exposed fault surfaces and earthquake dislocation models derived from ground-motion inversion indicate that the slip direction may change with time at a point on the fault during dynamic rupture. We use a 3D boundary integral method to model temporal rake variations during dynamic rupture propagation assuming a slip-weakening friction law and isotropic friction. The points at which the slip rotates most are characterized by an initial shear stress direction substantially different from the average stress direction over the fault plane. We show that for a given value of stress drop, the level of initial shear stress (i.e., the fractional stress drop) determines the amount of rotation in slip direction. We infer that seismic events that show evidence of temporal rake rotations are characterized by a low initial shear-stress level with spatially variable direction on the fault (possibly due to changes in fault surface geometry) and an almost complete stress drop.Our models motivate a new interpretation of curved and cross-cutting striations and put new constraints on their analysis. The initial rake is in general collinear with the initial stress at the hypocentral zone, supporting the assumptions made in stress-tensor inversion from first-motion analysis. At other points on the fault, especially away from the hypocenter, the initial slip rake may not be collinear with the initial shear stress, contradicting a common assumption of structural geology. On the other hand, the later part of slip in our models is systematically more aligned with the average stress direction than the early slip. Our modeling suggests that the length of the straight part of curved striations is usually an upper bound of the slip-weakening distance if this parameter is uniform over the fault plane, and the direction of the late part of slip of curved striations should have more weight in the estimate of initial stress direction.

Seismotectonics and fault structure of the California Central Coast

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hardebeck, Jeanne L.

2010-01-01

I present and interpret new earthquake relocations and focal mechanisms for the California Central Coast. The relocations improve upon catalog locations by using 3D seismic velocity models to account for lateral variations in structure and by using relative arrival times from waveform cross-correlation and double-difference methods to image seismicity features more sharply. Focal mechanisms are computed using ray tracing in the 3D velocity models. Seismicity alignments on the Hosgri fault confirm that it is vertical down to at least 12 km depth, and the focal mechanisms are consistent with right-lateral strike-slip motion on a vertical fault. A prominent, newly observed feature is an ~25 km long linear trend of seismicity running just offshore and parallel to the coastline in the region of Point Buchon, informally named the Shoreline fault. This seismicity trend is accompanied by a linear magnetic anomaly, and both the seismicity and the magnetic anomaly end where they obliquely meet the Hosgri fault. Focal mechanisms indicate that the Shoreline fault is a vertical strike-slip fault. Several seismicity lineations with vertical strike-slip mechanisms are observed in Estero Bay. Events greater than about 10 km depth in Estero Bay, however, exhibit reverse-faulting mechanisms, perhaps reflecting slip at the top of the remnant subducted slab. Strike-slip mechanisms are observed offshore along the Hosgri–San Simeon fault system and onshore along the West Huasna and Rinconada faults, while reverse mechanisms are generally confined to the region between these two systems. This suggests a model in which the reverse faulting is primarily due to restraining left-transfer of right-lateral slip.

Refining the shallow slip deficit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Xiaohua; Tong, Xiaopeng; Sandwell, David T.; Milliner, Christopher W. D.; Dolan, James F.; Hollingsworth, James; Leprince, Sebastien; Ayoub, Francois

2016-03-01

Geodetic slip inversions for three major (Mw > 7) strike-slip earthquakes (1992 Landers, 1999 Hector Mine and 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah) show a 15-60 per cent reduction in slip near the surface (depth < 2 km) relative to the slip at deeper depths (4-6 km). This significant difference between surface coseismic slip and slip at depth has been termed the shallow slip deficit (SSD). The large magnitude of this deficit has been an enigma since it cannot be explained by shallow creep during the interseismic period or by triggered slip from nearby earthquakes. One potential explanation for the SSD is that the previous geodetic inversions lack data coverage close to surface rupture such that the shallow portions of the slip models are poorly resolved and generally underestimated. In this study, we improve the static coseismic slip inversion for these three earthquakes, especially at shallow depths, by: (1) including data capturing the near-fault deformation from optical imagery and SAR azimuth offsets; (2) refining the interferometric synthetic aperture radar processing with non-boxcar phase filtering, model-dependent range corrections, more complete phase unwrapping by SNAPHU (Statistical Non-linear Approach for Phase Unwrapping) assuming a maximum discontinuity and an on-fault correlation mask; (3) using more detailed, geologically constrained fault geometries and (4) incorporating additional campaign global positioning system (GPS) data. The refined slip models result in much smaller SSDs of 3-19 per cent. We suspect that the remaining minor SSD for these earthquakes likely reflects a combination of our elastic model's inability to fully account for near-surface deformation, which will render our estimates of shallow slip minima, and potentially small amounts of interseismic fault creep or triggered slip, which could `make up' a small percentages of the coseismic SSD during the interseismic period. Our results indicate that it is imperative that slip inversions include accurate measurements of near-fault surface deformation to reliably constrain spatial patterns of slip during major strike-slip earthquakes.

Thin‐ or thick‐skinned faulting in the Yakima fold and thrust belt (WA)? Constraints from kinematic modeling of the saddle mountains anticline

USGS Publications Warehouse

Casale, Gabriele; Pratt, Thomas L.

2015-01-01

The Yakima fold and thrust belt (YFTB) deforms the Columbia River Basalt Group flows of Washington State. The YFTB fault geometries and slip rates are crucial parameters for seismic‐hazard assessments of nearby dams and nuclear facilities, yet there are competing models for the subsurface fault geometry involving shallowly rooted versus deeply rooted fault systems. The YFTB is also thought to be analogous to the evenly spaced wrinkle ridges found on other terrestrial planets. Using seismic reflection data, borehole logs, and surface geologic data, we tested two proposed kinematic end‐member thick‐ and thin‐skinned fault models beneath the Saddle Mountains anticline of the YFTB. Observed subsurface geometry can be produced by 600–800 m of heave along a single listric‐reverse fault or ∼3.5  km of slip along two superposed low‐angle thrust faults. Both models require decollement slip between 7 and 9 km depth, resulting in greater fault areas than sometimes assumed in hazard assessments. Both models require initial slip much earlier than previously thought and may provide insight into the subsurface geometry of analogous comparisons to wrinkle ridges observed on other planets.

Real-time inversions for finite fault slip models and rupture geometry based on high-rate GPS data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Minson, Sarah E.; Murray, Jessica R.; Langbein, John O.; Gomberg, Joan S.

2015-01-01

We present an inversion strategy capable of using real-time high-rate GPS data to simultaneously solve for a distributed slip model and fault geometry in real time as a rupture unfolds. We employ Bayesian inference to find the optimal fault geometry and the distribution of possible slip models for that geometry using a simple analytical solution. By adopting an analytical Bayesian approach, we can solve this complex inversion problem (including calculating the uncertainties on our results) in real time. Furthermore, since the joint inversion for distributed slip and fault geometry can be computed in real time, the time required to obtain a source model of the earthquake does not depend on the computational cost. Instead, the time required is controlled by the duration of the rupture and the time required for information to propagate from the source to the receivers. We apply our modeling approach, called Bayesian Evidence-based Fault Orientation and Real-time Earthquake Slip, to the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, and a simulated Hayward fault earthquake. In all three cases, the inversion recovers the magnitude, spatial distribution of slip, and fault geometry in real time. Since our inversion relies on static offsets estimated from real-time high-rate GPS data, we also present performance tests of various approaches to estimating quasi-static offsets in real time. We find that the raw high-rate time series are the best data to use for determining the moment magnitude of the event, but slightly smoothing the raw time series helps stabilize the inversion for fault geometry.

InSAR observations of aseismic slip associated with an earthquake swarm in the Columbia River flood basalts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wicks, Charles; Thelen, W.; Weaver, C.; Gomberg, J.; Rohay, A.; Bodin, P.

2011-01-01

In 2009 a swarm of small shallow earthquakes occurred within the basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). The swarm occurred within a dense seismic network in the U.S. Department of Energys Hanford Site. Data from the seismic network along with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the European Space Agencys (ESA) ENVISAT satellite provide insight into the nature of the swarm. By modeling the InSAR deformation data we constructed a model that consists of a shallow thrust fault and a near horizontal fault. We suggest that the near horizontal lying fault is a bedding-plane fault located between basalt flows. The geodetic moment of the modeled fault system is about eight times the cumulative seismic moment of the swarm. Precise location estimates of the swarm earthquakes indicate that the area of highest slip on the thrust fault, ???70mm of slip less than ???0.5km depth, was not located within the swarm cluster. Most of the slip on the faults appears to have progressed aseismically and we suggest that interbed sediments play a central role in the slip process. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.

Initiation, evolution and extinction of pull-apart basins: Implications for opening of the Gulf of California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Wijk, J.; Axen, G.; Abera, R.

2017-11-01

We present a model for the origin, crustal architecture, and evolution of pull-apart basins. The model is based on results of three-dimensional upper crustal elastic models of deformation, field observations, and fault theory, and is generally applicable to basin-scale features, but predicts some intra-basin structural features. Geometric differences between pull-apart basins are inherited from the initial geometry of the strike-slip fault step-over, which results from the forming phase of the strike-slip fault system. As strike-slip motion accumulates, pull-apart basins are stationary with respect to underlying basement, and the fault tips propagate beyond the rift basin, increasing the distance between the fault tips and pull-apart basin center. Because uplift is concentrated near the fault tips, the sediment source areas may rejuvenate and migrate over time. Rift flank uplift results from compression along the flank of the basin. With increasing strike-slip movement the basins deepen and lengthen. Field studies predict that pull-apart basins become extinct when an active basin-crossing fault forms; this is the most likely fate of pull-apart basins, because basin-bounding strike-slip systems tend to straighten and connect as they evolve. The models show that larger length-to-width ratios with overlapping faults are least likely to form basin-crossing faults, and pull-apart basins with this geometry are thus most likely to progress to continental rupture. In the Gulf of California, larger length-to-width ratios are found in the southern Gulf, which is the region where continental breakup occurred rapidly. The initial geometry in the northern Gulf of California and Salton Trough at 6 Ma may have been one of widely-spaced master strike-slip faults (lower length-to-width ratios), which our models suggest inhibits continental breakup and favors straightening of the strike-slip system by formation of basin-crossing faults within the step-over, as began 1.2 Ma when the San Jacinto and Elsinore - Cerro Prieto fault systems formed.

Effects induced by an earthquake on its fault plane:a boundary element study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonafede, Maurizio; Neri, Andrea

2000-04-01

Mechanical effects left by a model earthquake on its fault plane, in the post-seismic phase, are investigated employing the `displacement discontinuity method'. Simple crack models, characterized by the release of a constant, unidirectional shear traction are investigated first. Both slip components-parallel and normal to the traction direction-are found to be non-vanishing and to depend on fault depth, dip, aspect ratio and fault plane geometry. The rake of the slip vector is similarly found to depend on depth and dip. The fault plane is found to suffer some small rotation and bending, which may be responsible for the indentation of a transform tectonic margin, particularly if cumulative effects are considered. Very significant normal stress components are left over the shallow portion of the fault surface after an earthquake: these are tensile for thrust faults, compressive for normal faults and are typically comparable in size to the stress drop. These normal stresses can easily be computed for more realistic seismic source models, in which a variable slip is assigned; normal stresses are induced in these cases too, and positive shear stresses may even be induced on the fault plane in regions of high slip gradient. Several observations can be explained from the present model: low-dip thrust faults and high-dip normal faults are found to be facilitated, according to the Coulomb failure criterion, in repetitive earthquake cycles; the shape of dip-slip faults near the surface is predicted to be upward-concave; and the shallower aftershock activity generally found in the hanging block of a thrust event can be explained by `unclamping' mechanisms.

Strength variation along the Altyn Tagh and the Kunlun fault, northern Tibetan plateau, inferred from 3D mechanical modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, X.; He, J.; Xiao, J.

2017-12-01

The Altyn Tagh (ATF) and the Kunlun (KLF) fault distribute around the northern Tibetan plateau from west to east about 2000 km and 1200 km in length, and deform predominately with left-lateral strike-slip motion. Previous geological and geodetic observations suggested that over at least 800-km length of the faults, the slip rate averaged on active deformation period is quite uniform, for the ATF being about 9-10 mm/yr and the KLF about 10-12mm/yr. Strike-slip deformation of these faults is undoubtedly result from regional loading by ongoing collision between the India and the Eurasia continent. Whereas, dense GPS measurements show that along the central Tibetan plateau from west to east, the GPS velocity field changes greatly both on magnitude and on direction, suggesting that tectonic loading to the ATF and the KLF could be changed along their strike directions. To investigate how a non-uniform tectonic loading condition as documented by the GPS velocity field could cause a relatively uniform slip rate of the two active faults, we built a three-dimensional viscoelastic finite element model, in which motion of the strike-slip fault is governed by frictional strength. Given a reasonable bound of model parameters, we at first test the numerical calculation with uniform frictional coefficient of the faults. At this condition, the predicted slip rate is inevitably largest near center of the faults and gradually decreasing to the fault ends. To better fitting the observed uniform slip rate along the faults over 1000km length, variation of fault strength along the ATF and the KLF must be invoked. By testing numerous models, an optimum result was obtained, among which the frictional coefficient for the ATF is varied from 0.02 to 0.12 between 820E and 1000E with its maximum at 840E, and for the KLF from 0.02 to 0.10 with its maximum between 950E and 970E. This means that the strength of the two large-scale strike-slip faults exists significant difference along their strikes. We believe that the predicted fault pattern could play an important role on partitioning strain aside the fault, together on determination of potential rupture during an earthquake.

Origin and structure of major orogen-scale exhumed strike-slip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Shuyun; Neubauer, Franz

2016-04-01

The formation of major exhumed strike-slip faults represents one of the most important dynamic processes affecting the evolution of the Earth's lithosphere and surface. Detailed models of the potential initiation and properties and architecture of orogen-scale exhumed strike-slip faults and how these relate to exhumation are rare. In this study, we deal with key properties controlling the development of major exhumed strike-slip fault systems, which are equivalent to the deep crustal sections of active across fault zones. We also propose two dominant processes for the initiation of orogen-scale exhumed strike-slip faults: (1) pluton-controlled and (2) metamorphic core complex-controlled strike-slip faults. In these tectonic settings, the initiation of faults occurs by rheological weakening along hot-to-cool contacts and guides the overall displacement and ultimate exhumation. These processes result in a specific thermal and structural architecture of such faults. These types of strike-slip dominated fault zones are often subparallel to mountain ranges and expose a wide variety of mylonitic, cataclastic and non-cohesive fault rocks, which were formed at different structural levels of the crust during various stages of faulting. The high variety of distinctive fault rocks is a potential evidence for recognition of these types of strike-slip faults. Exhumation of mylonitic rocks is, therefore, a common feature of such reverse oblique-slip strike-slip faults, implying major transtensive and/or transpressive processes accompanying pure strike-slip motion during exhumation. Some orogen-scale strike-slip faults nucleate and initiate along rheologically weak zones, e.g. at granite intrusions, zones of low-strength minerals, thermally weakened crust due to ascending fluids, and lateral borders of hot metamorphic core complexes. A further mechanism is the juxtaposition of mechanically strong mantle lithosphere to hot asthenosphere in continental transform faults (e.g., San Andreas Fault, Alpine Fault in New Zealand) and transtensional rift zones such as the East African rift. In many cases, subsequent shortening exhumes such faults from depth to the surface. A major aspect of many exhumed strike-slip faults is its lateral thermal gradient induced by the juxtaposition of hot and cool levels of the crust controlling relevant properties of such fault zones, e.g. the overall fault architecture (e.g., fault core, damage zone, shear lenses, fault rocks) and the thermal structure. These properties and the overall fault architecture include strength of fault rocks, permeability and porosity, the hydrological regime, as well as the nature and origin of circulating hydrothermal fluids.

Spatial Patterns of Geomorphic Surface Features and Fault Morphology Based on Diffusion Equation Modeling of the Kumroch Fault Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinlein, S. N.

2013-12-01

Remote sensing data sets are widely used for evaluation of surface manifestations of active tectonics. This study utilizes ASTER GDEM and Landsat ETM+ data sets with Google Earth images draped over terrain models. This study evaluates 1) the surrounding surface geomorphology of the study area with these data sets and 2) the morphology of the Kumroch Fault using diffusion modeling to estimate constant diffusivity (κ) and estimate slip rates by means of real ground data measured across fault scarps by Kozhurin et al. (2006). Models of the evolution of fault scarp morphology provide time elapsed since slip initiated on a faults surface and may therefore provide more accurate estimates of slip rate than the rate calculated by dividing scarp offset by the age of the ruptured surface. Profile modeling of scarps collected by Kozhurin et al. (2006) formed by several events distributed through time and were evaluated using a constant slip rate (CSR) solution which yields a value A/κ (1/2 slip rate/diffusivity). Time elapsed since slip initiated on the fault is determined by establishing a value for κ and measuring total scarp offset. CSR nonlinear modeling estimated of κ range from 8m2/ka - 14m2/ka on the Kumroch Fault which indicates a slip rates of 0.6 mm/yr - 1.0 mm/yr since 3.4 ka -3.7 ka. This method provides a quick and inexpensive way to gather data for a regional tectonic study and establish estimated rates of tectonic activity. Analyses of the remote sensing data are providing new insight into the role of active tectonics within the region. Results from fault scarp diffusion models of Mattson and Bruhn (2001) and DuRoss and Bruhn (2004) and Kozhurin et al. (2006), Kozhurin (2007), Kozhurin et al. (2008) and Pinegina et al. 2012 trench profiles of the KF as calibrated age fault scarp diffusion rates were estimated. (-) mean that no data could be determined.

Strike-Slip Fault Patterns on Europa: Obliquity or Polar Wander?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rhoden, Alyssa Rose; Hurford, Terry A.; Manga, Michael

2011-01-01

Variations in diurnal tidal stress due to Europa's eccentric orbit have been considered as the driver of strike-slip motion along pre-existing faults, but obliquity and physical libration have not been taken into account. The first objective of this work is to examine the effects of obliquity on the predicted global pattern of fault slip directions based on a tidal-tectonic formation model. Our second objective is to test the hypothesis that incorporating obliquity can reconcile theory and observations without requiring polar wander, which was previously invoked to explain the mismatch found between the slip directions of 192 faults on Europa and the global pattern predicted using the eccentricity-only model. We compute predictions for individual, observed faults at their current latitude, longitude, and azimuth with four different tidal models: eccentricity only, eccentricity plus obliquity, eccentricity plus physical libration, and a combination of all three effects. We then determine whether longitude migration, presumably due to non-synchronous rotation, is indicated in observed faults by repeating the comparisons with and without obliquity, this time also allowing longitude translation. We find that a tidal model including an obliquity of 1.2?, along with longitude migration, can predict the slip directions of all observed features in the survey. However, all but four faults can be fit with only 1? of obliquity so the value we find may represent the maximum departure from a lower time-averaged obliquity value. Adding physical libration to the obliquity model improves the accuracy of predictions at the current locations of the faults, but fails to predict the slip directions of six faults and requires additional degrees of freedom. The obliquity model with longitude migration is therefore our preferred model. Although the polar wander interpretation cannot be ruled out from these results alone, the obliquity model accounts for all observations with a value consistent with theoretical expectations and cycloid modeling.

Slip rates on San Francisco Bay area faults from anelastic deformation of the continental lithosphere

USGS Publications Warehouse

Geist, E.L.; Andrews, D.J.

2000-01-01

Long-term slip rates on major faults in the San Francisco Bay area are predicted by modeling the anelastic deformation of the continental lithosphere in response to regional relative plate motion. The model developed by Bird and Kong [1994] is used to simulate lithospheric deformation according to a Coulomb frictional rheology of the upper crust and a dislocation creep rheology at depth. The focus of this study is the long-term motion of faults in a region extending from the creeping section of the San Andreas fault to the south up to the latitude of Cape Mendocino to the north. Boundary conditions are specified by the relative motion between the Pacific plate and the Sierra Nevada - Great Valley microplate [Argus and Gordon, 2000]. Rheologic-frictional parameters are specified as independent variables, and prediction errors are calculated with respect to geologic estimates of slip rates and maximum compressive stress directions. The model that best explains the region-wide observations is one in which the coefficient of friction on all of the major faults is less than 0.15, with the coefficient of friction for the San Andreas fault being approximately 0.09, consistent with previous inferences of San Andreas fault friction. Prediction error increases with lower fault friction on the San Andreas, indicating a lower bound of ??SAF > 0.08. Discrepancies with respect to previous slip rate estimates include a higher than expected slip rate along the peninsula segment of the San Andreas fault and a slightly lower than expected slip rate along the San Gregorio fault.

Earthquake nucleation on faults with rate-and state-dependent strength

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dieterich, J.H.

1992-01-01

Dieterich, J.H., 1992. Earthquake nucleation on faults with rate- and state-dependent strength. In: T. Mikumo, K. Aki, M. Ohnaka, L.J. Ruff and P.K.P. Spudich (Editors), Earthquake Source Physics and Earthquake Precursors. Tectonophysics, 211: 115-134. Faults with rate- and state-dependent constitutive properties reproduce a range of observed fault slip phenomena including spontaneous nucleation of slip instabilities at stresses above some critical stress level and recovery of strength following slip instability. Calculations with a plane-strain fault model with spatially varying properties demonstrate that accelerating slip precedes instability and becomes localized to a fault patch. The dimensions of the fault patch follow scaling relations for the minimum critical length for unstable fault slip. The critical length is a function of normal stress, loading conditions and constitutive parameters which include Dc, the characteristic slip distance. If slip starts on a patch that exceeds the critical size, the length of the rapidly accelerating zone tends to shrink to the characteristic size as the time of instability approaches. Solutions have been obtained for a uniform, fixed-patch model that are in good agreement with results from the plane-strain model. Over a wide range of conditions, above the steady-state stress, the logarithm of the time to instability linearly decreases as the initial stress increases. Because nucleation patch length and premonitory displacement are proportional to Dc, the moment of premonitory slip scales by D3c. The scaling of Dc is currently an open question. Unless Dc for earthquake faults is significantly greater than that observed on laboratory faults, premonitory strain arising from the nucleation process for earthquakes may by too small to detect using current observation methods. Excluding the possibility that Dc in the nucleation zone controls the magnitude of the subsequent earthquake, then the source dimensions of the smallest earthquakes in a region provide an upper limit for the size of the nucleation patch. ?? 1992.

Velocity Gradient Across the San Andreas Fault and Changes in Slip Behavior as Outlined by Full non Linear Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiarabba, C.; Giacomuzzi, G.; Piana Agostinetti, N.

2017-12-01

The San Andreas Fault (SAF) near Parkfield is the best known fault section which exhibit a clear transition in slip behavior from stable to unstable. Intensive monitoring and decades of studies permit to identify details of these processes with a good definition of fault structure and subsurface models. Tomographic models computed so far revealed the existence of large velocity contrasts, yielding physical insight on fault rheology. In this study, we applied a recently developed full non-linear tomography method to compute Vp and Vs models which focus on the section of the fault that exhibit fault slip transition. The new tomographic code allows not to impose a vertical seismic discontinuity at the fault position, as routinely done in linearized codes. Any lateral velocity contrast found is directly dictated by the data themselves and not imposed by subjective choices. The use of the same dataset of previous tomographic studies allows a proper comparison of results. We use a total of 861 earthquakes, 72 blasts and 82 shots and the overall arrival time dataset consists of 43948 P- and 29158 S-wave arrival times, accurately selected to take care of seismic anisotropy. Computed Vp and Vp/Vs models, which by-pass the main problems related to linarized LET algorithms, excellently match independent available constraints and show crustal heterogeneities with a high resolution. The high resolution obtained in the fault surroundings permits to infer lateral changes of Vp and Vp/Vs across the fault (velocity gradient). We observe that stable and unstable sliding sections of the SAF have different velocity gradients, small and negligible in the stable slip segment, but larger than 15 % in the unstable slip segment. Our results suggest that Vp and Vp/Vs gradients across the fault control fault rheology and the attitude of fault slip behavior.

Constraining the Distribution of Vertical Slip on the South Heli Shan Fault (Northeastern Tibet) From High-Resolution Topographic Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bi, Haiyun; Zheng, Wenjun; Ge, Weipeng; Zhang, Peizhen; Zeng, Jiangyuan; Yu, Jingxing

2018-03-01

Reconstruction of the along-fault slip distribution provides an insight into the long-term rupture patterns of a fault, thereby enabling more accurate assessment of its future behavior. The increasing wealth of high-resolution topographic data, such as Light Detection and Ranging and photogrammetric digital elevation models, allows us to better constrain the slip distribution, thus greatly improving our understanding of fault behavior. The South Heli Shan Fault is a major active fault on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. In this study, we built a 2 m resolution digital elevation model of the South Heli Shan Fault based on high-resolution GeoEye-1 stereo satellite imagery and then measured 302 vertical displacements along the fault, which increased the measurement density of previous field surveys by a factor of nearly 5. The cumulative displacements show an asymmetric distribution along the fault, comprising three major segments. An increasing trend from west to east indicates that the fault has likely propagated westward over its lifetime. The topographic relief of Heli Shan shows an asymmetry similar to the measured cumulative slip distribution, suggesting that the uplift of Heli Shan may result mainly from the long-term activity of the South Heli Shan Fault. Furthermore, the cumulative displacements divide into discrete clusters along the fault, indicating that the fault has ruptured in several large earthquakes. By constraining the slip-length distribution of each rupture, we found that the events do not support a characteristic recurrence model for the fault.

From Geodetic Imaging of Seismic and Aseismic Fault Slip to Dynamic Modeling of the Seismic Cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avouac, Jean-Philippe

2015-05-01

Understanding the partitioning of seismic and aseismic fault slip is central to seismotectonics as it ultimately determines the seismic potential of faults. Thanks to advances in tectonic geodesy, it is now possible to develop kinematic models of the spatiotemporal evolution of slip over the seismic cycle and to determine the budget of seismic and aseismic slip. Studies of subduction zones and continental faults have shown that aseismic creep is common and sometimes prevalent within the seismogenic depth range. Interseismic coupling is generally observed to be spatially heterogeneous, defining locked patches of stress accumulation, to be released in future earthquakes or aseismic transients, surrounded by creeping areas. Clay-rich tectonites, high temperature, and elevated pore-fluid pressure seem to be key factors promoting aseismic creep. The generally logarithmic time evolution of afterslip is a distinctive feature of creeping faults that suggests a logarithmic dependency of fault friction on slip rate, as observed in laboratory friction experiments. Most faults can be considered to be paved with interlaced patches where the friction law is either rate-strengthening, inhibiting seismic rupture propagation, or rate-weakening, allowing for earthquake nucleation. The rate-weakening patches act as asperities on which stress builds up in the interseismic period; they might rupture collectively in a variety of ways. The pattern of interseismic coupling can help constrain the return period of the maximum- magnitude earthquake based on the requirement that seismic and aseismic slip sum to match long-term slip. Dynamic models of the seismic cycle based on this conceptual model can be tuned to reproduce geodetic and seismological observations. The promise and pitfalls of using such models to assess seismic hazard are discussed.

Mechanical Evolution and Dynamics of Decollement Slip in Contractional Systems: Correlating Macro- and Micro-Scale Processes in Particle Dynamics Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morgan, J. K.

2014-12-01

Particle-based numerical simulations allow detailed investigations of small-scale processes and mechanisms associated with fault initiation and slip, which emerge naturally in such models. This study investigates the evolving mechanical conditions and associated micro-mechanisms during transient slip on a weak decollement propagating beneath a growing contractional wedge (e.g., accretionary prism, fold and thrust belt). The models serve as analogs of the seismic cycle, although lacking full earthquake dynamics. Nonetheless, the mechanical evolution of both decollement and upper plate can be monitored, and correlated with the particle-scale physical and contact properties, providing insights into changes that accompany such stick-slip behavior. In this study, particle assemblages consolidated under gravity and bonded to impart cohesion, are pushed at a constant velocity above a weak, unbonded decollement surface. Forward propagation of decollement slip occurs in discrete pulses, modulated by heterogeneous stress conditions (e.g., roughness, contact bridging) along the fault. Passage of decollement slip resets the stress along this horizon, producing distinct patterns: shear stress is enhanced in front of the slipped decollement due to local contact bridging and fault locking; shear stress minima occur immediately above the tip, denoting local stress release and contact reorganization following slip; more mature portions of the fault exhibit intermediate shear stress, reflecting more stable contact force distributions and magnitudes. This pattern of shear stress pre-conditions the decollement for future slip events, which must overcome the high stresses at the fault tip. Long-term slip along the basal decollement induces upper plate contraction. When upper plate stresses reach critical strength conditions, new thrust faults break through the upper plate, relieving stresses and accommodating horizontal shortening. Decollement activity retreats back to the newly formed thrust fault. The cessation of upper plate fault slip causes gradual increases in upper plate stresses, rebuilding shear stresses along the decollement and enabling renewed pulses of decollement slip. Thus, upper plate deformation occurs out of phase with decollement propagation.

New insights on stress rotations from a forward regional model of the San Andreas fault system near its Big Bend in southern California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fitzenz, D.D.; Miller, S.A.

2004-01-01

Understanding the stress field surrounding and driving active fault systems is an important component of mechanistic seismic hazard assessment. We develop and present results from a time-forward three-dimensional (3-D) model of the San Andreas fault system near its Big Bend in southern California. The model boundary conditions are assessed by comparing model and observed tectonic regimes. The model of earthquake generation along two fault segments is used to target measurable properties (e.g., stress orientations, heat flow) that may allow inferences on the stress state on the faults. It is a quasi-static model, where GPS-constrained tectonic loading drives faults modeled as mostly sealed viscoelastic bodies embedded in an elastic half-space subjected to compaction and shear creep. A transpressive tectonic regime develops southwest of the model bend as a result of the tectonic loading and migrates toward the bend because of fault slip. The strength of the model faults is assessed on the basis of stress orientations, stress drop, and overpressures, showing a departure in the behavior of 3-D finite faults compared to models of 1-D or homogeneous infinite faults. At a smaller scale, stress transfers from fault slip transiently induce significant perturbations in the local stress tensors (where the slip profile is very heterogeneous). These stress rotations disappear when subsequent model earthquakes smooth the slip profile. Maps of maximum absolute shear stress emphasize both that (1) future models should include a more continuous representation of the faults and (2) that hydrostatically pressured intact rock is very difficult to break when no material weakness is considered. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.

Style and rate of quaternary deformation of the Hosgri Fault Zone, offshore south-central coastal California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hanson, Kathryn L.; Lettis, William R.; McLaren, Marcia; Savage, William U.; Hall, N. Timothy; Keller, Mararget A.

2004-01-01

The Hosgri Fault Zone is the southernmost component of a complex system of right-slip faults in south-central coastal California that includes the San Gregorio, Sur, and San Simeon Faults. We have characterized the contemporary style of faulting along the zone on the basis of an integrated analysis of a broad spectrum of data, including shallow high-resolution and deep penetration seismic reflection data; geologic and geomorphic data along the Hosgri and San Simeon Fault Zones and the intervening San Simeon/Hosgri pull-apart basin; the distribution and nature of near-coast seismicity; regional tectonic kinematics; and comparison of the Hosgri Fault Zone with worldwide strike-slip, oblique-slip, and reverse-slip fault zones. These data show that the modern Hosgri Fault Zone is a convergent right-slip (transpressional) fault having a late Quaternary slip rate of 1 to 3 mm/yr. Evidence supporting predominantly strike-slip deformation includes (1) a long, narrow, linear zone of faulting and associated deformation; (2) the presence of asymmetric flower structures; (3) kinematically consistent localized extensional and compressional deformation at releasing and restraining bends or steps, respectively, in the fault zone; (4) changes in the sense and magnitude of vertical separation both along trend of the fault zone and vertically within the fault zone; (5) strike-slip focal mechanisms along the fault trace; (6) a distribution of seismicity that delineates a high-angle fault extending through the seismogenic crust; (7) high ratios of lateral to vertical slip along the fault zone; and (8) the separation by the fault of two tectonic domains (offshore Santa Maria Basin, onshore Los Osos domain) that are undergoing contrasting styles of deformation and orientations of crustal shortening. The convergent component of slip is evidenced by the deformation of the early-late Pliocene unconformity. In characterizing the style of faulting along the Hosgri Fault Zone, we assessed alternative tectonic models by evaluating (1) the cumulative effects of multiple deformational episodes that can produce complex, difficult-to-interpret fault geometries, patterns, and senses of displacement; (2) the difficult imaging of high-angle fault planes and horizontal fault separations on seismic reflection data; and (3) the effects of strain partitioning that yield coeval strike-slip faults and associated fold and thrust belts.

Persistent rupture terminations at a restraining bend from slip rates on the eastern Altyn Tagh fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elliott, A. J.; Oskin, M. E.; Liu-zeng, J.; Shao, Y.-X.

2018-05-01

Restraining double-bends along strike-slip faults inhibit or permit throughgoing ruptures depending on bend angle, length, and prior rupture history. Modeling predicts that for mature strike-slip faults in a regional stress regime characterized by simple shear, a restraining bend of >18° and >4 km length impedes propagating rupture. Indeed, natural evidence shows that the most recent rupture(s) of the Xorkoli section (90°-93°E) of the eastern Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) ended at large restraining bends. However, when multiple seismic cycles are considered in numerical dynamic rupture modeling, heterogeneous residual stresses enable some ruptures to propagate further, modulating whether the bends persistently serve as barriers. These models remain to be tested using observations of the cumulative effects of multiple earthquake ruptures. Here we investigate whether a large restraining double-bend on the ATF serves consistently as a barrier to rupture by measuring long-term slip rates around the terminus of its most recent surface rupture at the Aksay bend. Our results show a W-E decline in slip as the SATF enters the bend, as would be predicted from repeated rupture terminations there. Prior work demonstrated no Holocene slip on the central, most misoriented portion of the bend, while 19-79 m offsets suggest that multiple ruptures have occurred on the west side of the bend during the Holocene. Thus we conclude the gradient in the SATF's slip rate results from the repeated termination of earthquake ruptures there. However, a finite slip rate east of the bend represents the transmission of some slip, suggesting that a small fraction of ruptures may fully traverse or jump the double-bend. This agreement between natural observations of slip accumulation and multi-cycle models of fault rupture enables us to translate observed slip rates into insight about the dynamic rupture process of individual earthquakes as they encounter geometric complexities along faults.

Geodesy- and geology-based slip-rate models for the Western United States (excluding California) national seismic hazard maps

USGS Publications Warehouse

Petersen, Mark D.; Zeng, Yuehua; Haller, Kathleen M.; McCaffrey, Robert; Hammond, William C.; Bird, Peter; Moschetti, Morgan; Shen, Zhengkang; Bormann, Jayne; Thatcher, Wayne

2014-01-01

The 2014 National Seismic Hazard Maps for the conterminous United States incorporate additional uncertainty in fault slip-rate parameter that controls the earthquake-activity rates than was applied in previous versions of the hazard maps. This additional uncertainty is accounted for by new geodesy- and geology-based slip-rate models for the Western United States. Models that were considered include an updated geologic model based on expert opinion and four combined inversion models informed by both geologic and geodetic input. The two block models considered indicate significantly higher slip rates than the expert opinion and the two fault-based combined inversion models. For the hazard maps, we apply 20 percent weight with equal weighting for the two fault-based models. Off-fault geodetic-based models were not considered in this version of the maps. Resulting changes to the hazard maps are generally less than 0.05 g (acceleration of gravity). Future research will improve the maps and interpret differences between the new models.

Erosion controls transpressional wedge kinematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leever, K. A.; Oncken, O.

2012-04-01

High resolution digital image analysis of analogue tectonic models reveals that erosion strongly influences the kinematics of brittle transpressional wedges. In the basally-driven experimental setup with low-angle transpression (convergence angle of 20 degrees) and a homogeneous brittle rheology, a doubly vergent wedge develops above the linear basal velocity discontinuity. In the erosive case, the experiment is interrupted and the wedge topography fully removed at displacement increments of ~3/4 the model thickness. The experiments are observed by a stereo pair of high resolution CCD cameras and the incremental displacement field calculated by Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV). From this dataset, fault slip on individual fault segments - magnitude and angle on the horizontal plane relative to the fault trace - is extracted using the method of Leever et al. (2011). In the non-erosive case, after an initial stage of strain localization, the wedge experiences two transient stages of (1) oblique slip and (2) localized strain partitioning. In the second stage, the fault slip angle on the pro-shear(s) rotates by some 30 degrees from oblique to near-orthogonal. Kinematic steady state is attained in the third stage when a through-going central strike-slip zone develops above the basal velocity discontinuity. In this stage, strain is localized on two main faults (or fault zones) and fully partitioned between plate boundary-parallel displacement on the central strike-slip zone and near-orthogonal reverse faulting at the front (pro-side) of the wedge. The fault slip angle on newly formed pro-shears in this stage is stable at 60-65 degrees (see also Leever et al., 2011). In contrast, in the erosive case, slip remains more oblique on the pro-shears throughout the experiment and a separate central strike-slip zone does not form, i.e. strain partitioning does not fully develop. In addition, more faults are active simultaneously. Definition of stages is based on slip on the retro-side of the wedge. In the first stage, the slip angle on the retro-shear is 27 +/- 12 degrees. In a subsequent stage, slip on the retro-side is partitioned between strike-slip and oblique (~35 degrees) faulting. In the third stage, the slip angle on the retro side stabilizes at ~10 degrees. The pro-shears are characterized by very different kinematics. Two pro-shears tend to be active simultaneously, the extinction of the older fault shortly followed by the initiation of a new one in a forelandward breaking sequence. Throughout the experiment, the fault slip on the pro-shears is 40-60 degrees at their initiation, gradually decreasing to nearly strike-slip at the moment of fault extinction. This is a rotation of similar magnitude but in the reverse direction compared to the non-erosive case. The fault planes themselves do not rotate. Leever, K. A., R. H. Gabrielsen, D. Sokoutis, and E. Willingshofer (2011), The effect of convergence angle on the kinematic evolution of strain partitioning in transpressional brittle wedges: Insight from analog modeling and high-resolution digital image analysis, Tectonics, 30(2), TC2013.

Geotribology - Friction, wear, and lubrication of faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boneh, Yuval; Reches, Ze'ev

2018-05-01

We introduce here the concept of Geotribology as an approach to study friction, wear, and lubrication of geological systems. Methods of geotribology are applied here to characterize the friction and wear associated with slip along experimental faults composed of brittle rocks. The wear in these faults is dominated by brittle fracturing, plucking, scratching and fragmentation at asperities of all scales, including 'effective asperities' that develop and evolve during the slip. We derived a theoretical model for the rate of wear based on the observation that the dynamic strength of brittle materials is proportional to the product of load stress and loading period. In a slipping fault, the loading period of an asperity is inversely proportional to the slip velocity, and our derivations indicate that the wear-rate is proportional to the ratio of [shear-stress/slip-velocity]. By incorporating the rock hardness data into the model, we demonstrate that a single, universal function fits wear data of hundreds of experiments with granitic, carbonate and sandstone faults. In the next step, we demonstrate that the dynamic frictional strength of experimental faults is well explained in terms of the tribological parameter PV factor (= normal-stress · slip-velocity). This factor successfully delineates weakening and strengthening regimes of carbonate and granitic faults. Finally, our analysis revealed a puzzling observation that wear-rate and frictional strength have strikingly different dependencies on the loading conditions of normal-stress and slip-velocity; we discuss sources for this difference. We found that utilization of tribological tools in fault slip analyses leads to effective and insightful results.

Fault rocks as indicators of slip behavior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayman, N. W.

2017-12-01

Forty years ago, Sibson ("Fault rocks and fault mechanisms", J. Geol. Soc. Lon., 1977) explored plastic flow mechanisms in the upper and lower crust which he attributed to deformation rates faster than tectonic ones, but slower than earthquakes. We can now combine observations of natural fault rocks with insights from experiments to interpret a broad range of length and time scales of fault slip in more detail. Fault rocks are generally weak, with predominantly frictionally stable materials in some fault segments, and more unstable materials in others. Both upper and lower crustal faults contain veins and mineralogical signatures of transiently elevated fluid pressure, and some contain relicts of pseudotachylite and bear other thermal-mechanical signatures of seismic slip. Varying strain rates and episodic-tremor-and-slip (ETS) have been attributed to fault zones with varying widths filled with irregular foliations, veins, and dismembered blocks of varying sizes. Particle-size distributions and orientations in gouge appear to differ between locked and creeping faults. These and other geologic observations can be framed in terms of constitutive behaviors derived from experiments and modeling. The experimental correlation of velocity-dependence with microstructure and the behavior of natural fault-rocks under shear suggest that friction laws may be applied liberally to fault-zone interpretation. Force-chains imaged in stress-sensitive granular aggregates or in numerical simulations show that stick-slip behavior with stress drops far below that of earthquakes can occur during quasi-periodic creep, yet localize shear in larger, aperiodic events; perhaps the systematic relationship between sub-mm shear bands and surrounding gouge and/or cataclasites causes such slip partitioning in nature. Fracture, frictional sliding, and viscous creep can experimentally produce a range of slip behavior, including ETS-like events. Perhaps a similar mechanism occurs to cause ETS at the up-dip limit of faults where water-saturated, highly porous sedimentary aggregates are incorporated into fault zones. Forty years on, fault-rock studies continue to refine a model for fault slip that continuously encompasses the full range of lithospheric depths and seismic to geologic time scales.

Fault geometry inversion and slip distribution of the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake from geodetic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Mong-Han; Fielding, Eric J.; Dickinson, Haylee; Sun, Jianbao; Gonzalez-Ortega, J. Alejandro; Freed, Andrew M.; Bürgmann, Roland

2017-01-01

The 4 April 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah (EMC) earthquake in Baja, California, and Sonora, Mexico, had primarily right-lateral strike-slip motion and a minor normal-slip component. The surface rupture extended about 120 km in a NW-SE direction, west of the Cerro Prieto fault. Here we use geodetic measurements including near- to far-field GPS, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), and subpixel offset measurements of radar and optical images to characterize the fault slip during the EMC event. We use dislocation inversion methods and determine an optimal nine-segment fault geometry, as well as a subfault slip distribution from the geodetic measurements. With systematic perturbation of the fault dip angles, randomly removing one geodetic data constraint, or different data combinations, we are able to explore the robustness of the inferred slip distribution along fault strike and depth. The model fitting residuals imply contributions of early postseismic deformation to the InSAR measurements as well as lateral heterogeneity in the crustal elastic structure between the Peninsular Ranges and the Salton Trough. We also find that with incorporation of near-field geodetic data and finer fault patch size, the shallow slip deficit is reduced in the EMC event by reductions in the level of smoothing. These results show that the outcomes of coseismic inversions can vary greatly depending on model parameterization and methodology.

Fault geometry and cumulative offsets in the central Coast Ranges, California: Evidence for northward increasing slip along the San Gregorio-San Simeon-Hosgri fault

USGS Publications Warehouse

Langenheim, V.E.; Jachens, R.C.; Graymer, R.W.; Colgan, J.P.; Wentworth, C.M.; Stanley, R.G.

2012-01-01

Estimates of the dip, depth extent, and amount of cumulative displacement along the major faults in the central California Coast Ranges are controversial. We use detailed aeromagnetic data to estimate these parameters for the San Gregorio–San Simeon–Hosgri and other faults. The recently acquired aeromagnetic data provide an areally consistent data set that crosses the onshore-offshore transition without disruption, which is particularly important for the mostly offshore San Gregorio–San Simeon–Hosgri fault. Our modeling, constrained by exposed geology and in some cases, drill-hole and seismic-reflection data, indicates that the San Gregorio–San Simeon–Hosgri and Reliz-Rinconada faults dip steeply throughout the seismogenic crust. Deviations from steep dips may result from local fault interactions, transfer of slip between faults, or overprinting by transpression since the late Miocene. Given that such faults are consistent with predominantly strike-slip displacement, we correlate geophysical anomalies offset by these faults to estimate cumulative displacements. We find a northward increase in right-lateral displacement along the San Gregorio–San Simeon–Hosgri fault that is mimicked by Quaternary slip rates. Although overall slip rates have decreased over the lifetime of the fault, the pattern of slip has not changed. Northward increase in right-lateral displacement is balanced in part by slip added by faults, such as the Reliz-Rinconada, Oceanic–West Huasna, and (speculatively) Santa Ynez River faults to the east.

Unravelling the Mysteries of Slip Histories, Validating Cosmogenic 36Cl Derived Slip Rates on Normal Faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodall, H.; Gregory, L. C.; Wedmore, L.; Roberts, G.; Shanks, R. P.; McCaffrey, K. J. W.; Amey, R.; Hooper, A. J.

2017-12-01

The cosmogenic isotope chlorine-36 (36Cl) is increasingly used as a tool to investigate normal fault slip rates over the last 10-20 thousand years. These slip histories are being used to address complex questions, including investigating slip clustering and understanding local and large scale fault interaction. Measurements are time consuming and expensive, and as a result there has been little work done validating these 36Cl derived slip histories. This study aims to investigate if the results are repeatable and therefore reliable estimates of how normal faults have been moving in the past. Our approach is to test if slip histories derived from 36Cl are the same when measured at different points along the same fault. As normal fault planes are progressively exhumed from the surface they accumulate 36Cl. Modelling these 36Cl concentrations allows estimation of a slip history. In a previous study, samples were collected from four sites on the Magnola fault in the Italian Apennines. Remodelling of the 36Cl data using a Bayesian approach shows that the sites produced disparate slip histories, which we interpret as being due to variable site geomorphology. In this study, multiple sites have been sampled along the Campo Felice fault in the central Italian Apennines. Initial results show strong agreement between the sites we have processed so far and a previous study. This indicates that if sample sites are selected taking the geomorphology into account, then 36Cl derived slip histories will be highly similar when sampled at any point along the fault. Therefore our study suggests that 36Cl derived slip histories are a consistent record of fault activity in the past.

Coseismic and postseismic slip distribution of the 2003 Mw = 6.5 Chengkung earthquake in eastern Taiwan: Elastic modeling from inversion of GPS data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Li-Wei; Lee, Jian-Cheng; Hu, Jyr-Ching; Chen, Horng-Yue

2009-03-01

The Chengkung earthquake with ML = 6.6 occurred in eastern Taiwan at 12:38 local time on December 10th 2003. Based on the main shock relocation and aftershock distribution, the Chengkung earthquake occurred along the previously recognized N20°E trending Chihshang fault. This event did not cause human loss, but significant cracks developed at the ground surface and damaged some buildings. After 1951 Taitung earthquake, there was no larger ML > 6 earthquake occurred in this region until the Chengkung earthquake. As a result, the Chengkung earthquake is a good opportunity to study the seismogenic structure of the Chihshang fault. The coseismic displacements recorded by GPS show a fan-shaped distribution with maximal displacement of about 30 cm near the epicenter. The aftershocks of the Chengkung earthquake revealing an apparent linear distribution helps us to construct the clear fault geometry of the Chihshang fault. In this study, we employ a half-space angular elastic dislocation model with GPS observations to figure out the slip distribution and seismological behavior of the Chengkung earthquake on the Chihshang fault. The elastic half-space dislocation model reveals that the Chengkung earthquake is a thrust event with minor left-lateral strike-slip component. The maximum coseismic slip is located around the depth of 20 km and up to 1.1 m. The slips are gradually decreased to less than 10 cm near the surface part of the Chihshang fault. The seismogenic fault plane, which is constructed by the delineation of the aftershocks, demonstrates that the Chihshang fault is a high-angle fault. However the fault plane changes to a flat plane at depth of 20 km. In addition, a significant part of the measured deformation across the surface fault zone for this earthquake can be attributed to postseismic creep. The postseismic elastic dislocation model shows that most afterslips are distributed to the upper level of the Chihshang fault. And most afterslips consist of both of dip- and left-lateral slip. The model results show that the Chihshang fault may be partially locked or damped near surface during coseismic slip. After the mainshock, the strain, which cumulated near the surface, was released by postseismic creep resulting in significant postseismic deformation.

A footwall system of faults associated with a foreland thrust in Montana

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watkinson, A. J.

1993-05-01

Some recent structural geology models of faulting have promoted the idea of a rigid footwall behaviour or response under the main thrust fault, especially for fault ramps or fault-bend folds. However, a very well-exposed thrust fault in the Montana fold and thrust belt shows an intricate but well-ordered system of subsidiary minor faults in the footwall position with respect to the main thrust fault plane. Considerable shortening has occurred off the main fault in this footwall collapse zone and the distribution and style of the minor faults accord well with published patterns of aftershock foci associated with thrust faults. In detail, there appear to be geometrically self-similar fault systems from metre length down to a few centimetres. The smallest sets show both slip and dilation. The slickensides show essentially two-dimensional displacements, and three slip systems were operative—one parallel to the bedding, and two conjugate and symmetric about the bedding (acute angle of 45-50°). A reconstruction using physical analogue models suggests one possible model for the evolution and sequencing of slip of the thrust fault system.

Bayesian explorations of fault slip evolution over the earthquake cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duputel, Z.; Jolivet, R.; Benoit, A.; Gombert, B.

2017-12-01

The ever-increasing amount of geophysical data continuously opens new perspectives on fundamental aspects of the seismogenic behavior of active faults. In this context, the recent fleet of SAR satellites including Sentinel-1 and COSMO-SkyMED permits the use of InSAR for time-dependent slip modeling with unprecedented resolution in time and space. However, existing time-dependent slip models rely on spatial smoothing regularization schemes, which can produce unrealistically smooth slip distributions. In addition, these models usually do not include uncertainty estimates thereby reducing the utility of such estimates. Here, we develop an entirely new approach to derive probabilistic time-dependent slip models. This Markov-Chain Monte Carlo method involves a series of transitional steps to predict and update posterior Probability Density Functions (PDFs) of slip as a function of time. We assess the viability of our approach using various slow-slip event scenarios. Using a dense set of SAR images, we also use this method to quantify the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of slip along a creeping segment of the North Anatolian Fault. This allows us to track a shallow aseismic slip transient lasting for about a month with a maximum slip of about 2 cm.

Resonant slow fault slip in subduction zones forced by climatic load stress.

PubMed

Lowry, Anthony R

2006-08-17

Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements at subduction plate boundaries often record fault movements similar to earthquakes but much slower, occurring over timescales of approximately 1 week to approximately 1 year. These 'slow slip events' have been observed in Japan, Cascadia, Mexico, Alaska and New Zealand. The phenomenon is poorly understood, but several observations hint at the processes underlying slow slip. Although slip itself is silent, seismic instruments often record coincident low-amplitude tremor in a narrow (1-5 cycles per second) frequency range. Also, modelling of GPS data and estimates of tremor location indicate that slip focuses near the transition from unstable ('stick-slip') to stable friction at the deep limit of the earthquake-producing seismogenic zone. Perhaps most intriguingly, slow slip is periodic at several locations, with recurrence varying from 6 to 18 months depending on which subduction zone (or even segment) is examined. Here I show that such periodic slow fault slip may be a resonant response to climate-driven stress perturbations. Fault slip resonance helps to explain why slip events are periodic, why periods differ from place to place, and why slip focuses near the base of the seismogenic zone. Resonant slip should initiate within the rupture zone of future great earthquakes, suggesting that slow slip may illuminate fault properties that control earthquake slip.

Stress triggering in thrust and subduction earthquakes and stress interaction between the southern San Andreas and nearby thrust and strike-slip faults

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lin, J.; Stein, R.S.

2004-01-01

We argue that key features of thrust earthquake triggering, inhibition, and clustering can be explained by Coulomb stress changes, which we illustrate by a suite of representative models and by detailed examples. Whereas slip on surface-cutting thrust faults drops the stress in most of the adjacent crust, slip on blind thrust faults increases the stress on some nearby zones, particularly above the source fault. Blind thrusts can thus trigger slip on secondary faults at shallow depth and typically produce broadly distributed aftershocks. Short thrust ruptures are particularly efficient at triggering earthquakes of similar size on adjacent thrust faults. We calculate that during a progressive thrust sequence in central California the 1983 Mw = 6.7 Coalinga earthquake brought the subsequent 1983 Mw = 6.0 Nunez and 1985 Mw = 6.0 Kettleman Hills ruptures 10 bars and 1 bar closer to Coulomb failure. The idealized stress change calculations also reconcile the distribution of seismicity accompanying large subduction events, in agreement with findings of prior investigations. Subduction zone ruptures are calculated to promote normal faulting events in the outer rise and to promote thrust-faulting events on the periphery of the seismic rupture and its downdip extension. These features are evident in aftershocks of the 1957 Mw = 9.1 Aleutian and other large subduction earthquakes. We further examine stress changes on the rupture surface imparted by the 1960 Mw = 9.5 and 1995 Mw = 8.1 Chile earthquakes, for which detailed slip models are available. Calculated Coulomb stress increases of 2-20 bars correspond closely to sites of aftershocks and postseismic slip, whereas aftershocks are absent where the stress drops by more than 10 bars. We also argue that slip on major strike-slip systems modulates the stress acting on nearby thrust and strike-slip faults. We calculate that the 1857 Mw = 7.9 Fort Tejon earthquake on the San Andreas fault and subsequent interseismic slip brought the Coalinga fault ???1 bar closer to failure but inhibited failure elsewhere on the Coast Ranges thrust faults. The 1857 earthquake also promoted failure on the White Wolf reverse fault by 8 bars, which ruptured in the 1952 Mw = 7.3 Kern County shock but inhibited slip on the left-lateral Garlock fault, which has not ruptured since 1857. We thus contend that stress transfer exerts a control on the seismicity of thrust faults across a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.

Statistical tests of simple earthquake cycle models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeVries, Phoebe M. R.; Evans, Eileen L.

2016-12-01

A central goal of observing and modeling the earthquake cycle is to forecast when a particular fault may generate an earthquake: a fault late in its earthquake cycle may be more likely to generate an earthquake than a fault early in its earthquake cycle. Models that can explain geodetic observations throughout the entire earthquake cycle may be required to gain a more complete understanding of relevant physics and phenomenology. Previous efforts to develop unified earthquake models for strike-slip faults have largely focused on explaining both preseismic and postseismic geodetic observations available across a few faults in California, Turkey, and Tibet. An alternative approach leverages the global distribution of geodetic and geologic slip rate estimates on strike-slip faults worldwide. Here we use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for similarity of distributions to infer, in a statistically rigorous manner, viscoelastic earthquake cycle models that are inconsistent with 15 sets of observations across major strike-slip faults. We reject a large subset of two-layer models incorporating Burgers rheologies at a significance level of α = 0.05 (those with long-term Maxwell viscosities ηM < 4.0 × 1019 Pa s and ηM > 4.6 × 1020 Pa s) but cannot reject models on the basis of transient Kelvin viscosity ηK. Finally, we examine the implications of these results for the predicted earthquake cycle timing of the 15 faults considered and compare these predictions to the geologic and historical record.

Unified law of evolution of experimental gouge-filled fault for fast and slow slip events at slider frictional experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ostapchuk, Alexey; Saltykov, Nikolay

2017-04-01

Excessive tectonic stresses accumulated in the area of rock discontinuity are released while a process of slip along preexisting faults. Spectrum of slip modes includes not only creeps and regular earthquakes but also some transitional regimes - slow-slip events, low-frequency and very low-frequency earthquakes. However, there is still no agreement in Geophysics community if such fast and slow events have mutual nature [Peng, Gomberg, 2010] or they present different physical phenomena [Ide et al., 2007]. Models of nucleation and evolution of fault slip events could be evolved by laboratory experiments in which regularities of shear deformation of gouge-filled fault are investigated. In the course of the work we studied deformation regularities of experimental fault by slider frictional experiments for development of unified law of evolution of fault and revelation of its parameters responsible for deformation mode realization. The experiments were conducted as a classic slider-model experiment, in which block under normal and shear stresses moves along interface. The volume between two rough surfaces was filled by thin layer of granular matter. Shear force was applied by a spring which deformed with a constant rate. In such experiments elastic energy was accumulated in the spring, and regularities of its releases were determined by regularities of frictional behaviour of experimental fault. A full spectrum of slip modes was simulated in laboratory experiments. Slight change of gouge characteristics (granule shape, content of clay), viscosity of interstitial fluid and level of normal stress make it possible to obtained gradual transformation of the slip modes from steady sliding and slow slip to regular stick-slip, with various amplitude of 'coseismic' displacement. Using method of asymptotic analogies we have shown that different slip modes can be specified in term of single formalism and preparation of different slip modes have uniform evolution law. It is shown that shear stiffness of experimental fault is the parameter, which control realization of certain slip modes. It is worth to be mentioned that different serious of transformation is characterized by functional dependences, which have general view and differ only in normalization factors. Findings authenticate that slow and fast slip events have mutual nature. Determination of fault stiffness and testing of fault gouge allow to estimate intensity of seismic events. The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 16-05-00694.

Strike-slip faulting in the Inner California Borderlands, offshore Southern California.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bormann, J. M.; Kent, G. M.; Driscoll, N. W.; Harding, A. J.; Sahakian, V. J.; Holmes, J. J.; Klotsko, S.; Kell, A. M.; Wesnousky, S. G.

2015-12-01

In the Inner California Borderlands (ICB), offshore of Southern California, modern dextral strike-slip faulting overprints a prominent system of basins and ridges formed during plate boundary reorganization 30-15 Ma. Geodetic data indicate faults in the ICB accommodate 6-8 mm/yr of Pacific-North American plate boundary deformation; however, the hazard posed by the ICB faults is poorly understood due to unknown fault geometry and loosely constrained slip rates. We present observations from high-resolution and reprocessed legacy 2D multichannel seismic (MCS) reflection datasets and multibeam bathymetry to constrain the modern fault architecture and tectonic evolution of the ICB. We use a sequence stratigraphy approach to identify discrete episodes of deformation in the MCS data and present the results of our mapping in a regional fault model that distinguishes active faults from relict structures. Significant differences exist between our model of modern ICB deformation and existing models. From east to west, the major active faults are the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon, Palos Verdes, San Diego Trough, and San Clemente fault zones. Localized deformation on the continental slope along the San Mateo, San Onofre, and Carlsbad trends results from geometrical complexities in the dextral fault system. Undeformed early to mid-Pleistocene age sediments onlap and overlie deformation associated with the northern Coronado Bank fault (CBF) and the breakaway zone of the purported Oceanside Blind Thrust. Therefore, we interpret the northern CBF to be inactive, and slip rate estimates based on linkage with the Holocene active Palos Verdes fault are unwarranted. In the western ICB, the San Diego Trough fault (SDTF) and San Clemente fault have robust linear geomorphic expression, which suggests that these faults may accommodate a significant portion of modern ICB slip in a westward temporal migration of slip. The SDTF offsets young sediments between the US/Mexico border and the eastern margin of Avalon Knoll, where the fault is spatially coincident and potentially linked with the San Pedro Basin fault (SPBF). Kinematic linkage between the SDTF and the SPBF increases the potential rupture length for earthquakes on either fault and may allow events nucleating on the SDTF to propagate much closer to the LA Basin.

The 12 June 2017 Mw 6.3 Lesvos Island (Aegean Sea) earthquake: Slip model and directivity estimated with finite-fault inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiratzi, Anastasia

2018-01-01

On 12 June 2017 (UTC 12:28:38.26) a magnitude Mw 6.3 earthquake occurred offshore Lesvos Island in SE Aegean Sea, which was widely felt, caused 1 fatality, and partially ruined the village of Vrisa on the south-eastern coast of the island. I invert broad band and strong motion waveforms from regional stations to obtain the source model and the distribution of slip onto the fault plane. The hypocentre is located at a depth of 7 km in the upper crust. The mainshock ruptured a WNW-ESE striking, SW dipping, normal fault, projecting offshore and bounding the Lesvos Basin. The strongest and most aftershocks clustered away from the hypocentre, at the eastern edge of the activated area. This cluster indicates the activation of a different fault segment, exhibiting sinistral strike-slip motions, along a plane striking WNW-ESE. The slip of the mainshock is confined in a single large asperity, WNW from the hypocentre, with dimensions 20 km × 10 km along fault strike and dip, respectively. The average slip of the asperity is 50 cm and the peak slip is 1 m. The rupture propagated unilaterally towards WNW to the coastline of Lesvos island at a relatively high speed ( 3.1 km/s). The imaged slip model and forward modelling was used to calculate peak ground velocities (PGVs) in the near-field. The damage pattern produced by this earthquake, especially in the village of Vrisa is compatible with the combined effect of rupture directivity, proximity to the slip patch and the fault edge, spectral content of motions, and local site conditions.

Estimation of vertical slip rate in an active fault-propagation fold from the analysis of a progressive unconformity at the NE segment of the Carrascoy Fault (SE Iberia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin-Banda, Raquel; Insua-Arevalo, Juan Miguel; Garcia-Mayordomo, Julian

2017-04-01

Many studies have dealt with the calculation of fault-propagation fold growth rates considering a variety of kinematics models, from limb rotation to hinge migration models. In most cases, the different geometrical and numeric growth models are based on horizontal pre-growth strata architecture and a constant known slip rate. Here, we present the estimation of the vertical slip rate of the NE Segment of the Carrascoy Fault (SE Iberian Peninsula) from the geometrical modeling of a progressive unconformity developed on alluvial fan sediments with a high depositional slope. The NE Segment of the Carrascoy Fault is a left-lateral strike slip fault with reverse component belonging to the Eastern Betic Shear Zone, a major structure that accommodates most of the convergence between Iberian and Nubian tectonics plates in Southern Spain. The proximity of this major fault to the city of Murcia encourages the importance of carrying out paleosismological studies in order to determinate the Quaternary slip rate of the fault, a key geological parameter for seismic hazard calculations. This segment is formed by a narrow fault zone that articulates abruptly the northern edge of the Carrascoy Range with the Guadalentin Depression through high slope, short alluvial fans Upper-Middle Pleistocene in age. An outcrop in a quarry at the foot of this front reveals a progressive unconformity developed on these alluvial fan deposits, showing the important reverse component of the fault. The architecture of this unconformity is marked by well-developed calcretes on the top some of the alluvial deposits. We have determined the age of several of these calcretes by the Uranium-series disequilibrium dating method. The results obtained are consistent with recent published studies on the SW segment of the Carrascoy Fault that together with offset canals observed at a few locations suggest a net slip rate close to 1 m/ka.

Intrinsic And Extrinsic Controls On Unsteady Deformation Rates, Northern Apennine Mountains, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anastasio, D. J.; Gunderson, K. L.; Pazzaglia, F. J.; Kodama, K. P.

2017-12-01

The slip rates of faults in the Northern Apennine Mountains were unsteady at 104-105 year timescales during the Neogene and Quaternary. Fault slip rates were recovered from growth strata and uplifted fluvial terraces associated with the Salsomaggiore, Quatto Castella, and Castevetro fault-related folds, sampled along the Stirone, Enza, and Panaro Rivers, respectively. The forelimb stratigraphy of each anticline was dated using rock magnetic-based cyclostratigraphy, which varies with Milankovitch periodicity, multispecies biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, OSL luminescence dating, TCN burial dating, and radiocarbon dating of uplifted and folded fluvial terraces. Fault slip magnitudes were constrained with trishear forward models. We observed decoupled deformation and sediment accumulation rates at each structure. From 3.5Ma deformation of a thick and thin-skinned thrusts was temporally variable and controlled by intrinsic rock processes, whereas, the more regional Pede-Apenninic thrust fault, a thick-skinned thrust underlying the mountain front, was likely activated because of extrinsic forcing from foreland basin sedimentation rate accelerations since 1.4Ma. We found that reconstructed slip rate variability increased as the time resolution increased. The reconstructed slip history of the thin-skinned thrust faults was characterized relatively long, slow fold growth and associated fault slip, punctuated by shorter, more rapid periods limb rotation, and slip on the underlying thrust fault timed asynchronously. Thrust fault slip rates slip rates were ≤ 0.1 to 6 mm/yr at these intermediate timescales. The variability of slip rates on the thrusts is likely related to strain partitioning neighboring faults within the orogenic wedge. The studied structures slowed down at 1Ma when there was a switch to slower synchronous fault slip coincident with orogenic wedge thickening due to the emplacement of the out of sequence Pene-Apenninic thrust fault that was emplaced at 1.4±0.7 mm/yr. Both tectonic control and climate controlled variability on syntectonic sedimentation was observed in the growth sections.

Nearly frictionless faulting by unclamping in long-term interaction models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Parsons, T.

2002-01-01

In defiance of direct rock-friction observations, some transform faults appear to slide with little resistance. In this paper finite element models are used to show how strain energy is minimized by interacting faults that can cause long-term reduction in fault-normal stresses (unclamping). A model fault contained within a sheared elastic medium concentrates stress at its end points with increasing slip. If accommodating structures free up the ends, then the fault responds by rotating, lengthening, and unclamping. This concept is illustrated by a comparison between simple strike-slip faulting and a mid-ocean-ridge model with the same total transform length; calculations show that the more complex system unclapms the transforms and operates at lower energy. In another example, the overlapping San Andreas fault system in the San Francisco Bay region is modeled; this system is complicated by junctions and stepovers. A finite element model indicates that the normal stress along parts of the faults could be reduced to hydrostatic levels after ???60-100 k.y. of system-wide slip. If this process occurs in the earth, then parts of major transform fault zones could appear nearly frictionless.

A bottom-driven mechanism for distributed faulting in the Gulf of California rift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Persaud, Patricia; Tan, Eh; Contreras, Juan; Lavier, Luc

2017-11-01

Observations of active faulting in the continent-ocean transition of the Northern Gulf of California show multiple oblique-slip faults distributed in a 200 × 70 km2 area developed some time after a westward relocation of the plate boundary at 2 Ma. In contrast, north and south of this broad pull-apart structure, major transform faults accommodate Pacific-North America plate motion. Here we propose that the mechanism for distributed brittle deformation results from the boundary conditions present in the Northern Gulf, where basal shear is distributed between the Cerro Prieto strike-slip fault (southernmost fault of the San Andreas fault system) and the Ballenas Transform Fault. We hypothesize that in oblique-extensional settings whether deformation is partitioned in a few dip-slip and strike-slip faults, or in numerous oblique-slip faults may depend on (1) bottom-driven, distributed extension and shear deformation of the lower crust or upper mantle, and (2) the rift obliquity. To test this idea, we explore the effects of bottom-driven shear on the deformation of a brittle elastic-plastic layer with the help of pseudo-three dimensional numerical models that include side forces. Strain localization results when the basal shear abruptly increases in a step-function manner while oblique-slip on numerous faults dominates when basal shear is distributed. We further explore how the style of faulting varies with obliquity and demonstrate that the style of delocalized faulting observed in the Northern Gulf of California is reproduced in models with an obliquity of 0.7 and distributed basal shear boundary conditions, consistent with the interpreted obliquity and boundary conditions of the study area.

A fault‐based model for crustal deformation in the western United States based on a combined inversion of GPS and geologic inputs

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zeng, Yuehua; Shen, Zheng-Kang

2017-01-01

We develop a crustal deformation model to determine fault‐slip rates for the western United States (WUS) using the Zeng and Shen (2014) method that is based on a combined inversion of Global Positioning System (GPS) velocities and geological slip‐rate constraints. The model consists of six blocks with boundaries aligned along major faults in California and the Cascadia subduction zone, which are represented as buried dislocations in the Earth. Faults distributed within blocks have their geometrical structure and locking depths specified by the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, version 3 (UCERF3) and the 2008 U.S. Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Map Project model. Faults slip beneath a predefined locking depth, except for a few segments where shallow creep is allowed. The slip rates are estimated using a least‐squares inversion. The model resolution analysis shows that the resulting model is influenced heavily by geologic input, which fits the UCERF3 geologic bounds on California B faults and ±one‐half of the geologic slip rates for most other WUS faults. The modeled slip rates for the WUS faults are consistent with the observed GPS velocity field. Our fit to these velocities is measured in terms of a normalized chi‐square, which is 6.5. This updated model fits the data better than most other geodetic‐based inversion models. Major discrepancies between well‐resolved GPS inversion rates and geologic‐consensus rates occur along some of the northern California A faults, the Mojave to San Bernardino segments of the San Andreas fault, the western Garlock fault, the southern segment of the Wasatch fault, and other faults. Off‐fault strain‐rate distributions are consistent with regional tectonics, with a total off‐fault moment rate of 7.2×1018">7.2×1018 and 8.5×1018  N·m/year">8.5×1018  N⋅m/year for California and the WUS outside California, respectively.

The Earth isn't flat: The (large) influence of topography on geodetic fault slip imaging.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, T. B.; Meade, B. J.

2017-12-01

While earthquakes both occur near and generate steep topography, most geodetic slip inversions assume that the Earth's surface is flat. We have developed a new boundary element tool, Tectosaur, with the capability to study fault and earthquake problems including complex fault system geometries, topography, material property contrasts, and millions of elements. Using Tectosaur, we study the model error induced by neglecting topography in both idealized synthetic fault models and for the cases of the MW=7.3 Landers and MW=8.0 Wenchuan earthquakes. Near the steepest topography, we find the use of flat Earth dislocation models may induce errors of more than 100% in the inferred slip magnitude and rake. In particular, neglecting topographic effects leads to an inferred shallow slip deficit. Thus, we propose that the shallow slip deficit observed in several earthquakes may be an artefact resulting from the systematic use of elastic dislocation models assuming a flat Earth. Finally, using this study as an example, we emphasize the dangerous potential for forward model errors to be amplified by an order of magnitude in inverse problems.

Effect of inherited structures on strike-slip plate boundaries: insight from analogue modelling of the central Levant Fracture System, Lebanon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghalayini, Ramadan; Daniel, Jean-Marc; Homberg, Catherine; Nader, Fadi

2015-04-01

Analogue sandbox modeling is a tool to simulate deformation style and structural evolution of sedimentary basins. The initial goal is to test what is the effect of inherited and crustal structures on the propagation, evolution, and final geometry of major strike-slip faults at the boundary between two tectonic plates. For this purpose, we have undertaken a series of analogue models to validate and reproduce the structures of the Levant Fracture System, a major NNE-SSW sinistral strike-slip fault forming the boundary between the Arabian and African plates. Onshore observations and recent high quality 3D seismic data in the Levant Basin offshore Lebanon demonstrated that Mesozoic ENE striking normal faults were reactivated into dextral strike-slip faults during the Late Miocene till present day activity of the plate boundary which shows a major restraining bend in Lebanon with a ~ 30°clockwise rotation in its trend. Experimental parameters consisted of a silicone layer at the base simulating the ductile crust, overlain by intercalated quartz sand and glass sand layers. Pre-existing structures were simulated by creating a graben in the silicone below the sand at an oblique (>60°) angle to the main throughgoing strike-slip fault. The latter contains a small stepover at depth to create transpression during sinistral strike-slip movement and consequently result in mountain building similarly to modern day Lebanon. Strike-slip movement and compression were regulated by steady-speed computer-controlled engines and the model was scanned using a CT-scanner continuously while deforming to have a final 4D model of the system. Results showed that existing normal faults were reactivated into dextral strike-slip faults as the sinistral movement between the two plates accumulated. Notably, the resulting restraining bend is asymmetric and segmented into two different compartments with differing geometries. One compartment shows a box fold anticline, while the second shows an asymmetric anticline. Thus, analogue modeling has validated observation in seismic data and onshore geology whereby Mount Lebanon and adjacent folds exhibit similar compartmentalization and geometric dissimilarities along the Levant Fracture System. We suggest that the presence of inherited structures will affect to a certain extent the geometry of restraining bends and control the evolution of large strike-slip faults passing through.

Dynamic rupture modeling with laboratory-derived constitutive relations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Okubo, P.G.

1989-01-01

A laboratory-derived state variable friction constitutive relation is used in the numerical simulation of the dynamic growth of an in-plane or mode II shear crack. According to this formulation, originally presented by J.H. Dieterich, frictional resistance varies with the logarithm of the slip rate and with the logarithm of the frictional state variable as identified by A.L. Ruina. Under conditions of steady sliding, the state variable is proportional to (slip rate)-1. Following suddenly introduced increases in slip rate, the rate and state dependencies combine to produce behavior which resembles slip weakening. When rupture nucleation is artificially forced at fixed rupture velocity, rupture models calculated with the state variable friction in a uniformly distributed initial stress field closely resemble earlier rupture models calculated with a slip weakening fault constitutive relation. Model calculations suggest that dynamic rupture following a state variable friction relation is similar to that following a simpler fault slip weakening law. However, when modeling the full cycle of fault motions, rate-dependent frictional responses included in the state variable formulation are important at low slip rates associated with rupture nucleation. -from Author

A Non-linear Geodetic Data Inversion Using ABIC for Slip Distribution on a Fault With an Unknown dip Angle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukahata, Y.; Wright, T. J.

2006-12-01

We developed a method of geodetic data inversion for slip distribution on a fault with an unknown dip angle. When fault geometry is unknown, the problem of geodetic data inversion is non-linear. A common strategy for obtaining slip distribution is to first determine the fault geometry by minimizing the square misfit under the assumption of a uniform slip on a rectangular fault, and then apply the usual linear inversion technique to estimate a slip distribution on the determined fault. It is not guaranteed, however, that the fault determined under the assumption of a uniform slip gives the best fault geometry for a spatially variable slip distribution. In addition, in obtaining a uniform slip fault model, we have to simultaneously determine the values of the nine mutually dependent parameters, which is a highly non-linear, complicated process. Although the inverse problem is non-linear for cases with unknown fault geometries, the non-linearity of the problems is actually weak, when we can assume the fault surface to be flat. In particular, when a clear fault trace is observed on the EarthOs surface after an earthquake, we can precisely estimate the strike and the location of the fault. In this case only the dip angle has large ambiguity. In geodetic data inversion we usually need to introduce smoothness constraints in order to compromise reciprocal requirements for model resolution and estimation errors in a natural way. Strictly speaking, the inverse problem with smoothness constraints is also non-linear, even if the fault geometry is known. The non-linearity has been dissolved by introducing AkaikeOs Bayesian Information Criterion (ABIC), with which the optimal value of the relative weight of observed data to smoothness constraints is objectively determined. In this study, using ABIC in determining the optimal dip angle, we dissolved the non-linearity of the inverse problem. We applied the method to the InSAR data of the 1995 Dinar, Turkey earthquake and obtained a much shallower dip angle than before.

The rotation and fracture history of Europa from modeling of tidal-tectonic processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rhoden, Alyssa Rose

Europa's surface displays a complex history of tectonic activity, much of which has been linked to tidal stress caused by Europa's eccentric orbit and possibly non-synchronous rotation of the ice shell. Cycloids are arcuate features thought to have formed in response to tidal normal stress while strike-slip motion along preexisting faults has been attributed to tidal shear stress. Tectonic features thus provide constraints on the rotational parameters that govern tidal stress, and can help us develop an understanding of the tidal-tectonic processes operating on ice covered ocean moons. In the first part of this work (Chapter 3), I test tidal models that include obliquity, fast precession, stress due to non-synchronous rotation (NSR), and physical libration by comparing how well each model reproduces observed cycloids. To do this, I have designed and implemented an automated parameter-searching algorithm that relies on a quantitative measure of fit quality to identify the best fits to observed cycloids. I apply statistical techniques to determine the tidal model best supported by the data and constrain the values of Europa's rotational parameters. Cycloids indicate a time-varying obliquity of about 1° and a physical libration in phase with the eccentricity libration, with amplitude >1°. To obtain good fits, cycloids must be translated in longitude, which implies non-synchronous rotation of the icy shell. However, stress from NSR is not well-supported, indicating that the rotation rate is slow enough that these stresses relax. I build upon the results of cycloid modeling in the second section by applying calculations of tidal stress that include obliquity to the formation of strike-slip faults. I predict the slip directions of faults with the standard formation model---tidal walking (Chapter 5)---and with a new mechanical model I have developed, called shell tectonics (Chapter 6). The shell tectonics model incorporates linear elasticity to determine slip and stress release on faults and uses a Coulomb failure criterion. Both of these models can be used to predict the direction of net displacement along faults. Until now, the tidal walking model has been the only model that reproduces the observed global pattern of strike-slip displacement; the shell tectonics model incorporates a more physical treatment of fault mechanics and reproduces this global pattern. Both models fit the regional patterns of observed strike-slip faults better when a small obliquity is incorporated into calculations of tidal stresses. Shell tectonics is also distinct from tidal walking in that it calculates the relative growth rates of displacements in addition to net slip direction. Examining these growth rates, I find that certain azimuths and locations develop offsets more quickly than others. Because faults with larger offsets are easier to identify, this may explain why observed faults cluster in azimuth in many regions. The growth rates also allow for a more sophisticated statistical comparison between the predictions and observations. Although the slip directions of >75% of faults are correctly predicted using shell tectonics and 1° of obliquity, a portion of these faults could be fit equally well with a random model. Examining these faults in more detail has revealed a region of Europa in which strike-slip faults likely formed through local extensional and compressional deformation rather than as a result of tidal shear stress. This approach enables a better understanding of the tectonic record, which has implications on Europa's rotation history.

Surface and Subsurface Fault Displacements from the September 2010 Darfield (Canterbury) Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyers, B.; Furlong, K. P.; Hayes, G. P.; Herman, M. W.; Quigley, M.

2012-12-01

On September 3, 2010 a Magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck near Darfield, New Zealand. This was to be the first earthquake in an ongoing, damaging sequence near the city of Christchurch. The earthquake produced a surface rupture with measurable offsets of up to 5.3m along a 30km surface fault system. The spatial pattern of slip during this rupture has been determined by various groups using a range of approaches and several independent data sets. Surface fault rupture was measured in the field and fault slip at depth has been inferred from a seismologic finite fault model (FFM) and various geodetic observations including GPS and InSAR. Here we compare the observed segmented surface displacements with fault slip inferred from the other data. Measurements of the surface rupture show segmented faulting consistent with subsurface slip in the FFM. In the FFM, the main slip patch near the hypocenter can be directly correlated to the region of maximum surface displacement. The FFM and some evidence in the InSAR data also indicate that the Greendale fault system, the structure responsible for the bulk of the rupture, continues at depth closer towards Christchurch than is seen in surface rupture patterns. There is an additional 20km long patch with up to 3m of modeled slip seen in the eastern end of the inverted fault, offset to the south from the Greendale fault trace. This additional fault segment is consistent with a zone of aftershock activity of the main Darfield event, and with local patterns of strong motion. It thus appears that slip recorded at the surface does not describe the entire fault system. This eastward extension of the September rupture means that there is only a short segment of unruptured crust remaining along the entire fault system involved in the Canterbury earthquake sequence.

Source parameters for the 1952 Kern County earthquake, California: A joint inversion of leveling and triangulation observations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bawden, G.W.

2001-01-01

Coseismic leveling and triangulation observations are used to determine the faulting geometry and slip distribution of the July 21, 1952, Mw 7.3 Kem County earthquake on the White Wolf fault. A singular value decomposition inversion is used to assess the ability of the geodetic network to resolve slip along a multisegment fault and shows that the network is sufficient to resolve slip along the surface rupture to a depth of 10 km. Below 10 km, the network can only resolve dip slip near the fault ends. The preferred source model is a two-segment right-stepping fault with a strike of 51?? and a dip of 75?? SW. The epicentral patch has deep (6-27 km) leftlateral oblique slip, while the northeastern patch has shallow (1-12.5 km) reverse slip. There is nearly uniform reverse slip (epicentral, 1.6 m; northeast, 1.9 m), with 3.6 m of left-lateral strike slip limited to the epicentral patch. The seismic moment is M0= 9.2 ?? 0.5 ?? 1019 N m (Mw= 7.2). The signal-to-noise ratio of the leveling and triangulation data is reduced by 96% and 49%, respectively. The slip distribution from the preferred model matches regional geomorphic features and may provide a driving mechanism for regional shortening across the Comanche thrust and structural continuity with the Scodie seismic lineament to the northeast.

Geodetic estimates of fault slip rates in the San Francisco Bay area

USGS Publications Warehouse

Savage, J.C.; Svarc, J.L.; Prescott, W.H.

1999-01-01

Bourne et al. [1998] have suggested that the interseismic velocity profile at the surface across a transform plate boundary is a replica of the secular velocity profile at depth in the plastosphere. On the other hand, in the viscoelastic coupling model the shape of the interseismic surface velocity profile is a consequence of plastosphere relaxation following the previous rupture of the faults that make up the plate boundary and is not directly related to the secular flow in the plastosphere. The two models appear to be incompatible. If the plate boundary is composed of several subparallel faults and the interseismic surface velocity profile across the boundary known, each model predicts the secular slip rates on the faults which make up the boundary. As suggested by Bourne et al., the models can then be tested by comparing the predicted secular slip rates to those estimated from long-term offsets inferred from geology. Here we apply that test to the secular slip rates predicted for the principal faults (San Andreas, San Gregorio, Hayward, Calaveras, Rodgers Creek, Green Valley and Greenville faults) in the San Andreas fault system in the San Francisco Bay area. The estimates from the two models generally agree with one another and to a lesser extent with the geologic estimate. Because the viscoelastic coupling model has been equally successful in estimating secular slip rates on the various fault strands at a diffuse plate boundary, the success of the model of Bourne et al. [1998] in doing the same thing should not be taken as proof that the interseismic velocity profile across the plate boundary at the surface is a replica of the velocity profile at depth in the plastosphere.

Modelling induced seismicity due to fluid injection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, S.; O'Brien, G. S.; Bean, C. J.; McCloskey, J.; Nalbant, S. S.

2011-12-01

Injection of fluid into the subsurface alters the stress in the crust and can induce earthquakes. The science of assessing the risk of induced seismicity from such ventures is still in its infancy despite public concern. We plan to use a fault network model in which stress perturbations due to fluid injection induce earthquakes. We will use this model to investigate the role different operational and geological factors play in increasing seismicity in a fault system due to fluid injection. The model is based on a quasi-dynamic relationship between stress and slip coupled with a rate and state fiction law. This allows us to model slip on fault interfaces over long periods of time (i.e. years to 100's years). With the use of the rate and state friction law the nature of stress release during slipping can be altered through variation of the frictional parameters. Both seismic and aseismic slip can therefore be simulated. In order to add heterogeneity along the fault plane a fractal variation in the frictional parameters is used. Fluid injection is simulated using the lattice Boltzmann method whereby pore pressure diffuses throughout a permeable layer from the point of injection. The stress perturbation this causes on the surrounding fault system is calculated using a quasi-static solution for slip dislocation in an elastic half space. From this model we can generate slip histories and seismicity catalogues covering 100's of years for predefined fault networks near fluid injection sites. Given that rupture is a highly non-linear process, comparison between models with different input parameters (e.g. fault network statistics and injection rates) will be based on system wide features (such as the Gutenberg-Richter b-values), rather than specific seismic events. Our ultimate aim is that our model produces seismic catalogues similar to those observed over real injection sites. Such validation would pave the way to probabilistic estimation of reactivation risk for injection sites using such models. Preliminary results from this model will be presented.

Spatial and Temporal Variations in Slip Partitioning During Oblique Convergence Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beyer, J. L.; Cooke, M. L.; Toeneboehn, K.

2017-12-01

Physical experiments of oblique convergence in wet kaolin demonstrate the development of slip partitioning, where two faults accommodate strain via different slip vectors. In these experiments, the second fault forms after the development of the first fault. As one strain component is relieved by one fault, the local stress field then favors the development of a second fault with different slip sense. A suite of physical experiments reveals three styles of slip partitioning development controlled by the convergence angle and presence of a pre-existing fault. In experiments with low convergence angles, strike-slip faults grow prior to reverse faults (Type 1) regardless of whether the fault is precut or not. In experiments with moderate convergence angles, slip partitioning is dominantly controlled by the presence of a pre-existing fault. In all experiments, the primarily reverse fault forms first. Slip partitioning then develops with the initiation of strike-slip along the precut fault (Type 2) or growth of a secondary reverse fault where the first fault is steepest. Subsequently, the slip on the first fault transitions to primarily strike-slip (Type 3). Slip rates and rakes along the slip partitioned faults for both precut and uncut experiments vary temporally, suggesting that faults in these slip-partitioned systems are constantly adapting to the conditions produced by slip along nearby faults in the system. While physical experiments show the evolution of slip partitioning, numerical simulations of the experiments provide information about both the stress and strain fields, which can be used to compute the full work budget, providing insight into the mechanisms that drive slip partitioning. Preliminary simulations of precut experiments show that strain energy density (internal work) can be used to predict fault growth, highlighting where fault growth can reduce off-fault deformation in the physical experiments. In numerical simulations of uncut experiments with a first non-planar oblique slip fault, strain energy density is greatest where the first fault is steepest, as less convergence is accommodated along this portion of the fault. The addition of a second slip-partitioning fault to the system decreases external work indicating that these faults increase the mechanical efficiency of the system.

Ground Surface Deformation in Unconsolidated Sediments Caused by Bedrock Fault Movements: Dip-Slip and Strike-Slip Fault Model Test and Field Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ueta, K.; Tani, K.

2001-12-01

Sandbox experiments were performed to investigate ground surface deformation in unconsolidated sediments caused by dip-slip and strike-slip motion on bedrock faults. A 332.5 cm long, 200 cm high, and 40 cm wide sandbox was used in a dip-slip fault model test. In the strike-slip fault test, a 600 cm long, 250 cm wide, and 60 cm high sandbox and a 170 cm long, 25 cm wide, 15 cm high sandbox were used. Computerized X-ray tomography applied to the sandbox experiments made it possible to analyze the kinematic evolution, as well as the three-dimensional geometry, of the faults. The fault type, fault dip, fault displacement, thickness and density of sandpack and grain size of the sand were varied for different experiments. Field survey of active faults in Japan and California were also made to investigate the deformation of unconsolidated sediments overlying bedrock faults. A comparison of the experimental results with natural cases of active faults reveals the following: (1) In the case of dip-slip faulting, the shear bands are not shown as one linear plane but as en echelon pattern. Thicker and finer unconsolidated sediments produce more shear bands and clearer en echelon shear band patterns. (2) In the case of left-lateral strike-slip faulting, the deformation of the sand pack with increasing basement displacement is observed as follows. a) In three dimensions, the right-stepping shears that have a "cirque" / "shell" / "ship body" shape develop on both sides of the basement fault. The shears on one side of the basement fault join those on the other side, resulting in helicoidal shaped shear surfaces. Shears reach the surface of the sand near or above the basement fault and en echelon Riedel shears are observed at the surface of the sand. b) Right-stepping pressure ridges develop within the zone defined by the Riedel shears. c) Lower-angle shears generally branch off from the first Riedel shears. d) Right-stepping helicoidal shaped lower-angle shears offset Riedel shears and pressure ridges, and left-stepping and right-stepping pressure ridges are observed. d) With displacement concentrated on the central throughgoing fault zone, a "Zone of shear band" (ZSB) developed directly above the basement fault. The geometry of the ZSB shows a strong resemblance to linear ridge and trough geomorphology associated with active strike-slip faulting. (3) In the case of normal faulting, the location of the surface fault rupture is just above the bedrock faults, which have no relationship with the fault dip. On the other hand, the location of the surface rupture of the reverse fault has closely relationship with the fault dip. In the case of strike-slip faulting, the width of the deformation zone in dense sand is wider than that in loose sand. (4) The horizontal distance of surface rupture from the bedrock fault normalized by the height of sand mass (W/H) does not depend on the height of sand mass and grain size of sand. The values of W/H from the test agree well with those of earthquake faults. (5) The normalized base displacement required to propagate the shear rupture zone to the ground surface (D/H), in the case of normal faulting, is lower than those for reverse faulting and strike-slip faulting.

Constraining the slip distribution and fault geometry of the Mw 7.9, 3 November 2002, Denali fault earthquake with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar and Global Positioning System data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wright, Tim J.; Lu, Z.; Wicks, Charles

2004-01-01

The Mw 7.9, Denali fault earthquake (DFE) is the largest continental strike-slip earthquake to occur since the development of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). We use five interferograms, constructed using radar images from the Canadian Radarsat-1 satellite, to map the surface deformation at the western end of the fault rupture. Additional geodetic data are provided by displacements observed at 40 campaign and continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) sites. We use the data to determine the geometry of the Susitna Glacier fault, thrusting on which initiated the DFE, and to determine a slip model for the entire event that is consistent with both the InSAR and GPS data. We find there was an average of 7.3 ± 0.4 m slip on the Susitna Glacier fault, between 1 and 9.5 km depth on a 29 km long fault that dips north at 41 ± 0.7° and has a surface projection close to the mapped rupture. On the Denali fault, a simple model with large slip patches finds a maximum of 8.7 ± 0.7 m of slip between the surface and 14.3 ± 0.2 km depth. A more complex distributed slip model finds a peak of 12.5 ± 0.8 m in the upper 4 km, significantly higher than the observed surface slip. We estimate a geodetic moment of 670 ± 10 × 1018 N m (Mw 7.9), consistent with seismic estimates. Lack of preseismic data resulted in an absence of InSAR coverage for the eastern half of the DFE rupture. A dedicated geodetic InSAR mission could obviate coverage problems in the future.

Geomorphology, kinematic history, and earthquake behavior of the active Kuwana wedge thrust anticline, central Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishiyama, Tatsuya; Mueller, Karl; Togo, Masami; Okada, Atsumasa; Takemura, Keiji

2004-12-01

We combine surface mapping of fault and fold scarps that deform late Quaternary alluvial strata with interpretation of a high-resolution seismic reflection profile to develop a kinematic model and determine fault slip rates for an active blind wedge thrust system that underlies Kuwana anticline in central Japan. Surface fold scarps on Kuwana anticline are closely correlated with narrow fold limbs and angular hinges on the seismic profile that suggest at least ˜1.3 km of fault slip completely consumed by folding in the upper 4 km of the crust. The close coincidence and kinematic link between folded terraces and the underlying thrust geometry indicate that Kuwana anticline has accommodated slip at an average rate of 2.2 ± 0.5 mm/yr on a 27°, west dipping thrust fault since early-middle Pleistocene time. In contrast to classical fault bend folds the fault slip budget in the stacked wedge thrusts also indicates that (1) the fault tip propagated upward at a low rate relative to the accrual of fault slip and (2) fault slip is partly absorbed by numerous bedding plane flexural-slip faults above the tips of wedge thrusts. An historic earthquake that occurred on the Kuwana blind thrust system possibly in A.D. 1586 is shown to have produced coseismic surface deformation above the doubly vergent wedge tip. Structural analyses of Kuwana anticline coupled with tectonic geomorphology at 103-105 years timescales illustrate the significance of active folds as indicators of slip on underlying blind thrust faults and thus their otherwise inaccessible seismic hazards.

Sentinel-1 observation of the 2017 Sangsefid earthquake, northeastern Iran: Rupture of a blind reserve-slip fault near the Eastern Kopeh Dagh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Guangyu; Xu, Caijun; Wen, Yangmao

2018-04-01

New satellites are now revealing InSAR-based surface deformation within a week after natural hazard events. Quick hazard responses will be more publically accessible and provide information to responding agencies. Here we used Sentinel-1 interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data to investigate coseismic deformation associated with the 2017 Sangsefid earthquake, which occurred in the southeast margin of the Kopeh Dagh fault system. The ascending and descending interferograms indicate thrust-dominated slip, with the maximum line-of-sight displacement of 10.5 and 13.7 cm, respectively. The detailed slip-distribution of the 2017 Sangsefid Mw6.1 earthquake inferred from geodetic data is presented here for the first time. Although the InSAR interferograms themselves do not uniquely constrain what the primary slip surface is, we infer that the source fault dips to southwest by analyzing the 2.5 D displacement field decomposed from the InSAR observations. The determined uniform slip fault model shows that the dip angle of the seimogenic fault is approximately 40°, with a strike of 120° except for a narrower fault width than that predicted by the empirical scaling law. We suggest that geometric complexities near the Kopeh Dagh fault system obstruct the rupture propagation, resulting in high slip occurred within a small area and much higher stress drop than global estimates. The InSAR-determined moment is 1.71 × 1018 Nm with a shear modulus of 3.32 × 1010 N/m2, equivalent to Mw 6.12, which is consistent with seismological results. The finite fault model (the west-dipping fault plane) reveals that the peak slip of 0.90 m occurred at a depth of 6.3 km, with substantial slip at a depth of 4-10 km and a near-uniform slip of 0.1 m at a depth of 0-2.5 km. We suggest that the Sangsefid earthquake occurred on an unknown blind reverse fault dipping southwest, which can also be recognised through observing the long-term surface effects due to the existence of the blind fault.

The influence of topographic stresses on faulting, emphasizing the 2008 Wenchuan, China earthquake rupture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Styron, R. H.; Hetland, E. A.; Zhang, G.

2013-12-01

The weight of large mountains produces stresses in the crust that locally may be on the order of tectonic stresses (10-100 MPa). These stresses have a significant and spatially-variable deviatoric component that may be resolved as strong normal and shear stresses on range-bounding faults. In areas of high relief, the shear stress on faults can be comparable to inferred stress drops in earthquakes, and fault-normal stresses may be greater than 50 MPa, and thus may potentially influence fault rupture. Additionally, these stresses may be used to make inferences about the orientation and magnitude of tectonic stresses, for example by indicating a minimum stress needed to be overcome by tectonic stress. We are studying these effects in several tectonic environments, such as the Longmen Shan (China), the Denali fault (Alaska, USA) and the Wasatch Fault Zone (Utah, USA). We calculate the full topographic stress tensor field in the crust in a study region by convolution of topography with Green's functions approximating stresses from a point load on the surface of an elastic halfspace, using the solution proposed by Liu and Zoback [1992]. The Green's functions are constructed from Boussinesq's solutions for a vertical point load on an elastic halfspace, as well as Cerruti's solutions for a horizontal surface point load, accounting for irregular surface boundary and topographic spreading forces. The stress tensor field is then projected onto points embedded in the halfspace representing the faults, and the fault normal and shear stresses at each point are calculated. Our primary focus has been on the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, as this event occurred at the base of one of Earth's highest and steepest topographic fronts and had a complex and well-studied coseismic slip distribution, making it an ideal case study to evaluate topographic influence on faulting. We calculate the topographic stresses on the Beichuan and Pengguan faults, and compare the results to the coseismic slip distribution, considering several published fault models. These models differ primarily in slip magnitude and planar vs. listric fault geometry at depth. Preliminary results indicate that topographic stresses are generally resistive to tectonic deformation, especially above ~10 km depth, where the faults are steep in all models. Down-dip topographic shear stresses on the fault are normal sense where the faults dip steeply, and reach 20 MPa on the fault beneath the Pengguan massif. Reverse-sense shear up to ~15 MPa is present on gently-dipping thrust flats at depth on listric fault models. Strike-slip shear stresses are sinistral on the steep, upper portions of faults but may be dextral on thrust flats. Topographic normal stress on the faults reaches ~80 MPa on thrust ramps and may be higher on flats. Coseismic slip magnitude is negatively correlated with topographic normal and down-dip shear stresses. The spatial patterns of topographic stresses and slip suggest that topographic stresses have significantly suppressed slip in certain areas: slip maxima occur in areas of locally lower topographic stresses, while areas of higher down-dip shear and normal stress show less slip than adjacent regions.

Stressing of the New Madrid seismic zone by a lower crust detachment fault

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stuart, W.D.; Hildenbrand, T.G.; Simpson, R.W.

1997-01-01

A new mechanical model for the cause of the New Madrid seismic zone in the central United States is analyzed. The model contains a subhorizontal detachment fault which is assumed to be near the domed top surface of locally thickened anomalous lower crust ("rift pillow"). Regional horizontal compression induces slip on the fault, and the slip creates a stress concentration in the upper crust above the rift pillow dome. In the coseismic stage of the model earthquake cycle, where the three largest magnitude 7-8 earthquakes in 1811-1812 are represented by a single model mainshock on a vertical northeast trending fault, the model mainshock has a moment equivalent to a magnitude 8 event. During the interseismic stage, corresponding to the present time, slip on the detachment fault exerts a right-lateral shear stress on the locked vertical fault whose failure produces the model mainshock. The sense of shear is generally consistent with the overall sense of slip of 1811-1812 and later earthquakes. Predicted rates of horizontal strain at the ground surface are about 10-7 year-1 and are comparable to some observed rates. The model implies that rift pillow geometry is a significant influence on the maximum possible earthquake magnitude.

Passive bookshelf faulting driven by gravitational spreading as the cause of the tiger-stripe-fracture formation and development in the South Polar Terrain of Enceladus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, A.; Pappalardo, R. T.

2013-12-01

Detailed photogeologic mapping of the tiger-stripe fractures in the South Polar Terrain (SPT) of Enceladus indicates that these structures are left-slip faults and terminate at hook-shaped fold-thrust zones and/or Y-shaped horsetail splay-fault zones. The semi-square-shaped tectonic domain that hosts the tiger-stripe faults is bounded by right-slip and left-slip faults on the north and south edges and fold-thrust and extensional zones on the western and eastern edges. We explain the above observations by a passive bookshelf-faulting model in which individual tiger-stripe faults are bounded by deformable wall rocks accommodating distributed deformation. Based on topographic data, we suggest that gravitational spreading had caused the SPT to spread unevenly from west to east. This process was accommodated by right-slip and left-slip faulting on the north and south sides and thrusting and extension along the eastern and southern margins of the tiger-stripe tectonic domain. The uneven spreading, expressed by a gradual northward increase in the number of extensional faults and thrusts/folds along the western and eastern margins, was accommodated by distributed right-slip simple shear across the whole tiger-stripe tectonic domain. This mode of deformation in turn resulted in the development of a passive bookshelf-fault system characterized by left-slip faulting on individual tiger-stripe fractures.

Foreshock sequences and short-term earthquake predictability on East Pacific Rise transform faults.

PubMed

McGuire, Jeffrey J; Boettcher, Margaret S; Jordan, Thomas H

2005-03-24

East Pacific Rise transform faults are characterized by high slip rates (more than ten centimetres a year), predominantly aseismic slip and maximum earthquake magnitudes of about 6.5. Using recordings from a hydroacoustic array deployed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, we show here that East Pacific Rise transform faults also have a low number of aftershocks and high foreshock rates compared to continental strike-slip faults. The high ratio of foreshocks to aftershocks implies that such transform-fault seismicity cannot be explained by seismic triggering models in which there is no fundamental distinction between foreshocks, mainshocks and aftershocks. The foreshock sequences on East Pacific Rise transform faults can be used to predict (retrospectively) earthquakes of magnitude 5.4 or greater, in narrow spatial and temporal windows and with a high probability gain. The predictability of such transform earthquakes is consistent with a model in which slow slip transients trigger earthquakes, enrich their low-frequency radiation and accommodate much of the aseismic plate motion.

Statistical tests of simple earthquake cycle models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Devries, Phoebe M. R.; Evans, Eileen

2016-01-01

A central goal of observing and modeling the earthquake cycle is to forecast when a particular fault may generate an earthquake: a fault late in its earthquake cycle may be more likely to generate an earthquake than a fault early in its earthquake cycle. Models that can explain geodetic observations throughout the entire earthquake cycle may be required to gain a more complete understanding of relevant physics and phenomenology. Previous efforts to develop unified earthquake models for strike-slip faults have largely focused on explaining both preseismic and postseismic geodetic observations available across a few faults in California, Turkey, and Tibet. An alternative approach leverages the global distribution of geodetic and geologic slip rate estimates on strike-slip faults worldwide. Here we use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for similarity of distributions to infer, in a statistically rigorous manner, viscoelastic earthquake cycle models that are inconsistent with 15 sets of observations across major strike-slip faults. We reject a large subset of two-layer models incorporating Burgers rheologies at a significance level of α = 0.05 (those with long-term Maxwell viscosities ηM <~ 4.0 × 1019 Pa s and ηM >~ 4.6 × 1020 Pa s) but cannot reject models on the basis of transient Kelvin viscosity ηK. Finally, we examine the implications of these results for the predicted earthquake cycle timing of the 15 faults considered and compare these predictions to the geologic and historical record.

Earthquake and volcano clustering via stress transfer at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Parsons, T.; Thompson, G.A.; Cogbill, A.H.

2006-01-01

The proposed national high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain is close to Quaternary cinder cones and faults with Quaternary slip. Volcano eruption and earthquake frequencies are low, with indications of spatial and temporal clustering, making probabilistic assessments difficult. In an effort to identify the most likely intrusion sites, we based a three-dimensional finite-element model on the expectation that faulting and basalt intrusions are sensitive to the magnitude and orientation of the least principal stress in extensional terranes. We found that in the absence of fault slip, variation in overburden pressure caused a stress state that preferentially favored intrusions at Crater Flat. However, when we allowed central Yucca Mountain faults to slip in the model, we found that magmatic clustering was not favored at Crater Flat or in the central Yucca Mountain block. Instead, we calculated that the stress field was most encouraging to intrusions near fault terminations, consistent with the location of the most recent volcanism at Yucca Mountain, the Lathrop Wells cone. We found this linked fault and magmatic system to be mutually reinforcing in the model in that Lathrop Wells feeder dike inflation favored renewed fault slip. ?? 2006 Geological Society of America.

Postseismic deformation associated with the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, China: Constraining fault geometry and investigating a detailed spatial distribution of afterslip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Zhongshan; Yuan, Linguo; Huang, Dingfa; Yang, Zhongrong; Chen, Weifeng

2017-12-01

We reconstruct two types of fault models associated with the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, one is a listric fault connecting a shallowing sub-horizontal detachment below ∼20 km depth (fault model one, FM1) and the other is a group of more steeply dipping planes further extended to the Moho at ∼60 km depth (fault model two, FM2). Through comparative analysis of the coseismic inversion results, we confirm that the coseismic models are insensitive to the above two type fault geometries. We therefore turn our attention to the postseismic deformation obtained from GPS observations, which can not only impose effective constraints on the fault geometry but also, more importantly, provide valuable insights into the postseismic afterslip. Consequently, FM1 performs outstandingly in the near-, mid-, and far-field, whether considering the viscoelastic influence or not. FM2 performs more poorly, especially in the data-model consistency in the near field, which mainly results from the trade-off of the sharp contrast of the postseismic deformation on both sides of the Longmen Shan fault zone. Accordingly, we propose a listric fault connecting a shallowing sub-horizontal detachment as the optimal fault geometry for the Wenchuan earthquake. Based on the inferred optimal fault geometry, we analyse two characterized postseismic deformation phenomena that differ from the coseismic patterns: (1) the postseismic opposite deformation between the Beichuan fault (BCF) and Pengguan fault (PGF) and (2) the slightly left-lateral strike-slip motions in the southwestern Longmen Shan range. The former is attributed to the local left-lateral strike-slip and normal dip-slip components on the shallow BCF. The latter places constraints on the afterslip on the southwestern BCF and reproduces three afterslip concentration areas with slightly left-lateral strike-slip motions. The decreased Coulomb Failure Stress (CFS) change ∼0.322 KPa, derived from the afterslip with viscoelastic influence removed at the hypocentre of the Lushan earthquake, indicates that the postseismic left-lateral strike-slip and normal dip-slip motions may have a mitigative effect on the fault loading in the southwestern Longmen Shan range. Nevertheless, it is much smaller than the total increased CFS changes (∼8.368 KPa) derived from the coseismic and viscoelastic deformations.

Dislocation pileup as a representation of strain accumulation on a strike-slip fault

USGS Publications Warehouse

Savage, J.C.

2006-01-01

The conventional model of strain accumulation on a vertical transform fault is a discrete screw dislocation in an elastic half-space with the Burgers vector of the dislocation increasing at the rate of relative plate motion. It would be more realistic to replace that discrete dislocation by a dislocation distribution, presumably a pileup in which the individual dislocations are in equilibrium. The length of the pileup depends upon the applied stress and the amount of slip that has occurred at depth. I argue here that the dislocation pileup (the transition on the fault from no slip to slip at the full plate rate) occupies a substantial portion of the lithosphere thickness. A discrete dislocation at an adjustable depth can reproduce the surface deformation profile predicted by a pileup so closely that it will be difficult to distinguish between the two models. The locking depth (dislocation depth) of that discrete dislocation approximation is substantially (???30%) larger than that (depth to top of the pileup) in the pileup model. Thus, in inverting surface deformation data using the discrete dislocation model, the locking depth in the model should not be interpreted as the true locking depth. Although dislocation pileup models should provide a good explanation of the surface deformation near the fault trace, that explanation may not be adequate at greater distances from the fault trace because approximating the expected horizontally distributed deformation at subcrustal depths by uniform slip concentrated on the fault is not justified.

Transpressional Rupture Cascade of the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Wenbin; Feng, Guangcai; Meng, Lingsen; Zhang, Ailin; Ampuero, Jean Paul; Bürgmann, Roland; Fang, Lihua

2018-03-01

Large earthquakes often do not occur on a simple planar fault but involve rupture of multiple geometrically complex faults. The 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake, New Zealand, involved the rupture of at least 21 faults, propagating from southwest to northeast for about 180 km. Here we combine space geodesy and seismology techniques to study subsurface fault geometry, slip distribution, and the kinematics of the rupture. Our finite-fault slip model indicates that the fault motion changes from predominantly right-lateral slip near the epicenter to transpressional slip in the northeast with a maximum coseismic surface displacement of about 10 m near the intersection between the Kekerengu and Papatea faults. Teleseismic back projection imaging shows that rupture speed was overall slow (1.4 km/s) but faster on individual fault segments (approximately 2 km/s) and that the conjugate, oblique-reverse, north striking faults released the largest high-frequency energy. We show that the linking Conway-Charwell faults aided in propagation of rupture across the step over from the Humps fault zone to the Hope fault. Fault slip cascaded along the Jordan Thrust, Kekerengu, and Needles faults, causing stress perturbations that activated two major conjugate faults, the Hundalee and Papatea faults. Our results shed important light on the study of earthquakes and seismic hazard evaluation in geometrically complex fault systems.

Reproducing the scaling laws for Slow and Fast ruptures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romanet, Pierre; Bhat, Harsha; Madariaga, Raúl

2017-04-01

Modelling long term behaviour of large, natural fault systems, that are geometrically complex, is a challenging problem. This is why most of the research so far has concentrated on modelling the long term response of single planar fault system. To overcome this limitation, we appeal to a novel algorithm called the Fast Multipole Method which was developed in the context of modelling gravitational N-body problems. This method allows us to decrease the computational complexity of the calculation from O(N2) to O(N log N), N being the number of discretised elements on the fault. We then adapted this method to model the long term quasi-dynamic response of two faults, with step-over like geometry, that are governed by rate and state friction laws. We assume the faults have spatially uniform rate weakening friction. The results show that when stress interaction between faults is accounted, a complex spectrum of slip (including slow-slip events, dynamic ruptures and partial ruptures) emerges naturally. The simulated slow-slip and dynamic events follow the scaling law inferred by Ide et al. 2007 i. e. M ∝ T for slow-slip events and M ∝ T2 (in 2D) for dynamic events.

Numerical Study of Frictional Properties and the Role of Cohesive End-Zones in Large Strike- Slip Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lovely, P. J.; Mutlu, O.; Pollard, D. D.

2007-12-01

Cohesive end-zones (CEZs) are regions of increased frictional strength and/or cohesion near the peripheries of faults that cause slip distributions to taper toward the fault-tip. Laboratory results, field observations, and theoretical models suggest an important role for CEZs in small-scale fractures and faults; however, their role in crustal-scale faulting and associated large earthquakes is less thoroughly understood. We present a numerical study of the potential role of CEZs on slip distributions in large, multi-segmented, strike-slip earthquake ruptures including the 1992 Landers Earthquake (Mw 7.2) and 1999 Hector Mine Earthquake (Mw 7.1). Displacement discontinuity is calculated using a quasi-static, 2D plane-strain boundary element (BEM) code for a homogeneous, isotropic, linear-elastic material. Friction is implemented by enforcing principles of complementarity. Model results with and without CEZs are compared with slip distributions measured by combined inversion of geodetic, strong ground motion, and teleseismic data. Stepwise and linear distributions of increasing frictional strength within CEZs are considered. The incorporation of CEZs in our model enables an improved match to slip distributions measured by inversion, suggesting that CEZs play a role in governing slip in large, strike-slip earthquakes. Additionally, we present a parametric study highlighting the very great sensitivity of modeled slip magnitude to small variations of the coefficient of friction. This result suggests that, provided a sufficiently well-constrained stress tensor and elastic moduli for the surrounding rock, relatively simple models could provide precise estimates of the magnitude of frictional strength. These results are verified by comparison with geometrically comparable finite element (FEM) models using the commercial code ABAQUS. In FEM models, friction is implemented by use of both Lagrange multipliers and penalty methods.

Strike-slip fault propagation and linkage via work optimization with application to the San Jacinto fault, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madden, E. H.; McBeck, J.; Cooke, M. L.

2013-12-01

Over multiple earthquake cycles, strike-slip faults link to form through-going structures, as demonstrated by the continuous nature of the mature San Andreas fault system in California relative to the younger and more segmented San Jacinto fault system nearby. Despite its immaturity, the San Jacinto system accommodates between one third and one half of the slip along the boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. It therefore poses a significant seismic threat to southern California. Better understanding of how the San Jacinto system has evolved over geologic time and of current interactions between faults within the system is critical to assessing this seismic hazard accurately. Numerical models are well suited to simulating kilometer-scale processes, but models of fault system development are challenged by the multiple physical mechanisms involved. For example, laboratory experiments on brittle materials show that faults propagate and eventually join (hard-linkage) by both opening-mode and shear failure. In addition, faults interact prior to linkage through stress transfer (soft-linkage). The new algorithm GROW (GRowth by Optimization of Work) accounts for this complex array of behaviors by taking a global approach to fault propagation while adhering to the principals of linear elastic fracture mechanics. This makes GROW a powerful tool for studying fault interactions and fault system development over geologic time. In GROW, faults evolve to minimize the work (or energy) expended during deformation, thereby maximizing the mechanical efficiency of the entire system. Furthermore, the incorporation of both static and dynamic friction allows GROW models to capture fault slip and fault propagation in single earthquakes as well as over consecutive earthquake cycles. GROW models with idealized faults reveal that the initial fault spacing and the applied stress orientation control fault linkage propensity and linkage patterns. These models allow the gains in efficiency provided by both hard-linkage and soft-linkage to be quantified and compared. Specialized models of interactions over the past 1 Ma between the Clark and Coyote Creek faults within the San Jacinto system reveal increasing mechanical efficiency as these fault structures change over time. Alongside this increasing efficiency is an increasing likelihood for single, larger earthquakes that rupture multiple fault segments. These models reinforce the sensitivity of mechanical efficiency to both fault structure and the regional tectonic stress orientation controlled by plate motions and provide insight into how slip may have been partitioned between the San Andreas and San Jacinto systems over the past 1 Ma.

Testing Pixel Translation Digital Elevation Models to Reconstruct Slip Histories: An Example from the Agua Blanca Fault, Baja California, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, J.; Wetmore, P. H.; Malservisi, R.; Ferwerda, B. P.; Teran, O.

2012-12-01

We use recently collected slip vector and total offset data from the Agua Blanca fault (ABF) to constrain a pixel translation digital elevation model (DEM) to reconstruct the slip history of this fault. This model was constructed using a Perl script that reads a DEM file (Easting, Northing, Elevation) and a configuration file with coordinates that define the boundary of each fault segment. A pixel translation vector is defined as a magnitude of lateral offset in an azimuthal direction. The program translates pixels north of the fault and prints their pre-faulting position to a new DEM file that can be gridded and displayed. This analysis, where multiple DEMs are created with different translation vectors, allows us to identify areas of transtension or transpression while seeing the topographic expression in these areas. The benefit of this technique, in contrast to a simple block model, is that the DEM gives us a valuable graphic which can be used to pose new research questions. We have found that many topographic features correlate across the fault, i.e. valleys and ridges, which likely have implications for the age of the ABF, long term landscape evolution rates, and potentially provide conformation for total slip assessments The ABF of northern Baja California, Mexico is an active, dextral strike slip fault that transfers Pacific-North American plate boundary strain out of the Gulf of California and around the "Big Bend" of the San Andreas Fault. Total displacement on the ABF in the central and eastern parts of the fault is 10 +/- 2 km based on offset Early-Cretaceous features such as terrane boundaries and intrusive bodies (plutons and dike swarms). Where the fault bifurcates to the west, the northern strand (northern Agua Blanca fault or NABF) is constrained to 7 +/- 1 km. We have not yet identified piercing points on the southern strand, the Santo Tomas fault (STF), but displacement is inferred to be ~4 km assuming that the sum of slip on the NABF and STF is approximately equal to that to the east. The ABF has varying kinematics along strike due to changes in trend of the fault with respect to the nearly east-trending displacement vector of the Ensenada Block to the north of the fault relative to a stable Baja Microplate to the south. These kinematics include nearly pure strike slip in the central portion of the ABF where the fault trends nearly E-W, and minor components of normal dip-slip motion on the NABF and eastern sections of the fault where the trends become more northerly. A pixel translation vector parallel to the trend of the ABF in the central segment (290 deg, 10.5 km) produces kinematics consistent with those described above. The block between the NABF and STF has a pixel translation vector parallel the STF (291 deg, 3.5 km). We find these vectors are consistent with the kinematic variability of the fault system and realign several major drainages and ridges across the fault. This suggests these features formed prior to faulting, and they yield preferred values of offset: 10.5 km on the ABF, 7 km on the NABF and 3.5 km on the STF. This model is consistent with the kinematic model proposed by Hamilton (1971) in which the ABF is a transform fault, linking extensional regions of Valle San Felipe and the Continental Borderlands.

Slip Rates of Main Active Fault Zones Through Turkey Inferred From GPS Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ozener, H.; Aktug, B.; Dogru, A.; Tasci, L.; Acar, M.; Emre, O.; Yilmaz, O.; Turgut, B.; Halicioglu, K.; Sabuncu, A.; Bal, O.; Eraslan, A.

2015-12-01

Active Fault Map of Turkey was revised and published by General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration in 2012. This map reveals that there are about 500 faults can generate earthquakes.In order to understand the earthquake potential of these faults, it is needed to determine the slip rates. Although many regional and local studies were performed in the past, the slip rates of the active faults in Turkey have not been determined. In this study, the block modelling, which is the most common method to produce slip rates, will be done. GPS velocities required for block modeling is being compiled from the published studies and the raw data provided then velocity field is combined. To form a homogeneous velocity field, different stochastic models will be used and the optimal velocity field will be achieved. In literature, GPS site velocities, which are computed for different purposes and published, are combined globally and this combined velocity field are used in the analysis of strain accumulation. It is also aimed to develop optimal stochastic models to combine the velocity data. Real time, survey mode and published GPS observations is being combined in this study. We also perform new GPS observations. Furthermore, micro blocks and main fault zones from Active Fault Map Turkey will be determined and homogeneous velocity field will be used to infer slip rates of these active faults. Here, we present the result of first year of the study. This study is being supported by THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF TURKEY (TUBITAK)-CAYDAG with grant no. 113Y430.

Kinematics of the New Madrid seismic zone, central United States, based on stepover models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pratt, Thomas L.

2012-01-01

Seismicity in the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) of the central United States is generally attributed to a stepover structure in which the Reelfoot thrust fault transfers slip between parallel strike-slip faults. However, some arms of the seismic zone do not fit this simple model. Comparison of the NMSZ with an analog sandbox model of a restraining stepover structure explains all of the arms of seismicity as only part of the extensive pattern of faults that characterizes stepover structures. Computer models show that the stepover structure may form because differences in the trends of lower crustal shearing and inherited upper crustal faults make a step between en echelon fault segments the easiest path for slip in the upper crust. The models predict that the modern seismicity occurs only on a subset of the faults in the New Madrid stepover structure, that only the southern part of the stepover structure ruptured in the A.D. 1811–1812 earthquakes, and that the stepover formed because the trends of older faults are not the same as the current direction of shearing.

Implications of fault constitutive properties for earthquake prediction

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dieterich, J.H.; Kilgore, B.

1996-01-01

The rate- and state-dependent constitutive formulation for fault slip characterizes an exceptional variety of materials over a wide range of sliding conditions. This formulation provides a unified representation of diverse sliding phenomena including slip weakening over a characteristic sliding distance D(c), apparent fracture energy at a rupture front, time- dependent healing after rapid slip, and various other transient and slip rate effects. Laboratory observations and theoretical models both indicate that earthquake nucleation is accompanied by long intervals of accelerating slip. Strains from the nucleation process on buried faults generally could not be detected if laboratory values of D, apply to faults in nature. However, scaling of D(c) is presently an open question and the possibility exists that measurable premonitory creep may precede some earthquakes. Earthquake activity is modeled as a sequence of earthquake nucleation events. In this model, earthquake clustering arises from sensitivity of nucleation times to the stress changes induced by prior earthquakes. The model gives the characteristic Omori aftershock decay law and assigns physical interpretation to aftershock parameters. The seismicity formulation predicts large changes of earthquake probabilities result from stress changes. Two mechanisms for foreshocks are proposed that describe observed frequency of occurrence of foreshock-mainshock pairs by time and magnitude. With the first mechanism, foreshocks represent a manifestation of earthquake clustering in which the stress change at the time of the foreshock increases the probability of earthquakes at all magnitudes including the eventual mainshock. With the second model, accelerating fault slip on the mainshock nucleation zone triggers foreshocks.

Implications of fault constitutive properties for earthquake prediction.

PubMed

Dieterich, J H; Kilgore, B

1996-04-30

The rate- and state-dependent constitutive formulation for fault slip characterizes an exceptional variety of materials over a wide range of sliding conditions. This formulation provides a unified representation of diverse sliding phenomena including slip weakening over a characteristic sliding distance Dc, apparent fracture energy at a rupture front, time-dependent healing after rapid slip, and various other transient and slip rate effects. Laboratory observations and theoretical models both indicate that earthquake nucleation is accompanied by long intervals of accelerating slip. Strains from the nucleation process on buried faults generally could not be detected if laboratory values of Dc apply to faults in nature. However, scaling of Dc is presently an open question and the possibility exists that measurable premonitory creep may precede some earthquakes. Earthquake activity is modeled as a sequence of earthquake nucleation events. In this model, earthquake clustering arises from sensitivity of nucleation times to the stress changes induced by prior earthquakes. The model gives the characteristic Omori aftershock decay law and assigns physical interpretation to aftershock parameters. The seismicity formulation predicts large changes of earthquake probabilities result from stress changes. Two mechanisms for foreshocks are proposed that describe observed frequency of occurrence of foreshock-mainshock pairs by time and magnitude. With the first mechanism, foreshocks represent a manifestation of earthquake clustering in which the stress change at the time of the foreshock increases the probability of earthquakes at all magnitudes including the eventual mainshock. With the second model, accelerating fault slip on the mainshock nucleation zone triggers foreshocks.

Along-strike variations of the partitioning of convergence across the Haiyuan fault system detected by InSAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daout, S.; Jolivet, R.; Lasserre, C.; Doin, M.-P.; Barbot, S.; Tapponnier, P.; Peltzer, G.; Socquet, A.; Sun, J.

2016-04-01

Oblique convergence across Tibet leads to slip partitioning with the coexistence of strike-slip, normal and thrust motion on major fault systems. A key point is to understand and model how faults interact and accumulate strain at depth. Here, we extract ground deformation across the Haiyuan Fault restraining bend, at the northeastern boundary of the Tibetan plateau, from Envisat radar data spanning the 2001-2011 period. We show that the complexity of the surface displacement field can be explained by the partitioning of a uniform deep-seated convergence. Mountains and sand dunes in the study area make the radar data processing challenging and require the latest developments in processing procedures for Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometry. The processing strategy is based on a small baseline approach. Before unwrapping, we correct for atmospheric phase delays from global atmospheric models and digital elevation model errors. A series of filtering steps is applied to improve the signal-to-noise ratio across high ranges of the Tibetan plateau and the phase unwrapping capability across the fault, required for reliable estimate of fault movement. We then jointly invert our InSAR time-series together with published GPS displacements to test a proposed long-term slip-partitioning model between the Haiyuan and Gulang left-lateral Faults and the Qilian Shan thrusts. We explore the geometry of the fault system at depth and associated slip rates using a Bayesian approach and test the consistency of present-day geodetic surface displacements with a long-term tectonic model. We determine a uniform convergence rate of 10 [8.6-11.5] mm yr-1 with an N89 [81-97]°E across the whole fault system, with a variable partitioning west and east of a major extensional fault-jog (the Tianzhu pull-apart basin). Our 2-D model of two profiles perpendicular to the fault system gives a quantitative understanding of how crustal deformation is accommodated by the various branches of this thrust/strike-slip fault system and demonstrates how the geometry of the Haiyuan fault system controls the partitioning of the deep secular motion.

Interseismic deformation and moment deficit along the Manila subduction zone and the Philippine Fault system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsu, Y. J.; Yu, S. B.; Loveless, J. P.; Bacolcol, T.; Woessner, J.; Solidum, R., Jr.

2015-12-01

The Sunda plate converges obliquely with the Philippine Sea plate with a rate of ~100 mm/yr and results in the sinistral slip along the 1300 km-long Philippine fault. Using GPS data from 1998 to 2013 as well as a block modeling approach, we decompose the crustal motion into multiple rotating blocks and elastic deformation associated with fault slip at block boundaries. Our preferred model composed of 8 blocks, produces a mean residual velocity of 3.4 mm/yr at 93 GPS stations. Estimated long-term slip rates along the Manila subduction zone show a gradual southward decrease from 66 mm/yr at the northwest tip of Luzon to 60 mm/yr at the southern portion of the Manila Trench. We infer a low coupling fraction of 11% offshore northwest Luzon and a coupling fraction of 27% near the subduction of Scarborough Seamount. The accumulated strain along the Manila subduction zone at latitudes 15.5°~18.5°N could be balanced by earthquakes with composite magnitudes of Mw 8.7 and Mw 8.9 based on a recurrence interval of 500 years and 1000 years, respectively. Estimates of sinistral slip rates on the major splay faults of the Philippine fault system in central Luzon increase from east to west: sinistral slip rates are 2 mm/yr on the Dalton fault, 8 mm/yr on the Abra River fault, and 12 mm/yr on the Tubao fault. On the southern segment of the Philippine fault (Digdig fault), we infer left-lateral slip of ~20 mm/yr. The Vigan-Aggao fault in northwest Luzon exhibits significant reverse slip of up to 31 mm/yr, although deformation may be distributed across multiple offshore thrust faults. On the Northern Cordillera fault, we calculate left-lateral slip of ~7 mm/yr. Results of block modeling suggest that the majority of active faults in Luzon are fully locked to a depth of 15-20 km. Inferred moment magnitudes of inland large earthquakes in Luzon fall in the range of Mw 7.0-7.5 based on a recurrence interval of 100 years. Using the long-term plate convergence rate between the Sunda plate and Philippine Sea plate as well as seismic moment release rate, we calculate the moment budget for the entire Luzon plate boundary zone that could be balanced by earthquakes with a composite magnitude of ~Mw 9 based on recurrence intervals of 500-1000 years.

How Long Is Long Enough? Estimation of Slip-Rate and Earthquake Recurrence Interval on a Simple Plate-Boundary Fault Using 3D Paleoseismic Trenching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wechsler, N.; Rockwell, T. K.; Klinger, Y.; Agnon, A.; Marco, S.

2012-12-01

Models used to forecast future seismicity make fundamental assumptions about the behavior of faults and fault systems in the long term, but in many cases this long-term behavior is assumed using short-term and perhaps non-representative observations. The question arises - how long of a record is long enough to represent actual fault behavior, both in terms of recurrence of earthquakes and of moment release (aka slip-rate). We test earthquake recurrence and slip models via high-resolution three-dimensional trenching of the Beteiha (Bet-Zayda) site on the Dead Sea Transform (DST) in northern Israel. We extend the earthquake history of this simple plate boundary fault to establish slip rate for the past 3-4kyr, to determine the amount of slip per event and to study the fundamental behavior, thereby testing competing rupture models (characteristic, slip-patch, slip-loading, and Gutenberg Richter type distribution). To this end we opened more than 900m of trenches, mapped 8 buried channels and dated more than 80 radiocarbon samples. By mapping buried channels, offset by the DST on both sides of the fault, we obtained for each an estimate of displacement. Coupled with fault crossing trenches to determine event history, we construct earthquake and slip history for the fault for the past 2kyr. We observe evidence for a total of 9-10 surface-rupturing earthquakes with varying offset amounts. 6-7 events occurred in the 1st millennium, compared to just 2-3 in the 2nd millennium CE. From our observations it is clear that the fault is not behaving in a periodic fashion. A 4kyr old buried channel yields a slip rate of 3.5-4mm/yr, consistent with GPS rates for this segment. Yet in spite of the apparent agreement between GPS, Pleistocene to present slip rate, and the lifetime rate of the DST, the past 800-1000 year period appears deficit in strain release. Thus, in terms of moment release, most of the fault has remained locked and is accumulating elastic strain. In contrast, the preceding 1200 years or so experienced a spate of earthquake activity, with large events along the Jordan Valley segment alone in 31 BCE, 363, 749, and 1033 CE. Thus, the return period appears to vary by a factor of two to four during the historical period in the Jordan Valley as well as at our site. The Beteiha site seems to be affected by both its southern and northern neighboring segments, and there is tentative evidence that earthquakes nucleating in the Jordan Valley (e.g. 749 CE) can rupture through the Galilee step-over to the south of Beteiha, or trigger a smaller event on the Jordan Gorge segment, in which case the historical record will tend to amalgamate any evidence for it into one large event. We offer a model of earthquake slip for this segment, in which the overall slip rate remains constant, yet differing earthquake sizes can occur, depending on the segment from which they originated and the time since the last large event. The rate of earthquake production in this model does not produce a time predictable pattern over a period of 2kyr, and the slip rate varies between the 1st and 2nd millennia CE, as a result of the interplay between coalescing fault segments to the north.

Slip behaviour of experimental faults subjected to fluid pressure stimulation: carbonates vs. shales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Collettini, C.; Scuderi, M. M.; Marone, C.

2017-12-01

Fluid overpressure is one of the primary mechanisms for triggering tectonic fault slip and human-induced seismicity. This mechanism has been invoked to explain the dramatic increase in seismicity associated with waste water disposal in intra-plate setting, and it is appealing because fluids lubricate the fault and reduce the effective normal stress that holds the fault in place. Although, this basic physical mechanism is well understood, several fundamental questions remain including the apparent delay between fluid injection and seismicity, the role of fault zone rheology, and the relationship between injection volume and earthquake size. Moreover, models of earthquake nucleation predict that a reduction in normal stress, as expected for fluid overpressure, should stabilize fault slip. Here, we address these questions using laboratory experiments, conducted in the double direct shear configuration in a true-triaxial machine on carbonates and shale fault gouges. In particular, we: 1) evaluate frictional strength and permeability, 2) characterize the rate- and state- friction parameters and 3) study fault slip evolution during fluid pressure stimulations. With increasing fluid pressure, when shear and effective normal stresses reach the failure condition, in calcite gouges, characterized by slightly velocity strengthening behaviour, we observe an acceleration of slip that spontaneously evolves into dynamic failure. For shale gouges, with a strong rate-strengthening behaviour, we document complex fault slip behavior characterized by periodic accelerations and decelerations with slip velocity that remains slow (i.e. v 200 µm/s), never approaching dynamic slip rates. Our data indicate that fault rheology and fault stability is controlled by the coupling between fluid pressure and rate- and state- friction parameters suggesting that their comprehensive characterization is fundamental for assessing the role of fluid pressure in natural and human induced earthquakes.

Global strike-slip fault distribution on Enceladus reveals mostly left-lateral faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, E. S.; Kattenhorn, S. A.

2013-12-01

Within the outer solar system, normal faults are a dominant tectonic feature; however, strike-slip faults have played a role in modifying the surfaces of many icy bodies, including Europa, Ganymede, and Enceladus. Large-scale tectonic deformation in icy shells develops in response to stresses caused by a range of mechanisms including polar wander, despinning, volume changes, orbital recession/decay, diurnal tides, and nonsynchronous rotation (NSR). Icy shells often preserve this record of tectonic deformation as patterns of fractures that can be used to identify the source of stress responsible for creating the patterns. Previously published work on Jupiter's moon Europa found that right-lateral strike-slip faults predominantly formed in the southern hemisphere and left-lateral strike-slip faults in the northern hemisphere. This pattern suggested they were formed in the past by stresses induced by diurnal tidal forcing, and were then rotated into their current longitudinal positions by NSR. We mapped the distribution of strike-slip faults on Enceladus and used kinematic indicators, including tailcracks and en echelon fractures, to determine their sense of slip. Tailcracks are secondary fractures that form as a result of concentrations of stress at the tips of slipping faults with geometric patterns dictated by the slip sense. A total of 31 strike-slip faults were identified, nine of which were right-lateral faults, all distributed in a seemingly random pattern across Enceladus's surface, in contrast to Europa. Additionally, there is a dearth of strike-slip faults within the tectonized terrains centered at 90°W and within the polar regions north and south of 60°N and 60°S, respectively. The lack of strike-slip faults in the north polar region may be explained, in part, by limited data coverage. The south polar terrain (SPT), characterized by the prominent tiger stripes and south polar dichotomy, yielded no discrete strike-slip faults. This does not suggest that the SPT is devoid of shear: previous work has indicated that the tiger stripes may be undergoing strike-slip motions and the surrounding regions may be experiencing shear. The fracture patterns and geologic activity within the SPT have been previously documented to be the result of stresses induced by both NSR and diurnal tidal deformation. As these same mechanisms are the main controls on strike-slip fault patterns on Europa, the lack of a match between strike-slip patterns on Europa and Enceladus is intriguing. The pattern of strike-slip faults on Enceladus suggests a different combination of stress mechanisms is required to produce the observed distributions. We will present models of global stress mechanisms to consider how the global-scale pattern of strike-slip faults on Enceladus may have been produced. This problem will be investigated further by measuring the angles at which tailcracks have formed on Enceladus. Tailcracks produced by simple shear form at 70.5° to the fault. Any deviation from this angle indicates some ratio of concomitant shear and dilation, which may provide insights into elucidating the stresses controlling strike-slip formation on Enceladus.

Source characterization and dynamic fault modeling of induced seismicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lui, S. K. Y.; Young, R. P.

2017-12-01

In recent years there are increasing concerns worldwide that industrial activities in the sub-surface can cause or trigger damaging earthquakes. In order to effectively mitigate the damaging effects of induced seismicity, the key is to better understand the source physics of induced earthquakes, which still remain elusive at present. Furthermore, an improved understanding of induced earthquake physics is pivotal to assess large-magnitude earthquake triggering. A better quantification of the possible causes of induced earthquakes can be achieved through numerical simulations. The fault model used in this study is governed by the empirically-derived rate-and-state friction laws, featuring a velocity-weakening (VW) patch embedded into a large velocity-strengthening (VS) region. Outside of that, the fault is slipping at the background loading rate. The model is fully dynamic, with all wave effects resolved, and is able to resolve spontaneous long-term slip history on a fault segment at all stages of seismic cycles. An earlier study using this model has established that aseismic slip plays a major role in the triggering of small repeating earthquakes. This study presents a series of cases with earthquakes occurring on faults with different fault frictional properties and fluid-induced stress perturbations. The effects to both the overall seismicity rate and fault slip behavior are investigated, and the causal relationship between the pre-slip pattern prior to the event and the induced source characteristics is discussed. Based on simulation results, the subsequent step is to select specific cases for laboratory experiments which allow well controlled variables and fault parameters. Ultimately, the aim is to provide better constraints on important parameters for induced earthquakes based on numerical modeling and laboratory data, and hence to contribute to a physics-based induced earthquake hazard assessment.

Origins of oblique-slip faulting during caldera subsidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holohan, Eoghan P.; Walter, Thomas R.; Schöpfer, Martin P. J.; Walsh, John J.; van Wyk de Vries, Benjamin; Troll, Valentin R.

2013-04-01

Although conventionally described as purely dip-slip, faults at caldera volcanoes may have a strike-slip displacement component. Examples occur in the calderas of Olympus Mons (Mars), Miyakejima (Japan), and Dolomieu (La Reunion). To investigate this phenomenon, we use numerical and analog simulations of caldera subsidence caused by magma reservoir deflation. The numerical models constrain mechanical causes of oblique-slip faulting from the three-dimensional stress field in the initial elastic phase of subsidence. The analog experiments directly characterize the development of oblique-slip faulting, especially in the later, non-elastic phases of subsidence. The combined results of both approaches can account for the orientation, mode, and location of oblique-slip faulting at natural calderas. Kinematically, oblique-slip faulting originates to resolve the following: (1) horizontal components of displacement that are directed radially toward the caldera center and (2) horizontal translation arising from off-centered or "asymmetric" subsidence. We informally call these two origins the "camera iris" and "sliding trapdoor" effects, respectively. Our findings emphasize the fundamentally three-dimensional nature of deformation during caldera subsidence. They hence provide an improved basis for analyzing structural, geodetic, and geophysical data from calderas, as well as analogous systems, such as mines and producing hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Holocene geologic slip rate for the Banning strand of the southern San Andreas Fault, southern California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gold, Peter O.; Behr, Whitney M.; Rood, Dylan; Sharp, Warren D.; Rockwell, Thomas; Kendrick, Katherine J.; Salin, Aaron

2015-01-01

Northwest directed slip from the southern San Andreas Fault is transferred to the Mission Creek, Banning, and Garnet Hill fault strands in the northwestern Coachella Valley. How slip is partitioned between these three faults is critical to southern California seismic hazard estimates but is poorly understood. In this paper, we report the first slip rate measured for the Banning fault strand. We constrain the depositional age of an alluvial fan offset 25 ± 5 m from its source by the Banning strand to between 5.1 ± 0.4 ka (95% confidence interval (CI)) and 6.4 + 3.7/−2.1 ka (95% CI) using U-series dating of pedogenic carbonate clast coatings and 10Be cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating of surface clasts. We calculate a Holocene geologic slip rate for the Banning strand of 3.9 + 2.3/−1.6 mm/yr (median, 95% CI) to 4.9 + 1.0/−0.9 mm/yr (median, 95% CI). This rate represents only 25–35% of the total slip accommodated by this section of the southern San Andreas Fault, suggesting a model in which slip is less concentrated on the Banning strand than previously thought. In rejecting the possibility that the Banning strand is the dominant structure, our results highlight an even greater need for slip rate and paleoseismic measurements along faults in the northwestern Coachella Valley in order to test the validity of current earthquake hazard models. In addition, our comparison of ages measured with U-series and 10Be exposure dating demonstrates the importance of using multiple geochronometers when estimating the depositional age of alluvial landforms.

Geodetically inferred coseismic and postseismic slip due to the M 5.4 31 October 2007 Alum Rock earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Murray-Moraleda, J. R.; Simpson, R.W.

2009-01-01

On 31 October 2007 the M 5.4 Alum Rock earthquake occurred near the junction between the Hayward and Calaveras faults in the San Francisco Bay Area, producing coseismic and postseismic displacements recorded by 10 continuously operating Global Positioning System (GPS) instruments. The cumulative postseismic displacements over the four months following the earthquake are linearly related to the cumulative number of aftershocks and are comparable in magnitude to the coseis mic displacements. The postseismic signal suggests that, in addition to afterslip at seismogenic depths, localized right-lateral/reverse slip occurred on dipping shallow fault surfaces southwest of the Calaveras. The spatial distribution of slip inferred by inverting the GPS data is compatible with a model in which moderate Calaveras fault earthquakes rupture locked patches surrounded by areas of creep, afterslip, and microseismicity (Oppenheimer et al., 1990). If this model and existing Calaveras fault slip rate estimates are correct, a slip deficit remains on the 2007 Alum Rock rupture patch that may be made up by aseismic slip or slip in larger earthquakes. Recent studies (e.g., Manaker et al., 2005) suggest that at depth the Hayward and central Calaveras faults connect via a simple continuous surface illuminated by the Mission Seismic Trend (MST), implying that a damaging earthquake rupture could involve both faults (Graymer et al., 2008). If this geometry is correct, the combined coseismic and postseismic slip we infer for the 2007 Alum Rock event predicts static Coulomb stress increases of ???0:6 bar on the MST surface and on the northern Calaveras fault ???5 km northwest of the Alum Rock hypocenter.

Mechanical deformation model of the western United States instantaneous strain-rate field

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, F.F.; Vergnolle, M.

2006-01-01

We present a relationship between the long-term fault slip rates and instantaneous velocities as measured by Global Positioning System (GPS) or other geodetic measurements over a short time span. The main elements are the secularly increasing forces imposed by the bounding Pacific and Juan de Fuca (JdF) plates on the North American plate, viscoelastic relaxation following selected large earthquakes occurring on faults that are locked during their respective interseismic periods, and steady slip along creeping portions of faults in the context of a thin-plate system. In detail, the physical model allows separate treatments of faults with known geometry and slip history, faults with incomplete characterization (i.e. fault geometry but not necessarily slip history is available), creeping faults, and dislocation sources distributed between the faults. We model the western United States strain-rate field, derived from 746 GPS velocity vectors, in order to test the importance of the relaxation from historic events and characterize the tectonic forces imposed by the bounding Pacific and JdF plates. Relaxation following major earthquakes (M ??? 8.0) strongly shapes the present strain-rate field over most of the plate boundary zone. Equally important are lateral shear transmitted across the Pacific-North America plate boundary along ???1000 km of the continental shelf, downdip forces distributed along the Cascadia subduction interface, and distributed slip in the lower lithosphere. Post-earthquake relaxation and tectonic forcing, combined with distributed deep slip, constructively interfere near the western margin of the plate boundary zone, producing locally large strain accumulation along the San Andreas fault (SAF) system. However, they destructively interfere further into the plate interior, resulting in smaller and more variable strain accumulation patterns in the eastern part of the plate boundary zone. Much of the right-lateral strain accumulation along the SAF system is systematically underpredicted by models which account only for relaxation from known large earthquakes. This strongly suggests that in addition to viscoelastic-cycle effects, steady deep slip in the lower lithosphere is needed to explain the observed strain-rate field. ?? 2006 The Authors Journal compilation ?? 2006 RAS.

Development of the Elastic Rebound Strike-slip (ERS) Fault Model for Teaching Earthquake Science to Non-science Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glesener, G. B.; Peltzer, G.; Stubailo, I.; Cochran, E. S.; Lawrence, J. F.

2009-12-01

The Modeling and Educational Demonstrations Laboratory (MEDL) at the University of California, Los Angeles has developed a fourth version of the Elastic Rebound Strike-slip (ERS) Fault Model to be used to educate students and the general public about the process and mechanics of earthquakes from strike-slip faults. The ERS Fault Model is an interactive hands-on teaching tool which produces failure on a predefined fault embedded in an elastic medium, with adjustable normal stress. With the addition of an accelerometer sensor, called the Joy Warrior, the user can experience what it is like for a field geophysicist to collect and observe ground shaking data from an earthquake without having to experience a real earthquake. Two knobs on the ERS Fault Model control the normal and shear stress on the fault. Adjusting the normal stress knob will increase or decrease the friction on the fault. The shear stress knob displaces one side of the elastic medium parallel to the strike of the fault, resulting in changing shear stress on the fault surface. When the shear stress exceeds the threshold defined by the static friction of the fault, an earthquake on the model occurs. The accelerometer sensor then sends the data to a computer where the shaking of the model due to the sudden slip on the fault can be displayed and analyzed by the student. The experiment clearly illustrates the relationship between earthquakes and seismic waves. One of the major benefits to using the ERS Fault Model in undergraduate courses is that it helps to connect non-science students with the work of scientists. When students that are not accustomed to scientific thought are able to experience the scientific process first hand, a connection is made between the scientists and students. Connections like this might inspire a student to become a scientist, or promote the advancement of scientific research through public policy.

Evidence for slip partitioning and bimodal slip behavior on a single fault: Surface slip characteristics of the 2013 Mw7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Barnhart, William; Briggs, Richard; Reitman, Nadine G.; Gold, Ryan D.; Hayes, Gavin

2015-01-01

Deformation is commonly accommodated by strain partitioning on multiple, independent strike-slip and dip-slip faults in continental settings of oblique plate convergence. As a corollary, individual faults tend to exhibit one sense of slip – normal, reverse, or strike-slip – until whole-scale changes in boundary conditions reactivate preexisting faults in a new deformation regime. In this study, we show that a single continental fault may instead partition oblique strain by alternatively slipping in a strike-slip or a dip-slip sense during independent fault slip events. We use 0.5 m resolution optical imagery and sub-pixel correlation analysis of the 200+ km 200+km"> 2013 Mw7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake to document co-seismic surface slip characteristics and Quaternary tectonic geomorphology along the causative Hoshab fault. We find that the 2013 earthquake, which involved a ∼6:1 strike-slip to dip-slip ratio, ruptured a structurally segmented fault. Quaternary geomorphic indicators of gross fault-zone morphology reveal both reverse-slip and strike-slip deformation in the rupture area of the 2013 earthquake that varies systematically along fault strike despite nearly pure strike-slip motion in 2013. Observations of along-strike variations in range front relief and geomorphic offsets suggest that the Hoshab fault accommodates a substantial reverse component of fault slip in the Quaternary, especially along the southern section of the 2013 rupture. We surmise that Quaternary bimodal slip along the Hoshab fault is promoted by a combination of the arcuate geometry of the Hoshab fault, the frictional weakness of the Makran accretionary prism, and time variable loading conditions from adjacent earthquakes and plate interactions.

Evidence for slip partitioning and bimodal slip behavior on a single fault: Surface slip characteristics of the 2013 Mw7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnhart, W. D.; Briggs, R. W.; Reitman, N. G.; Gold, R. D.; Hayes, G. P.

2015-06-01

Deformation is commonly accommodated by strain partitioning on multiple, independent strike-slip and dip-slip faults in continental settings of oblique plate convergence. As a corollary, individual faults tend to exhibit one sense of slip - normal, reverse, or strike-slip - until whole-scale changes in boundary conditions reactivate preexisting faults in a new deformation regime. In this study, we show that a single continental fault may instead partition oblique strain by alternatively slipping in a strike-slip or a dip-slip sense during independent fault slip events. We use 0.5 m resolution optical imagery and sub-pixel correlation analysis of the 200 + km 2013 Mw7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake to document co-seismic surface slip characteristics and Quaternary tectonic geomorphology along the causative Hoshab fault. We find that the 2013 earthquake, which involved a ∼6:1 strike-slip to dip-slip ratio, ruptured a structurally segmented fault. Quaternary geomorphic indicators of gross fault-zone morphology reveal both reverse-slip and strike-slip deformation in the rupture area of the 2013 earthquake that varies systematically along fault strike despite nearly pure strike-slip motion in 2013. Observations of along-strike variations in range front relief and geomorphic offsets suggest that the Hoshab fault accommodates a substantial reverse component of fault slip in the Quaternary, especially along the southern section of the 2013 rupture. We surmise that Quaternary bimodal slip along the Hoshab fault is promoted by a combination of the arcuate geometry of the Hoshab fault, the frictional weakness of the Makran accretionary prism, and time variable loading conditions from adjacent earthquakes and plate interactions.

Limit on slip rate and timing of recent seismic ground-ruptures on the Jinghong fault, SE of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Xuhua; Weldon, Ray; Liu-Zeng, Jing; Wang, Yu; Weldon, Elise; Sieh, Kerry; Li, Zhigang; Zhang, Jinyu; Yao, Wenqian; Li, Zhanfei

2018-06-01

Quantifying slip rates and earthquake occurrence of active faults on the Shan Plateau, southeast of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, is critical to assessing the seismic hazard and understanding the kinematics and geodynamics of this region. Most previous estimates of slip rates are averaged over either many millions of years using offset geological markers or decades using GPS. Well-constrained millennial slip rates of these faults remain sparse and constraints on recurrence rates of damaging earthquakes exist only for a few faults. Here we investigate the millennial slip rate and timing of recent earthquakes on the Jinghong fault, one of the geomorphically most significant sinistral-slip faults on the central Shan Plateau. We map and reconstruct fault offset (18 ± 5 m) of alluvial fan features at Manpa on the central Jinghong fault, using a 0.1 m-resolution digital surface model obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle survey. We establish a slip rate, ≤2.5 ± 0.7 mm/yr over the past 7000 years, using pit-exposed stratigraphy. This millennial slip rate is consistent with rates averaged over both decadal and million-year timescales. Excavations at three sites near the town of Gelanghe on the northeastern Jinghong fault demonstrate 1) that the last seismic ground-rupture occurred between 482 and 889 cal yr BP, most likely in the narrower window 824-767 cal yr BP, if the lack of large earthquakes in the historical earthquake record is reliable, and 2) that multiple fault ruptures have occurred since 3618 cal yr BP. Combining this finding with a lack of large earthquakes in the 800-year-long Chinese historic record in this region, we suggest an average recurrence interval of seismic ground-ruptures on the order of 1000 years. This recurrence interval is consistent with the slip rate of the Jinghong fault and the size and earthquake frequency on other sinistral faults on the Shan Plateau.

Palaeostress perturbations near the El Castillo de las Guardas fault (SW Iberian Massif)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García-Navarro, Encarnación; Fernández, Carlos

2010-05-01

Use of stress inversion methods on faults measured at 33 sites located at the northwestern part of the South Portuguese Zone (Variscan Iberian Massif), and analysis of the basic dyke attitude at this same region, has revealed a prominent perturbation of the stress trajectories around some large, crustal-scale faults, like the El Castillo de las Guardas fault. The results are compared with the predictions of theoretical models of palaeostress deviations near master faults. According to this comparison, the El Castillo de las Guardas fault, an old structure that probably reversed several times its slip sense, can be considered as a sinistral strike-slip fault during the Moscovian. These results also point out the main shortcomings that still hinder a rigorous quantitative use of the theoretical models of stress perturbations around major faults: the spatial variation in the parameters governing the brittle behaviour of the continental crust, and the possibility of oblique slip along outcrop-scale faults in regions subjected to general, non-plane strain.

Slicing up the San Francisco Bay Area: Block kinematics and fault slip rates from GPS-derived surface velocities

USGS Publications Warehouse

d'Alessio, M. A.; Johanson, I.A.; Burgmann, R.; Schmidt, D.A.; Murray, M.H.

2005-01-01

Observations of surface deformation allow us to determine the kinematics of faults in the San Francisco Bay Area. We present the Bay Area velocity unification (BA??VU??, "bay view"), a compilation of over 200 horizontal surface velocities computed from campaign-style and continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) observations from 1993 to 2003. We interpret this interseismic velocity field using a three-dimensional block model to determine the relative contributions of block motion, elastic strain accumulation, and shallow aseismic creep. The total relative motion between the Pacific plate and the rigid Sierra Nevada/Great Valley (SNGV) microplate is 37.9 ?? 0.6 mm yr-1 directed toward N30.4??W ?? 0.8?? at San Francisco (??2??). Fault slip rates from our preferred model are typically within the error bounds of geologic estimates but provide a better fit to geodetic data (notable right-lateral slip rates in mm yr-1: San Gregorio fault, 2.4 ?? 1.0; West Napa fault, 4.0 ?? 3.0; zone of faulting along the eastern margin of the Coast Range, 5.4 ?? 1.0; and Mount Diablo thrust, 3.9 ?? 1.0 of reverse slip and 4.0 ?? 0.2 of right-lateral strike slip). Slip on the northern Calaveras is partitioned between both the West Napa and Concord/ Green Valley fault systems. The total convergence across the Bay Area is negligible. Poles of rotation for Bay Area blocks progress systematically from the North America-Pacific to North America-SNGV poles. The resulting present-day relative motion cannot explain the strike of most Bay Area faults, but fault strike does loosely correlate with inferred plate motions at the time each fault initiated. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

Source Process of the 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake Derived from Near-fault Strong Motion Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoi, S.; Sekiguchi, H.; Morikawa, N.; Ozawa, T.; Kunugi, T.; Shirasaka, M.

2007-12-01

The 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu-oki earthquake occurred on July 16th, 2007, 10:13 JST. We performed a multi- time window linear waveform inversion analysis (Hartzell and Heaton, 1983) to estimate the rupture process from the near fault strong motion data of 14 stations from K-NET, KiK-net, F-net, JMA, and Niigata prefecture. The fault plane for the mainshock has not been clearly determined yet from the aftershock distribution, so that we performed two waveform inversions for north-west dipping fault (Model A) and south-east dipping fault (Model B). Their strike, dip, and rake are set to those of the moment tensor solutions by F-net. Fault plane model of 30 km length by 24 km width is set to cover aftershock distribution within 24 hours after the mainshock. Theoretical Green's functions were calculated by the discrete wavenumber method (Bouchon, 1981) and the R/T matrix method (Kennett, 1983) with the different stratified medium for each station based on the velocity structure including the information form the reflection survey and borehole logging data. Convolution of moving dislocation was introduced to represent the rupture propagation in an each subfault (Sekiguchi et al., 2002). The observed acceleration records were integrated into velocity except of F-net velocity data, and bandpass filtered between 0.1 and 1.0 Hz. We solved least-squared equation to obtain slip amount of each time window on each subfault to minimize squared residual of the waveform fitting between observed and synthetic waveforms. Both models provide moment magnitudes of 6.7. Regarding Model A, we obtained large slip in the south-west deeper part of the rupture starting point, which is close to Kashiwazaki-city. The second or third velocity pulses of observed velocity waveforms seem to be composed of slip from the asperity. Regarding Model B, we obtained large slip in the southwest shallower part of the rupture starting point, which is also close to Kashiwazaki-city. In both models, we found small slip near the rupture starting point, and largest slip at about ten kilometer in the south-west of the rupture starting point with the maximum slip of 2.3 and 2.5 m for Models A and B, respectively. The difference of the residual between observed and synthetic waveforms for both models is not significant, therefore it is difficult to conclude which fault plane is appropriate to explain. The estimated large-slip regions in the inverted source models with the Models A and B are located near the cross point of the two fault plane models, which should have similar radiation pattern. This situation may be one of the reasons why judgment of the fault plane orientation is such difficult. We need careful examinations not only strong motion data but also geodetic data to further explore the fault orientation and the source process of this earthquake.

Characteristics of aperiodic sequence of slip events caused by interaction between seismic patches and that caused be self-organized stress heterogeneity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kato, N.

2017-12-01

Numerical simulations of earthquake cycles are conducted to investigate the origin of complexity of earthquake recurrence. There are two main causes of the complexity. One is self-organized stress heterogeneity due to dynamical effect. The other is the effect of interaction between some fault patches. In the model, friction on the fault is assumed to obey a rate- and state-dependent friction law. Circular patches of velocity-weakening frictional property are assumed on the fault. On the remaining areas of the fault, velocity-strengthening friction is assumed. We consider three models: Single patch model, two-patch model, and three-patch model. In the first model, the dynamical effect is mainly examined. The latter two models take into consideration the effect of interaction as well as the dynamical effect. Complex multiperiodic or aperiodic sequences of slip events occur when slip behavior changes from the seismic to aseismic, and when the degree of interaction between seismic patches is intermediate. The former is observed in all the models, and the latter is observed in the two-patch model and the three-patch model. Evolution of spatial distribution of shear stress on the fault suggests that aperiodicity at the transition from seismic to aseismic slip is caused by self-organized stress heterogeneity. The iteration maps of recurrence intervals of slip events in aperiodic sequences are examined, and they are approximately expressed by simple curves for aperiodicity at the transition from seismic to aseismic slip. In contrast, the iteration maps for aperiodic sequences caused by interaction between seismic patches are scattered and they are not expressed by simple curves. This result suggests that complex sequences caused by different mechanisms may be distinguished.

Back analysis of fault-slip in burst prone environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sainoki, Atsushi; Mitri, Hani S.

2016-11-01

In deep underground mines, stress re-distribution induced by mining activities could cause fault-slip. Seismic waves arising from fault-slip occasionally induce rock ejection when hitting the boundary of mine openings, and as a result, severe damage could be inflicted. In general, it is difficult to estimate fault-slip-induced ground motion in the vicinity of mine openings because of the complexity of the dynamic response of faults and the presence of geological structures. In this paper, a case study is conducted for a Canadian underground mine, herein called "Mine-A", which is known for its seismic activities. Using a microseismic database collected from the mine, a back analysis of fault-slip is carried out with mine-wide 3-dimensional numerical modeling. A back analysis is conducted to estimate the physical and mechanical properties of the causative fracture or shear zones. One large seismic event has been selected for the back analysis to detect a fault-slip related seismic event. In the back analysis, the shear zone properties are estimated with respect to moment magnitude of the seismic event and peak particle velocity (PPV) recorded by a strong ground motion sensor. The estimated properties are then validated through comparison with peak ground acceleration recorded by accelerometers. Lastly, ground motion in active mining areas is estimated by conducting dynamic analysis with the estimated values. The present study implies that it would be possible to estimate the magnitude of seismic events that might occur in the near future by applying the estimated properties to the numerical model. Although the case study is conducted for a specific mine, the developed methodology can be equally applied to other mines suffering from fault-slip related seismic events.

Earthquakes and aseismic creep associated with growing fault-related folds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burke, C. C.; Johnson, K. M.

2017-12-01

Blind thrust faults overlain by growing anticlinal folds pose a seismic risk to many urban centers in the world. A large body of research has focused on using fold and growth strata geometry to infer the rate of slip on the causative fault and the distribution of off-fault deformation. However, because we have had few recorded large earthquakes on blind faults underlying folds, it remains unclear how much of the folding occurs during large earthquakes or during the interseismic period accommodated by aseismic creep. Numerous kinematic and mechanical models as well as field observations demonstrate that flexural slip between sedimentary layering is an important mechanism of fault-related folding. In this study, we run boundary element models of flexural-slip fault-related folding to examine the extent to which energy is released seismically or aseismically throughout the evolution of the fold and fault. We assume a fault imbedded in viscoelastic mechanical layering under frictional contact. We assign depth-dependent frictional properties and adopt a rate-state friction formulation to simulate slip over time. We find that in many cases, a large percentage (greater than 50%) of fold growth is accomplished by aseismic creep at bedding and fault contacts. The largest earthquakes tend to occur on the fault, but a significant portion of the seismicity is distributed across bedding contacts through the fold. We are currently working to quantify these results using a large number of simulations with various fold and fault geometries. Result outputs include location, duration, and magnitude of events. As more simulations are completed, these results from different fold and fault geometries will provide insight into how much folding occurs from these slip events. Generalizations from these simulations can be compared with observations of active fault-related folds and used in the future to inform seismic hazard studies.

Stress concentrations at structural discontinuities in active fault zones in the western United States: Implications for permeability and fluid flow in geothermal fields

USGS Publications Warehouse

Siler, Drew; Hinz, Nicholas H.; Faulds, James E.

2018-01-01

Slip can induce concentration of stresses at discontinuities along fault systems. These structural discontinuities, i.e., fault terminations, fault step-overs, intersections, bends, and other fault interaction areas, are known to host fluid flow in ore deposition systems, oil and gas reservoirs, and geothermal systems. We modeled stress transfer associated with slip on faults with Holocene-to-historic slip histories at the Salt Wells and Bradys geothermal systems in western Nevada, United States. Results show discrete locations of stress perturbation within discontinuities along these fault systems. Well field data, surface geothermal manifestations, and subsurface temperature data, each a proxy for modern fluid circulation in the fields, indicate that geothermal fluid flow is focused in these same areas where stresses are most highly perturbed. These results suggest that submeter- to meter-scale slip on these fault systems generates stress perturbations that are sufficiently large to promote slip on an array of secondary structures spanning the footprint of the modern geothermal activity. Slip on these secondary faults and fractures generates permeability through kinematic deformation and allows for transmission of fluids. Still, mineralization is expected to seal permeability along faults and fractures over time scales that are generally shorter than either earthquake recurrence intervals or the estimated life span of geothermal fields. This suggests that though stress perturbations resulting from fault slip are broadly important for defining the location and spatial extent of enhanced permeability at structural discontinuities, continual generation and maintenance of flow conduits throughout these areas are probably dependent on the deformation mechanism(s) affecting individual structures.

New constraints on slip rates and locking depths of the San Andreas Fault System from Sentinel-1A InSAR and GAGE GPS observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, L. A.; Smith-Konter, B. R.; Higa, J. T.; Xu, X.; Tong, X.; Sandwell, D. T.

2017-12-01

After over a decade of operation, the EarthScope (GAGE) Facility has now accumulated a wealth of GPS and InSAR data, that when successfully integrated, make it possible to image the entire San Andreas Fault System (SAFS) with unprecedented spatial coverage and resolution. Resulting surface velocity and deformation time series products provide critical boundary conditions needed for improving our understanding of how faults are loaded across a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. Moreover, our understanding of how earthquake cycle deformation is influenced by fault zone strength and crust/mantle rheology is still developing. To further study these processes, we construct a new 4D earthquake cycle model of the SAFS representing the time-dependent 3D velocity field associated with interseismic strain accumulation, co-seismic slip, and postseismic viscoelastic relaxation. This high-resolution California statewide model, spanning the Cerro Prieto fault to the south to the Maacama fault to the north, is constructed on a 500 m spaced grid and comprises variable slip and locking depths along 42 major fault segments. Secular deep slip is prescribed from the base of the locked zone to the base of the elastic plate while episodic shallow slip is prescribed from the historical earthquake record and geologic recurrence intervals. Locking depths and slip rates for all 42 fault segments are constrained by the newest GAGE Facility geodetic observations; 3169 horizontal GPS velocity measurements, combined with over 53,000 line-of-sight (LOS) InSAR velocity observations from Sentinel-1A, are used in a weighted least-squares inversion. To assess slip rate and locking depth sensitivity of a heterogeneous rheology model, we also implement variations in crustal rigidity throughout the plate boundary, assuming a coarse representation of shear modulus variability ranging from 20-40 GPa throughout the (low rigidity) Salton Trough and Basin and Range and the (high rigidity) Central Valley and ocean lithosphere.

West-directed thrusting south of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis indicates clockwise crustal flow at the indenter corner during the India-Asia collision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haproff, Peter J.; Zuza, Andrew V.; Yin, An

2018-01-01

Whether continental deformation is accommodated by microplate motion or continuum flow is a central issue regarding the nature of Cenozoic deformation surrounding the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. The microplate model predicts southeastward extrusion of rigid blocks along widely-spaced strike-slip faults, whereas the crustal-flow model requires clockwise crustal rotation along closely-spaced, semi-circular right-slip faults around the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. Although global positioning system (GPS) data support the crustal-flow model, the surface velocity field provides no information on the evolution of the India-Asia orogenic system at million-year scales. In this work, we present the results of systematic geologic mapping across the northernmost segment of the Indo-Burma Ranges, located directly southeast of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. Early research inferred the area to have experienced either right-slip faulting accommodating northward indentation of India or thrusting due to the eastward continuation of the Himalayan orogen in the Cenozoic. Our mapping supports the presence of dip-slip thrust faults, rather than strike-slip faults. Specifically, the northern Indo-Burma Ranges exposes south- to west-directed ductile thrust shear zones in the hinterland and brittle fault zones in the foreland. The trends of ductile stretching lineations within thrust shear zones and thrust sheets rotate clockwise from the northeast direction in the northern part of the study area to the east direction in the southern part of the study area. This clockwise deflection pattern of lineations around the eastern Himalayan syntaxis mirrors the clockwise crustal-rotation pattern as suggested by the crustal-flow model and contemporary GPS velocity field. However, our finding is inconsistent with discrete strike-slip deformation in the area and the microplate model.

Salton Trough Post-seismic Afterslip, Viscoelastic Response, and Contribution to Regional Hazard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, J. W.; Donnellan, A.; Lyzenga, G. A.

2012-12-01

The El Mayor-Cucapah M7.2 April 4 2010 earthquake in Baja California may have affected accumulated hazard to Southern California cities due to loading of regional faults including the Elsinore, San Jacinto and southern San Andreas, faults which already have over a century of tectonic loading. We examine changes observed via multiple seismic and geodetic techniques, including micro seismicity and proposed seismicity-based indicators of hazard, high-quality fault models, the Plate Boundary Observatory GNSS array (with 174 stations showing post-seismic transients with greater than 1 mm amplitude), and interferometric radar maps from UAVSAR (aircraft) flights, showing a network of aseismic fault slip events at distances up to 60 km from the end of the surface rupture. Finite element modeling is used to compute the expected coseismic motions at GPS stations with general agreement, including coseismic uplift at sites ~200 km north of the rupture. Postseismic response is also compared, with GNSS and also with the CIG software "RELAX." An initial examination of hazard is made comparing micro seismicity-based metrics, fault models, and changes to coulomb stress on nearby faults using the finite element model. Comparison of seismicity with interferograms and historic earthquakes show aseismic slip occurs on fault segments that have had earthquakes in the last 70 years, while other segments show no slip at the surface but do show high triggered seismicity. UAVSAR-based estimates of fault slip can be incorporated into the finite element model to correct Coloumb stress change.

Earthquake slip weakening and asperities explained by thermal pressurization.

PubMed

Wibberley, Christopher A J; Shimamoto, Toshihiko

2005-08-04

An earthquake occurs when a fault weakens during the early portion of its slip at a faster rate than the release of tectonic stress driving the fault motion. This slip weakening occurs over a critical distance, D(c). Understanding the controls on D(c) in nature is severely limited, however, because the physical mechanism of weakening is unconstrained. Conventional friction experiments, typically conducted at slow slip rates and small displacements, have obtained D(c) values that are orders of magnitude lower than values estimated from modelling seismological data for natural earthquakes. Here we present data on fluid transport properties of slip zone rocks and on the slip zone width in the centre of the Median Tectonic Line fault zone, Japan. We show that the discrepancy between laboratory and seismological results can be resolved if thermal pressurization of the pore fluid is the slip-weakening mechanism. Our analysis indicates that a planar fault segment with an impermeable and narrow slip zone will become very unstable during slip and is likely to be the site of a seismic asperity.

Coseismic and Afterslip Model Related to 25 April 2015, Mw7.8 Gorkha, Nepal Earthquake and its Potential Future Risk Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, S.; Xu, C.; Jiang, G.

2016-12-01

Evidences from geologic, geophysical and geomorphic prove that 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha(Nepal) earthquake happened on the two ramp-flats fault structure of Main Himalayan Thrust(MHT). We approximated this more realistic fault model by a smooth curved fault surface, which was derived by the method of hybrid iterative inversion algorithm(HIIA) with additional constraints from coseismic geodetic data. Then the coseismic slip distribution of 2015 Gorkha earthquake was imaged based on this curved variably triangular sized fault model. The inverted maximum thrust and right-lateral slip components are 6 and 1.5 m, respectively, with the maximum slip magnitude 6.2 m located at a depth of 15 km. The released seismic moment derived from our best slip model is 8.58×1020 Nm, equivalent to a moment magnitude of Mw 7.89. We find two interesting tongue-shape slip areas, the maximum slip is about 1.5 m, along the up-dip of fault plane, which tappers off at the depth of 7 km, the up-dip propagation of ruptures may be impeded by the complicated geometry structures on the MHT interface. Coulomb Failure Stress(CFS), triggered by our optimal slip model, indicating a potential shallower rupture in the future. Considering historical earthquakes distribution and the calculated strain and strain gradient before this earthquake, earthquakes are expected to occur in the northwest areas of the epicenter. The spatio-temporal afterslip model over the first 180 days following the Mw 7.8 main shock was infered from the post-seismic GPS time series. One significant afterslip region can be observed in the downdip of the regions that ruptured by coseismic slip. Another afterslip region arresting our attention, is located around 40 km depth, with about 180 mm slip amplitude, but tappers off at the depth of 50 km. What's more, afterslip mainly occurs within 100 days after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. Under the assumption of rigidity modulus u = 30 GPa, the released seismic moment by afterslip corresponding to 8.0×1019 Nm, equivalent moment magnitude is Mw 7.23. Our coseismic and afterslip models are in line with previous studies, but with a more accurate geometric fault model.

The 2017 Jiuzhaigou Earthquake: A Complicated Event Occurred in a Young Fault System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Jianbao; Yue, Han; Shen, Zhengkang; Fang, Lihua; Zhan, Yan; Sun, Xiangyu

2018-03-01

The Minshan Uplift Zone (MUZ) is located at the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, which is the junction of three tectonic terranes. The observed discrepancy between a high uplifting and low shortening rate over the MUZ is attributed to the intrusion of a viscous lower crust. In the last 50 years, several significant earthquakes occurred at the boundaries of the MUZ, that is, the Huya and Mingjiang faults. On 8 August 2017, the Jiuzhaigou earthquake (Mw 6.5) occurred on the northern extension of the Huya fault. We adopt a joint inversion of the interferometric synthetic aperture radar and teleseismic body wave data to investigate the rupture process of this event. The obtained slip model is dominated by left-lateral strike slips on a subvertical fault presenting significant shallow slip deficit. The rupture initiation is composed of both thrust and strike-slip mechanisms producing a non-double-couple solution. We also resolve a secondary fault branch forming an obtuse angle with the main fault plane at its northern end. These phenomena indicate that the northern Huya fault is a young (less mature) fault system. Focal mechanisms of the regional earthquakes demonstrate that the northern and southern Huya faults present different combinations of strike-slip and reversed motion. We attribute such discrepancy to the lateral extension of the viscous lower crust, which appears to extrude to the east beyond the northern Huya fault, in comparison with that confined under the MUZ near the southern Huya fault. This conceptual model is also supported by geomorphological and magnetotelluric observations.

Fault Slip Partitioning in the Eastern California Shear Zone-Walker Lane Belt: Pliocene to Late Pleistocene Contraction Across the Mina Deflection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, J.; Stockli, D.; Gosse, J.

2007-12-01

Two different mechanisms have been proposed for fault slip transfer between the subparallel NW-striking dextral- slip faults that dominant the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ)-Walker Lane Belt (WLB). In the northern WLB, domains of sinistral-slip along NE-striking faults and clockwise block rotation within a zone of distributed deformation accommodated NW-dextral shear. A somewhat modified version of this mechanism was also proposed for the Mina deflection, southern WLB, whereby NE-striking sinistral faults formed as conjugate faults to the primary zone of NW-dextral shear; clockwise rotation of the blocks bounding the sinistral faults accommodated dextral slip. In contrast, in the northern ECSZ and Mina deflection, domains of NE-striking pure dip-slip normal faults, bounded by NW-striking dextral-slip faults, exhibited no rotation; the proposed mechanism of slip transfer was one of right-stepping, high angle normal faults in which the magnitude of extension was proportional to the amount of strike-slip motion transferred. New geologic mapping, tectonic geomorphologic, and geochronologic data from the Queen Valley area, southern Mina deflection constrain Pliocene to late Quaternary fault geometries, slip orientations, slip magnitudes, and slip rates that bear on the mechanism of fault slip transfer from the relatively narrow northern ECSZ to the broad deformation zone that defines the Mina deflection. Four different fault types and orientations cut across the Queen Valley area: (1) The NE-striking normal-slip Queen Valley fault; (2) NE-striking sinistral faults; (3) the NW-striking dextral Coyote Springs fault, which merges into (4) a set of EW-striking thrust faults. (U-Th)/He apatite and cosmogenic radionuclide data, combined with magnitude of fault offset measurements, indicate a Pliocene to late Pleistocene horizontal extension rate of 0.2-0.3 mm/yr across the Queen Valley fault. Our results, combined with published slip rates for the dextral White Mountain fault zone (0.3-0.8 mm/yr) and the eastern sinistral Coaldale fault (0.4 mm/yr) suggest that transfer of dextral slip from the narrow White Mountains fault zone is explained best by a simple shear couple whereby slip is partitioned into three different components: horizontal extension along the Queen Valley fault, dominantly dextral slip along the Coyote Springs fault, and dominantly sinistral slip along the Coaldale fault. A velocity vector diagram illustrating fault slip partitioning predicts contraction rates of <0.1 to 0.5 mm/yr across the Coyote Springs and western Coaldale faults. The predicted long-term contraction across the Mina deflection is consistent with present-day GPS data.

Coseismic Slip Deficit of the 2017 Mw 6.5 Ormoc Earthquake That Occurred Along a Creeping Segment and Geothermal Field of the Philippine Fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Ying-Hui; Tsai, Min-Chien; Hu, Jyr-Ching; Aurelio, Mario A.; Hashimoto, Manabu; Escudero, John Agustin P.; Su, Zhe; Chen, Qiang

2018-03-01

Coseismic surface deformation imaged through interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) measurements was used to estimate the fault geometry and slip distribution of the 2017 Mw 6.5 Ormoc earthquake along a creeping segment of the Philippine Fault on Leyte Island. Our best fitting faulting model suggests that the coseismic rupture occurred on a fault plane with high dip angle of 78.5° and strike angle of 325.8°, and the estimated maximum fault slip of 2.3 m is located at 6.5 km east-northeast of the town of Kananga. The recognized insignificant slip in the Tongonan geothermal field zone implies that the plastic behavior caused by high geothermal gradient underneath the Tongonan geothermal field could prevent the coseismic failure in heated rock mass in this zone. The predicted Coulomb failure stress change shows that a significant positive Coulomb failure stress change occurred along the SE segment of central Philippine Fault with insignificant coseismic slip and infrequent aftershocks, which suggests an increasing risk for future seismic hazard.

Alaska Crustal Deformation: Finite Element Modeling Constrained by Geologic and Very Long Baseline Interferometry Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lundgren, Paul; Saucier, Fraancois; Palmer, Randy; Langon, Marc

1995-01-01

We compute crustal motions in Alaska by calculating the finite element solution for an elastic spherical shell problem. The method we use allows the finite element mesh to include faults and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) baseline rates of change. Boundary conditions include Pacific-North American (PA-NA) plate motions. The solution is constrained by the oblique orientation of the Fairweather-Queen Charlotte strike-slip faults relative to the PA-NA relative motion direction and the oblique orientation from normal convergence of the eastern Aleutian trench fault systems, as well as strike-shp motion along the Denali and Totschunda fault systems. We explore the effects that a range of fault slip constraints and weighting of VLBI rates of change has on the solution. This allows us to test the motion on faults, such as the Denali fault, where there are conflicting reports on its present-day slip rate. We find a pattern of displacements which produce fault motions generally consistent with geologic observations. The motion of the continuum has the general pattern of radial movement of crust to the NE away from the Fairweather-Queen Charlotte fault systems in SE Alaska and Canada. This pattern of crustal motion is absorbed across the Mackenzie Mountains in NW Canada, with strike-slip motion constrained along the Denali and Tintina fault systems. In south central Alaska and the Alaska forearc oblique convergence at the eastern Aleutian trench and the strike-shp motion of the Denali fault system produce a counterclockwise pattern of motion which is partially absorbed along the Contact and related fault systems in southern Alaska and is partially extruded into the Bering Sea and into the forearc parallel the Aleutian trench from the Alaska Peninsula westward. Rates of motion and fault slip are small in western and northern Alaska, but the motions we compute are consistent with the senses of strike-slip motion inferred geologically along the Kaltag, Kobuk Trench, and Thompson Creek faults and with the normal faulting observed in NW Alaska near Nome. The nonrigid behavior of our finite element solution produces patterns of motion that would not have been expected from rigid block models: strike-slip faults can exist in a continuum that has motion mostly perpendicular to their strikes, and faults can exhibit along-strike differences in magnitudes and directions.

Late quaternary slip-rate variations along the Warm Springs Valley fault system, northern Walker Lane, California-Nevada border

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gold, Ryan; dePolo, Craig; Briggs, Richard W.; Crone, Anthony

2013-01-01

The extent to which faults exhibit temporally varying slip rates has important consequences for models of fault mechanics and probabilistic seismic hazard. Here, we explore the temporal behavior of the dextral‐slip Warm Springs Valley fault system, which is part of a network of closely spaced (10–20 km) faults in the northern Walker Lane (California–Nevada border). We develop a late Quaternary slip record for the fault using Quaternary mapping and high‐resolution topographic data from airborne Light Distance and Ranging (LiDAR). The faulted Fort Sage alluvial fan (40.06° N, 119.99° W) is dextrally displaced 98+42/-43 m, and we estimate the age of the alluvial fan to be 41.4+10.0/-4.8 to 55.7±9.2  ka, based on a terrestrial cosmogenic 10Be depth profile and 36Cl analyses on basalt boulders, respectively. The displacement and age constraints for the fan yield a slip rate of 1.8 +0.8/-0.8 mm/yr to 2.4 +1.2/-1.1 mm/yr (2σ) along the northern Warm Springs Valley fault system for the past 41.4–55.7 ka. In contrast to this longer‐term slip rate, shorelines associated with the Sehoo highstand of Lake Lahontan (~15.8  ka) adjacent to the Fort Sage fan are dextrally faulted at most 3 m, which limits a maximum post‐15.8 ka slip rate to 0.2  mm/yr. These relations indicate that the post‐Lahontan slip rate on the fault is only about one‐tenth the longer‐term (41–56 ka) average slip rate. This apparent slip‐rate variation may be related to co‐dependent interaction with the nearby Honey Lake fault system, which shows evidence of an accelerated period of mid‐Holocene earthquakes.

Studying the Effects of Transparent vs. Opaque Shallow Thrust Faults Using Synthetic P and SH Seismograms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, D. E.; Aagaard, B. T.; Heaton, T. H.

2001-12-01

It has been hypothesized (Brune, 1996) that teleseismic inversions may underestimate the moment of shallow thrust fault earthquakes if energy becomes trapped in the hanging wall of the fault, i.e. if the fault boundary becomes opaque. We address this by creating and analyzing synthetic P and SH seismograms for a variety of friction models. There are a total of five models: (1) crack model (slip weakening) with instantaneous healing (2) crack model without healing (3) crack model with zero sliding friction (4) pulse model (slip and rate weakening) (5) prescribed model (Haskell-like rupture with the same final slip and peak slip-rate as model 4). Models 1-4 are all dynamic models where fault friction laws determine the rupture history. This allows feedback between the ongoing rupture and waves from the beginning of the rupture that hit the surface and reflect downwards. Hence, models 1-4 can exhibit opaque fault characteristics. Model 5, a prescribed rupture, allows for no interaction between the rupture and reflected waves, therefore, it is a transparent fault. We first produce source time functions for the different friction models by rupturing shallow thrust faults in 3-D dynamic finite-element simulations. The source time functions are used as point dislocations in a teleseismic body-wave code. We examine the P and SH waves for different azimuths and epicentral distances. The peak P and S first arrival displacement amplitudes for the crack, crack with healing and pulse models are all very similar. These dynamic models with opaque faults produce smaller peak P and S first arrivals than the prescribed, transparent fault. For example, a fault with strike = 90 degrees, azimuth = 45 degrees has P arrivals smaller by about 30% and S arrivals smaller by about 15%. The only dynamic model that doesn't fit this pattern is the crack model with zero sliding friction. It oscillates around its equilibrium position; therefore, it overshoots and yields an excessively large peak first arrival. In general, it appears that the dynamic, opaque faults have smaller peak teleseismic displacements that would lead to lower moment estimates by a modest amount.

Finite element models of earthquake cycles in mature strike-slip fault zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynch, John Charles

The research presented in this dissertation is on the subject of strike-slip earthquakes and the stresses that build and release in the Earth's crust during earthquake cycles. Numerical models of these cycles in a layered elastic/viscoelastic crust are produced using the finite element method. A fault that alternately sticks and slips poses a particularly challenging problem for numerical implementation, and a new contact element dubbed the "Velcro" element was developed to address this problem (Appendix A). Additionally, the finite element code used in this study was bench-marked against analytical solutions for some simplified problems (Chapter 2), and the resolving power was tested for the fault region of the models (Appendix B). With the modeling method thus developed, there are two main questions posed. First, in Chapter 3, the effect of a finite-width shear zone is considered. By defining a viscoelastic shear zone beneath a periodically slipping fault, it is found that shear stress concentrates at the edges of the shear zone and thus causes the stress tensor to rotate into non-Andersonian orientations. Several methods are used to examine the stress patterns, including the plunge angles of the principal stresses and a new method that plots the stress tensor in a manner analogous to seismic focal mechanism diagrams. In Chapter 4, a simple San Andreas-like model is constructed, consisting of two great earthquake producing faults separated by a freely-slipping shorter fault. The model inputs of lower crustal viscosity, fault separation distance, and relative breaking strengths are examined for their effect on fault communication. It is found that with a lower crustal viscosity of 1018 Pa s (in the lower range of estimates for California), the two faults tend to synchronize their earthquake cycles, even in the cases where the faults have asymmetric breaking strengths. These models imply that postseismic stress transfer over hundreds of kilometers may play a significant roll in the variability of earthquake repeat times. Specifically, small perturbations in the model parameters can lead to results similar to such observed phenomena as earthquake clustering and disruptions to so-called "characteristic" earthquake cycles.

The 2011 Mw 7.1 Van (Eastern Turkey) earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Elliot, John R.; Copley, Alex C.; Holley, R.; Scharer, Katherine M.; Parsons, Barry

2013-01-01

We use interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), body wave seismology, satellite imagery, and field observations to constrain the fault parameters of the Mw 7.1 2011 Van (Eastern Turkey) reverse-slip earthquake, in the Turkish-Iranian plateau. Distributed slip models from elastic dislocation modeling of the InSAR surface displacements from ENVISAT and COSMO-SkyMed interferograms indicate up to 9 m of reverse and oblique slip on a pair of en echelon NW 40 °–54 ° dipping fault planes which have surface extensions projecting to just 10 km north of the city of Van. The slip remained buried and is relatively deep, with a centroid depth of 14 km, and the rupture reaching only within 8–9 km of the surface, consistent with the lack of significant ground rupture. The up-dip extension of this modeled WSW striking fault plane coincides with field observations of weak ground deformation seen on the western of the two fault segments and has a dip consistent with that seen at the surface in fault gouge exposed in Quaternary sediments. No significant coseismic slip is found in the upper 8 km of the crust above the main slip patches, except for a small region on the eastern segment potentially resulting from the Mw 5.9 aftershock on the same day. We perform extensive resolution tests on the data to confirm the robustness of the observed slip deficit in the shallow crust. We resolve a steep gradient in displacement at the point where the planes of the two fault segments ends are inferred to abut at depth, possibly exerting some structural control on rupture extent.

Palinspastic reconstruction of southeastern California and southwestern Arizona for the middle Miocene

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richard, Stephen M.

1992-01-01

A paleogeographic reconstruction of southeastern California and southwestern Arizona at 10 Ma was made based on available geologic and geophysical data. Clockwise rotation of 39 deg was reconstructed in the eastern Transverse Ranges, consistent with paleomagnetic data from late Miocene volcanic rocks, and with slip estimates for left-lateral faults within the eastern Transverse Ranges and NW-trending right lateral faults in the Mojave Desert. This domain of rotated rocks is bounded by the Pinto Mountain fault on the north. In the absence of evidence for rotation of the San Bernardino Mountains or for significant right slip faults within the San Bernardino Mountains, the model requires that the late Miocene Pinto Mountain fault become a thrust fault gaining displacement to the west. The Squaw Peak thrust system of Meisling and Weldon may be a western continuation of this fault system. The Sheep Hole fault bounds the rotating domain on the east. East of this fault an array of NW-trending right slip faults and south-trending extensional transfer zones has produced a basin and range physiography while accumulating up to 14 km of right slip. This maximum is significantly less than the 37.5 km of right slip required in this region by a recent reconstruction of the central Mojave Desert. Geologic relations along the southern boundary of the rotating domain are poorly known, but this boundary is interpreted to involve a series of curved strike slip faults and non-coaxial extension, bounded on the southeast by the Mammoth Wash and related faults in the eastern Chocolate Mountains. Available constraints on timing suggest that Quaternary movement on the Pinto Mountain and nearby faults is unrelated to the rotation of the eastern Transverse Ranges, and was preceded by a hiatus during part of Pliocene time which followed the deformation producing the rotation. The reconstructed Clemens Well fault in the Orocopia Mountains, proposed as a major early Miocene strand of the San Andreas fault, projects eastward towards Arizona, where early Miocene rocks and structures are continuous across its trace. The model predicts a 14 deg clockwise rotation and 55 km extension along the present trace of the San Andreas fault during late Miocene and early Pliocene time. Palinspastic reconstructions of the San Andreas system based on this proposed reconstruction may be significantly modified from current models.

The Effect of Fracture Filler Composition on the Parameters of Shear Deformation Regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pavlov, D.; Ostapchuk, A.; Batuhtin, I.

2015-12-01

Geomechanical models of different slip mode nucleation and transformation can be developed basing on laboratory experiments, in which regularities of shear deformation of gouge-filled faults are studied. It's known that the spectrum of possible slip modes is defined by both macroscopic deformation characteristics of the fault and mesoscale structure of fault filler. Small variations of structural parameters of the filler may lead to a radical change of slip mode [1, 2]. This study presents results of laboratory experiments investigating regularities of shear deformation of discontinuities filled with multicomponent granular material. Qualitative correspondence between experimental results and natural phenomena is detected. The experiments were carried out in the classical "slider model" statement. A granite block slides under shear load on a granite substrate. The contact gap between rough surfaces was filled with a discrete material, which simulated the principal slip zone of a fault. The filler components were quartz sand, salt, glass beads, granite crumb, corundum, clay and pyrophyllite. An entire spectrum of possible slip modes was obtained - from stable slip to slow-slip events and to regular stick-slip with various coseismic displacements realized per one act of instability. Mixing several components in different proportions, it became possible to trace the gradual transition from stable slip to regular stick-slip, from slow-slip events to fast-slip events. Depending on specific filler component content, increasing the portion of one of the components may lead to both a linear and a non-linear change of slip event moment (a laboratory equivalent of the seismic moment). For different filler compositions durations of equal-moment events may differ by more than two orders of magnitude. The findings can be very useful for developing geomechnical models of nucleation and transformation of different slip modes observed at natural faults. The work was supported by RFBR (grant no. 13-05-00780). 1. Mair, K., K. M. Frye, and C. Marone (2002), J.Geophys.Res., 107(B10), 2219. 2. G.G. Kocharyan, V.K. Markov, A.A. Ostapchuk, and D.V. Pavlov (2014), Phys.Mes, 17(2), 123-133.

Dynamic Dilational Strengthening During Earthquakes in Saturated Gouge-Filled Fault Zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sparks, D. W.; Higby, K.

2016-12-01

The effect of fluid pressure in saturated fault zones has been cited as an important factor in the strength and slip-stability of faults. Fluid pressure controls the effective normal stress across the fault and therefore controls the faults strength. In a fault core consisting of granular fault gouge, local transient dilations and compactions occur during slip that dynamically change the fluid pressure. We use a grain-scale numerical model to investigate the effect of these fluid effects in fault gouge during an earthquake. We use a coupled finite difference-discrete element model (Goren et al, 2011), in which the pore space is filled with a fluid. Local changes in grain packing generate local deviations in fluid pressure, which can be relieved by fluid flow through the permeable gouge. Fluid pressure gradients exert drag forces on the grains that couple the grain motion and fluid flow. We simulated 39 granular gouge zones that were slowly loaded in shear stress to near the failure point, and then conducted two different simulations starting from each grain packing: one with a high enough mean permeability (> 10-11 m2) that pressure remains everywhere equilibrated ("fully drained"), and one with a lower permeability ( 10-14 m2) in which flow is not fast enough to prevent significant pressure variations from developing ("undrained"). The static strength of the fault, the size of the event and the evolution of slip velocity are not imposed, but arise naturally from the granular packing. In our particular granular model, all fully drained slip events are well-modeled by a rapid drop in the frictional resistance of the granular packing from a static value to a dynamic value that remains roughly constant during slip. Undrained events show more complex behavior. In some cases, slip occurs via a slow creep with resistance near the static value. When rapid slip events do occur, the dynamic resistance is typically larger than in drained events, and highly variable. Frictional resistance is not correlated with the mean fluid pressure in the layer, but is instead controlled by local regions undergoing dilational strengthening. We find that (in the absence of pressure-generating effects like thermal pressurization or fluid-releasing reactions), the overall effect of fluid is to strengthen the fault.

Earthquake rupture properties of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake foreshocks ( M j 6.5 and M j 6.4) revealed by conventional and multiple-aperture InSAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobayashi, Tomokazu

2017-01-01

By applying conventional cross-track InSAR and multiple-aperture InSAR (MAI) techniques with ALOS-2 SAR data to foreshocks of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, ground displacement fields in range (line-of-sight) and azimuth components have been successfully mapped. The most concentrated crustal deformation with ground displacement exceeding 15 cm is located on the western side of the Hinagu fault zone. A locally distributed displacement which appears along the strike of the Futagawa fault can be identified in and around Mashiki town, suggesting that a different local fault slip also contributed toward foreshocks. Inverting InSAR, MAI, and GNSS data, distributed slip models are obtained that show almost pure right-lateral fault motion on a plane dipping west by 80° for the Hinagu fault and almost pure normal fault motion on a plane dipping south by 70° for the local fault beneath Mashiki town. The slip on the Hinagu fault reaches around the junction of the Hinagu and Futagawa faults. The slip in the north significantly extends down to around 10 km depth, while in the south the slip is concentrated near the ground surface, perhaps corresponding to the M j 6.5 and the M j 6.4 events, respectively. The focal mechanism of the distributed slip model for the Hinagu fault alone shows pure right-lateral motion, which is inconsistent with the seismically estimated mechanism that includes a significant non-double couple component. On the other hand, when taking the contribution of normal fault motion into account, the focal mechanism appears similar to that of the seismic analysis. This result may suggest that local fault motion occurred just beneath Mashiki town, simultaneously with the M j 6.5 event, thereby increasing the degree of damage to the town.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

Geomorphic and Structural Evidence for Rolling Hinge Style Deformation in the Footwall of an Active Low Angle Normal Fault, Mai'iu Fault, Woodlark Rift, SE Papua New Guinea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizera, M.; Little, T.; Norton, K. P.; Webber, S.; Ellis, S. M.; Oesterle, J.

2016-12-01

While shown to operate in oceanic crust, rolling hinge style deformation remains a debated process in metamorpic core complexes (MCCs) in the continents. The model predicts that unloading and isostatic uplift during slip causes a progressive back-tilting in the upper crust of a normal fault that is more steeply dipping at depth. The Mai'iu Fault in the Woodlark Rift, SE Papua New Guinea, is one of the best-exposed and fastest slipping (probably >7 mm/yr) active low-angle normal faults (LANFs) on Earth. We analysed structural field data from this fault's exhumed slip surface and footwall, together with geomorphic data interpreted from aerial photographs and GeoSAR-derived digital elevation models (gridded at 5-30 m spacing), to evaluate deformational processes affecting the rapidly exhuming, domal-shaped detachment fault. The exhumed fault surface emerges from the ground at the rangefront near sea level with a northward dip of 21°. Up-dip, it is well-preserved, smooth and corrugated, with some fault remnants extending at least 29 km in the slip direction. The surface flattens over the crest of the dome, beyond where it dips S at up to 15°. Windgaps perched on the crestal main divide of the dome, indicate both up-dip tectonic advection and progressive back-tilting of the exhuming fault surface. We infer that slip on a serial array of m-to-km scale up-to-the-north, steeply S-dipping ( 75°) antithetic-sense normal faults accommodated some of the exhumation-related, inelastic bending of the footwall. These geomorphically well expressed faults strike parallel to the main Mai'iu fault at 110.9±5°, have a mean cross-strike spacing of 1520 m, and slip with a consistent up-to-the-north sense of throw ranging from <5 m to 120 m. Apparently the Mai'iu Fault was able to continue slipping despite having to negotiate this added fault-roughness. We interpret the antithetic faulting to result from bending stresses, and to provide the first clear examples of rolling hinge-style accommodation structures on a continental MCC.

Structure and mechanics of the Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault step-over, San Francisco Bay, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Parsons, T.; Sliter, R.; Geist, E.L.; Jachens, R.C.; Jaffe, B.E.; Foxgrover, A.; Hart, P.E.; McCarthy, J.

2003-01-01

A dilatational step-over between the right-lateral Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults lies beneath San Pablo Bay in the San Francisco Bay area. A key seismic hazard issue is whether an earthquake on one of the faults could rupture through the step-over, enhancing its maximum possible magnitude. If ruptures are terminated at the step-over, then another important issue is how strain transfers through the step. We developed a combined seismic reflection and refraction cross section across south San Pablo Bay and found that the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults converge to within 4 km of one another near the surface, about 2 km closer than previously thought. Interpretation of potential field data from San Pablo Bay indicated a low likelihood of strike-slip transfer faults connecting the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults. Numerical simulations suggest that it is possible for a rupture to jump across a 4-km fault gap, although special stressing conditions are probably required (e.g., Harris and Day, 1993, 1999). Slip on the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults is building an extensional pull-apart basin that could contain hazardous normal faults. We investigated strain in the pull-apart using a finite-element model and calculated a ???0.02-MPa/yr differential stressing rate in the step-over on a least-principal-stress orientation nearly parallel to the strike-slip faults where they overlap. A 1- to 10-MPa stress-drop extensional earthquake is expected on normal faults oriented perpendicular to the strike-slip faults every 50-500 years. The last such earthquake might have been the 1898 M 6.0-6.5 shock in San Pablo Bay that apparently produced a small tsunami. Historical hydrographic surveys gathered before and after 1898 indicate abnormal subsidence of the bay floor within the step-over, possibly related to the earthquake. We used a hydrodynamic model to show that a dip-slip mechanism in north San Pablo Bay is the most likely 1898 rupture scenario to have caused the tsunami. While we find no strike-slip transfer fault between the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults, a normal-fault link could enable through-going segmented rupture of both strike-slip faults and may pose an independent hazard of M ???6 earthquakes like the 1898 event.

Slip complexity and frictional heterogeneities in dynamic fault models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bizzarri, A.

2005-12-01

The numerical modeling of earthquake rupture requires the specification of the fault system geometry, the mechanical properties of the media surrounding the fault, the initial conditions and the constitutive law for fault friction. The latter accounts for the fault zone properties and allows for the description of processes of nucleation, propagation, healing and arrest of a spontaneous rupture. In this work I solve the fundamental elasto-dynamic equation for a planar fault, adopting different constitutive equations (slip-dependent and rate- and state-dependent friction laws). We show that the slip patterns may be complicated by different causes. The spatial heterogeneities of constitutive parameters are able to cause the healing of slip, like barrier-healing or slip pulses. Our numerical experiments show that the heterogeneities of the parameter L affect the dynamic rupture propagation and weakly modify the dynamic stress drop and the rupture velocity. The heterogeneity of a and b parameters affects the dynamic rupture propagation in a more complex way: a velocity strengthening area (a > b) can arrest a dynamic rupture, but can be driven to an instability if suddenly loaded by the dynamic rupture front. Our simulations provide a picture of the complex interactions between fault patches having different frictional properties. Moreover, the slip distribution on the fault plane is complicated considering the effects of the rake rotation during the propagation: depending on the position on the fault plane, the orientation of instantaneous total dynamic traction can change with time with respect to the imposed initial stress direction. These temporal rake rotations depend on the amplitude of the initial stress and on its distribution. They also depend on the curvature and direction of the rupture front with respect to the imposed initial stress direction: this explains why rake rotations are mostly located near the rupture front and within the cohesive zone, where the breakdown processes take places. Finally, the rupture behavior, the fault slip distribution and the traction evolution may be changed and complicated including additional physical phenomena, like thermal pressurization of pore fluid (due to frictional heating). Our results involve interesting implications for slip duration and fracture energy.

The 2013 Balochistan earthquake: An extraordinary or completely ordinary event?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Yu; Elliott, John R.; Parsons, Barry; Walker, Richard T.

2015-08-01

The 2013 Balochistan earthquake, a predominantly strike-slip event, occurred on the arcuate Hoshab fault in the eastern Makran linking an area of mainly left-lateral shear in the east to one of shortening in the west. The difficulty of reconciling predominantly strike-slip motion with this shortening has led to a wide range of unconventional kinematic and dynamic models. Here we determine the vertical component of motion on the fault using a 1 m resolution elevation model derived from postearthquake Pleiades satellite imagery. We find a constant local ratio of vertical to horizontal slip through multiple past earthquakes, suggesting the kinematic style of the Hoshab fault has remained constant throughout the late Quaternary. We also find evidence for active faulting on a series of nearby, subparallel faults, showing that failure in large, distributed and rare earthquakes is the likely method of faulting across the eastern Makran, reconciling geodetic and long-term records of strain accumulation.

Implications of fault constitutive properties for earthquake prediction.

PubMed Central

Dieterich, J H; Kilgore, B

1996-01-01

The rate- and state-dependent constitutive formulation for fault slip characterizes an exceptional variety of materials over a wide range of sliding conditions. This formulation provides a unified representation of diverse sliding phenomena including slip weakening over a characteristic sliding distance Dc, apparent fracture energy at a rupture front, time-dependent healing after rapid slip, and various other transient and slip rate effects. Laboratory observations and theoretical models both indicate that earthquake nucleation is accompanied by long intervals of accelerating slip. Strains from the nucleation process on buried faults generally could not be detected if laboratory values of Dc apply to faults in nature. However, scaling of Dc is presently an open question and the possibility exists that measurable premonitory creep may precede some earthquakes. Earthquake activity is modeled as a sequence of earthquake nucleation events. In this model, earthquake clustering arises from sensitivity of nucleation times to the stress changes induced by prior earthquakes. The model gives the characteristic Omori aftershock decay law and assigns physical interpretation to aftershock parameters. The seismicity formulation predicts large changes of earthquake probabilities result from stress changes. Two mechanisms for foreshocks are proposed that describe observed frequency of occurrence of foreshock-mainshock pairs by time and magnitude. With the first mechanism, foreshocks represent a manifestation of earthquake clustering in which the stress change at the time of the foreshock increases the probability of earthquakes at all magnitudes including the eventual mainshock. With the second model, accelerating fault slip on the mainshock nucleation zone triggers foreshocks. Images Fig. 3 PMID:11607666

Secular Variation in the Storage and Dissipation of Elastic Strain Energy Along the Central Altyn Tagh Fault (86-88.5°E), NW China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowgill, E.; Gold, R. D.; Arrowsmith, R.; Friedrich, A. M.

2015-12-01

In elastic rebound theory, hazard increases as interseismic strain rebuilds after rupture. This model is challenged by the temporal variation in the pacing of major earthquakes that is both predicted by mechanical models and suggested by some long paleoseismic records (e.g., 1-3). However, the extent of such behavior remains unclear due to a lack of long (5-25 ky) records of fault slip. Using Monte Carlo analysis of 11 offset landforms, we determined a 16-ky record of fault slip for the active, left-lateral Altyn Tagh fault, which bounds the NW margin of the Tibetan Plateau. This history reveals a pulse of accelerated slip between 6.4 and 6.0 ka, during which the fault slipped 9 +14/-2 m at a rate of 23 +35/-5 mm/y, or ~3x the 16 ky average of 8.1 +1.2/-0.9mm/y. These two modes of earthquake behavior suggest temporal variation in the rates of stress storage and release. The simplest explanation for the pulse is a cluster of 2-8 Mw > 7.5 earthquakes. Such supercyclicity has been reported for the Sunda (4) and Cascadia (3) megathrusts, but contrasts with steady slip along the strike-slip Alpine fault (5), for example. A second possibility is that the pulse reflects a single, unusually large rupture. However, this Black Swan event is unlikely: empirical scaling relationships require a Mw 8.2 rupture of the entire 1200-km-long ATF to produce 7 m of average slip. Likewise, Coulomb stress change from rupture on the adjacent North Altyn fault is of modest magnitude and overlap with the ATF. Poor temporal correlation between precipitation and the slip pulse argues against climatically modulated changes in surface loading (lakes/ice) or pore-fluid pressure. "Paleoslip" studies such as this sacrifice the single-event resolution of paleoseismology in exchange for long records that quantify both the timing and magnitude of fault slip averaged over multiple ruptures, and are essential for documenting temporal variations in fault slip as we begin to use calibrated physical models of the earthquake cycle to forecast time-dependent earthquake hazard (e.g., 6,7). 1. Weldon et al., 2004 GSA Today 14, 4; 2. Rockwell et al., 2015, PAGEOPH, 172, 1143; 3. Goldfinger et al., 2013, SRL, 84, 24; 4. Sieh et al., 2008, Science, 322, 1674; 5. Berryman et l., 2012, Science, 336, 1690; 6. Barbot et al., 2012, Science, 336, 707; 7. Field, 2015, BSSA, 105, 544.

Constraining slip rates and spacings for active normal faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowie, Patience A.; Roberts, Gerald P.

2001-12-01

Numerous observations of extensional provinces indicate that neighbouring faults commonly slip at different rates and, moreover, may be active over different time intervals. These published observations include variations in slip rate measured along-strike of a fault array or fault zone, as well as significant across-strike differences in the timing and rates of movement on faults that have a similar orientation with respect to the regional stress field. Here we review published examples from the western USA, the North Sea, and central Greece, and present new data from the Italian Apennines that support the idea that such variations are systematic and thus to some extent predictable. The basis for the prediction is that: (1) the way in which a fault grows is fundamentally controlled by the ratio of maximum displacement to length, and (2) the regional strain rate must remain approximately constant through time. We show how data on fault lengths and displacements can be used to model the observed patterns of long-term slip rate where measured values are sparse. Specifically, we estimate the magnitude of spatial variation in slip rate along-strike and relate it to the across-strike spacing between active faults.

Thermo-Hydro-Micro-Mechanical 3D Modeling of a Fault Gouge During Co-seismic Slip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papachristos, E.; Stefanou, I.; Sulem, J.; Donze, F. V.

2017-12-01

A coupled Thermo-Hydro-Micro-Mechanical (THMM) model based on the Discrete Elements method (DEM) is presented for studying the evolving fault gouge properties during pre- and co-seismic slip. Modeling the behavior of the fault gouge at the microscale is expected to improve our understanding on the various mechanisms that lead to slip weakening and finally control the transition from aseismic to seismic slip.The gouge is considered as a granular material of spherical particles [1]. Upon loading, the interactions between particles follow a frictional behavior and explicit dynamics. Using regular triangulation, a pore network is defined by the physical pore space between the particles. The network is saturated by a compressible fluid, and flow takes place following Stoke's equations. Particles' movement leads to pore deformation and thus to local pore pressure increase. Forces exerted from the fluid onto the particles are calculated using mid-step velocities. The fluid forces are then added to the contact forces resulting from the mechanical interactions before the next step.The same semi-implicit, two way iterative coupling is used for the heat-exchange through conduction.Simple tests have been performed to verify the model against analytical solutions and experimental results. Furthermore, the model was used to study the effect of temperature on the evolution of effective stress in the system and to highlight the role of thermal pressurization during seismic slip [2, 3].The analyses are expected to give grounds for enhancing the current state-of-the-art constitutive models regarding fault friction and shed light on the evolution of fault zone propertiesduring seismic slip.[1] Omid Dorostkar, Robert A Guyer, Paul A Johnson, Chris Marone, and Jan Carmeliet. On the role of fluids in stick-slip dynamics of saturated granular fault gouge using a coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element approach. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 122(5):3689-3700, 2017.[2] James R Rice. Heating and weakening of faults during earthquake slip. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 111(B5), 2006.[3] Jean Sulem, Ioannis Stefanou, and Emmanuil Veveakis. Stability analysis of undrained adiabatic shearing of a rock layer with cosserat microstructure. Granular Matter, 13(3):261-268,2011.

A New Perspective on Fault Geometry and Slip Distribution of the 2009 Dachaidan Mw 6.3 Earthquake from InSAR Observations

PubMed Central

Liu, Yang; Xu, Caijun; Wen, Yangmao; Fok, Hok Sum

2015-01-01

On 28 August 2009, the northern margin of the Qaidam basin in the Tibet Plateau was ruptured by an Mw 6.3 earthquake. This study utilizes the Envisat ASAR images from descending Track 319 and ascending Track 455 for capturing the coseismic deformation resulting from this event, indicating that the earthquake fault rupture does not reach to the earth’s surface. We then propose a four-segmented fault model to investigate the coseismic deformation by determining the fault parameters, followed by inverting slip distribution. The preferred fault model shows that the rupture depths for all four fault planes mainly range from 2.0 km to 7.5 km, comparatively shallower than previous results up to ~13 km, and that the slip distribution on the fault plane is complex, exhibiting three slip peaks with a maximum of 2.44 m at a depth between 4.1 km and 4.9 km. The inverted geodetic moment is 3.85 × 1018 Nm (Mw 6.36). The 2009 event may rupture from the northwest to the southeast unilaterally, reaching the maximum at the central segment. PMID:26184210

A New Perspective on Fault Geometry and Slip Distribution of the 2009 Dachaidan Mw 6.3 Earthquake from InSAR Observations.

PubMed

Liu, Yang; Xu, Caijun; Wen, Yangmao; Fok, Hok Sum

2015-07-10

On 28 August 2009, the northern margin of the Qaidam basin in the Tibet Plateau was ruptured by an Mw 6.3 earthquake. This study utilizes the Envisat ASAR images from descending Track 319 and ascending Track 455 for capturing the coseismic deformation resulting from this event, indicating that the earthquake fault rupture does not reach to the earth's surface. We then propose a four-segmented fault model to investigate the coseismic deformation by determining the fault parameters, followed by inverting slip distribution. The preferred fault model shows that the rupture depths for all four fault planes mainly range from 2.0 km to 7.5 km, comparatively shallower than previous results up to ~13 km, and that the slip distribution on the fault plane is complex, exhibiting three slip peaks with a maximum of 2.44 m at a depth between 4.1 km and 4.9 km. The inverted geodetic moment is 3.85 × 10(18) Nm (Mw 6.36). The 2009 event may rupture from the northwest to the southeast unilaterally, reaching the maximum at the central segment.

Permeability evolution associated to creep and episodic slow slip of a fault affecting clay formations: Results from the FS fault activation experiment in Mt Terri (Switzerland).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guglielmi, Y.; Nussbaum, C.; Birkholzer, J. T.; De Barros, L.; Cappa, F.

2017-12-01

There is a large spectrum of fault slow rupture processes such as stable creep and slow slip that radiate no or little seismic energy, and which relationships to normal earthquakes and fault permeability variations are enigmatic. Here we present measurements of a fault slow rupture, permeability variation and seismicity induced by fluid-injection in a fault affecting the Opalinus clay (Mt Terri URL, Switzerland) at a depth of 300 m. We observe multiple dilatant slow slip events ( 0.1-to-30 microm/s) associated with factor-of-1000 increase of permeability, and terminated by a magnitude -2.5 main seismic event associated with a swarm of very small magnitude ones. Using fully coupled numerical modeling, we calculate that the short term velocity strengthening behavior observed experimentally at laboratory scale is overcome by longer slip weakening that may be favored by slip induced dilation. Two monitoring points set across the fault allow estimating that, at the onset of the seismicity, the radius of the fault patch invaded by pressurized fluid is 9-to-11m which is in good accordance with a fault instability triggering when the dimensions of the critical slip distance are overcome. We then observe that the long term slip weakening is associated to an exponential permeability increase caused by a cumulated effective normal stress drop of about 3.4MPa which controls the successive slip activation of multiple fracture planes inducing a 0.1MPa shear stress drop in the fault zone. Therefore, our data suggest that the induced earthquake that terminated the rupture sequence may have represented enough dynamic stress release to arrest the fault permeability increase, suggesting the high sensitivity of the slow rupture processes to the structural heterogeneity of the fault zone hydromechanical properties.

The SCEC 3D Community Fault Model (CFM-v5): An updated and expanded fault set of oblique crustal deformation and complex fault interaction for southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholson, C.; Plesch, A.; Sorlien, C. C.; Shaw, J. H.; Hauksson, E.

2014-12-01

Southern California represents an ideal natural laboratory to investigate oblique deformation in 3D owing to its comprehensive datasets, complex tectonic history, evolving components of oblique slip, and continued crustal rotations about horizontal and vertical axes. As the SCEC Community Fault Model (CFM) aims to accurately reflect this 3D deformation, we present the results of an extensive update to the model by using primarily detailed fault trace, seismic reflection, relocated hypocenter and focal mechanism nodal plane data to generate improved, more realistic digital 3D fault surfaces. The results document a wide variety of oblique strain accommodation, including various aspects of strain partitioning and fault-related folding, sets of both high-angle and low-angle faults that mutually interact, significant non-planar, multi-stranded faults with variable dip along strike and with depth, and active mid-crustal detachments. In places, closely-spaced fault strands or fault systems can remain surprisingly subparallel to seismogenic depths, while in other areas, major strike-slip to oblique-slip faults can merge, such as the S-dipping Arroyo Parida-Mission Ridge and Santa Ynez faults with the N-dipping North Channel-Pitas Point-Red Mountain fault system, or diverge with depth. Examples of the latter include the steep-to-west-dipping Laguna Salada-Indiviso faults with the steep-to-east-dipping Sierra Cucapah faults, and the steep southern San Andreas fault with the adjacent NE-dipping Mecca Hills-Hidden Springs fault system. In addition, overprinting by steep predominantly strike-slip faulting can segment which parts of intersecting inherited low-angle faults are reactivated, or result in mutual cross-cutting relationships. The updated CFM 3D fault surfaces thus help characterize a more complex pattern of fault interactions at depth between various fault sets and linked fault systems, and a more complex fault geometry than typically inferred or expected from projecting near-surface data down-dip, or modeled from surface strain and potential field data alone.

Characterization of Aftershock Sequences from Large Strike-Slip Earthquakes Along Geometrically Complex Faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sexton, E.; Thomas, A.; Delbridge, B. G.

2017-12-01

Large earthquakes often exhibit complex slip distributions and occur along non-planar fault geometries, resulting in variable stress changes throughout the region of the fault hosting aftershocks. To better discern the role of geometric discontinuities on aftershock sequences, we compare areas of enhanced and reduced Coulomb failure stress and mean stress for systematic differences in the time dependence and productivity of these aftershock sequences. In strike-slip faults, releasing structures, including stepovers and bends, experience an increase in both Coulomb failure stress and mean stress during an earthquake, promoting fluid diffusion into the region and further failure. Conversely, Coulomb failure stress and mean stress decrease in restraining bends and stepovers in strike-slip faults, and fluids diffuse away from these areas, discouraging failure. We examine spatial differences in seismicity patterns along structurally complex strike-slip faults which have hosted large earthquakes, such as the 1992 Mw 7.3 Landers, the 2010 Mw 7.2 El-Mayor Cucapah, the 2014 Mw 6.0 South Napa, and the 2016 Mw 7.0 Kumamoto events. We characterize the behavior of these aftershock sequences with the Epidemic Type Aftershock-Sequence Model (ETAS). In this statistical model, the total occurrence rate of aftershocks induced by an earthquake is λ(t) = λ_0 + \\sum_{i:t_i

Constraints on Friction, Dilatancy, Diffusivity, and Effective Stress From Low-Frequency Earthquake Rates on the Deep San Andreas Fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beeler, N. M.; Thomas, Amanda; Bürgmann, Roland; Shelly, David

2018-01-01

Families of recurring low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) within nonvolcanic tremor on the San Andreas Fault in central California are sensitive to tidal stresses. LFEs occur at all levels of the tides, are strongly correlated and in phase with the 200 Pa shear stresses, and weakly and not systematically correlated with the 2 kPa tidal normal stresses. We assume that LFEs are small sources that repeatedly fail during shear within a much larger scale, aseismically slipping fault zone and consider two different models of the fault slip: (1) modulation of the fault slip rate by the tidal stresses or (2) episodic slip, triggered by the tides. LFEs are strongly clustered with duration much shorter than the semidiurnal tide; they cannot be significantly modulated on that time scale. The recurrence times of clusters, however, are many times longer than the semidiurnal, leading to an appearance of tidal triggering. In this context we examine the predictions of laboratory-observed triggered frictional (dilatant) fault slip. The undrained end-member model produces no sensitivity to the tidal normal stress, and slip onsets are in phase with the tidal shear stress. The tidal correlation constrains the diffusivity to be less than 1 × 10-6/s and the product of the friction and dilatancy coefficients to be at most 5 × 10-7, orders of magnitude smaller than observed at room temperature. In the absence of dilatancy the effective normal stress at failure would be about 55 kPa. For this model the observations require intrinsic weakness, low dilatancy, and lithostatic pore fluid.

Shallow slip amplification and enhanced tsunami hazard unravelled by dynamic simulations of mega-thrust earthquakes

PubMed Central

Murphy, S.; Scala, A.; Herrero, A.; Lorito, S.; Festa, G.; Trasatti, E.; Tonini, R.; Romano, F.; Molinari, I.; Nielsen, S.

2016-01-01

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake produced an unexpected large amount of shallow slip greatly contributing to the ensuing tsunami. How frequent are such events? How can they be efficiently modelled for tsunami hazard? Stochastic slip models, which can be computed rapidly, are used to explore the natural slip variability; however, they generally do not deal specifically with shallow slip features. We study the systematic depth-dependence of slip along a thrust fault with a number of 2D dynamic simulations using stochastic shear stress distributions and a geometry based on the cross section of the Tohoku fault. We obtain a probability density for the slip distribution, which varies both with depth, earthquake size and whether the rupture breaks the surface. We propose a method to modify stochastic slip distributions according to this dynamically-derived probability distribution. This method may be efficiently applied to produce large numbers of heterogeneous slip distributions for probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis. Using numerous M9 earthquake scenarios, we demonstrate that incorporating the dynamically-derived probability distribution does enhance the conditional probability of exceedance of maximum estimated tsunami wave heights along the Japanese coast. This technique for integrating dynamic features in stochastic models can be extended to any subduction zone and faulting style. PMID:27725733

Variable slip-rate and slip-per-event on a plate boundary fault: The Dead Sea fault in northern Israel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wechsler, Neta; Rockwell, Thomas K.; Klinger, Yann

2018-01-01

We resolved displacement on buried stream channels that record the past 3400 years of slip history for the Jordan Gorge (JGF) section of the Dead Sea fault in Israel. Based on three-dimensional (3D) trenching, slip in the past millennium amounts to only 2.7 m, similar to that determined in previous studies, whereas the previous millennium experienced two to three times this amount of displacement with nearly 8 m of cumulative slip, indicating substantial short term variations in slip rate. The slip rate averaged over the past 3400 years, as determined from 3D trenching, is 4.1 mm/yr, which agrees well with geodetic estimates of strain accumulation, as well as with longer-term geologic slip rate estimates. Our results indicate that: 1) the past 1200 years appear to significantly lack slip, which may portend a significant increase in future seismic activity; 2) short-term slip rates for the past two millennia have varied by more than a factor of two and suggest that past behavior is best characterized by clustering of earthquakes. From these observations, the earthquake behavior of the Jordan Gorge fault best fits is a "weak segment model" where the relatively short fault section (20 km), bounded by releasing steps, fails on its own in moderate earthquakes, or ruptures with adjacent segments.

A Self-Consistent Fault Slip Model for the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamazaki, Yoshiki; Cheung, Kwok Fai; Lay, Thorne

2018-02-01

The unprecedented geophysical and hydrographic data sets from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami have facilitated numerous modeling and inversion analyses for a wide range of dislocation models. Significant uncertainties remain in the slip distribution as well as the possible contribution of tsunami excitation from submarine slumping or anelastic wedge deformation. We seek a self-consistent model for the primary teleseismic and tsunami observations through an iterative approach that begins with downsampling of a finite fault model inverted from global seismic records. Direct adjustment of the fault displacement guided by high-resolution forward modeling of near-field tsunami waveform and runup measurements improves the features that are not satisfactorily accounted for by the seismic wave inversion. The results show acute sensitivity of the runup to impulsive tsunami waves generated by near-trench slip. The adjusted finite fault model is able to reproduce the DART records across the Pacific Ocean in forward modeling of the far-field tsunami as well as the global seismic records through a finer-scale subfault moment- and rake-constrained inversion, thereby validating its ability to account for the tsunami and teleseismic observations without requiring an exotic source. The upsampled final model gives reasonably good fits to onshore and offshore geodetic observations albeit early after-slip effects and wedge faulting that cannot be reliably accounted for. The large predicted slip of over 20 m at shallow depth extending northward to 39.7°N indicates extensive rerupture and reduced seismic hazard of the 1896 tsunami earthquake zone, as inferred to varying extents by several recent joint and tsunami-only inversions.

Active strike-slip faulting in El Salvador, Central America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corti, Giacomo; Carminati, Eugenio; Mazzarini, Francesco; Oziel Garcia, Marvyn

2005-12-01

Several major earthquakes have affected El Salvador, Central America, during the Past 100 yr as a consequence of oblique subduction of the Cocos plate under the Caribbean plate, which is partitioned between trench-orthogonal compression and strike-slip deformation parallel to the volcanic arc. Focal mechanisms and the distribution of the most destructive earthquakes, together with geomorphologic evidence, suggest that this transcurrent component of motion may be accommodated by a major strike-slip fault (El Salvador fault zone). We present field geological, structural, and geomorphological data collected in central El Salvador that allow the constraint of the kinematics and the Quaternary activity of this major seismogenic strike-slip fault system. Data suggest that the El Salvador fault zone consists of at least two main ˜E-W fault segments (San Vicente and Berlin segments), with associated secondary synthetic (WNW-ESE) and antithetic (NNW-SSE) Riedel shears and NW-SE tensional structures. The two main fault segments overlap in a dextral en echelon style with the formation of an intervening pull-apart basin. Our original geological and geomorphologic data suggest a late Pleistocene Holocene slip rate of ˜11 mm/yr along the Berlin segment, in contrast with low historical seismicity. The kinematics and rates of deformation suggested by our new data are consistent with models involving slip partitioning during oblique subduction, and support the notion that a trench-parallel component of motion between the Caribbean and Cocos plates is concentrated along E-W dextral strike-slip faults parallel to the volcanic arc.

Stable creeping fault segments can become destructive as a result of dynamic weakening.

PubMed

Noda, Hiroyuki; Lapusta, Nadia

2013-01-24

Faults in Earth's crust accommodate slow relative motion between tectonic plates through either similarly slow slip or fast, seismic-wave-producing rupture events perceived as earthquakes. These types of behaviour are often assumed to be separated in space and to occur on two different types of fault segment: one with stable, rate-strengthening friction and the other with rate-weakening friction that leads to stick-slip. The 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake with moment magnitude M(w) = 9.0 challenged such assumptions by accumulating its largest seismic slip in the area that had been assumed to be creeping. Here we propose a model in which stable, rate-strengthening behaviour at low slip rates is combined with coseismic weakening due to rapid shear heating of pore fluids, allowing unstable slip to occur in segments that can creep between events. The model parameters are based on laboratory measurements on samples from the fault of the M(w) 7.6 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. The long-term slip behaviour of the model, which we examine using a unique numerical approach that includes all wave effects, reproduces and explains a number of both long-term and coseismic observations-some of them seemingly contradictory-about the faults at which the Tohoku-Oki and Chi-Chi earthquakes occurred, including there being more high-frequency radiation from areas of lower slip, the largest seismic slip in the Tohoku-Oki earthquake having occurred in a potentially creeping segment, the overall pattern of previous events in the area and the complexity of the Tohoku-Oki rupture. The implication that earthquake rupture may break through large portions of creeping segments, which are at present considered to be barriers, requires a re-evaluation of seismic hazard in many areas.

Study on the Evaluation Method for Fault Displacement: Probabilistic Approach Based on Japanese Earthquake Rupture Data - Principal fault displacements -

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kitada, N.; Inoue, N.; Tonagi, M.

2016-12-01

The purpose of Probabilistic Fault Displacement Hazard Analysis (PFDHA) is estimate fault displacement values and its extent of the impact. There are two types of fault displacement related to the earthquake fault: principal fault displacement and distributed fault displacement. Distributed fault displacement should be evaluated in important facilities, such as Nuclear Installations. PFDHA estimates principal fault and distributed fault displacement. For estimation, PFDHA uses distance-displacement functions, which are constructed from field measurement data. We constructed slip distance relation of principal fault displacement based on Japanese strike and reverse slip earthquakes in order to apply to Japan area that of subduction field. However, observed displacement data are sparse, especially reverse faults. Takao et al. (2013) tried to estimate the relation using all type fault systems (reverse fault and strike slip fault). After Takao et al. (2013), several inland earthquakes were occurred in Japan, so in this time, we try to estimate distance-displacement functions each strike slip fault type and reverse fault type especially add new fault displacement data set. To normalized slip function data, several criteria were provided by several researchers. We normalized principal fault displacement data based on several methods and compared slip-distance functions. The normalized by total length of Japanese reverse fault data did not show particular trend slip distance relation. In the case of segmented data, the slip-distance relationship indicated similar trend as strike slip faults. We will also discuss the relation between principal fault displacement distributions with source fault character. According to slip distribution function (Petersen et al., 2011), strike slip fault type shows the ratio of normalized displacement are decreased toward to the edge of fault. However, the data set of Japanese strike slip fault data not so decrease in the end of the fault. This result indicates that the fault displacement is difficult to appear at the edge of the fault displacement in Japan. This research was part of the 2014-2015 research project `Development of evaluating method for fault displacement` by the Secretariat of Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), Japan.

Numerical simulations of stick-slip in fluid saturated granular fault gouge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dorostkar, O.; Johnson, P. A.; Guyer, R. A.; Marone, C.; Carmeliet, J.

2016-12-01

Fluids play a key role in determining the frictional strength and stability of faults. For example, fluid flow and fluid-solid interaction in fault gouge can trigger seismicity, alter earthquake nucleation properties and cause fault zone weakening. We present results of 3D numerical simulations of stick-slip behavior in dry and saturated granular fault gouge. In the saturated case, the gouge is fully saturated and drainage is possible through the boundaries. We model the solid phase (particles) with the discrete element method (DEM) while the fluid is described by the Navier-Stokes equations and solved by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In our model, granular gouge is sheared between two rough plates under boundary conditions of constant normal stress and constant shearing velocity at the layer boundaries. A phase-space study including shearing velocity and normal stress is taken to identify the conditions for stick-slip regime. We analyzed slip events for dry and saturated cases to determine shear stress drop, released kinetic energy and compaction. The presence of fluid tends to cause larger slip events. We observe a close correlation between the kinetic energy of the particles and of the fluid. In short, during slip, fluid flow induced by the failure and compaction of the granular system, mobilizes the particles, which increases their kinetic energy, leading to greater slip. We further observe that the solid-fluid interaction forces are equal or larger than the solid-solid interaction forces during the slip event, indicating the important influence of the fluid on the granular system. Our simulations can explain the behaviors observed in experimental studies and we are working to apply our results to tectonic faults.

Rupture Characteristics of the 25 November 2016 Aketao Earthquake ( M w 6.6) in Eastern Pamir Revealed by GPS and Teleseismic Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jie; Liu, Gang; Qiao, Xuejun; Xiong, Wei; Wang, Xiaoqiang; Liu, Daiqin; Sun, Jianing; Yushan, Ailixiati; Yusan, Sulitan; Fang, Wei; Wang, Qi

2018-02-01

The 25 November 2016 Aketao, Xinjiang earthquake occurred on the northeastern margin of the Pamir plateau, rupturing the Muji fault on the northern segment of the Kongur Extensional System. We collected coseismic offsets at 7 GPS sites, which show that the fault experienced significate dextral slip with a near-field geodetic displacement of up to 12 cm along the strike. The joint inversion of GPS data and teleseismic P waveforms suggests a complex rupture pattern characterized by the unilateral propagation slip from the epicenter to the southeast for 60 km with a total seismic moment of 1.3 × 1019 Nm, corresponding to a magnitude of M w 6.7 earthquake. Our model of slip distribution shows two major slip patches with a slip amplitude up to 0.6 m, one located at shallow depths of 0-8 km close to the hypocenter with apparent surface breaks and the other, 40 km to the southeast, buried at a greater depth of 12 km. The rupture is dominated by a right-lateral strike slip with significant normal-slip components. The near-field GPS data enhances the spatial resolution of source model. Based on the preferred slip model, the static Coulomb Failure Stress change caused by 2016 Aketao earthquake suggests that the unzipped western and eastern ends of Muji fault and the northern segment of Kungai Fault are significantly promoted.

How large is the fault slip at trench in the M=9 Tohoku-oki earthquake?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Kelin; Sun, Tianhaozhe; Fujiwara, Toshiya; Kodaira, Shuichi; He, Jiangheng

2015-04-01

It is widely known that coseismic slip breached the trench during the 2011 Mw=9 Tohoku-oki earthquake, responsible for generating a devastating tsunami. For understanding both the mechanics of megathrust rupture and the mechanism of tsunami generation, it is important to know how much fault slip actually occurred at the trench. But the answer has remained elusive because most of the data from this earthquake do not provide adequate near-trench resolution. Seafloor GPS sites were located > 30 km from the trench. Near-trench seafloor pressure records suffered from complex vertical deformation at local scales. Seismic inversion does not have adequate accuracy at the trench. Inversion of tsunami data is highly dependent on the parameterization of the fault near the trench. The severity of the issue is demonstrated by our compilation of rupture models for this earthquake published by ~40 research groups using multiple sets of coseismic observations. In the peak slip area, fault slip at the trench depicted by these models ranges from zero to >90 m. The faults in many models do not reach the trench because of simplification of fault geometry. In this study, we use high-resolution differential bathymetry, that is, bathymetric differences before and after the earthquake, to constrain coseismic slip at and near the trench along a corridor in the area of largest moment release. We use a 3D elastic finite element model including real fault geometry and surface topography to produce Synthetic Differential Bathymetry (SDB) and compare it with the observed differential bathymetry. Earthquakes induce bathymetric changes by shifting the sloping seafloor seaward and by warping the seafloor through internal deformation of rocks. These effects are simulated by our SDB modeling, except for the permanent formation of the upper plate which is like to be limited and localized. Bathymetry data were collected by JAMSTEC in 1999, 2004, and in 2011 right after the M=9 earthquake. Our SDB results indicate that a fault slip of about 60 m at the trench, increasing landward by a few metres over a distance of 50 km, is needed to explain the differential bathymetry data for the time interval of 1999 - 2011. Most of this slip presumably happened during the 2011 earthquake, although very limited aseismic slip from 1999 to just prior to the earthquake cannot be ruled out. The 2004 - 2011 differential bathymetry data would indicate about 45 m near-trench slip, but this estimate is less reliable because the 2004 survey had a very short segment seaward of the trench, causing very large uncertainties in the 2004 - 2011 data.

Synthetic velocity gradient map of the San Francisco Bay region, California, supports use of average block velocities to estimate fault slip rate where effective locking depth is small relative to inter-fault distance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graymer, R. W.; Simpson, R. W.

2014-12-01

Graymer and Simpson (2013, AGU Fall Meeting) showed that in a simple 2D multi-fault system (vertical, parallel, strike-slip faults bounding blocks without strong material property contrasts) slip rate on block-bounding faults can be reasonably estimated by the difference between the mean velocity of adjacent blocks if the ratio of the effective locking depth to the distance between the faults is 1/3 or less ("effective" locking depth is a synthetic parameter taking into account actual locking depth, fault creep, and material properties of the fault zone). To check the validity of that observation for a more complex 3D fault system and a realistic distribution of observation stations, we developed a synthetic suite of GPS velocities from a dislocation model, with station location and fault parameters based on the San Francisco Bay region. Initial results show that if the effective locking depth is set at the base of the seismogenic zone (about 12-15 km), about 1/2 the interfault distance, the resulting synthetic velocity observations, when clustered, do a poor job of returning the input fault slip rates. However, if the apparent locking depth is set at 1/2 the distance to the base of the seismogenic zone, or about 1/4 the interfault distance, the synthetic velocity field does a good job of returning the input slip rates except where the fault is in a strong restraining orientation relative to block motion or where block velocity is not well defined (for example west of the northern San Andreas Fault where there are no observations to the west in the ocean). The question remains as to where in the real world a low effective locking depth could usefully model fault behavior. Further tests are planned to define the conditions where average cluster-defined block velocities can be used to reliably estimate slip rates on block-bounding faults. These rates are an important ingredient in earthquake hazard estimation, and another tool to provide them should be useful.

Identification of the meta-instability stage via synergy of fault displacement: An experimental study based on the digital image correlation method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhuo, Yan-Qun; Ma, Jin; Guo, Yan-Shuang; Ji, Yun-Tao

In stick-slip experiments modeling the occurrence of earthquakes, the meta-instability stage (MIS) is the process that occurs between the peak differential stress and the onset of sudden stress drop. The MIS is the final stage before a fault becomes unstable. Thus, identification of the MIS can help to assess the proximity of the fault to the earthquake critical time. A series of stick-slip experiments on a simulated strike-slip fault were conducted using a biaxial servo-controlled press machine. Digital images of the sample surface were obtained via a high speed camera and processed using a digital image correlation method for analysis of the fault displacement field. Two parameters, A and S, are defined based on fault displacement. A, the normalized length of local pre-slip areas identified by the strike-slip component of fault displacement, is the ratio of the total length of the local pre-slip areas to the length of the fault within the observed areas and quantifies the growth of local unstable areas along the fault. S, the normalized entropy of fault displacement directions, is derived from Shannon entropy and quantifies the disorder of fault displacement directions along the fault. Based on the fault displacement field of three stick-slip events under different loading rates, the experimental results show the following: (1) Both A and S can be expressed as power functions of the normalized time during the non-linearity stage and the MIS. The peak curvatures of A and S represent the onsets of the distinct increase of A and the distinct reduction of S, respectively. (2) During each stick-slip event, the fault evolves into the MIS soon after the curvatures of both A and S reach their peak values, which indicates that the MIS is a synergetic process from independent to cooperative behavior among various parts of a fault and can be approximately identified via the peak curvatures of A and S. A possible application of these experimental results to field conditions is provided. However, further validation is required via additional experiments and exercises.

Spectral element modelling of fault-plane reflections arising from fluid pressure distributions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haney, M.; Snieder, R.; Ampuero, J.-P.; Hofmann, R.

2007-01-01

The presence of fault-plane reflections in seismic images, besides indicating the locations of faults, offers a possible source of information on the properties of these poorly understood zones. To better understand the physical mechanism giving rise to fault-plane reflections in compacting sedimentary basins, we numerically model the full elastic wavefield via the spectral element method (SEM) for several different fault models. Using well log data from the South Eugene Island field, offshore Louisiana, we derive empirical relationships between the elastic parameters (e.g. P-wave velocity and density) and the effective-stress along both normal compaction and unloading paths. These empirical relationships guide the numerical modelling and allow the investigation of how differences in fluid pressure modify the elastic wavefield. We choose to simulate the elastic wave equation via SEM since irregular model geometries can be accommodated and slip boundary conditions at an interface, such as a fault or fracture, are implemented naturally. The method we employ for including a slip interface retains the desirable qualities of SEM in that it is explicit in time and, therefore, does not require the inversion of a large matrix. We performa complete numerical study by forward modelling seismic shot gathers over a faulted earth model using SEM followed by seismic processing of the simulated data. With this procedure, we construct post-stack time-migrated images of the kind that are routinely interpreted in the seismic exploration industry. We dip filter the seismic images to highlight the fault-plane reflections prior to making amplitude maps along the fault plane. With these amplitude maps, we compare the reflectivity from the different fault models to diagnose which physical mechanism contributes most to observed fault reflectivity. To lend physical meaning to the properties of a locally weak fault zone characterized as a slip interface, we propose an equivalent-layer model under the assumption of weak scattering. This allows us to use the empirical relationships between density, velocity and effective stress from the South Eugene Island field to relate a slip interface to an amount of excess pore-pressure in a fault zone. ?? 2007 The Authors Journal compilation ?? 2007 RAS.

Evolution of Pull-Apart Basins and Their Scale Independence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aydin, Atilla; Nur, Amos

1982-02-01

Pull-apart basins or rhomb grabens and horsts along major strike-slip fault systems in the world are generally associated with horizontal slip along faults. A simple model suggests that the width of the rhombs is controlled by the initial fault geometry, whereas the length increases with increasing fault displacement. We have tested this model by analyzing the shapes of 70 well-defined rhomb-like pull-apart basins and pressure ridges, ranging from tens of meters to tens of kilometers in length, associated with several major strike-slip faults in the western United States, Israel, Turkey, Iran, Guatemala, Venezuela, and New Zealand. In conflict with the model, we find that the length to width ratio of these basins is a constant value of approximately 3; these basins become wider as they grow longer with increasing fault offset. Two possible mechanisms responsible for the increase in width are suggested: (1) coalescence of neighboring rhomb grabens as each graben increases its length and (2) formation of fault strands parallel to the existing ones when large displacements need to be accommodated. The processes of formation and growth of new fault strands promote interaction among the new faults and between the new and preexisting faults on a larger scale. Increased displacement causes the width of the fault zone to increase resulting in wider pull-apart basins.

Elastic stress transfer as a diffusive process due to aseismic fault slip in response to fluid injection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viesca, R. C.

2015-12-01

Subsurface fluid injection is often followed by observations of an enlarging cloud of microseismicity. The cloud's diffusive growth is thought to be a direct response to the diffusion of elevated pore fluid pressure reaching pre-stressed faults, triggering small instabilities; the observed high rates of this growth are interpreted to reflect a relatively high permeability of a fractured subsurface [e.g., Shapiro, GJI 1997]. We investigate an alternative mechanism for growing a microseismic cloud: the elastic transfer of stress due to slow, aseismic slip on a subset of the pre-existing faults in this damaged subsurface. We show that the growth of the slipping region of the fault may be self-similar in a diffusive manner. While this slip is driven by fluid injection, we show that, for critically stressed faults, the apparent diffusion of this slow slip may quickly exceed the poroelastically driven diffusion of the elevated pore fluid pressure. Under these conditions, microseismicity can be first triggered by the off-fault stress perturbation due to the expanding region of slip on principal faults. This provides an alternative interpretation of diffusive growth rates in terms of the subsurface stress state rather than an enhanced hydraulic diffusivity. That such aseismic slip may occur, outpace fluid diffusion, and in turn trigger microseismic events, is also suggested by on- and near-fault observations in past and recently reported fluid injection experiments [e.g., Cornet et al., PAGEOPH 1997; Guglielmi et al., Science 2015]. The model of injection-induced slip assumes elastic off-fault behavior and a fault strength determined by the product of a constant friction coefficient and the local effective normal stress. The sliding region is enlarged by the pore pressure increase resolved on the fault plane. Remarkably, the rate of self-similar expansion may be determined by a single parameter reflecting both the initial stress state and the magnitude of the pore pressure increase.

Simulating subduction zone earthquakes using discrete element method: a window into elusive source processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blank, D. G.; Morgan, J.

2017-12-01

Large earthquakes that occur on convergent plate margin interfaces have the potential to cause widespread damage and loss of life. Recent observations reveal that a wide range of different slip behaviors take place along these megathrust faults, which demonstrate both their complexity, and our limited understanding of fault processes and their controls. Numerical modeling provides us with a useful tool that we can use to simulate earthquakes and related slip events, and to make direct observations and correlations among properties and parameters that might control them. Further analysis of these phenomena can lead to a more complete understanding of the underlying mechanisms that accompany the nucleation of large earthquakes, and what might trigger them. In this study, we use the discrete element method (DEM) to create numerical analogs to subduction megathrusts with heterogeneous fault friction. Displacement boundary conditions are applied in order to simulate tectonic loading, which in turn, induces slip along the fault. A wide range of slip behaviors are observed, ranging from creep to stick slip. We are able to characterize slip events by duration, stress drop, rupture area, and slip magnitude, and to correlate the relationships among these quantities. These characterizations allow us to develop a catalog of rupture events both spatially and temporally, for comparison with slip processes on natural faults.

Fault-slip inversions: Their importance in terms of strain, heterogeneity, and kinematics of brittle deformation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riller, U.; Clark, M. D.; Daxberger, H.; Doman, D.; Lenauer, I.; Plath, S.; Santimano, T.

2017-08-01

Heterogeneous deformation is intrinsic in natural deformation, but often underestimated in the analysis and interpretation of mesoscopic brittle shear faults. Based on the analysis of 11,222 faults from two distinct tectonic settings, the Central Andes in Argentina and the Sudbury area in Canada, interpolation of principal strain directions and scaled analogue modelling, we revisit controversial issues of fault-slip inversions, collectively adhering to heterogeneous deformation. These issues include the significance of inversion solutions in terms of (1) strain or paleo-stress; (2) displacement, notably plate convergence; (3) local versus far-field deformation; (4) strain perturbations and (5) spacing between stations of fault-slip data acquisition. Furthermore, we highlight the value of inversions for identifying the kinematics of master fault zones in the absence of displaced geological markers. A key result of our assessment is that fault-slip inversions relate to local strain, not paleo-stress, and thus can aid in inferring, the kinematics of master faults. Moreover, strain perturbations caused by mechanical anomalies of the deforming upper crust significantly influence local principal strain directions. Thus, differently oriented principal strain axes inferred from fault-slip inversions in a given region may not point to regional deformation caused by successive and distinct deformation regimes. This outcome calls into question the common practice of separating heterogeneous fault-slip data sets into apparently homogeneous subsets. Finally, the fact that displacement vectors and principal strains are rarely co-linear defies the use of brittle fault data as proxy for estimating directions of plate-scale motions.

Mountain building, strike-slip faulting, and landscape evolution in the Marlborough Fault System, NZ: Insights from new low-temperature thermochronology and modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duvall, A. R.; Collett, C.; Flowers, R. M.; Tucker, G. E.; Upton, P.

2016-12-01

The 150 km wide Marlborough Fault System (MFS) and adjacent dextral-reverse Alpine Fault accommodate oblique convergence of the Australian and Pacific plates in a broad transform boundary that extends for much of the South Island New Zealand. Understanding the deformation history of the Marlborough region offers the opportunity to study topographic evolution in a strike-slip setting and a fuller picture of the evolving New Zealand plate boundary as the MFS lies at the transition from oceanic Pacific plate subduction to oblique continental collision. Here we present low-temperature thermochronology from the MFS to place new limits on the timing and style of mountain building. We sampled a range of elevations spanning 2 km within and adjacent to the Kaikoura Mountains, which stand high as topographic anomalies above active strike-slip faults. Young apatite (U-Th)/He ages ( 2-5 Ma) on both sides of range-bounding faults are consistent with regional distributed deformation since the Pliocene initiation of strike-slip faulting. However, large differences in both zircon helium and apatite fission track ages, from Paleogene/Neogene ages within hanging walls to unreset >100 Ma ages in footwalls, indicate an early phase of fault-related vertical exhumation. Thermal modeling using the QTQt program reveals two phases of exhumation within the Kaikoura Ranges: rapid cooling at 15-12 Ma localized to hanging wall rocks and regional rapid cooling reflected in all samples starting at 4-5 Ma. These results and landscape evolution models suggest that, despite the presence of active mountain front faults, much of the topographic relief in this region may predate the onset of strike-slip faulting and that portions of the Marlborough Faults are re-activated thrusts that coincide with the early development of the transpressive plate boundary. Regional exhumation after 5 Ma likely reflects increased proximity to the migrating Pacific plate subduction zone and the buoyant Chatham Rise.

Simplex GPS and InSAR Inversion Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay W.; Lyzenga, Gregory A.; Pierce, Marlon E.

2012-01-01

Changes in the shape of the Earth's surface can be routinely measured with precisions better than centimeters. Processes below the surface often drive these changes and as a result, investigators require models with inversion methods to characterize the sources. Simplex inverts any combination of GPS (global positioning system), UAVSAR (uninhabited aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar), and InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) data simultaneously for elastic response from fault and fluid motions. It can be used to solve for multiple faults and parameters, all of which can be specified or allowed to vary. The software can be used to study long-term tectonic motions and the faults responsible for those motions, or can be used to invert for co-seismic slip from earthquakes. Solutions involving estimation of fault motion and changes in fluid reservoirs such as magma or water are possible. Any arbitrary number of faults or parameters can be considered. Simplex specifically solves for any of location, geometry, fault slip, and expansion/contraction of a single or multiple faults. It inverts GPS and InSAR data for elastic dislocations in a half-space. Slip parameters include strike slip, dip slip, and tensile dislocations. It includes a map interface for both setting up the models and viewing the results. Results, including faults, and observed, computed, and residual displacements, are output in text format, a map interface, and can be exported to KML. The software interfaces with the QuakeTables database allowing a user to select existing fault parameters or data. Simplex can be accessed through the QuakeSim portal graphical user interface or run from a UNIX command line.

A Kinematic Model of Slow Slip Constrained by Tremor-Derived Slip Histories in Cascadia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, D. A.; Houston, H.

2016-12-01

We explore new ways to constrain the kinematic slip distributions for large slow slip events using constraints from tremor. Our goal is to prescribe one or more slip pulses that propagate across the fault and scale appropriately to satisfy the observations. Recent work (Houston, 2015) inferred a crude representative stress time history at an average point using the tidal stress history, the static stress drop, and the timing of the evolution of tidal sensitivity of tremor over several days of slip. To convert a stress time history into a slip time history, we use simulations to explore the stressing history of a small locked patch due to an approaching rupture front. We assume that the locked patch releases strain through a series of tremor bursts whose activity rate is related to the stressing history. To test whether the functional form of a slip pulse is reasonable, we assume a hypothetical slip time history (Ohnaka pulse) timed with the occurrence of tremor to create a rupture front that propagates along the fault. The duration of the rupture front for a fault patch is constrained by the observed tremor catalog for the 2010 ETS event. The slip amplitude is scaled appropriately to match the observed surface displacements from GPS. Through a forward simulation, we evaluate the ability of the tremor-derived slip history to accurately predict the pattern of surface displacements observed by GPS. We find that the temporal progression of surface displacements are well modeled by a 2-4 day slip pulse, suggesting that some of the longer duration of slip typically found in time-dependent GPS inversions is biased by the temporal smoothing. However, at some locations on the fault, the tremor lingers beyond the passage of the slip pulse. A small percentage (5-10%) of the tremor appears to be activated ahead of the approaching slip pulse, and tremor asperities experience a driving stress on the order of 10 kPa/day. Tremor amplitude, rather than just tremor counts, is needed to better refine the pattern of slip across the fault.

Mapping apparent stress and energy radiation over fault zones of major earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

McGarr, A.; Fletcher, Joe B.

2002-01-01

Using published slip models for five major earthquakes, 1979 Imperial Valley, 1989 Loma Prieta, 1992 Landers, 1994 Northridge, and 1995 Kobe, we produce maps of apparent stress and radiated seismic energy over their fault surfaces. The slip models, obtained by inverting seismic and geodetic data, entail the division of the fault surfaces into many subfaults for which the time histories of seismic slip are determined. To estimate the seismic energy radiated by each subfault, we measure the near-fault seismic-energy flux from the time-dependent slip there and then multiply by a function of rupture velocity to obtain the corresponding energy that propagates into the far-field. This function, the ratio of far-field to near-fault energy, is typically less than 1/3, inasmuch as most of the near-fault energy remains near the fault and is associated with permanent earthquake deformation. Adding the energy contributions from all of the subfaults yields an estimate of the total seismic energy, which can be compared with independent energy estimates based on seismic-energy flux measured in the far-field, often at teleseismic distances. Estimates of seismic energy based on slip models are robust, in that different models, for a given earthquake, yield energy estimates that are in close agreement. Moreover, the slip-model estimates of energy are generally in good accord with independent estimates by others, based on regional or teleseismic data. Apparent stress is estimated for each subfault by dividing the corresponding seismic moment into the radiated energy. Distributions of apparent stress over an earthquake fault zone show considerable heterogeneity, with peak values that are typically about double the whole-earthquake values (based on the ratio of seismic energy to seismic moment). The range of apparent stresses estimated for subfaults of the events studied here is similar to the range of apparent stresses for earthquakes in continental settings, with peak values of about 8 MPa in each case. For earthquakes in compressional tectonic settings, peak apparent stresses at a given depth are substantially greater than corresponding peak values from events in extensional settings; this suggests that crustal strength, inferred from laboratory measurements, may be a limiting factor. Lower bounds on shear stresses inferred from the apparent stress distribution of the 1995 Kobe earthquake are consistent with tectonic-stress estimates reported by Spudich et al. (1998), based partly on slip-vector rake changes.

A 667 year record of coseismic and interseismic Coulomb stress changes in central Italy reveals the role of fault interaction in controlling irregular earthquake recurrence intervals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wedmore, L. N. J.; Faure Walker, J. P.; Roberts, G. P.; Sammonds, P. R.; McCaffrey, K. J. W.; Cowie, P. A.

2017-07-01

Current studies of fault interaction lack sufficiently long earthquake records and measurements of fault slip rates over multiple seismic cycles to fully investigate the effects of interseismic loading and coseismic stress changes on the surrounding fault network. We model elastic interactions between 97 faults from 30 earthquakes since 1349 A.D. in central Italy to investigate the relative importance of co-seismic stress changes versus interseismic stress accumulation for earthquake occurrence and fault interaction. This region has an exceptionally long, 667 year record of historical earthquakes and detailed constraints on the locations and slip rates of its active normal faults. Of 21 earthquakes since 1654, 20 events occurred on faults where combined coseismic and interseismic loading stresses were positive even though 20% of all faults are in "stress shadows" at any one time. Furthermore, the Coulomb stress on the faults that experience earthquakes is statistically different from a random sequence of earthquakes in the region. We show how coseismic Coulomb stress changes can alter earthquake interevent times by 103 years, and fault length controls the intensity of this effect. Static Coulomb stress changes cause greater interevent perturbations on shorter faults in areas characterized by lower strain (or slip) rates. The exceptional duration and number of earthquakes we model enable us to demonstrate the importance of combining long earthquake records with detailed knowledge of fault geometries, slip rates, and kinematics to understand the impact of stress changes in complex networks of active faults.

Fluid-injection and the mechanics of frictional stability of shale-bearing faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scuderi, Marco Maria; Collettini, Cristiano; Marone, Chris

2017-04-01

Fluid overpressure is one of the primary mechanisms for triggering tectonic fault slip and human-induced seismicity. This mechanism is appealing because fluids lubricate the fault and reduce the effective normal stress that holds the fault in place. However, current models of earthquake nucleation, based on rate- and state- friction, imply that stable sliding is favored by the increase of pore fluid pressure. Despite this apparent dilemma, there are a few studies on the role of fluid pressure in frictional stability under controlled, laboratory conditions. Here, we describe laboratory experiments on shale fault gouge, conducted in the double direct shear configuration in a true-triaxial machine. To characterize frictional stability and hydrological properties we performed three types of experiments: 1) stable sliding shear experiment to determine the material failure envelope resulting in fault strength of µ=0.28 and fault zone permeability (k 10-19m2); 2) velocity step experiments to determine the rate- and state- frictional properties, characterized by a velocity strengthening behavior with a negative rate parameter b, indicative of stable aseismic creep; 3) creep experiment to study fault slip evolution with increasing pore-fluid pressure. In these creep experiments fault slip history can be divided in three main stages: a) for low fluid pressure the fault is locked and undergoes compaction; b) with increasing fluid pressurization, we observe aseismic creep (i.e. v=0.0001 µm/s) associated with fault dilation, with maintained low permeability; c) As fluid pressure is further increased and we approach the failure criteria fault begins to accelerate, the dilation rate increases causing an increase in permeability. Following the first acceleration we document complex fault slip behavior characterized by periodic accelerations and decelerations with slip velocity that remains slow (i.e. v 200 µm/s), never approaching dynamic slip rates. Surprisingly, this complex slip behavior is associated with fault zone compaction and permeability increase as opposite to the dilation hardening mechanism that is usually invoked to quench the instability. We relate this complex fault slip behaviour to the interplay between fault weakening induced by fluid pressurization and the strong rate-strengthening behaviour of shales. Our data show that fault rheology and fault stability is controlled by the coupling between fluid pressure and rate- and state- friction parameters suggesting that their comprehensive characterization is fundamental for assessing the role of fluid pressure in natural and human induced earthquakes.

Implications from palaeoseismological investigations at the Markgrafneusiedl Fault (Vienna Basin, Austria) for seismic hazard assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hintersberger, Esther; Decker, Kurt; Lomax, Johanna; Lüthgens, Christopher

2018-02-01

Intraplate regions characterized by low rates of seismicity are challenging for seismic hazard assessment, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, evaluation of historic earthquake catalogues may not reveal all active faults that contribute to regional seismic hazard. Secondly, slip rate determination is limited by sparse geomorphic preservation of slowly moving faults. In the Vienna Basin (Austria), moderate historical seismicity (Imax, obs / Mmax, obs = 8/5.2) concentrates along the left-lateral strike-slip Vienna Basin Transfer Fault (VBTF). In contrast, several normal faults branching out from the VBTF show neither historical nor instrumental earthquake records, although geomorphological data indicate Quaternary displacement along those faults. Here, located about 15 km outside of Vienna, the Austrian capital, we present a palaeoseismological dataset of three trenches that cross one of these splay faults, the Markgrafneusiedl Fault (MF), in order to evaluate its seismic potential. Comparing the observations of the different trenches, we found evidence for five to six surface-breaking earthquakes during the last 120 kyr, with the youngest event occurring at around 14 ka. The derived surface displacements lead to magnitude estimates ranging between 6.2 ± 0.5 and 6.8 ± 0.4. Data can be interpreted by two possible slip models, with slip model 1 showing more regular recurrence intervals of about 20-25 kyr between the earthquakes with M ≥ 6.5 and slip model 2 indicating that such earthquakes cluster in two time intervals in the last 120 kyr. Direct correlation between trenches favours slip model 2 as the more plausible option. Trench observations also show that structural and sedimentological records of strong earthquakes with small surface offset have only low preservation potential. Therefore, the earthquake frequency for magnitudes between 6 and 6.5 cannot be constrained by the trenching records. Vertical slip rates of 0.02-0.05 mm a-1 derived from the trenches compare well to geomorphically derived slip rates of 0.02-0.09 mm a-1. Magnitude estimates from fault dimensions suggest that the largest earthquakes observed in the trenches activated the entire fault surface of the MF including the basal detachment that links the normal fault with the VBTF. The most important implications of these palaeoseismological results for seismic hazard assessment are as follows. (1) The MF is an active seismic source, capable of rupturing the surface despite the lack of historical earthquakes. (2) The MF is kinematically and geologically equivalent to a number of other splay faults of the VBTF. It is reasonable to assume that these faults are potential sources of large earthquakes as well. The frequency of strong earthquakes near Vienna is therefore expected to be significantly higher than the earthquake frequency reconstructed for the MF alone. (3) Although rare events, the potential for earthquake magnitudes equal or greater than M = 7.0 in the Vienna Basin should be considered in seismic hazard studies.

Constraints on fault slip rates of the southern California plate boundary from GPS velocity and stress inversions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Becker, T.W.; Hardebeck, J.L.; Anderson, G.

2005-01-01

We use Global Positioning System (GPS) velocities and stress orientations inferred from seismicity to invert for the distribution of slip on faults in the southern California plate-boundary region. Of particular interest is how long-term slip rates are partitioned between the Indio segment of the San Andreas fault (SAF), the San Jacinto fault (SJF) and the San Bernardino segment of the SAE We use two new sets of constraints to address this problem. The first is geodetic velocities from the Southern California Earthquake Center's (SCEC) Crustal Motion Map (version 3 by Shen et al.), which includes significantly more data than previous models. The second is a regional model of stress-field orientations at seismogenic depths, as determined from earthquake focal mechanisms. While GPS data have been used in similar studies before, this is the first application of stress-field observations to this problem. We construct a simplified model of the southern California fault system, and estimate the interseismic surface velocities using a backslip approach with purely elastic strain accumulation, following Meade et al. In addition, we model the stress orientations at seismogenic depths, assuming that crustal stress results from the loading of active faults. The geodetically derived stressing rates are found to be aligned with the stress orientations from seismicity. We therefore proceed to invert simultaneously GPS and stress observations for slip rates of the faults in our network. We find that the regional patterns of crustal deformation as imaged by both data sets can be explained by our model, and that joint inversions lead to better constrained slip rates. In our preferred model, the SJF accommodates ???15 mm yr-1 and the Indio segment of the SAF ???23 mm yr-1 of right-lateral motion, accompanied by a low slip rate on the San Bernardino segment of the SAF 'Anomalous' fault segments such as around the 1992 Mw = 7.3 Landers surface rupture can be detected. There, observed stresses deviate strongly from the long-term loading as predicted by our simple model. Evaluation of model misfits together with information from palaeoseismology may provide further insights into the time dependence of strain accumulation along the San Andreas system. ?? 2004 RAS.

Frictional constraints on crustal faulting

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boatwright, J.; Cocco, M.

1996-01-01

We consider how variations in fault frictional properties affect the phenomenology of earthquake faulting. In particular, we propose that lateral variations in fault friction produce the marked heterogeneity of slip observed in large earthquakes. We model these variations using a rate- and state-dependent friction law, where we differentiate velocity-weakening behavior into two fields: the strong seismic field is very velocity weakening and the weak seismic field is slightly velocity weakening. Similarly, we differentiate velocity-strengthening behavior into two fields: the compliant field is slightly velocity strengthening and the viscous field is very velocity strengthening. The strong seismic field comprises the seismic slip concentrations, or asperities. The two "intermediate" fields, weak seismic and compliant, have frictional velocity dependences that are close to velocity neutral: these fields modulate both the tectonic loading and the dynamic rupture process. During the interseismic period, the weak seismic and compliant regions slip aseismically, while the strong seismic regions remain locked, evolving into stress concentrations that fail only in main shocks. The weak seismic areas exhibit most of the interseismic activity and aftershocks but can also creep seismically. This "mixed" frictional behavior can be obtained from a sufficiently heterogenous distribution of the critical slip distance. The model also provides a mechanism for rupture arrest: dynamic rupture fronts decelerate as they penetrate into unloaded complaint or weak seismic areas, producing broad areas of accelerated afterslip. Aftershocks occur on both the weak seismic and compliant areas around a fault, but most of the stress is diffused through aseismic slip. Rapid afterslip on these peripheral areas can also produce aftershocks within the main shock rupture area by reloading weak fault areas that slipped in the main shock and then healed. We test this frictional model by comparing the seismicity and the coseismic slip for the 1966 Parkfield, 1979 Coyote Lake, and 1984 Morgan Hill earthquakes. The interevent seismicity and aftershocks appear to occur on fault areas outside the regions of significant slip: these regions are interpreted as either weak seismic or compliant, depending on whether or not they manifest interevent seismicity.

Rupture preparation process controlled by surface roughness on meter-scale laboratory fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamashita, Futoshi; Fukuyama, Eiichi; Xu, Shiqing; Mizoguchi, Kazuo; Kawakata, Hironori; Takizawa, Shigeru

2018-05-01

We investigate the effect of fault surface roughness on rupture preparation characteristics using meter-scale metagabbro specimens. We repeatedly conducted the experiments with the same pair of rock specimens to make the fault surface rough. We obtained three experimental results under the same experimental conditions (6.7 MPa of normal stress and 0.01 mm/s of loading rate) but at different roughness conditions (smooth, moderately roughened, and heavily roughened). During each experiment, we observed many stick-slip events preceded by precursory slow slip. We investigated when and where slow slip initiated by using the strain gauge data processed by the Kalman filter algorithm. The observed rupture preparation processes on the smooth fault (i.e. the first experiment among the three) showed high repeatability of the spatiotemporal distributions of slow slip initiation. Local stress measurements revealed that slow slip initiated around the region where the ratio of shear to normal stress (τ/σ) was the highest as expected from finite element method (FEM) modeling. However, the exact location of slow slip initiation was where τ/σ became locally minimum, probably due to the frictional heterogeneity. In the experiment on the moderately roughened fault, some irregular events were observed, though the basic characteristics of other regular events were similar to those on the smooth fault. Local stress data revealed that the spatiotemporal characteristics of slow slip initiation and the resulting τ/σ drop for irregular events were different from those for regular ones even under similar stress conditions. On the heavily roughened fault, the location of slow slip initiation was not consistent with τ/σ anymore because of the highly heterogeneous static friction on the fault, which also decreased the repeatability of spatiotemporal distributions of slow slip initiation. These results suggest that fault surface roughness strongly controls the rupture preparation process, and generally increases its complexity with the degree of roughness.

Rheological structure of the lithosphere in plate boundary strike-slip fault zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chatzaras, Vasileios; Tikoff, Basil; Kruckenberg, Seth C.; Newman, Julie; Titus, Sarah J.; Withers, Anthony C.; Drury, Martyn R.

2016-04-01

How well constrained is the rheological structure of the lithosphere in plate boundary strike-slip fault systems? Further, how do lithospheric layers, with rheologically distinct behaviors, interact within the strike-slip fault zones? To address these questions, we present rheological observations from the mantle sections of two lithospheric-scale, strike-slip fault zones. Xenoliths from ˜40 km depth (970-1100 ° C) beneath the San Andreas fault system (SAF) provide critical constraints on the mechanical stratification of the lithosphere in this continental transform fault. Samples from the Bogota Peninsula shear zone (BPSZ, New Caledonia), which is an exhumed oceanic transform fault, provide insights on lateral variations in mantle strength and viscosity across the fault zone at a depth corresponding to deformation temperatures of ˜900 ° C. Olivine recrystallized grain size piezometry suggests that the shear stress in the SAF upper mantle is 5-9 MPa and in the BPSZ is 4-10 MPa. Thus, the mantle strength in both fault zones is comparable to the crustal strength (˜10 MPa) of seismogenic strike-slip faults in the SAF system. Across the BPSZ, shear stress increases from 4 MPa in the surrounding rocks to 10 MPa in the mylonites, which comprise the core of the shear zone. Further, the BPSZ is characterized by at least one order of magnitude difference in the viscosity between the mylonites (1018 Paṡs) and the surrounding rocks (1019 Paṡs). Mantle viscosity in both the BPSZ mylonites and the SAF (7.0ṡ1018-3.1ṡ1020 Paṡs) is relatively low. To explain our observations from these two strike-slip fault zones, we propose the "lithospheric feedback" model in which the upper crust and lithospheric mantle act together as an integrated system. Mantle flow controls displacement and the upper crust controls the stress magnitude in the system. Our stress data combined with data that are now available for the middle and lower crustal sections of other transcurrent fault systems support the prediction for constant shear strength (˜10 MPa) throughout the lithosphere; the stress magnitude is controlled by the shear strength of the upper crustal faults. Fault rupture in the upper crust induces displacement rate loading of the upper mantle, which in turn, causes strain localization in the mantle shear zone beneath the strike-slip fault. Such forced localization leads to higher stresses and strain rates in the shear zone compared to the surrounding rocks. Low mantle viscosity within the shear zone is critical for facilitating mantle flow, which induces widespread crustal deformation and displacement loading. The lithospheric feedback model suggests that strike-slip fault zones are not mechanically stratified in terms of shear stress, and that it is the time-dependent interaction of the different lithospheric layers - rather than their relative strengths - that governs the rheological behavior of the plate boundary, strike-slip fault zones.

The role of bed-parallel slip in the development of complex normal fault zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delogkos, Efstratios; Childs, Conrad; Manzocchi, Tom; Walsh, John J.; Pavlides, Spyros

2017-04-01

Normal faults exposed in Kardia lignite mine, Ptolemais Basin, NW Greece formed at the same time as bed-parallel slip-surfaces, so that while the normal faults grew they were intermittently offset by bed-parallel slip. Following offset by a bed-parallel slip-surface, further fault growth is accommodated by reactivation on one or both of the offset fault segments. Where one fault is reactivated the site of bed-parallel slip is a bypassed asperity. Where both faults are reactivated, they propagate past each other to form a volume between overlapping fault segments that displays many of the characteristics of relay zones, including elevated strains and transfer of displacement between segments. Unlike conventional relay zones, however, these structures contain either a repeated or a missing section of stratigraphy which has a thickness equal to the throw of the fault at the time of the bed-parallel slip event, and the displacement profiles along the relay-bounding fault segments have discrete steps at their intersections with bed-parallel slip-surfaces. With further increase in displacement, the overlapping fault segments connect to form a fault-bound lens. Conventional relay zones form during initial fault propagation, but with coeval bed-parallel slip, relay-like structures can form later in the growth of a fault. Geometrical restoration of cross-sections through selected faults shows that repeated bed-parallel slip events during fault growth can lead to complex internal fault zone structure that masks its origin. Bed-parallel slip, in this case, is attributed to flexural-slip arising from hanging-wall rollover associated with a basin-bounding fault outside the study area.

Fault model of the 2017 Jiuzhaigou Mw 6.5 earthquake estimated from coseismic deformation observed using Global Positioning System and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nie, Zhaosheng; Wang, Di-Jin; Jia, Zhige; Yu, Pengfei; Li, Liangfa

2018-04-01

On August 8, 2017, the Jiuzhaigou Mw 6.5 earthquake occurred in Sichuan province, southwestern China, along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The epicenter is surrounded by the Minjiang, Huya, and Tazang Faults. As the seismic activity and tectonics are very complicated, there is controversy regarding the accurate location of the epicenter and the seismic fault of the Jiuzhaigou earthquake. To investigate these aspects, first, the coseismic deformation field was derived from Global Positioning System (GPS) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements. Second, the fault geometry, coseismic slip model, and Coulomb stress changes around the seismic region were calculated using a homogeneous elastic half-space model. The coseismic deformation field derived from InSAR measurements shows that this event was mainly dominated by a left-lateral strike-slip fault. The maximal and minimal displacements were approximately 0.15 m and - 0.21 m, respectively, along line-of-sight observation. The whole deformation field follows a northwest-trending direction and is mainly concentrated west of the fault. The coseismic slip is 28 km along the strike and 18 km along the dip. It is dominated by a left-lateral strike-slip fault. The average and maximal fault slip is 0.18 and 0.85 m, respectively. The rupture did not fully reach the ground surface. The focal mechanism derived from GPS and InSAR data is consistent with the kinematics and geometry of the Huya Fault. Therefore, we conclude that the northern section or the Shuzheng segment of the Huya Fault is the seismogenic fault. The maximal fault slip is located at 33.25°N and 103.82°E at a depth of 11 km, and the release moment is approximately 6.635 × 1018 Nm, corresponding to a magnitude of Mw 6.49, which is consistent with results reported by the US Geological Survey, Global Centroid Moment Tensor, and other researchers. The coseismic Coulomb stress changes enhanced the stress on the northwest and southeast edges of the northern extension of the Huya Fault. Seismic risks cannot be ignored in the future although aftershocks are fewer in number in these regions.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

A bottom-driven mechanism for distributed faulting: Insights from the Gulf of California Rift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Persaud, P.; Tan, E.; Choi, E.; Contreras, J.; Lavier, L. L.

2017-12-01

The Gulf of California is a young oblique rift that displays a variation in rifting style along strike. Despite the rapid localization of strain in the Gulf at 6 Ma, the northern rift segment has the characteristics of a wide rift, with broadly distributed extensional strain and small gradients in topography and crustal thinning. Observations of active faulting in the continent-ocean transition of the Northern Gulf show multiple oblique-slip faults distributed in a 200 x 70 km2area developed some time after a westward relocation of the plate boundary at 2 Ma. In contrast, north and south of this broad pull-apart structure, major transform faults accommodate Pacific-North America plate motion. Here we propose that the mechanism for distributed brittle deformation results from the boundary conditions present in the Northern Gulf, where basal shear is distributed between the Cerro Prieto strike-slip fault (southernmost fault of the San Andreas fault system) and the Ballenas Transform fault. We hypothesize that in oblique-extensional settings whether deformation is partitioned in a few dip-slip and strike-slip faults, or in numerous oblique-slip faults may depend on (1) bottom-driven, distributed extension and shear deformation of the lower crust or upper mantle, and (2) the rift obliquity. To test this idea, we explore the effects of bottom-driven shear on the deformation of a brittle elastic-plastic layer with pseudo-three dimensional numerical models that include side forces. Strain localization results when the basal shear is a step-function while oblique-slip on numerous faults dominates when basal shear is distributed. We further investigate how the style of faulting varies with obliquity and demonstrate that the style of faulting observed in the Northern Gulf of California is reproduced in models with an obliquity of 0.7 and distributed basal shear boundary conditions, consistent with the interpreted obliquity and boundary conditions of the study area. Our findings motivate a suite of 3D models of the early plate boundary evolution in the Gulf, and highlight the importance of local stress field perturbations as a mechanism for broadening the deformation zone in other regions such as the Basin and Range, Rio Grande Rift and Malawi Rift.

A multiple fault rupture model of the November 13 2016, M 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benites, R. A.; Francois-Holden, C.; Langridge, R. M.; Kaneko, Y.; Fry, B.; Kaiser, A. E.; Caldwell, T. G.

2017-12-01

The rupture-history of the November 13 2016 MW7.8 Kaikoura earthquake recorded by near- and intermediate-field strong-motion seismometers and 2 high-rate GPS stations reveals a complex cascade of multiple crustal fault rupture. In spite of such complexity, we show that the rupture history of each fault is well approximated by simple kinematic model with uniform slip and rupture velocity. Using 9 faults embedded in a crustal layer 19 km thick, each with a prescribed slip vector and rupture velocity, this model accurately reproduces the displacement waveforms recorded at the near-field strong-motion and GPS stations. This model includes the `Papatea Fault' with a mixed thrust and strike-slip mechanism based on in-situ geological observations with up to 8 m of uplift observed. Although the kinematic model fits the ground-motion at the nearest strong station, it doesn not reproduce the one sided nature of the static deformation field observed geodetically. This suggests a dislocation based approach does not completely capture the mechanical response of the Papatea Fault. The fault system as a whole extends for approximately 150 km along the eastern side of the Marlborough fault system in the South Island of New Zealand. The total duration of the rupture was 74 seconds. The timing and location of each fault's rupture suggests fault interaction and triggering resulting in a northward cascade crustal ruptures. Our model does not require rupture of the underlying subduction interface to explain the data.

Quantifying Vertical Exhumation in Intracontinental Strike-Slip Faults: the Garlock fault zone, southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chinn, L.; Blythe, A. E.; Fendick, A.

2012-12-01

New apatite fission-track ages show varying rates of vertical exhumation at the eastern terminus of the Garlock fault zone. The Garlock fault zone is a 260 km long east-northeast striking strike-slip fault with as much as 64 km of sinistral offset. The Garlock fault zone terminates in the east in the Avawatz Mountains, at the intersection with the dextral Southern Death Valley fault zone. Although motion along the Garlock fault west of the Avawatz Mountains is considered purely strike-slip, uplift and exhumation of bedrock in the Avawatz Mountains south of the Garlock fault, as recently as 5 Ma, indicates that transpression plays an important role at this location and is perhaps related to a restricting bend as the fault wraps around and terminates southeastward along the Avawatz Mountains. In this study we complement extant thermochronometric ages from within the Avawatz core with new low temperature fission-track ages from samples collected within the adjacent Garlock and Southern Death Valley fault zones. These thermochronometric data indicate that vertical exhumation rates vary within the fault zone. Two Miocene ages (10.2 (+5.0/-3.4) Ma, 9.0 (+2.2/-1.8) Ma) indicate at least ~3.3 km of vertical exhumation at ~0.35 mm/yr, assuming a 30°C/km geothermal gradient, along a 2 km transect parallel and adjacent to the Mule Spring fault. An older Eocene age (42.9 (+8.7/-7.3) Ma) indicates ~3.3 km of vertical exhumation at ~0.08 mm/yr. These results are consistent with published exhumation rates of 0.35 mm/yr between ~7 and ~4 Ma and 0.13 mm/yr between ~15 and ~9 Ma, as determined by apatite fission-track and U-Th/He thermochronometry in the hanging-wall of the Mule Spring fault. Similar exhumation rates on both sides of the Mule Spring fault support three separate models: 1) Thrusting is no longer active along the Mule Spring fault, 2) Faulting is dominantly strike-slip at the sample locations, or 3) Miocene-present uplift and exhumation is below detection levels using apatite fission-track thermochronometry. In model #1 slip on the Mule Spring fault may have propagated towards the range front, and may be responsible for the fault-propagation-folding currently observed along the northern branch of the Southern Death Valley fault zone. Model #2 may serve to determine where faulting has historically included a component of thrust faulting to the east of sample locations. Model #3 would further determine total offset along the Mule Spring fault from Miocene-present. Anticipated fission-track and U-Th/He data will help distinguish between these alternative models.

Slip rates and spatially variable creep on faults of the northern San Andreas system inferred through Bayesian inversion of Global Positioning System data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Murray, Jessica R.; Minson, Sarah E.; Svarc, Jerry L.

2014-01-01

Fault creep, depending on its rate and spatial extent, is thought to reduce earthquake hazard by releasing tectonic strain aseismically. We use Bayesian inversion and a newly expanded GPS data set to infer the deep slip rates below assigned locking depths on the San Andreas, Maacama, and Bartlett Springs Faults of Northern California and, for the latter two, the spatially variable interseismic creep rate above the locking depth. We estimate deep slip rates of 21.5 ± 0.5, 13.1 ± 0.8, and 7.5 ± 0.7 mm/yr below 16 km, 9 km, and 13 km on the San Andreas, Maacama, and Bartlett Springs Faults, respectively. We infer that on average the Bartlett Springs fault creeps from the Earth's surface to 13 km depth, and below 5 km the creep rate approaches the deep slip rate. This implies that microseismicity may extend below the locking depth; however, we cannot rule out the presence of locked patches in the seismogenic zone that could generate moderate earthquakes. Our estimated Maacama creep rate, while comparable to the inferred deep slip rate at the Earth's surface, decreases with depth, implying a slip deficit exists. The Maacama deep slip rate estimate, 13.1 mm/yr, exceeds long-term geologic slip rate estimates, perhaps due to distributed off-fault strain or the presence of multiple active fault strands. While our creep rate estimates are relatively insensitive to choice of model locking depth, insufficient independent information regarding locking depths is a source of epistemic uncertainty that impacts deep slip rate estimates.

Slip distribution, strain accumulation and aseismic slip on the Chaman Fault system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amelug, F.

2015-12-01

The Chaman fault system is a transcurrent fault system developed due to the oblique convergence of the India and Eurasia plates in the western boundary of the India plate. To evaluate the contemporary rates of strain accumulation along and across the Chaman Fault system, we use 2003-2011 Envisat SAR imagery and InSAR time-series methods to obtain a ground velocity field in radar line-of-sight (LOS) direction. We correct the InSAR data for different sources of systematic biases including the phase unwrapping errors, local oscillator drift, topographic residuals and stratified tropospheric delay and evaluate the uncertainty due to the residual delay using time-series of MODIS observations of precipitable water vapor. The InSAR velocity field and modeling demonstrates the distribution of deformation across the Chaman fault system. In the central Chaman fault system, the InSAR velocity shows clear strain localization on the Chaman and Ghazaband faults and modeling suggests a total slip rate of ~24 mm/yr distributed on the two faults with rates of 8 and 16 mm/yr, respectively corresponding to the 80% of the total ~3 cm/yr plate motion between India and Eurasia at these latitudes and consistent with the kinematic models which have predicted a slip rate of ~17-24 mm/yr for the Chaman Fault. In the northern Chaman fault system (north of 30.5N), ~6 mm/yr of the relative plate motion is accommodated across Chaman fault. North of 30.5 N where the topographic expression of the Ghazaband fault vanishes, its slip does not transfer to the Chaman fault but rather distributes among different faults in the Kirthar range and Sulaiman lobe. Observed surface creep on the southern Chaman fault between Nushki and north of City of Chaman, indicates that the fault is partially locked, consistent with the recorded M<7 earthquakes in last century on this segment. The Chaman fault between north of the City of Chaman to North of Kabul, does not show an increase in the rate of strain accumulation. However, lack of seismicity on this segment, presents a significant hazard on Kabul. The high rate of strain accumulation on the Ghazaband fault and lack of evidence for the rupture of the fault during the 1935 Quetta earthquake, present a growing earthquake hazard to the Balochistan and the populated areas such as the city of Quetta.

Deformation associated with the Ste. Genevieve fault zone and mid-continent tectonics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schultz, A.; Baker, G.S.; Harrison, R.W.

1992-01-01

The Ste. Genevieve fault is a northwest-trending deformation zone on the northeast edge of the Ozark Dome in Missouri. The fault has been described as a high-angle block fault resulting from vertical uplift of Proterozoic basement rocks, and also as a left-lateral, strike-slip or transpressive wrench fault associated with the Reelfoot rift. Recent mapping across the fault zone documents significant changes in the style of deformation along strike, including variations in the number and the spacing of fault strands, changes in the orientation of rocks within and adjacent to the fault zone, and changes in the direction of stratigraphic offsetmore » between different fault slices. These data are inconsistent with existing Ste. Genevieve models of monoclinal folding over basement upthrusts. Mesoscopic structural analysis of rocks in and near the fault zone indicates highly deformed noncylindrical folds, faults with normal, reverse, oblique, and strike-slip components of movement, and complex joint systems. Fabric orientation, calcite shear fibers, and slickensides indicate that the majority of these mesoscopic structures are kinematically related to left-lateral oblique slip with the southwest side up. Within the fault zone are highly fractured rocks, microscopic to coarse-grained carbonate breccia, and siliciclastic cataclasite. Microscopic deformation includes twinning in carbonate rocks, deformation banding, undulose extinction, and strain-induced polygonization in quartz, tectonic stylolites, extension veining, microfractures, and grain-scale cataclasis. Data are consistent with models relating the Ste. Genevieve fault zone to left-lateral oblique slip possibly associated with New Madrid tectonism.« less

Crustal deformation associated with east Mediterranean strike-slip earthquakes: The 8 June 2008 Movri (NW Peloponnese), Greece, earthquake (M w6.4)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papadopoulos, Gerassimos A.; Karastathis, Vassilis; Kontoes, Charalambos; Charalampakis, Marinos; Fokaefs, Anna; Papoutsis, Ioannis

2010-09-01

The 2008 mainshock ( Mw = 6.4) was the first modern, strong strike-slip earthquake in the Greek mainland. The fault strikes NE-SW, dips ˜ 85°NW while the motion was right-lateral with small reverse component. Historical seismicity showed no evidence that the fault ruptured in the last 300 years. For rectangular planar fault we estimated fault dimensions from aftershock locations. Dimensions are consistent with that a buried fault was activated, lateral expansion occurred only along length and the rupture stopped at depth ˜ 20 km implying that more rupture along length was favoured. We concluded that no major asperities remained unbroken and that the aftershock activity was dominated rather by creeping mechanism than by the presence of locked patches. For Mo = 4.56 × 10 25 dyn cm we calculated average slip of 76 cm and stress drop Δσ ˜ 13 bars. This Δσ is high for Greek strike-slip earthquakes, due rather to increased rigidity because of the relatively long recurrence ( Τ > 300 years) of strong earthquakes in the fault, than to high slip. Values of Δσ and Τ indicated that the fault is neither a typical strong nor a typical weak fault. Dislocation modeling of a buried fault showed uplift of ˜ 8.0 cm in Kato Achaia ( Δ ˜ 20 km) at the hanging wall of the reverse fault component. DInSAR analysis detected co-seismic motion only in Kato Achaia where interferogram fringes pattern showed vertical displacement from 3.0 to 6.0 cm. From field-surveys we estimated maximum intensity of VIII in Kato Achaia. The most important liquefaction spots were also observed there. These observations are attributable neither to surface fault-breaks nor to site effects but possibly to high ground acceleration due to the co-seismic uplift. The causal association between displacement and earthquake damage in the hanging wall described for dip-slip faults in Taiwan, Greece and elsewhere, becomes possible also for strike-slip faults with dip-slip component, as the 2008 earthquake.

2D Simulations of Earthquake Cycles at a Subduction Zone Based on a Rate and State Friction Law -Effects of Pore Fluid Pressure Changes-

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitsui, Y.; Hirahara, K.

2006-12-01

There have been a lot of studies that simulate large earthquakes occurring quasi-periodically at a subduction zone, based on the laboratory-derived rate-and-state friction law [eg. Kato and Hirasawa (1997), Hirose and Hirahara (2002)]. All of them assume that pore fluid pressure in the fault zone is constant. However, in the fault zone, pore fluid pressure changes suddenly, due to coseismic pore dilatation [Marone (1990)] and thermal pressurization [Mase and Smith (1987)]. If pore fluid pressure drops and effective normal stress rises, fault slip is decelerated. Inversely, if pore fluid pressure rises and effective normal stress drops, fault slip is accelerated. The effect of pore fluid may cause slow slip events and low-frequency tremor [Kodaira et al. (2004), Shelly et al. (2006)]. For a simple spring model, how pore dilatation affects slip instability was investigated [Segall and Rice (1995), Sleep (1995)]. When the rate of the slip becomes high, pore dilatation occurs and pore pressure drops, and the rate of the slip is restrained. Then the inflow of pore fluid recovers the pore pressure. We execute 2D earthquake cycle simulations at a subduction zone, taking into account such changes of pore fluid pressure following Segall and Rice (1995), in addition to the numerical scheme in Kato and Hirasawa (1997). We do not adopt hydrostatic pore pressure but excess pore pressure for initial condition, because upflow of dehydrated water seems to exist at a subduction zone. In our model, pore fluid is confined to the fault damage zone and flows along the plate interface. The smaller the flow rate is, the later pore pressure recovers. Since effective normal stress keeps larger, the fault slip is decelerated and stress drop becomes smaller. Therefore the smaller flow rate along the fault zone leads to the shorter earthquake recurrence time. Thus, not only the frictional parameters and the subduction rate but also the fault zone permeability affects the recurrence time of earthquake cycle. Further, the existence of heterogeneity in the permeability along the plate interface can bring about other slip behaviors, such as slow slip events. Our simulations indicate that, in addition to the frictional parameters, the permeability within the fault damage zone is one of essential parameters, which controls the whole earthquake cycle.

Transpressive systems - 4D analogue modelling with X-ray computed tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klinkmueller, M.; Schreurs, G.

2009-04-01

A series of 4D transpressional analogue models was analyzed with X-ray computed tomography (CT). A new modular sandbox with two base-plates was used to simulate strike-slip transpressional deformation and oblique basin inversion. The model itself is constructed on top of an assemblage made up of plexiglas- and foam-bars that enable strain distribution. Models consisted of a basal polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer overlain by a quartz sand pack (Schreurs 1994; Schreurs & Colletta, 1998). The PDMS layer distributes the strike-slip shear component of deformation evenly over the entire model. The initial length of the model was 80 cm. The initial width of the model was 25 cm and was extended to maximal 27 cm to form graben structures. During extension a syn-sedimentary sequence of granular materials was added before transpression was started. Different ratios of shear strain rate and shortening strain rate were applied to investigate the influence on fault generation in both set-ups. To avoid side effects, our fault analysis focused on the central part of the model with a safety distance to the strike-slip orthogonal sidewalls of 20 cm. At low-angle transpression, strike-slip faults form predominantly during initial stages of deformation. They merge in part with pre-existing graben structures and form an anastomosing major fault zone that strikes subparallel to the long dimension of the model. At high-angle transpression, thrusts striking parallel to the long dimension of the model dominate. Thrust localisation is strongly controlled by the position of the pre-existing graben. REFERENCES Schreurs, G. (1994). Experiments on strike-slip faulting and block rotation. Geology, 22, 567-570. Schreurs, G. & Colletta, B. (1998). Analogue modelling of faulting in zones of continental transpression and transtension. In: Holdsworth, R.E., Strachan, R.A. & Dewey, J.F. (eds.). Continental Transpressional and Transtensional Tectonics. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 135, 59-79.

Length-Displacement Scaling of Lunar Thrust Faults and the Formation of Uphill-Facing Scarps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiesinger, Harald; Roggon, Lars; Hetzel, Ralf; Clark, Jaclyn D.; Hampel, Andrea; van der Bogert, Carolyn H.

2017-04-01

Lobate scarps are straight to curvilinear positive-relief landforms that occur on all terrestrial bodies [e.g., 1-3]. They are the surface manifestation of thrust faults that cut through and offset the upper part of the crust. Fault scarps on planetary surfaces provide the opportunity to study the growth of faults under a wide range of environmental conditions (e.g., gravity, temperature, pore pressure) [4]. We studied four lunar thrust-fault scarps (Simpelius-1, Morozov (S1), Fowler, Racah X-1) ranging in length from 1.3 km to 15.4 km [5] and found that their maximum total displacements are linearly correlated with length over one order of magnitude. We propose that during the progressive accumulation of slip, lunar faults propagate laterally and increase in length. On the basis of our measurements, the ratio of maximum displacement, D, to fault length, L, ranges from 0.017 to 0.028 with a mean value of 0.023 (or 2.3%). This is an order of magnitude higher than the value of 0.1% derived by theoretical considerations [4], and about twice as large as the value of 0.012-0.013 estimated by [6,7]. Our results, in addition to recently published findings for other lunar scarps [2,8], indicate that the D/L ratios of lunar thrust faults are similar to those of faults on Mercury and Mars (e.g., 1, 9-11], and almost as high as the average D/L ratio of 3% for faults on Earth [16,23]. Three of the investigated thrust fault scarps (Simpelius-1, Morozov (S1), Fowler) are uphill-facing scarps generated by slip on faults that dip in the same direction as the local topography. Thrust faults with such a geometry are common ( 60% of 97 studied scarps) on the Moon [e.g., 2,5,7]. To test our hypothesis that the surface topography plays an important role in the formation of uphill-facing fault scarps by controlling the vertical load on a fault plane, we simulated thrust faulting and its relation to topography with two-dimensional finite-element models using the commercial code ABAQUS (version 6.14). Our model results indicate that the onset of faulting in our 200-km-long model is a function of the surface topography [5]. Our numerical model indicates that uphill-facing scarps form earlier and grow faster than downhill-facing scarps under otherwise similar conditions. Thrust faults which dip in the same general direction as the topography (forming an uphill-facing scarp), start to slip earlier (4.2 Ma) after the onset of shortening and reach a total slip of 5.8 m after 70 Ma. In contrast, slip on faults that leads to the generation of a downhill-facing scarp initiates much later (i.e., after 20 Ma of elapsed model time) and attains a total slip of only 1.8 m in 70 Ma. If the surface of the model is horizontal, faulting on both fault structures starts after 4.4 Ma, but faulting proceeds at a lower rate than for fault, which generated the uphill-facing scarp. Although the absolute ages for fault initiation (as well as the total fault slip) depend on the arbitrarily chosen shortening rate (as well as on the size of the model and the elastic parameters), this relative timing of fault activation was consistently observed irrespective of the chosen shortening rate. Thus, the model results demonstrate that, for all other factors being equal, the differing weight of the hanging wall above the two modeled faults is responsible for the different timing of fault initiation and the difference in total slip. In conclusion, we present new quantitative estimates of the maximum total displacements of lunar lobate scarps and offer a new model to explain the origin of uphill-facing scarps that is also of importance for understanding the formation of the Lee-Lincoln scarp at the Apollo 17 landing site. [1] Watters et al., 2000, Geophys. Res. Lett. 27; [2] Williams et al., 2013, J. Geophys. Res. 118; [3] Massironi et al., 2015, Encycl. Planet. Landf., pp. 1255-1262; [4] Schultz et al., 2006, J. Struct. Geol. 28; [5] Roggon et al. (2017) Icarus, in press; [6] Watters and Johnson, 2010, Planetary Tectonics, pp. 121-182; [7] Banks et al., 2012, J. Geophys. Res. 117; [8] Banks et al., 2013, LPSC 44, 3042; [9] Hauber and Kronberg, 2005, J. Geophys. Res. 110; [10] Hauber et al., 2013, EPSC2013-987; [11] Byrne et al., 2014, Nature Geosci. 7

Pore Pressure Evolution in Shallow Subduction Earthquake Sequences and Effects on Aseismic Slip Transients -- Numerical Modeling With Rate and State Friction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Y.; Rice, J. R.

2005-12-01

In 3D modeling of long tectonic loading and earthquake sequences on a shallow subduction fault [Liu and Rice, 2005], with depth-variable rate and state friction properties, we found that aseismic transient slip episodes emerge spontaneously with only a simplified representation of effects of metamorphic fluid release. That involved assumption of a constant in time but uniformly low effective normal stress in the downdip region. As suggested by observations in several major subduction zones [Obara, 2002; Rogers and Dragert, 2003; Kodaira et al, 2004], the presence of fluids, possibly released from dehydration reactions beneath the seismogenic zone, and their pressurization within the fault zone may play an important role in causing aseismic transients and associated non-volcanic tremors. To investigate the effects of fluids in the subduction zone, particularly on the generation of aseismic transients and their various features, we develop a more complete physical description of the pore pressure evolution (specifically, pore pressure increase due to supply from dehydration reactions and shear heating, decrease due to transport and dilatancy during slip), and incorporate that into the rate and state based 3D modeling. We first incorporated two important factors, dilatancy and shear heating, following Segall and Rice [1995, 2004] and Taylor [1998]. In the 2D simulations (slip varies with depth only), a dilatancy-stabilizing effect is seen which slows down the seismic rupture front and can prevent rapid slip from extending all the way to the trench, similarly to Taylor [1998]. Shear heating increases the pore pressure, and results in faster coseismic rupture propagation and larger final slips. In the 3D simulations, dilatancy also stabilizes the along-strike rupture propagation of both seismic and aseismic slips. That is, aseismic slip transients migrate along the strike faster with a shorter Tp (the characteristic time for pore pressure in the fault core to re-equilibrate with that of its surroundings). This is consistent with our previous simulations, which show that the aseismic transients migrate along the strike at a higher speed under a lower, constant in time, effective normal stress. As a combination of the two factors, we show the pore pressure evolution with drops (due to dilatancy during slip) and then rises (due to shear heating) on the fault over multiple time scales. We next plan to formulate, and merge with the slip-rupture analysis, fuller fluid release models based on phase equilibria and models of transport in which the average fault-parallel permeability is a decreasing function of the effective normal stress. The thrust fault zone, at seismogenic depths and slightly downdip, is represented in a conceptually similar manner to the well-studied major continental faults, assuming the fault core materials have a lower permeability than the neighboring damaged zone. Heat diffusion in the fault core and damaged zone will also be considered in the modeling. The simulation results may help to improve our understanding of the processes of the aseismic transients observed within a transform plate boundary along the SAF near Cholame, California [Nadeau and Dolenc, 2005].

Triggering of destructive earthquakes in El Salvador

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martínez-Díaz, José J.; Álvarez-Gómez, José A.; Benito, Belén; Hernández, Douglas

2004-01-01

We investigate the existence of a mechanism of static stress triggering driven by the interaction of normal faults in the Middle American subduction zone and strike-slip faults in the El Salvador volcanic arc. The local geology points to a large strike-slip fault zone, the El Salvador fault zone, as the source of several destructive earthquakes in El Salvador along the volcanic arc. We modeled the Coulomb failure stress (CFS) change produced by the June 1982 and January 2001 subduction events on planes parallel to the El Salvador fault zone. The results have broad implications for future risk management in the region, as they suggest a causative relationship between the position of the normal-slip events in the subduction zone and the strike-slip events in the volcanic arc. After the February 2001 event, an important area of the El Salvador fault zone was loaded with a positive change in Coulomb failure stress (>0.15 MPa). This scenario must be considered in the seismic hazard assessment studies that will be carried out in this area.

Compilation of Surface Creep on California Faults and Comparison of WGCEP 2007 Deformation Model to Pacific-North American Plate Motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wisely, Beth A.; Schmidt, David A.; Weldon, Ray J.

2008-01-01

This Appendix contains 3 sections that 1) documents published observations of surface creep on California faults, 2) constructs line integrals across the WG-07 deformation model to compare to the Pacific ? North America plate motion, and 3) constructs strain tensors of volumes across the WG-07 deformation model to compare to the Pacific ? North America plate motion. Observation of creep on faults is a critical part of our earthquake rupture model because if a fault is observed to creep the moment released as earthquakes is reduced from what would be inferred directly from the fault?s slip rate. There is considerable debate about how representative creep measured at the surface during a short time period is of the whole fault surface through the entire seismic cycle (e.g. Hudnut and Clark, 1989). Observationally, it is clear that the amount of creep varies spatially and temporally on a fault. However, from a practical point of view a single creep rate is associated with a fault section and the reduction in seismic moment generated by the fault is accommodated in seismic hazard models by reducing the surface area that generates earthquakes or by reducing the slip rate that is converted into seismic energy. WG-07 decided to follow the practice of past Working Groups and the National Seismic Hazard Map and used creep rate (where it was judged to be interseismic, see Table P1) to reduce the area of the fault surface that generates seismic events. In addition to following past practice, this decision allowed the Working Group to use a reduction of slip rate as a separate factor to accommodate aftershocks, post seismic slip, possible aseismic permanent deformation along fault zones and other processes that are inferred to affect the entire surface area of a fault, and thus are better modeled as a reduction in slip rate. C-zones are also handled by a reduction in slip rate, because they are inferred to include regions of widely distributed shear that is not completely expressed as earthquakes large enough to model. Because the ratio of the rate of creep relative to the total slip rate is often used to infer the average depth of creep, the ?depth? of creep can be calculated and used to reduce the surface area of a fault that generates earthquakes in our model. This reduction of surface area of rupture is described by an ?aseismicity factor,? assigned to each creeping fault in Appendix A. An aseismicity factor of less than 1 is only assigned to faults that are inferred to creep during the entire interseismic period. A single aseismicity factor was chosen for each section of the fault that creeps by expert opinion from the observations documented here. Uncertainties were not determined for the aseismicity factor, and thus it represents an unmodeled (and difficult to model) source of error. This Appendix simply provides the documentation of known creep, the type and precision of its measurement, and attempts to characterize the creep as interseismic, afterslip, transient or triggered. Parts 2 and 3 of this Appendix compare the WG-07 deformation model and the seismic source model it generates to the strain generated by the Pacific - North American plate motion. The concept is that plate motion generates essentially all of the elastic strain in the vicinity of the plate boundary that can be released as earthquakes. Adding up the slip rates on faults and all others sources of deformation (such as C-zones and distributed ?background? seismicity) should approximately yield the plate motion. This addition is usually accomplished by one of four approaches: 1) line integrals that sum deformation along discrete paths through the deforming zone between the two plates, 2) seismic moment tensors that add up seismic moment of a representative set of earthquakes generated by a crustal volume spanning the plate boundary, 3) strain tensors generated by adding up the strain associated with all of the faults in a crustal volume spanning the plate

Millennial strain partitioning and fault interaction revealed by 36Cl cosmogenic nuclide datasets from Abruzzo, Central Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregory, L. C.; Phillips, R. J.; Roberts, G.; Cowie, P. A.; Shanks, R. P.; McCaffrey, K. J. W.; Wedmore, L. N. J.; Zijerveld, L.

2015-12-01

In zones of distributed continental faulting, it is critical to understand how slip is partitioned onto brittle structures over both long-term millennial time scales and shorter-term individual earthquake cycles. The comparison of slip distributions on different timescales is challenging due to earthquake repeat-times being longer or similar to historical earthquake records, and a paucity of data on fault activity covering millennial to Quaternary scales in detail. Cosmogenic isotope analyses from bedrock fault scarps have the potential to bridge the gap, as these datasets track the exposure of fault planes due to earthquakes with better-than-millennial resolution. In this presentation, we will use an extensive 36Cl dataset to characterise late Holocene activity across a complicated network of normal faults in Abruzzo, Italy, comparing the most recent fault behaviour with the historical earthquake record in the region. Extensional faulting in Abruzzo has produced scarps of exposed bedrock limestone fault planes that have been preserved since the last glacial maximum (LGM). 36Cl accumulates in bedrock fault scarps as the plane is progressively exhumed by earthquakes and thus the concentration of 36Cl measured up the fault plane reflects the rate and patterns of slip. In this presentation, we will focus on the most recent record, revealed at the base of the fault. Utilising new Bayesian modelling techniques on new and previously collected data, we compare evidence for this most recent period of slip (over the last several thousands of years) across 5-6 fault zones located across strike from each other. Each sampling site is carefully characterised using LiDAR and GPR. We demonstrate that the rate of slip on individual fault strands varies significantly, between having periods of accelerated slip to relative quiescence. Where data is compared between across-strike fault zones and with the historical catalogue, it appears that slip is partitioned such that one fault zone takes up a significant portion of strain across the region for hundreds to thousands of years.

3D Dynamic Rupture Simulations along Dipping Faults, with a focus on the Wasatch Fault Zone, Utah

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Withers, K.; Moschetti, M. P.

2017-12-01

We study dynamic rupture and ground motion from dip-slip faults in regions that have high-seismic hazard, such as the Wasatch fault zone, Utah. Previous numerical simulations have modeled deterministic ground motion along segments of this fault in the heavily populated regions near Salt Lake City but were restricted to low frequencies ( 1 Hz). We seek to better understand the rupture process and assess broadband ground motions and variability from the Wasatch Fault Zone by extending deterministic ground motion prediction to higher frequencies (up to 5 Hz). We perform simulations along a dipping normal fault (40 x 20 km along strike and width, respectively) with characteristics derived from geologic observations to generate a suite of ruptures > Mw 6.5. This approach utilizes dynamic simulations (fully physics-based models, where the initial stress drop and friction law are imposed) using a summation by parts (SBP) method. The simulations include rough-fault topography following a self-similar fractal distribution (over length scales from 100 m to the size of the fault) in addition to off-fault plasticity. Energy losses from heat and other mechanisms, modeled as anelastic attenuation, are also included, as well as free-surface topography, which can significantly affect ground motion patterns. We compare the effect of material structure and both rate and state and slip-weakening friction laws have on rupture propagation. The simulations show reduced slip and moment release in the near surface with the inclusion of plasticity, better agreeing with observations of shallow slip deficit. Long-wavelength fault geometry imparts a non-uniform stress distribution along both dip and strike, influencing the preferred rupture direction and hypocenter location, potentially important for seismic hazard estimation.

A multilayer model of time dependent deformation following an earthquake on a strike-slip fault

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, S. C.

1981-01-01

A multilayer model of the Earth to calculate finite element of time dependent deformation and stress following an earthquake on a strike slip fault is discussed. The model involves shear properties of an elastic upper lithosphere, a standard viscoelastic linear solid lower lithosphere, a Maxwell viscoelastic asthenosphere and an elastic mesosphere. Systematic variations of fault and layer depths and comparisons with simpler elastic lithosphere over viscoelastic asthenosphere calculations are analyzed. Both the creep of the lower lithosphere and astenosphere contribute to the postseismic deformation. The magnitude of the deformation is enhanced by a short distance between the bottom of the fault (slip zone) and the top of the creep region but is less sensitive to the thickness of the creeping layer. Postseismic restressing is increased as the lower lithosphere becomes more viscoelastic, but the tendency for the width of the restressed zone to growth with time is retarded.

The repetition of large-earthquake ruptures.

PubMed Central

Sieh, K

1996-01-01

This survey of well-documented repeated fault rupture confirms that some faults have exhibited a "characteristic" behavior during repeated large earthquakes--that is, the magnitude, distribution, and style of slip on the fault has repeated during two or more consecutive events. In two cases faults exhibit slip functions that vary little from earthquake to earthquake. In one other well-documented case, however, fault lengths contrast markedly for two consecutive ruptures, but the amount of offset at individual sites was similar. Adjacent individual patches, 10 km or more in length, failed singly during one event and in tandem during the other. More complex cases of repetition may also represent the failure of several distinct patches. The faults of the 1992 Landers earthquake provide an instructive example of such complexity. Together, these examples suggest that large earthquakes commonly result from the failure of one or more patches, each characterized by a slip function that is roughly invariant through consecutive earthquake cycles. The persistence of these slip-patches through two or more large earthquakes indicates that some quasi-invariant physical property controls the pattern and magnitude of slip. These data seem incompatible with theoretical models that produce slip distributions that are highly variable in consecutive large events. Images Fig. 3 Fig. 7 Fig. 9 PMID:11607662

Rupture history of the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan, China, earthquake: Evaluation of separate and joint inversions of geodetic, teleseismic, and strong-motion data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hartzell, Stephen; Mendoza, Carlos; Ramírez-Guzmán, Leonardo; Zeng, Yuesha; Mooney, Walter

2013-01-01

An extensive data set of teleseismic and strong-motion waveforms and geodetic offsets is used to study the rupture history of the 2008 Wenchuan, China, earthquake. A linear multiple-time-window approach is used to parameterize the rupture. Because of the complexity of the Wenchuan faulting, three separate planes are used to represent the rupturing surfaces. This earthquake clearly demonstrates the strengths and limitations of geodetic, teleseismic, and strong-motion data sets. Geodetic data (static offsets) are valuable for determining the distribution of shallower slip but are insensitive to deeper faulting and reveal nothing about the timing of slip. Teleseismic data in the distance range 30°–90° generally involve no modeling difficulties because of simple ray paths and can distinguish shallow from deep slip. Teleseismic data, however, cannot distinguish between different slip scenarios when multiple fault planes are involved because steep takeoff angles lead to ambiguity in timing. Local strong-motion data, on the other hand, are ideal for determining the direction of rupture from directivity but can easily be over modeled with inaccurate Green’s functions, leading to misinterpretation of the slip distribution. We show that all three data sets are required to give an accurate description of the Wenchuan rupture. The moment is estimated to be approximately 1.0 × 1021 N · m with the slip characterized by multiple large patches with slips up to 10 m. Rupture initiates on the southern end of the Pengguan fault and proceeds unilaterally to the northeast. Upon reaching the cross-cutting Xiaoyudong fault, rupture of the adjacent Beichuan fault starts at this juncture and proceeds bilaterally to the northeast and southwest.

The Mentawai forearc sliver off Sumatra: A model for a strike-slip duplex at a regional scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berglar, Kai; Gaedicke, Christoph; Ladage, Stefan; Thöle, Hauke

2017-07-01

At the Sumatran oblique convergent margin the Mentawai Fault and Sumatran Fault zones accommodate most of the trench parallel component of strain. These faults bound the Mentawai forearc sliver that extends from the Sunda Strait to the Nicobar Islands. Based on multi-channel reflection seismic data, swath bathymetry and high resolution sub-bottom profiling we identified a set of wrench faults obliquely connecting the two major fault zones. These wrench faults separate at least four horses of a regional strike-slip duplex forming the forearc sliver. Each horse comprises an individual basin of the forearc with differing subsidence and sedimentary history. Duplex formation started in Mid/Late Miocene southwest of the Sunda Strait. Initiation of new horses propagated northwards along the Sumatran margin over 2000 km until Early Pliocene. These results directly link strike-slip tectonics to forearc evolution and may serve as a model for basin evolution in other oblique subduction settings.

Inversion for slip distribution using teleseismic P waveforms: North Palm Springs, Borah Peak, and Michoacan earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mendoza, C.; Hartzell, S.H.

1988-01-01

We have inverted the teleseismic P waveforms recorded by stations of the Global Digital Seismograph Network for the 8 July 1986 North Palm Springs, California, the 28 October 1983 Borah Peak, Idaho, and the 19 September 1985 Michoacan, Mexico, earthquakes to recover the distribution of slip on each of the faults using a point-by-point inversion method with smoothing and positivity constraints. Results of the inversion indicate that the Global digital Seismograph Network data are useful for deriving fault dislocation models for moderate to large events. However, a wide range of frequencies is necessary to infer the distribution of slip on the earthquake fault. Although the long-period waveforms define the size (dimensions and seismic moment) of the earthquake, data at shorter period provide additional constraints on the variation of slip on the fault. Dislocation models obtained for all three earthquakes are consistent with a heterogeneous rupture process where failure is controlled largely by the size and location of high-strength asperity regions. -from Authors

Influence of fault geometry and tectonic driving stress orientation on the mechanics of multifault earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madden, E. H.; Maerten, F.; Pollard, D. D.

2012-12-01

The M 7.3 28 June 1992 Landers, California earthquake was a well-documented event that highlighted the complex relationship between the earthquake and the multiple faults on which it occurred. Not only was fault slip data mapped in the field in detail, due to good exposure in the arid conditions of the Mojave Desert, but also it was one of the first earthquakes for which the surface displacement field was captured by satellite technology. In addition, precise aftershock relocations and fault plane solutions provide information about stress and fault behavior at depth. Study of fault interactions leading to the linkage of five right-lateral, strike-slip faults at Landers is aided by this abundance of available surface and subsurface data. While mapped near-field surface data often are restricted to the realm of the geologist, and subsurface data, such as aftershocks, often are restricted to the realm of the geophysicist, we find that integrating these data in mechanical forward models provides good constraint on the three-dimensional structures of the faults involved. Mechanical models also reveal that fault geometry and the orientation of the tectonic driving stress greatly influence whether or not slip is promoted across the extensional step between two of the faults along the southern-central rupture and elucidate the role of a crossing fault located within the step. Unfortunately, the orientation of the principal stresses are not well constrained near Landers or in many regions around the world. Previous determinations of the tectonic driving stress at Landers range from 7 degrees to 45 degrees, measured clockwise from North. We introduce a new stress inversion method that honors mechanical relationships among the remote stress state that is being inverted for, mainshock fault slip, the resulting total stress field following fault slip, and aftershocks. Use of the principal of superposition in this new algorithm obviates the need for the prohibitive computation times associated with running successive forward models. We apply the inverse method using aftershock, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) data associated with the Landers earthquake and address how fault geometry and aftershock size, timing, and focal mechanism quality influence inversion results. The advantages of this new method are that: (1) coseismic displacement data can be used, (2) the underlying model is better constrained to find a solution in the parameter space in the presence of fault slip perturbations, (3) absolute magnitudes can be recovered when using data with magnitude information such as GPS, InSAR and stress tensors inferred from aftershocks with known magnitudes. In addition, while one can choose to invert for an Andersonian fault regime, the method is not restricted to that particular case with one vertical principal stress.

Structural setting and kinematics of Nubian fault system, SE Western Desert, Egypt: An example of multi-reactivated intraplate strike-slip faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakran, Shawky; Said, Said Mohamed

2018-02-01

Detailed surface geological mapping and subsurface seismic interpretation have been integrated to unravel the structural style and kinematic history of the Nubian Fault System (NFS). The NFS consists of several E-W Principal Deformation Zones (PDZs) (e.g. Kalabsha fault). Each PDZ is defined by spectacular E-W, WNW and ENE dextral strike-slip faults, NNE sinistral strike-slip faults, NE to ENE folds, and NNW normal faults. Each fault zone has typical self-similar strike-slip architecture comprising multi-scale fault segments. Several multi-scale uplifts and basins were developed at the step-over zones between parallel strike-slip fault segments as a result of local extension or contraction. The NNE faults consist of right-stepping sinistral strike-slip fault segments (e.g. Sin El Kiddab fault). The NNE sinistral faults extend for long distances ranging from 30 to 100 kms and cut one or two E-W PDZs. Two nearly perpendicular strike-slip tectonic regimes are recognized in the NFS; an inactive E-W Late Cretaceous - Early Cenozoic dextral transpression and an active NNE sinistral shear.

Enigmatic rift-parallel, strike-slip faults around Eyjafjörður, Northern Iceland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Proett, J. A.; Karson, J. A.

2014-12-01

Strike-slip faults along mid-ocean ridge spreading centers are generally thought to be restricted to transform boundaries connecting rift segments. Faults that are parallel to spreading centers are generally assumed to be normal faults associated with tectonic extension. However, clear evidence of north-south (rift-parallel), strike-slip displacements occur widely around the southern portion of Eyjafjörður, northern Iceland about 50 km west of the Northern Rift Zone. The area is south of the southernmost strand (Dalvík Lineament) of the NW-SE-trending, dextral-slip, Tjӧrnes Fracture Zone (where N-S, sinistral, strike-slip "bookshelf" faulting occurs). Faults in the Eyjafjörður area cut 8.5-10 m.y. basaltic crust and are parallel to spreading-related dikes and are commonly concentrated along dike margins. Fault rocks range from fault breccia to gouge. Riedel shears and other kinematic indicators provide unambiguous evidence of shear sense. Most faults show evidence of sinistral, strike-slip movement but smaller proportions of normal and oblique-slip faults also are present. Cross cutting relations among the different types of faults are inconsistent and appear to be related to a single deformation event. Fault slip-line kinematic analysis yields solutions indicating sinistral-normal oblique-slip overall. These results may be interpreted in terms of either previously unrecognized transform-fault bookshelf faulting or slip accommodating block rotation associated with northward propagation of the Northern Rift Zone.

Using regional moment tensors to constrain the kinematics and stress evolution of the 2010–2013 Canterbury earthquake sequence, South Island, New Zealand

USGS Publications Warehouse

Herman, Matthew W.; Herrmann, Robert B.; Benz, Harley M.; Furlong, Kevin P.

2014-01-01

On September 3, 2010, a MW 7.0 (U.S. Geological Survey moment magnitude) earthquake ruptured across the Canterbury Plains in South Island, New Zealand. Since then, New Zealand GNS Science has recorded over 10,000 aftershocks ML 2.0 and larger, including three destructive ~ MW 6.0 earthquakes near Christchurch. We treat the Canterbury earthquake sequence as an intraplate earthquake sequence, and compare its kinematics to an Andersonian model for fault slip in a uniform stress field. We determined moment magnitudes and double couple solutions for 150 earthquakes having MW 3.7 and larger through the use of a waveform inversion technique using data from broadband seismic stations on South Island, New Zealand. The majority (126) of these double couple solutions have strike-slip focal mechanisms, with right-lateral slip on ENE fault planes or equivalently left-lateral slip on SSE fault planes. The remaining focal mechanisms indicate reverse faulting, except for two normal faulting events. The strike-slip segments have compatible orientations for slip in a stress field with a horizontal σ1 oriented ~ N115°E, and horizontal σ3. The preference for right lateral strike-slip earthquakes suggests that these structures are inherited from previous stages of deformation. Reverse slip is interpreted to have occurred on previously existing structures in regions with an absence of existing structures optimally oriented for strike-slip deformation. Despite the variations in slip direction and faulting style, most aftershocks had nearly the same P-axis orientation, consistent with the regional σ1. There is no evidence for significant changes in these stress orientations throughout the Canterbury earthquake sequence.

An empirically based steady state friction law and implications for fault stability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spagnuolo, E.; Nielsen, S.; Violay, M.; Di Toro, G.

2016-04-01

Empirically based rate-and-state friction laws (RSFLs) have been proposed to model the dependence of friction forces with slip and time. The relevance of the RSFL for earthquake mechanics is that few constitutive parameters define critical conditions for fault stability (i.e., critical stiffness and frictional fault behavior). However, the RSFLs were determined from experiments conducted at subseismic slip rates (V < 1 cm/s), and their extrapolation to earthquake deformation conditions (V > 0.1 m/s) remains questionable on the basis of the experimental evidence of (1) large dynamic weakening and (2) activation of particular fault lubrication processes at seismic slip rates. Here we propose a modified RSFL (MFL) based on the review of a large published and unpublished data set of rock friction experiments performed with different testing machines. The MFL, valid at steady state conditions from subseismic to seismic slip rates (0.1 µm/s < V < 3 m/s), describes the initiation of a substantial velocity weakening in the 1-20 cm/s range resulting in a critical stiffness increase that creates a peak of potential instability in that velocity regime. The MFL leads to a new definition of fault frictional stability with implications for slip event styles and relevance for models of seismic rupture nucleation, propagation, and arrest.

Stability and uncertainty of finite-fault slip inversions: Application to the 2004 Parkfield, California, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hartzell, S.; Liu, P.; Mendoza, C.; Ji, C.; Larson, K.M.

2007-01-01

The 2004 Parkfield, California, earthquake is used to investigate stability and uncertainty aspects of the finite-fault slip inversion problem with different a priori model assumptions. We utilize records from 54 strong ground motion stations and 13 continuous, 1-Hz sampled, geodetic instruments. Two inversion procedures are compared: a linear least-squares subfault-based methodology and a nonlinear global search algorithm. These two methods encompass a wide range of the different approaches that have been used to solve the finite-fault slip inversion problem. For the Parkfield earthquake and the inversion of velocity or displacement waveforms, near-surface related site response (top 100 m, frequencies above 1 Hz) is shown to not significantly affect the solution. Results are also insensitive to selection of slip rate functions with similar duration and to subfault size if proper stabilizing constraints are used. The linear and nonlinear formulations yield consistent results when the same limitations in model parameters are in place and the same inversion norm is used. However, the solution is sensitive to the choice of inversion norm, the bounds on model parameters, such as rake and rupture velocity, and the size of the model fault plane. The geodetic data set for Parkfield gives a slip distribution different from that of the strong-motion data, which may be due to the spatial limitation of the geodetic stations and the bandlimited nature of the strong-motion data. Cross validation and the bootstrap method are used to set limits on the upper bound for rupture velocity and to derive mean slip models and standard deviations in model parameters. This analysis shows that slip on the northwestern half of the Parkfield rupture plane from the inversion of strong-motion data is model dependent and has a greater uncertainty than slip near the hypocenter.

Continuous borehole strain in the San Andreas fault zone before, during, and after the 28 June 1992, MW 7.3 Landers, California, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnston, M.J.S.; Linde, A.T.; Agnew, D.C.

1994-01-01

High-precision strain was observed with a borehole dilational strainmeter in the Devil's Punchbowl during the 11:58 UT 28 June 1992 MW 7.3 Landers earthquake and the large Big Bear aftershock (MW 6.3). The strainmeter is installed at a depth of 176 m in the fault zone approximately midway between the surface traces of the San Andreas and Punchbowl faults and is about 100 km from the 85-km-long Landers rupture. We have questioned whether unusual amplified strains indicating precursive slip or high fault compliance occurred on the faults ruptured by the Landers earthquake, or in the San Andreas fault zone before and during the earthquake, whether static offsets for both the Landers and Big Bear earthquakes agree with expectation from geodetic and seismologic models of the ruptures and with observations from a nearby two-color geodimeter network, and whether postseismic behavior indicated continued slip on the Landers rupture or local triggered slip on the San Andreas. We show that the strain observed during the earthquake at this instrument shows no apparent amplification effects. There are no indications of precursive strain in these strain data due to either local slip on the San Andreas or precursive slip on the eventual Landers rupture. The observations are generally consistent with models of the earthquake in which fault geometry and slip have the same form as that determined by either inversion of the seismic data or inversion of geodetically determined ground displacements produced by the earthquake. Finally, there are some indications of minor postseismic behavior, particularly during the month following the earthquake.

Permeability Evolution of Slowly Slipping Faults in Shale Reservoirs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Wei; Reece, Julia S.; Gensterblum, Yves; Zoback, Mark D.

2017-11-01

Slow slip on preexisting faults during hydraulic fracturing is a process that significantly influences shale gas production in extremely low permeability "shale" (unconventional) reservoirs. We experimentally examined the impacts of mineralogy, surface roughness, and effective stress on permeability evolution of slowly slipping faults in Eagle Ford shale samples. Our results show that fault permeability decreases with slip at higher effective stress but increases with slip at lower effective stress. The permeabilities of saw cut faults fully recover after cycling effective stress from 2.5 to 17.5 to 2.5 MPa and increase with slip at constant effective stress due to asperity damage and dilation associated with slip. However, the permeabilities of natural faults only partially recover after cycling effective stress returns to 2.5 MPa and decrease with slip due to produced gouge blocking fluid flow pathways. Our results suggest that slowly slipping faults have the potential to enhance reservoir stimulation in extremely low permeability reservoirs.

A plastic flow model for the Acquara - Vadoncello landslide in Senerchia, Southern Italy

USGS Publications Warehouse

Savage, W.; Wasowski, J.

2006-01-01

A previously developed model for stress and velocity fields in two-dimensional Coulomb plastic materials under self-weight and pore pressure predicts that long, shallow landslides develop slip surfaces that manifest themselves as normal faults and normal fault scarps at the surface in areas of extending flow and as thrust faults and thrust fault scarps at the surface in areas of compressive flow. We have applied this model to describe the geometry of slip surfaces and ground stresses developed during the 1995 reactivation of the Acquara - Vadoncello landslide in Senerchia, southern Italy. This landslide is a long and shallow slide in which regions of compressive and extending flow are clearly identified. Slip surfaces in the main scarp region of the landslide have been reconstructed using surface surveys and subsurface borehole logging and inclinometer observations made during retrogression of the main scarp. Two of the four inferred main scarp slip surfaces are best constrained by field data. Slip surfaces in the toe region are reconstructed in the same way and three of the five inferred slip surfaces are similarly constrained. The location of the basal shear surface of the landslide is inferred from borehole logging and borehole inclinometry. Extensive data on material properties, landslide geometries, and pore pressures collected for the Acquara - Vadoncello landslide give values for cohesion, friction angle, and unit weight, plus average basal shear-surface slopes, and pore-pressures required for modelling slip surfaces and stress fields. Results obtained from the landslide-flow model and the field data show that predicted slip surface shapes are consistent with inferred slip surface shapes in both the extending flow main scarp region and in the compressive flow toe region of the Acquara - Vadoncello landslide. Also predicted stress distributions are found to explain deformation features seen in the toe and main scarp regions of the landslide. ?? 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chasing the Garlock: A study of tectonic response to vertical axis rotation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guest, Bernard; Pavlis, Terry L.; Golding, Heather; Serpa, Laura

2003-06-01

Vertical-axis, clockwise block rotations in the Northeast Mojave block are well documented by numerous authors. However, the effects of these rotations on the crust to the north of the Northeast Mojave block have remained unexplored. In this paper we present a model that results from mapping and geochronology conducted in the north and central Owlshead Mountains. The model suggests that some or all of the transtension and rotation observed in the Owlshead Mountains results from tectonic response to a combination of clockwise block rotation in the Northeast Mojave block and Basin and Range extension. The Owlshead Mountains are effectively an accommodation zone that buffers differential extension between the Northeast Mojave block and the Basin and Range. In addition, our model explores the complex interactions that occur between faults and fault blocks at the junction of the Garlock, Brown Mountain, and Owl Lake faults. We hypothesize that the bending of the Garlock fault by rotation of the Northeast Mojave block resulted in a misorientation of the Garlock that forced the Owl Lake fault to break in order to accommodate slip on the western Garlock fault. Subsequent sinistral slip on the Owl Lake fault offset the Garlock, creating the now possibly inactive Mule Springs strand of the Garlock fault. Dextral slip on the Brown Mountain fault then locked the Owl Lake fault, forcing the active Leach Lake strand of the Garlock fault to break.

Complex interplay between stress perturbations and viscoelastic relaxation in a two-asperity fault model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lorenzano, Emanuele; Dragoni, Michele

2018-03-01

We consider a plane fault with two asperities embedded in a shear zone, subject to a uniform strain rate owing to tectonic loading. After an earthquake, the static stress field is relaxed by viscoelastic deformation in the asthenosphere. We treat the fault as a discrete dynamical system with 3 degrees of freedom: the slip deficits of the asperities and the variation of their difference due to viscoelastic deformation. The evolution of the fault is described in terms of inter-seismic intervals and slip episodes, which may involve the slip of a single asperity or both. We consider the effect of stress transfers connected to earthquakes produced by neighbouring faults. The perturbation alters the slip deficits of both asperities and the stress redistribution on the fault associated with viscoelastic relaxation. The interplay between the stress perturbation and the viscoelastic relaxation significantly complicates the evolution of the fault and its seismic activity. We show that the presence of viscoelastic relaxation prevents any simple correlation between the change of Coulomb stresses on the asperities and the anticipation or delay of their failures. As an application, we study the effects of the 1999 Hector Mine, California, earthquake on the post-seismic evolution of the fault that generated the 1992 Landers, California, earthquake, which we model as a two-mode event associated with the consecutive failure of two asperities.

Co-seismic Static Stress Drops for Earthquake Ruptures Nucleated on Faults After Progressive Strain Localization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffith, W. A.; Nielsen, S.; di Toro, G.; Pollard, D. D.; Pennacchioni, G.

2007-12-01

We estimate the coseismic static stress drop on small exhumed strike-slip faults in the Mt. Abbot quadrangle of the central Sierra Nevada (California). The sub-vertical strike-slip faults cut ~85 Ma granodiorite, were exhumed from 7-10 km depth, and were chosen because they are exposed along their entire lengths, ranging from 8 to 13 m. Net slip is estimated using offset aplite dikes and shallowly plunging slickenlines on the fault surfaces. The faults show a record of progressive strain localization: slip initially nucleated on joints and accumulated from ductile shearing (quartz-bearing mylonites) to brittle slipping (epidote-bearing cataclasites). Thin (< 1 mm) pseudotachylytes associated with the cataclasites have been identified along some faults, suggesting that brittle slip may have been seismic. The brittle contribution to slip may be distinguished from the ductile shearing because epidote-filled, rhombohedral dilational jogs opened at bends and step-overs during brittle slip, are distributed periodically along the length of the faults. We argue that brittle slip occurred along the measured fault lengths in single slip events based on several pieces of evidence. 1) Epidote crystals are randomly oriented and undeformed within dilational jogs, indicating they did not grow during aseismic slip and were not broken after initial opening and precipitation. 2) Opening-mode splay cracks are concentrated near fault tips rather than the fault center, suggesting that the reactivated faults ruptured all at once rather than in smaller slip patches. 3) The fact that the opening lengths of the dilational jogs vary systematically along the fault traces suggests that brittle reactivation occurred in a single slip event along the entire fault rather than in multiple slip events. This unique combination of factors distinguishes this study from previous attempts to estimate stress drop from exhumed faults because we can constrain the coseismic rupture length and slip. The static stress drop is calculated for a circular fault using the length of the mapped faults and their slip distributions as well as the shear modulus of the host granodiorite measured in the laboratory. Calculations yield stress drops on the order of 100-200 MPa, one to two orders of magnitude larger than typical seismological estimates. The studied seismic ruptures occurred along small, deep-seated faults (10 km depth), and, given the fault mineral filling (quartz-bearing mylonites) these were "strong" faults. Our estimates are consistent with static stress drops estimated by Nadeau and Johnson (1998) for small repeated earthquakes.

Geometry and kinematics of adhesive wear in brittle strike-slip fault zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swanson, Mark T.

2005-05-01

Detailed outcrop surface mapping in Late Paleozoic cataclastic strike-slip faults of coastal Maine shows that asymmetric sidewall ripouts, 0.1-200 m in length, are a significant component of many mapped faults and an important wall rock deformation mechanism during faulting. The geometry of these structures ranges from simple lenses to elongate slabs cut out of the sidewalls of strike-slip faults by a lateral jump of the active zone of slip during adhesion along a section of the main fault. The new irregular trace of the active fault after this jump creates an indenting asperity that is forced to plow through the adjoining wall rock during continued adhesion or be cut off by renewed motion along the main section of the fault. Ripout translation during adhesion sets up the structural asymmetry with trailing extensional and leading contractional ends to the ripout block. The inactive section of the main fault trace at the trailing end can develop a 'sag' or 'half-graben' type geometry due to block movement along the scallop-shaped connecting ramp to the flanking ripout fault. Leading contractional ramps can develop 'thrust' type imbrication and forces the 'humpback' geometry to the ripout slab due to distortion of the inactive main fault surface by ripout translation. Similar asymmetric ripout geometries are recognized in many other major crustal scale strike-slip fault zones worldwide. Ripout structures in the 5-500 km length range can be found on the Atacama fault system of northern Chile, the Qujiang and Xiaojiang fault zones in western China, the Yalakom-Hozameen fault zone in British Columbia and the San Andreas fault system in southern California. For active crustal-scale faults the surface expression of ripout translation includes a coupled system of extensional trailing ramps as normal oblique-slip faults with pull-apart basin sedimentation and contractional leading ramps as oblique thrust or high angle reverse faults with associated uplift and erosion. The sidewall ripout model, as a mechanism for adhesive wear during fault zone deformation, can be useful in studies of fault zone geometry, kinematics and evolution from outcrop- to crustal-scales.

Modeling of Stick-Slip Behavior in Sheared Granular Fault Gouge Using the Combined Finite-Discrete Element Method

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gao, Ke; Euser, Bryan J.; Rougier, Esteban

Sheared granular layers undergoing stick-slip behavior are broadly employed to study the physics and dynamics of earthquakes. In this paper, a two-dimensional implementation of the combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM), which merges the finite element method (FEM) and the discrete element method (DEM), is used to explicitly simulate a sheared granular fault system including both gouge and plate, and to investigate the influence of different normal loads on seismic moment, macroscopic friction coefficient, kinetic energy, gouge layer thickness, and recurrence time between slips. In the FDEM model, the deformation of plates and particles is simulated using the FEM formulation whilemore » particle-particle and particle-plate interactions are modeled using DEM-derived techniques. The simulated seismic moment distributions are generally consistent with those obtained from the laboratory experiments. In addition, the simulation results demonstrate that with increasing normal load, (i) the kinetic energy of the granular fault system increases; (ii) the gouge layer thickness shows a decreasing trend; and (iii) the macroscopic friction coefficient does not experience much change. Analyses of the slip events reveal that, as the normal load increases, more slip events with large kinetic energy release and longer recurrence time occur, and the magnitude of gouge layer thickness decrease also tends to be larger; while the macroscopic friction coefficient drop decreases. Finally, the simulations not only reveal the influence of normal loads on the dynamics of sheared granular fault gouge, but also demonstrate the capabilities of FDEM for studying stick-slip dynamic behavior of granular fault systems.« less

Modeling of Stick-Slip Behavior in Sheared Granular Fault Gouge Using the Combined Finite-Discrete Element Method

DOE PAGES

Gao, Ke; Euser, Bryan J.; Rougier, Esteban; ...

2018-06-20

Sheared granular layers undergoing stick-slip behavior are broadly employed to study the physics and dynamics of earthquakes. In this paper, a two-dimensional implementation of the combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM), which merges the finite element method (FEM) and the discrete element method (DEM), is used to explicitly simulate a sheared granular fault system including both gouge and plate, and to investigate the influence of different normal loads on seismic moment, macroscopic friction coefficient, kinetic energy, gouge layer thickness, and recurrence time between slips. In the FDEM model, the deformation of plates and particles is simulated using the FEM formulation whilemore » particle-particle and particle-plate interactions are modeled using DEM-derived techniques. The simulated seismic moment distributions are generally consistent with those obtained from the laboratory experiments. In addition, the simulation results demonstrate that with increasing normal load, (i) the kinetic energy of the granular fault system increases; (ii) the gouge layer thickness shows a decreasing trend; and (iii) the macroscopic friction coefficient does not experience much change. Analyses of the slip events reveal that, as the normal load increases, more slip events with large kinetic energy release and longer recurrence time occur, and the magnitude of gouge layer thickness decrease also tends to be larger; while the macroscopic friction coefficient drop decreases. Finally, the simulations not only reveal the influence of normal loads on the dynamics of sheared granular fault gouge, but also demonstrate the capabilities of FDEM for studying stick-slip dynamic behavior of granular fault systems.« less

An integrated perspective of the continuum between earthquakes and slow-slip phenomena

USGS Publications Warehouse

Peng, Zhigang; Gomberg, Joan

2010-01-01

The discovery of slow-slip phenomena has revolutionized our understanding of how faults accommodate relative plate motions. Faults were previously thought to relieve stress either through continuous aseismic sliding, or as earthquakes resulting from instantaneous failure of locked faults. In contrast, slow-slip events proceed so slowly that slip is limited and only low-frequency (or no) seismic waves radiate. We find that slow-slip phenomena are not unique to the depths (tens of kilometres) of subduction zone plate interfaces. They occur on faults in many settings, at numerous scales and owing to various loading processes, including landslides and glaciers. Taken together, the observations indicate that slowly slipping fault surfaces relax most of the accrued stresses through aseismic slip. Aseismic motion can trigger more rapid slip elsewhere on the fault that is sufficiently fast to generate seismic waves. The resulting radiation has characteristics ranging from those indicative of slow but seismic slip, to those typical of earthquakes. The mode of seismic slip depends on the inherent characteristics of the fault, such as the frictional properties. Slow-slip events have previously been classified as a distinct mode of fault slip compared with that seen in earthquakes. We conclude that instead, slip modes span a continuum and are of common occurrence.

Teleseismic body waves from dynamically rupturing shallow thrust faults: Are they opaque for surface-reflected phases?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, D.E.; Aagaard, Brad T.; Heaton, T.H.

2005-01-01

We investigate whether a shallow-dipping thrust fault is prone to waveslip interactions via surface-reflected waves affecting the dynamic slip. If so, can these interactions create faults that are opaque to radiated energy? Furthermore, in this case of a shallow-dipping thrust fault, can incorrectly assuming a transparent fault while using dislocation theory lead to underestimates of seismic moment? Slip time histories are generated in three-dimensional dynamic rupture simulations while allowing for varying degrees of wave-slip interaction controlled by fault-friction models. Based on the slip time histories, P and SH seismograms are calculated for stations at teleseismic distances. The overburdening pressure caused by gravity eliminates mode I opening except at the tip of the fault near the surface; hence, mode I opening has no effect on the teleseismic signal. Normalizing by a Haskell-like traditional kinematic rupture, we find teleseismic peak-to-peak displacement amplitudes are approximately 1.0 for both P and SH waves, except for the unrealistic case of zero sliding friction. Zero sliding friction has peak-to-peak amplitudes of 1.6 for P and 2.0 for SH waves; the fault slip oscillates about its equilibrium value, resulting in a large nonzero (0.08 Hz) spectral peak not seen in other ruptures. These results indicate wave-slip interactions associated with surface-reflected phases in real earthquakes should have little to no effect on teleseismic motions. Thus, Haskell-like kinematic dislocation theory (transparent fault conditions) can be safety used to simulate teleseismic waveforms in the Earth.

Rock friction under variable normal stress

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kilgore, Brian D.; Beeler, Nicholas M.; Lozos, Julian C.; Oglesby, David

2017-01-01

This study is to determine the detailed response of shear strength and other fault properties to changes in normal stress at room temperature using dry initially bare rock surfaces of granite at normal stresses between 5 and 7 MPa. Rapid normal stress changes result in gradual, approximately exponential changes in shear resistance with fault slip. The characteristic length of the exponential change is similar for both increases and decreases in normal stress. In contrast, changes in fault normal displacement and the amplitude of small high-frequency elastic waves transmitted across the surface follow a two stage response consisting of a large immediate and a smaller gradual response with slip. The characteristic slip distance of the small gradual response is significantly smaller than that of shear resistance. The stability of sliding in response to large step decreases in normal stress is well predicted using the shear resistance slip length observed in step increases. Analysis of the shear resistance and slip-time histories suggest nearly immediate changes in strength occur in response to rapid changes in normal stress; these are manifested as an immediate change in slip speed. These changes in slip speed can be qualitatively accounted for using a rate-independent strength model. Collectively, the observations and model show that acceleration or deceleration in response to normal stress change depends on the size of the change, the frictional characteristics of the fault surface, and the elastic properties of the loading system.

Heterogeneous rupture on homogenous faults: Three-dimensional spontaneous rupture simulations with thermal pressurization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Urata, Yumi; Kuge, Keiko; Kase, Yuko

2008-11-01

To understand role of fluid on earthquake rupture processes, we investigated effects of thermal pressurization on spatial variation of dynamic rupture by computing spontaneous rupture propagation on a rectangular fault. We found thermal pressurization can cause heterogeneity of rupture even on a fault of uniform properties. On drained faults, tractions drop linearly with increasing slip in the same way everywhere. However, by changing the drained condition to an undrained one, the slip-weakening curves become non-linear and depend on locations on faults with small shear zone thickness w, and the dynamic frictional stresses vary spatially and temporally. Consequently, the super-shear transition fault length decreases for small w, and the final slip distribution can have some peaks regardless of w, especially on undrained faults. These effects should be taken into account of determining dynamic rupture parameters and modeling earthquake cycles when the presence of fluid is suggested in the source regions.

Structural characteristics and implication on tectonic evolution of the Daerbute strike-slip fault in West Junggar area, NW China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Kongyou; Pei, Yangwen; Li, Tianran; Wang, Xulong; Liu, Yin; Liu, Bo; Ma, Chao; Hong, Mei

2018-03-01

The Daerbute fault zone, located in the northwestern margin of the Junggar basin, in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, is a regional strike-slip fault with a length of 400 km. The NE-SW trending Daerbute fault zone presents a distinct linear trend in plain view, cutting through both the Zair Mountain and the Hala'alate Mountain. Because of the intense contraction and shearing, the rocks within the fault zone experienced high degree of cataclasis, schistosity, and mylonization, resulting in rocks that are easily eroded to form a valley with a width of 300-500 m and a depth of 50-100 m after weathering and erosion. The well-exposed outcrops along the Daerbute fault zone present sub-horizontal striations and sub-vertical fault steps, indicating sub-horizontal shearing along the observed fault planes. Flower structures and horizontal drag folds are also observed in both the well-exposed outcrops and high-resolution satellite images. The distribution of accommodating strike-slip splay faults, e.g., the 973-pluton fault and the Great Jurassic Trough fault, are in accordance with the Riedel model of simple shear. The seismic and time-frequency electromagnetic (TFEM) sections also demonstrate the typical strike-slip characteristics of the Daerbute fault zone. Based on detailed field observations of well-exposed outcrops and seismic sections, the Daerbute fault can be subdivided into two segments: the western segment presents multiple fault cores and damage zones, whereas the eastern segment only presents a single fault core, in which the rocks experienced a higher degree of rock cataclasis, schistosity, and mylonization. In the central overlapping portion between the two segments, the sediments within the fault zone are primarily reddish sandstones, conglomerates, and some mudstones, of which the palynological tests suggest middle Permian as the timing of deposition. The deformation timing of the Daerbute fault was estimated by integrating the depocenters' basinward migration and initiation of the splay faults (e.g., the Great Jurassic Trough fault and the 973-pluton fault). These results indicate that there were probably two periods of faulting deformation for the Daerbute fault. By integrating our study with previous studies, we speculate that the Daerbute fault experienced a two-phase strike-slip faulting deformation, commencing with the initial dextral strike-slip faulting in mid-late Permian, and then being inversed to sinistral strike-slip faulting since the Triassic. The results of this study can provide useful insights for the regional tectonics and local hydrocarbon exploration.

A stochastic fault model. 2. Time-dependent case.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Andrews, D.J.

1981-01-01

A random model of fault motion in an earthquake is formulated by assuming that the slip velocity is a random function of position and time truncated at zero, so that it does not have negative values. This random function is chosen to be self-affine; that is, on change of length scale, the function is multiplied by a scale factor but is otherwise unchanged statistically. A snapshot of slip velocity at a given time resembles a cluster of islands with rough topography; the final slip function is a smoother island or cluster of islands. In the Fourier transform domain, shear traction on the fault equals the slip velocity times an impedance function. The fact that this impedance function has a pole at zero frequency implies that traction and slip velocity cannot have the same spectral dependence in space and time. To describe stress fluctuations of the order of 100 bars when smoothed over a length of kilometers and of the order of kilobars at the grain size, shear traction must have a one-dimensional power spectrum is space proportional to the reciprocal wave number. Then the one-dimensional power spectrum for the slip velocity is proportional to the reciprocal wave number squared and for slip to its cube. If slip velocity has the same power law spectrum in time as in space, then the spectrum of ground acceleration with be flat (white noise) both on the fault and in the far field.-Author

Fault slip rates in the modern new madrid seismic zone

PubMed

Mueller; Champion; Guccione; Kelson

1999-11-05

Structural and geomorphic analysis of late Holocene sediments in the Lake County region of the New Madrid seismic zone indicates that they are deformed by fault-related folding above the blind Reelfoot thrust fault. The widths of narrow kink bands exposed in trenches were used to model the Reelfoot scarp as a forelimb on a fault-bend fold; this, coupled with the age of folded sediment, yields a slip rate on the blind thrust of 6.1 +/- 0.7 mm/year for the past 2300 +/- 100 years. An alternative method used structural relief across the scarp and the estimated dip of the underlying blind thrust to calculate a slip rate of 4.8 +/- 0.2 mm/year. Geometric relations suggest that the right lateral slip rate on the New Madrid seismic zone is 1.8 to 2.0 mm/year.

Estimation of fault geometry of a slow slip event off the Kii Peninsula, southwest of Japan, detected by DONET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, K.; Nakano, M.; Hori, T.; Takahashi, N.

2015-12-01

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology installed permanent ocean bottom observation network called Dense Oceanfloor Network System for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (DONET) off the Kii Peninsula, southwest of Japan, to monitor earthquakes and tsunamis. We detected the long-term vertical displacements of sea floor from the ocean-bottom pressure records, starting from March 2013, at several DONET stations (Suzuki et al., 2014). We consider that these displacements were caused by the crustal deformation due to a slow slip event (SSE). 　We estimated the fault geometry of the SSE by using the observed ocean-bottom displacements. The ocean-bottom displacements were obtained by removing the tidal components from the pressure records. We also subtracted the average of pressure changes taken over the records at stations connected to each science node from each record in order to remove the contributions due to atmospheric pressure changes and non-tidal ocean dynamic mass variations. Therefore we compared observed displacements with the theoretical ones that was subtracted the average displacement in the fault geometry estimation. We also compared observed and theoretical average displacements for the model evaluation. In this study, the observed average displacements were assumed to be zero. Although there are nine parameters in the fault model, we observed vertical displacements at only four stations. Therefore we assumed three fault geometries; (1) a reverse fault slip along the plate boundary, (2) a strike slip along a splay fault, and (3) a reverse fault slip along the splay fault. We obtained that the model (3) gives the smallest residual between observed and calculated displacements. We also observed that this SSE was synchronized with a decrease in the background seismicity within the area of a nearby earthquake cluster. In the future, we will investigate the relationship between the SSE and the seismicity change.

Rock mechanics. Superplastic nanofibrous slip zones control seismogenic fault friction.

PubMed

Verberne, Berend A; Plümper, Oliver; de Winter, D A Matthijs; Spiers, Christopher J

2014-12-12

Understanding the internal mechanisms controlling fault friction is crucial for understanding seismogenic slip on active faults. Displacement in such fault zones is frequently localized on highly reflective (mirrorlike) slip surfaces, coated with thin films of nanogranular fault rock. We show that mirror-slip surfaces developed in experimentally simulated calcite faults consist of aligned nanogranular chains or fibers that are ductile at room conditions. These microstructures and associated frictional data suggest a fault-slip mechanism resembling classical Ashby-Verrall superplasticity, capable of producing unstable fault slip. Diffusive mass transfer in nanocrystalline calcite gouge is shown to be fast enough for this mechanism to control seismogenesis in limestone terrains. With nanogranular fault surfaces becoming increasingly recognized in crustal faults, the proposed mechanism may be generally relevant to crustal seismogenesis. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Two-Dimensional Boundary Element Method Application for Surface Deformation Modeling around Lembang and Cimandiri Fault, West Java

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahya, M. J.; Sanny, T. A.

2017-04-01

Lembang and Cimandiri fault are active faults in West Java that thread people near the faults with earthquake and surface deformation risk. To determine the deformation, GPS measurements around Lembang and Cimandiri fault was conducted then the data was processed to get the horizontal velocity at each GPS stations by Graduate Research of Earthquake and Active Tectonics (GREAT) Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering Study Program, ITB. The purpose of this study is to model the displacement distribution as deformation parameter in the area along Lembang and Cimandiri fault using 2-dimensional boundary element method (BEM) using the horizontal velocity that has been corrected by the effect of Sunda plate horizontal movement as the input. The assumptions that used at the modeling stage are the deformation occurs in homogeneous and isotropic medium, and the stresses that acted on faults are in elastostatic condition. The results of modeling show that Lembang fault had left-lateral slip component and divided into two segments. A lineament oriented in southwest-northeast direction is observed near Tangkuban Perahu Mountain separating the eastern and the western segments of Lembang fault. The displacement pattern of Cimandiri fault shows that Cimandiri fault is divided into the eastern segment with right-lateral slip component and the western segment with left-lateral slip component separated by a northwest-southeast oriented lineament at the western part of Gede Pangrango Mountain. The displacement value between Lembang and Cimandiri fault is nearly zero indicating that Lembang and Cimandiri fault are not connected each other and this area is relatively safe for infrastructure development.

Sensitivity of Coulomb stress changes to slip models of source faults: A case study for the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, J.; Xu, C.; Furlong, K.; Zhong, B.; Xiao, Z.; Yi, L.; Chen, T.

2017-12-01

Although Coulomb stress changes induced by earthquake events have been used to quantify stress transfers and to retrospectively explain stress triggering among earthquake sequences, realistic reliable prospective earthquake forecasting remains scarce. To generate a robust Coulomb stress map for earthquake forecasting, uncertainties in Coulomb stress changes associated with the source fault, receiver fault and friction coefficient and Skempton's coefficient need to be exhaustively considered. In this paper, we specifically explore the uncertainty in slip models of the source fault of the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake as a case study. This earthquake was chosen because of its wealth of finite-fault slip models. Based on the wealth of those slip models, we compute the coseismic Coulomb stress changes induced by this mainshock. Our results indicate that nearby Coulomb stress changes for each slip model can be quite different, both for the Coulomb stress map at a given depth and on the Pacific subducting slab. The triggering rates for three months of aftershocks of the mainshock, with and without considering the uncertainty in slip models, differ significantly, decreasing from 70% to 18%. Reliable Coulomb stress changes in the three seismogenic zones of Nanki, Tonankai and Tokai are insignificant, approximately only 0.04 bar. By contrast, the portions of the Pacific subducting slab at a depth of 80 km and beneath Tokyo received a positive Coulomb stress change of approximately 0.2 bar. The standard errors of the seismicity rate and earthquake probability based on the Coulomb rate-and-state model (CRS) decay much faster with elapsed time in stress triggering zones than in stress shadows, meaning that the uncertainties in Coulomb stress changes in stress triggering zones would not drastically affect assessments of the seismicity rate and earthquake probability based on the CRS in the intermediate to long term.

Aseismic Slip Events along the Southern San Andreas Fault System Captured by Radar Interferometry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vincent, P

2001-10-01

A seismic slip is observed along several faults in the Salton Sea and southernmost Landers rupture zone regions using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data spanning different time periods between 1992 and 1997. In the southernmost Landers rupture zone, projecting south from the Pinto Mountain Fault, sharp discontinuities in the interferometric phase are observed along the sub-parallel Burnt Mountain and Eureka Peak Faults beginning three months after the Landers earthquake and is interpreted to be post-Landers after-slip. Abrupt phase offsets are also seen along the two southernmost contiguous 11 km Durmid Hill and North Shore segments of the San Andreasmore » Fault with an abrupt termination of slip near the northern end of the North Shore Segment. A sharp phase offset is seen across 20 km of the 30 km-long Superstition Hills Fault before phase decorrelation in the Imperial Valley along the southern 10 km of the fault prevents coherent imaging by InSAR. A time series of deformation interferograms suggest most of this slip occurred between 1993 and 1995 and none of it occurred between 1992 and 1993. A phase offset is also seen along a 5 km central segment of the Coyote Creek fault that forms a wedge with an adjoining northeast-southwest trending conjugate fault. Most of the slip observed on the southern San Andreas and Superstition Hills Faults occurred between 1993 and 1995--no slip is observed in the 92-93 interferograms. These slip events, especially the Burnt Mountain and Eureka Peak events, are inferred to be related to stress redistribution from the June, 1992 M{sub w} = 7.3 Landers earthquake. Best-fit elastic models of the San Andreas and Superstition Hills slip events suggest source mechanisms with seismic moments over three orders of magnitude larger than a maximum possible summation of seismic moments from all seismicity along each fault segment during the entire 4.8-year time interval spanned by the InSAR data. Aseismic moment releases of this magnitude (equivalent to M{sub w} = 5.3 and 5.6 events on the Superstition Hills and San Andreas Faults respectively) are hitherto unknown and have not been captured previously by any geodetic technique.« less

Triggered surface slips in southern California associated with the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah, Baja California, Mexico, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rymer, Michael J.; Treiman, Jerome A.; Kendrick, Katherine J.; Lienkaemper, James J.; Weldon, Ray J.; Bilham, Roger; Wei, Meng; Fielding, Eric J.; Hernandez, Janis L.; Olson, Brian P.E.; Irvine, Pamela J.; Knepprath, Nichole; Sickler, Robert R.; Tong, Xiaopeng; Siem, Martin E.

2011-01-01

Triggered slip in the Yuha Desert area occurred along more than two dozen faults, only some of which were recognized before the April 4, 2010, El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake. From east to northwest, slip occurred in seven general areas: (1) in the Northern Centinela Fault Zone (newly named), (2) along unnamed faults south of Pinto Wash, (3) along the Yuha Fault (newly named), (4) along both east and west branches of the Laguna Salada Fault, (5) along the Yuha Well Fault Zone (newly revised name) and related faults between it and the Yuha Fault, (6) along the Ocotillo Fault (newly named) and related faults to the north and south, and (7) along the southeasternmost section of the Elsinore Fault. Faults that slipped in the Yuha Desert area include northwest-trending right-lateral faults, northeast-trending left-lateral faults, and north-south faults, some of which had dominantly vertical offset. Triggered slip along the Ocotillo and Elsinore Faults appears to have occurred only in association with the June 14, 2010 (Mw5.7), aftershock. This aftershock also resulted in slip along other faults near the town of Ocotillo. Triggered offset on faults in the Yuha Desert area was mostly less than 20 mm, with three significant exceptions, including slip of about 50–60 mm on the Yuha Fault, 40 mm on a fault south of Pinto Wash, and about 85 mm on the Ocotillo Fault. All triggered slips in the Yuha Desert area occurred along preexisting faults, whether previously recognized or not.

Surface fault slip associated with the 2004 Parkfield, California, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rymer, M.J.; Tinsley, J. C.; Treiman, J.A.; Arrowsmith, J.R.; Ciahan, K.B.; Rosinski, A.M.; Bryant, W.A.; Snyder, H.A.; Fuis, G.S.; Toke, N.A.; Bawden, G.W.

2006-01-01

Surface fracturing occurred along the San Andreas fault, the subparallel Southwest Fracture Zone, and six secondary faults in association with the 28 September 2004 (M 6.0) Parkfield earthquake. Fractures formed discontinuous breaks along a 32-km-long stretch of the San Andreas fault. Sense of slip was right lateral; only locally was there a minor (1-11 mm) vertical component of slip. Right-lateral slip in the first few weeks after the event, early in its afterslip period, ranged from 1 to 44 mm. Our observations in the weeks following the earthquake indicated that the highest slip values are in the Middle Mountain area, northwest of the mainshock epicenter (creepmeter measurements indicate a similar distribution of slip). Surface slip along the San Andreas fault developed soon after the mainshock; field checks in the area near Parkfield and about 5 km to the southeast indicated that surface slip developed more than 1 hr but generally less than 1 day after the event. Slip along the Southwest Fracture Zone developed coseismically and extended about 8 km. Sense of slip was right lateral; locally there was a minor to moderate (1-29 mm) vertical component of slip. Right-lateral slip ranged from 1 to 41 mm. Surface slip along secondary faults was right lateral; the right-lateral component of slip ranged from 3 to 5 mm. Surface slip in the 1966 and 2004 events occurred along both the San Andreas fault and the Southwest Fracture Zone. In 1966 the length of ground breakage along the San Andreas fault extended 5 km longer than that mapped in 2004. In contrast, the length of ground breakage along the Southwest Fracture Zone was the same in both events, yet the surface fractures were more continuous in 2004. Surface slip on secondary faults in 2004 indicated previously unmapped structural connections between the San Andreas fault and the Southwest Fracture Zone, further revealing aspects of the structural setting and fault interactions in the Parkfield area.

Evaluation of Alternative Seismic Source Characterization Models for the Inner Borderlands of Southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanson, K. L.; Angell, M.; Foxall, W.; Rietman, J.

2002-12-01

Alternative source characterizations for seismic hazard analysis are developed to capture the range of plausible fault geometries and interactions between postulated thrusts (i.e., the Oceanside blind thrust (OBT) and San Joaquin Hills blind fault (SJBF)) and strike-slip faults (Rose Canyon (RC)-Newport Inglewood (NI) faults) along the Southern California inner borderlands. Evaluation of 2D and high-resolution shallow seismic data show evidence for a relatively continuous zone of deformation (OZD) linking the RC and NI, both of which are active strike-slip faults, based on seismicity and paleoseismic data. Geodetic data are consistent with NNW-shear and show little or no convergence across the inner borderland, or evidence of a regional "driving" force that would reactivate a large seismogenic thrust (see Moriwaki and others, this volume). Fault and fold deformation observed along the OZD between the RC and NI is consistent with transpressional right lateral slip along a N20W-trending fault zone. Evidence to support reactivation of the entire OBT in the current tectonic environment is not demonstrated. Seismicity and possible late Pleistocene/Holocene reverse faults and associated folding can be explained by localized contraction in left steps or bends in a transpressional right-slip tectonic environment. Clockwise rotation of crustal blocks in the inner borderland (which is not inconsistent with geodetic data suggesting a component of extension across the southern inner borderland) could account for the greater intensity of contractional structures in the hanging wall of the northern OBT west of the OZD. This might explain the local reactivation of portions of the OBT, but would not require reactivation of the entire detachment. Much of the contractional deformation observed in the inner borderland (e.g., the San Mateo thrust belt) could have occurred during the Pliocene. Regional coastal uplift, which has been cited as evidence that the Oceanside and Thirtymile Bank thrusts are active on a regional basis, may be attributed to other processes, such as rift shoulder thermal isostasy (e.g., Kier et.al, Tectonics 2002). We present relative weights for three alternative source models that consider a throughgoing strike-slip fault system (inactive OBT), a regional blind thrust (OBT), or an oblique fault in which strain is partitioned updip onto a strike-slip (offshore strike-slip fault) and reactivated thrust (OBT).

Late Quaternary slip history of the Mill Creek strand of the San Andreas fault in San Gorgonio Pass, southern California: The role of a subsidiary left-lateral fault in strand switching

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kendrick, Katherine J.; Matti, Jonathan; Mahan, Shannon

2015-01-01

The fault history of the Mill Creek strand of the San Andreas fault (SAF) in the San Gorgonio Pass region, along with the reconstructed geomorphology surrounding this fault strand, reveals the important role of the left-lateral Pinto Mountain fault in the regional fault strand switching. The Mill Creek strand has 7.1–8.7 km total slip. Following this displacement, the Pinto Mountain fault offset the Mill Creek strand 1–1.25 km, as SAF slip transferred to the San Bernardino, Banning, and Garnet Hill strands. An alluvial complex within the Mission Creek watershed can be linked to palinspastic reconstruction of drainage segments to constrain slip history of the Mill Creek strand. We investigated surface remnants through detailed geologic mapping, morphometric and stratigraphic analysis, geochronology, and pedogenic analysis. The degree of soil development constrains the duration of surface stability when correlated to other regional, independently dated pedons. This correlation indicates that the oldest surfaces are significantly older than 500 ka. Luminescence dates of 106 ka and 95 ka from (respectively) 5 and 4 m beneath a younger fan surface are consistent with age estimates based on soil-profile development. Offset of the Mill Creek strand by the Pinto Mountain fault suggests a short-term slip rate of ∼10–12.5 mm/yr for the Pinto Mountain fault, and a lower long-term slip rate. Uplift of the Yucaipa Ridge block during the period of Mill Creek strand activity is consistent with thermochronologic modeled uplift estimates.

The effect of roughness on the nucleation and propagation of shear rupture on small faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tal, Y.; Hager, B. H.

2016-12-01

Faults are rough at all scales and can be described as self-affine fractals. This deviation from planarity results in geometric asperities and a locally heterogeneous stress field, which affect the nucleation and propagation of shear rupture. We study this effect numerically and aim to understand the relative effects of different fault geometries, remote stresses, and medium and fault properties, focusing on small earthquakes, in which realistic geometry and friction law parameters can be incorporated in the model. Our numerical approach includes three main features. First, to enable slip that is large relative to the size of the elements near the fault, as well as the variation of normal stress during slip, we implement slip-weakening and rate-and state-friction laws into the Mortar Finite Element Method, in which non-matching meshes are allowed across the fault and the contacts are continuously updated. Second, we refine the mesh near the fault using hanging nodes, thereby enabling accurate representation of the fault geometry. Finally, using a variable time step size, we gradually increase the remote stress and let the rupture nucleate spontaneously. This procedure involves a quasi-static backward Euler scheme for the inter-seismic stages and a dynamic implicit Newmark scheme for the co-seismic stages. In general, under the same range of external loads, rougher faults experience more events but with smaller slips, stress drops, and slip rates, where the roughest faults experience only slow-slip aseismic events. Moreover, the roughness complicates the nucleation process, with asymmetric expansion of the rupture and larger nucleation length. In the propagation phase of the seismic events, the roughness results in larger breakdown zones.

A New Kinematic Model for Polymodal Faulting: Implications for Fault Connectivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Healy, D.; Rizzo, R. E.

2015-12-01

Conjugate, or bimodal, fault patterns dominate the geological literature on shear failure. Based on Anderson's (1905) application of the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, these patterns have been interpreted from all tectonic regimes, including normal, strike-slip and thrust (reverse) faulting. However, a fundamental limitation of the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion - and others that assume faults form parallel to the intermediate principal stress - is that only plane strain can result from slip on the conjugate faults. However, deformation in the Earth is widely accepted as being three-dimensional, with truly triaxial stresses and strains. Polymodal faulting, with three or more sets of faults forming and slipping simultaneously, can generate three-dimensional strains from truly triaxial stresses. Laboratory experiments and outcrop studies have verified the occurrence of the polymodal fault patterns in nature. The connectivity of polymodal fault networks differs significantly from conjugate fault networks, and this presents challenges to our understanding of faulting and an opportunity to improve our understanding of seismic hazards and fluid flow. Polymodal fault patterns will, in general, have more connected nodes in 2D (and more branch lines in 3D) than comparable conjugate (bimodal) patterns. The anisotropy of permeability is therefore expected to be very different in rocks with polymodal fault patterns in comparison to conjugate fault patterns, and this has implications for the development of hydrocarbon reservoirs, the genesis of ore deposits and the management of aquifers. In this contribution, I assess the published evidence and models for polymodal faulting before presenting a novel kinematic model for general triaxial strain in the brittle field.

Constraining earthquake source inversions with GPS data: 1. Resolution-based removal of artifacts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Page, M.T.; Custodio, S.; Archuleta, R.J.; Carlson, J.M.

2009-01-01

We present a resolution analysis of an inversion of GPS data from the 2004 Mw 6.0 Parkfield earthquake. This earthquake was recorded at thirteen 1-Hz GPS receivers, which provides for a truly coseismic data set that can be used to infer the static slip field. We find that the resolution of our inverted slip model is poor at depth and near the edges of the modeled fault plane that are far from GPS receivers. The spatial heterogeneity of the model resolution in the static field inversion leads to artifacts in poorly resolved areas of the fault plane. These artifacts look qualitatively similar to asperities commonly seen in the final slip models of earthquake source inversions, but in this inversion they are caused by a surplus of free parameters. The location of the artifacts depends on the station geometry and the assumed velocity structure. We demonstrate that a nonuniform gridding of model parameters on the fault can remove these artifacts from the inversion. We generate a nonuniform grid with a grid spacing that matches the local resolution length on the fault and show that it outperforms uniform grids, which either generate spurious structure in poorly resolved regions or lose recoverable information in well-resolved areas of the fault. In a synthetic test, the nonuniform grid correctly averages slip in poorly resolved areas of the fault while recovering small-scale structure near the surface. Finally, we present an inversion of the Parkfield GPS data set on the nonuniform grid and analyze the errors in the final model. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.

Distributed Seismic Moment Fault Model, Spectral Characteristics and Radiation Patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shani-Kadmiel, Shahar; Tsesarsky, Michael; Gvirtzman, Zohar

2014-05-01

We implement a Distributed Seismic Moment (DSM) fault model, a physics-based representation of an earthquake source based on a skewed-Gaussian slip distribution over an elliptical rupture patch, for the purpose of forward modeling of seismic-wave propagation in 3-D heterogeneous medium. The elliptical rupture patch is described by 13 parameters: location (3), dimensions of the patch (2), patch orientation (1), focal mechanism (3), nucleation point (2), peak slip (1), rupture velocity (1). A node based second order finite difference approach is used to solve the seismic-wave equations in displacement formulation (WPP, Nilsson et al., 2007). Results of our DSM fault model are compared with three commonly used fault models: Point Source Model (PSM), Haskell's fault Model (HM), and HM with Radial (HMR) rupture propagation. Spectral features of the waveforms and radiation patterns from these four models are investigated. The DSM fault model best incorporates the simplicity and symmetry of the PSM with the directivity effects of the HMR while satisfying the physical requirements, i.e., smooth transition from peak slip at the nucleation point to zero at the rupture patch border. The implementation of the DSM in seismic-wave propagation forward models comes at negligible computational cost. Reference: Nilsson, S., Petersson, N. A., Sjogreen, B., and Kreiss, H.-O. (2007). Stable Difference Approximations for the Elastic Wave Equation in Second Order Formulation. SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 45(5), 1902-1936.

Variability of Slip Behavior in Simulations of Dynamic Rupture Interaction With Stronger Fault Patches Over Long-Term Deformation Histories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lapusta, N.; Liu, Y.

2007-12-01

Heterogeneity in fault properties can have significant effect on dynamic rupture propagation and aseismic slip. It is often assumed that a fixed heterogeneity would have similar effect on fault slip throughout the slip history. We investigate dynamic rupture interaction with a fault patch of higher normal stress over several earthquake cycles in a three-dimensional model. We find that the influence of the heterogeneity on dynamic events has significant variation and depends on prior slip history. We consider a planar strike-slip fault governed by rate and state friction and driven by slow tectonic loading on deeper extension of the fault. The 30 km by 12 km velocity-weakening region, which is potentially seismogenic, is surrounded by steady-state velocity-strengthening region. The normal stress is constant over the fault, except in a circular patch of 2 km in diameter located in the seismogenic region, where normal stress is higher than on the rest of the fault. Our simulations employ the methodology developed by Lapusta and Liu (AGU, 2006), which is able to resolve both dynamic and quasi-static stages of spontaneous slip accumulation in a single computational procedure. The initial shear stress is constant on the fault, except in a small area where it is higher and where the first large dynamic event initiates. For patches with 20%, 40%, 60% higher normal stress, the first event has significant dynamic interaction with the patch, creating a rupture speed decrease followed by a supershear burst and larger slip around the patch. Hence, in the first event, the patch acts as a seismic asperity. For the case of 100% higher stress, the rupture is not able to break the patch in the first event. In subsequent dynamic events, the behavior depends on the strength of heterogeneity. For the patch with 20% higher normal stress, dynamic rupture in subsequent events propagates through the patch without any noticeable perturbation in rupture speed or slip. In particular, supershear propagation and additional slip accumulation around the patch are never repeated in the simulated history of the fault, and the patch stops manifesting itself as a seismic asperity. This is due to higher shear stress that is established at the patch after the first earthquake cycle. For patches with higher normal stress, shear stress redistribution also occurs, but it is less effective. The patches with 40% and 60% higher normal stress continue to affect rupture speed and fault slip in some of subsequent events, although the effect is much diminished with respect to the first event. For example, there are no supershear bursts. The patch with 100% higher normal stress is first broken in the second large event, and it retains significant influence on rupture speed and slip throughout the fault history, occasionally resulting in supershear bursts. Additional slip complexity emerges for patches with 40% and higher normal stress contrast. Since higher normal stress corresponds to a smaller nucleation size, nucleation of some events moves from the rheological transitions (where nucleation occurs in the cases with no stronger patch and with the patch of 20% higher normal stress) to the patches of higher normal stress. The patches nucleate both large, model-spanning, events, and small events that arrest soon after exiting the patch. Hence not every event that originates at the location of a potential seismic asperity is destined to be large, as its subsequent propagation is significantly influenced by the state of stress outside the patch.

Geologic and structural controls on rupture zone fabric: A field-based study of the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor–Cucapah earthquake surface rupture

USGS Publications Warehouse

Teran, Orlando; Fletcher, John L.; Oskin, Michael; Rockwell, Thomas; Hudnut, Kenneth W.; Spelz, Ronald; Akciz, Sinan; Hernandez-Flores, Ana Paula; Morelan, Alexander

2015-01-01

We systematically mapped (scales >1:500) the surface rupture of the 4 April 2010 Mw (moment magnitude) 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake through the Sierra Cucapah (Baja California, northwestern Mexico) to understand how faults with similar structural and lithologic characteristics control rupture zone fabric, which is here defined by the thickness, distribution, and internal configuration of shearing in a rupture zone. Fault zone thickness and master fault dip are strongly correlated with many parameters of rupture zone fabric. Wider fault zones produce progressively wider rupture zones and both of these parameters increase systematically with decreasing dip of master faults, which varies from 20° to 90° in our dataset. Principal scarps that accommodate more than 90% of the total coseismic slip in a given transect are only observed in fault sections with narrow rupture zones (<25 m). As rupture zone thickness increases, the number of scarps in a given transect increases, and the scarp with the greatest relative amount of coseismic slip decreases. Rupture zones in previously undeformed alluvium become wider and have more complex arrangements of secondary fractures with oblique slip compared to those with pure normal dip-slip or pure strike-slip. Field relations and lidar (light detection and ranging) difference models show that as magnitude of coseismic slip increases from 0 to 60 cm, the links between kinematically distinct fracture sets increase systematically to the point of forming a throughgoing principal scarp. Our data indicate that secondary faults and penetrative off-fault strain continue to accommodate the oblique kinematics of coseismic slip after the formation of a thoroughgoing principal scarp. Among the widest rupture zones in the Sierra Cucapah are those developed above buried low angle faults due to the transfer of slip to widely distributed steeper faults, which are mechanically more favorably oriented. The results from this study show that the measureable parameters that define rupture zone fabric allow for testing hypotheses concerning the mechanics and propagation of earthquake ruptures, as well as for siting and designing facilities to be constructed in regions near active faults.

Viscoelastic-cycle model of interseismic deformation in the northwestern United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, F.F.; McCrory, Patricia; Wilson, Doug; Svarc, Jerry; Puskas, Christine; Smith, Robert B.

2010-01-01

We apply a viscoelastic cycle model to a compilation of GPS velocity fields in order to address the kinematics of deformation in the northwestern United States. A viscoelastic cycle model accounts for time-dependent deformation following large crustal earthquakes and is an alternative to block models for explaining the interseismic crustal velocity field. Building on the approach taken in Pollitz et al., we construct a deformation model for the entire western United States-based on combined fault slip and distributed deformation-and focus on the implications for the Mendocino triple junction (MTJ), Cascadia megathrust, and western Washington. We find significant partitioning between strike-slip and dip-slip motion near the MTJ as the tectonic environment shifts from northwest-directed shear along the San Andreas fault system to east-west convergence along the Juan de Fuca Plate. By better accounting for the budget of aseismic and seismic slip along the Cascadia subduction interface in conjunction with an assumed rheology, we revise a previous model of slip for the M~ 9 1700 Cascadia earthquake. In western Washington, we infer slip rates on a number of strike-slip and dip-slip faults that accommodate northward convergence of the Oregon Coast block and northwestward convergence of the Juan de Fuca Plate. Lateral variations in first order mechanical properties (e.g. mantle viscosity, vertically averaged rigidity) explain, to a large extent, crustal strain that cannot be rationalized with cyclic deformation on a laterally homogeneous viscoelastic structure. Our analysis also shows that present crustal deformation measurements, particularly with the addition of the Plate Boundary Observatory, can constrain such lateral variations.

Slip Potential of Faults in the Fort Worth Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hennings, P.; Osmond, J.; Lund Snee, J. E.; Zoback, M. D.

2017-12-01

Similar to other areas of the southcentral United States, the Fort Worth Basin of NE Texas has experienced an increase in the rate of seismicity which has been attributed to injection of waste water in deep saline aquifers. To assess the hazard of induced seismicity in the basin we have integrated new data on location and character of previously known and unknown faults, stress state, and pore pressure to produce an assessment of fault slip potential which can be used to investigate prior and ongoing earthquake sequences and for development of mitigation strategies. We have assembled data on faults in the basin from published sources, 2D and 3D seismic data, and interpretations provided from petroleum operators to yield a 3D fault model with 292 faults ranging in strike-length from 116 to 0.4 km. The faults have mostly normal geometries, all cut the disposal intervals, and most are presumed to cut into the underlying crystalline and metamorphic basement. Analysis of outcrops along the SW flank of the basin assist with geometric characterization of the fault systems. The interpretation of stress state comes from integration of wellbore image and sonic data, reservoir stimulation data, and earthquake focal mechanisms. The orientation of SHmax is generally uniform across the basin but stress style changes from being more strike-slip in the NE part of the basin to normal faulting in the SW part. Estimates of pore pressure come from a basin-scale hydrogeologic model as history-matched to injection test data. With these deterministic inputs and appropriate ranges of uncertainty we assess the conditional probability that faults in our 3D model might slip via Mohr-Coulomb reactivation in response to increases in injected-related pore pressure. A key component of the analysis is constraining the uncertainties associated with each of the principal parameters. Many of the faults in the model are interpreted to be critically-stressed within reasonable ranges of uncertainty.

Factors controlling high-frequency radiation from extended ruptures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beresnev, Igor A.

2017-09-01

Small-scale slip heterogeneity or variations in rupture velocity on the fault plane are often invoked to explain the high-frequency radiation from earthquakes. This view has no theoretical basis, which follows, for example, from the representation integral of elasticity, an exact solution for the radiated wave field. The Fourier transform, applied to the integral, shows that the seismic spectrum is fully controlled by that of the source time function, while the distribution of final slip and rupture acceleration/deceleration only contribute to directivity. This inference is corroborated by the precise numerical computation of the full radiated field from the representation integral. We compare calculated radiation from four finite-fault models: (1) uniform slip function with low slip velocity, (2) slip function spatially modulated by a sinusoidal function, (3) slip function spatially modulated by a sinusoidal function with random roughness added, and (4) uniform slip function with high slip velocity. The addition of "asperities," both regular and irregular, does not cause any systematic increase in the spectral level of high-frequency radiation, except for the creation of maxima due to constructive interference. On the other hand, an increase in the maximum rate of slip on the fault leads to highly amplified high frequencies, in accordance with the prediction on the basis of a simple point-source treatment of the fault. Hence, computations show that the temporal rate of slip, not the spatial heterogeneity on faults, is the predominant factor forming the high-frequency radiation and thus controlling the velocity and acceleration of the resulting ground motions.

Fault Slip Distribution and Optimum Sea Surface Displacement of the 2017 Tehuantepec Earthquake in Mexico (Mw 8.2) Estimated from Tsunami Waveforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gusman, A. R.; Satake, K.; Mulia, I. E.

2017-12-01

An intraplate normal fault earthquake (Mw 8.2) occurred on 8 September 2017 in the Tehuantepec seismic gap of the Middle America Trench. The submarine earthquake generated a tsunami which was recorded by coastal tide gauges and offshore DART buoys. We used the tsunami waveforms recorded at 16 stations to estimate the fault slip distribution and an optimum sea surface displacement of the earthquake. A steep fault dipping to the northeast with strike of 315°, dip of 73°and rake of -96° based on the USGS W-phase moment tensor solution was assumed for the slip inversion. To independently estimate the sea surface displacement without assuming earthquake fault parameters, we used the B-spline function for the unit sources. The distribution of the unit sources was optimized by a Genetic Algorithm - Pattern Search (GA-PS) method. Tsunami waveform inversion resolves a spatially compact region of large slip (4-10 m) with a dimension of 100 km along the strike and 80 km along the dip in the depth range between 40 km and 110 km. The seismic moment calculated from the fault slip distribution with assumed rigidity of 6 × 1010 Nm-2 is 2.46 × 1021 Nm (Mw 8.2). The optimum displacement model suggests that the sea surface was uplifted up to 0.5 m and subsided down to -0.8 m. The deep location of large fault slip may be the cause of such small sea surface displacements. The simulated tsunami waveforms from the optimum sea surface displacement can reproduce the observations better than those from fault slip distribution; the normalized root mean square misfit for the sea surface displacement is 0.89, while that for the fault slip distribution is 1.04. We simulated the tsunami propagation using the optimum sea surface displacement model. Large tsunami amplitudes up to 2.5 m were predicted to occur inside and around a lagoon located between Salina Cruz and Puerto Chiapas. Figure 1. a) Sea surface displacement for the 2017 Tehuantepec earthquake estimated by tsunami waveforms. b) Map of simulated maximum tsunami amplitude and comparison between observed (blue circles) and simulated (red circles) tsunami maximum amplitude along the coast.

Scaling of the critical slip distance for seismic faulting with shear strain in fault zones

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marone, Chris; Kilgore, Brian D.

1993-01-01

THEORETICAL and experimentally based laws for seismic faulting contain a critical slip distance1-5, Dc, which is the slip over which strength breaks down during earthquake nucleation. On an earthquake-generating fault, this distance plays a key role in determining the rupture nucleation dimension6, the amount of premonitory and post-seismic slip7-10, and the maximum seismic ground acceleration1,11. In laboratory friction experiments, Dc has been related to the size of surface contact junctions2,5,12; thus, the discrepancy between laboratory measurements of Dc (??? 10-5 m) and values obtained from modelling earthquakes (??? 10-2 m) has been attributed to differences in roughness between laboratory surfaces and natural faults5. This interpretation predicts a dependence of Dc on the particle size of fault gouge 2 (breccia and wear material) but not on shear strain. Here we present experimental results showing that Dc scales with shear strain in simulated fault gouge. Our data suggest a new physical interpretation for the critical slip distance, in which Dc is controlled by the thickness of the zone of localized shear strain. As gouge zones of mature faults are commonly 102-103 m thick13-17, whereas laboratory gouge layers are 1-10 mm thick, our data offer an alternative interpretation of the discrepancy between laboratory and field-based estimates of Dc.

Near-source high-rate GPS, strong motion and InSAR observations to image the 2015 Lefkada (Greece) Earthquake rupture history.

PubMed

Avallone, Antonio; Cirella, Antonella; Cheloni, Daniele; Tolomei, Cristiano; Theodoulidis, Nikos; Piatanesi, Alessio; Briole, Pierre; Ganas, Athanassios

2017-09-04

The 2015/11/17 Lefkada (Greece) earthquake ruptured a segment of the Cephalonia Transform Fault (CTF) where probably the penultimate major event was in 1948. Using near-source strong motion and high sampling rate GPS data and Sentinel-1A SAR images on two tracks, we performed the inversion for the geometry, slip distribution and rupture history of the causative fault with a three-step self-consistent procedure, in which every step provided input parameters for the next one. Our preferred model results in a ~70° ESE-dipping and ~13° N-striking fault plane, with a strike-slip mechanism (rake ~169°) in agreement with the CTF tectonic regime. This model shows a bilateral propagation spanning ~9 s with the activation of three main slip patches, characterized by rise time and peak slip velocity in the ranges 2.5-3.5 s and 1.4-2.4 m/s, respectively, corresponding to 1.2-1.8 m of slip which is mainly concentrated in the shallower (<10 km) southern half of the causative fault. The inferred slip distribution and the resulting seismic moment (M 0  = 1.05 × 10 19 N m) suggest a magnitude of M w 6.6. Our best solution suggests that the occurrence of large (M w  > 6) earthquakes to the northern and to the southern boundaries of the 2015 causative fault cannot be excluded.

Kaltag fault, northern Yukon, Canada: Constraints on evolution of Arctic Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lane, Larry S.

1992-07-01

The Kaltag fault has been linked to several strike-slip models of evolution of the western Arctic Ocean. Hundreds of kilometres of Cretaceous-Tertiary displacement have been hypothesized in models that emplace Arctic Alaska into its present position by either left- or right-lateral strike slip. However, regional-scale displacement is precluded by new potential-field data. Postulated transform emplacement of Arctic Alaska cannot be accommodated by motion on the Kaltag fault or adjacent structures. The Kaltag fault of the northern Yukon is an eastward extrapolation of its namesake in west-central Alaska; however, a connection cannot be demonstrated. Cretaceous-Tertiary displacement on the Alaskan Kaltag fault is probably accommodated elsewhere.

Structural Controls of the Friction Constitutive Properties of Carbonate-bearing Faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carpenter, B. M.; Collettini, C.; Scuderi, M.; Marone, C.

2012-12-01

The identification of hetereogenous and complex post-seismic slip for the 2009, Mw = 6.3, L'Aquila earthquake highlights the importance of fault zone structure and frictional behavior. Many of the Mw 6 to 7 earthquakes that occur on normal faults in the active Apennines, such as L'Aquila, nucleate at depths where the lithology is dominated by carbonate rocks. Due to the complex structure observed in exhumed faults (i.e. the presence of highly polished principal slip surfaces, cemented cataclasites, and phyllosilicate-bearing, foliated fault gouge) as well as the large spectrum of fault slip behaviors identified world wide, we designed a suite of experiments using intact and powdered samples to better constrain the possible slip behaviors of these carbonate bearing faults. We collected samples from the exposed Rocchetta Fault, a ~10km long, normal fault with approximately 600m of total offset. The exposed principal slip surface cuts through the Calcare Massiccio formation, which is present throughout central Italy at depths of earthquake nucleation. We collected intact specimens of the natural slip surface and cemented cataclasite, as well as fragments of both which were later pulverized. Furthermore, we collected an intact sample of the hanging wall cataclasite and footwall limestone that contained the principal slip surface. We performed friction experiments in a variety of different configurations (slip surface on slip surface, slip surface on powdered cataclasite, etc.) in order to investigate heterogeneity in frictional behavior as controlled by fault structure. We sheared saturated samples at a constant normal stress of 10 MPa at room temperature. Velocity-stepping tests were performed from 1 to 300 μm/s to identify the friction constitutive parameters of this fault material. Furthermore, a series slide-hold-slide tests were performed (holds of 3 to 1000 seconds) to measure the amount of frictional healing and determine the frictional healing rate. Results from experiments designed to reactivate slip between the principal slip surface and cemented cataclasite show a peak friction value of ~0.95 followed by a ~3 MPa stress drop as the fault surface fails. Our other results suggest that earthquakes will easily nucleate in areas of the fault where two slip surfaces are in contact and are likely to propagate in areas where pulverized fault gouge is in contact with the slip surface. Our data show that samples collected from a single fault can exhibit a large range of slip behaviors. Heterogeneous frictional behavior documented in the lab must be combined with field observations of complex fault structure and seismological observations of the different modes of fault slip to further our understanding of fault slip. Future work will consist of thin section and XRD analysis of all experimental material.

Source parameters of the 2016 Menyuan earthquake in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau determined from regional seismic waveforms and InSAR measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yunhua; Zhang, Guohong; Zhang, Yingfeng; Shan, Xinjian

2018-06-01

On January 21st, 2016, a Ms 6.4 earthquake hit Menyuan County, Qinghai province, China. The nearest known fault is the Leng Long Ling (LLL) fault which is located approximately 7 km north of the epicenter. This fault has mainly shown sinistral strike-slip movement since the late Quaternary Period. However, the focal mechanism indicates that it is a thrust earthquake, which is different from the well-known strike-slip feature of the LLL fault. In this study, we determined the focal mechanism and primary nodal plane through multi-step inversions in the frequency and time domain by using the broadband regional seismic waveforms recorded by the China Digital Seismic Network (CDSN). Our results show that the rupture duration was short, within 0-2 s after the earthquake, and the rupture expanded upwards along the fault plane. Based on these fault parameters, we then solve for variable slip distribution on the fault plane using the InSAR data. We applied a three-segment fault model to simulate the arc-shaped structure of the northern LLL fault, and obtained a detailed slip distribution on the fault plane. The inversion results show that the maximum slip is 0.43 m, and the average slip angle is 78.8°, with a magnitude of Mw 6.0 and a focal depth of 9.38 km. With the geological structure and the inversion results taken into consideration, it can be suggested that this earthquake was caused by the arc-shaped secondary fault located at the north side of the LLL fault. The secondary fault, together with the LLL fault, forms a normal flower structure. The main LLL fault extends almost vertically into the base rock and the rocks between the two faults form a bulging fault block. Therefore, we infer that this earthquake is the manifestation of a neotectonics movement, in which the bulging fault block is lifted further up under the compresso-shear action caused by the Tibetan Plateau pushing towards the northwest direction.

Stress transfer to the Denali and other regional faults from the M 9.2 Alaska earthquake of 1964

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bufe, C.G.

2004-01-01

Stress transfer from the great 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake is modeled on the Denali fault, including the Denali-Totschunda fault segments that ruptured in 2002, and on other regional fault systems where M 7.5 and larger earthquakes have occurred since 1900. The results indicate that analysis of Coulomb stress transfer from the dominant earthquake in a region is a potentially powerful tool in assessing time-varying earthquake hazard. Modeled Coulomb stress increases on the northern Denali and Totschunda faults from the great 1964 earthquake coincide with zones that ruptured in the 2002 Denali fault earthquake, although stress on the Susitna Glacier thrust plane, where the 2002 event initiated, was decreased. A southeasterlytrending Coulomb stress transect along the right-lateral Totschunda-Fairweather-Queen Charlotte trend shows stress transfer from the 1964 event advancing slip on the Totschunda, Fairweather, and Queen Charlotte segments, including the southern Fairweather segment that ruptured in 1972. Stress transfer retarding right-lateral strike slip was observed from the southern part of the Totschunda fault to the northern end of the Fairweather fault (1958 rupture). This region encompasses a gap with shallow thrust faulting but with little evidence of strike-slip faulting connecting the segments to the northwest and southeast. Stress transfer toward failure was computed on the north-south trending right-lateral strike-slip faults in the Gulf of Alaska that ruptured in 1987 and 1988, with inhibitory stress changes at the northern end of the northernmost (1987) rupture. The northern Denali and Totschunda faults, including the zones that ruptured in the 2002 earthquakes, follow very closely (within 3%), for about 90??, an arc of a circle of radius 375 km. The center of this circle is within a few kilometers of the intersection at depth of the Patton Bay fault with the Alaskan megathrust. This inferred asperity edge may be the pole of counterclockwise rotation of the block south of the Denali fault. These observations suggest that the asperity and its recurrent rupture in great earthquakes as in 1964 may have influenced the tectonics of the region during the later stages of evolution of the Denali strike-slip fault system.

Interseismic strain accumulation across the Ashkabad fault (NE Iran) from MERIS-corrected ASAR data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walters, R. J.; Elliott, J. R.; Li, Z.; Parsons, B. E.

2011-12-01

The right-lateral Ashkabad Fault separates deforming NE Iran from the stable Turkmenistan platform to the north, and also facilitates the north-westwards extrusion of the South Caspian block (along with the left-lateral Shahrud fault zone). The fault represents the northernmost boundary of significant deformation of the Arabia-Eurasia collision in NE Iran. The 1948 M 7.3 Ashkabad earthquake, which killed around 110,000 people and was the deadliest earthquake to hit Europe or the Middle East in the 20th Century, also possibly occurred on this fault. However, the slip rate and therefore the seismic hazard that the Ashkabad fault represents are not well known. GPS data in NE Iran are sparse, and there are no direct geological or quaternary rates for the main strand of the fault. We use Envisat ASAR data acquired between 2003 and 2010 to measure interseismic strain accumulation across the fault, and hence estimate the slip rate across it. Due to the proximity of this region to the Caspian Sea and the presence of highly variable weather systems, we use data from Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument, as well as modelled weather data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), to correct interferograms for differences in water vapour and atmospheric pressure. We mitigate the effects of remaining noise by summing the 13 corrected interferograms that cover the fault, effectively creating a 30 year interferogram with improved signal-to-noise ratio, and we empirically correct for orbital errors. Our measurements of rates of displacement are consistent with an interseismic model for the Ashkabad fault where deformation occurs at depth on a narrow shear zone below a layer in which the fault is locked. We invert the data to solve for best fitting model parameters, estimating both the slip rate and the depth to which the fault is locked. Our measurements show that the Ashkabad fault is accumulating strain at a rate of 9 mm/yr below a locking depth of 15 km. We use a Monte Carlo approach to estimate the errors on our best fit solution and find our data is consistent with 6-12 mm/yr slip rate and 8-25 km locking depth. Using an alternative jacknife approach we obtain ranges of 4-11 mm/yr and 9-18 km. Lyberis and Manby (1999, AAPG Bulletin 83: 1135-1160) proposed a slip rate of 3-8 mm/yr for the Ashkabad fault, based on an estimated offset and a likely age of onset for the fault. Masson et al. (2007, GJI 170:436-440) estimated a slip rate of 2-4 mm/yr from GPS data. Our best fit solution is higher, but within error our results are compatible with both of these previous estimates. In addition, GPS data from an unpublished PhD Thesis (Tavakoli, 2007, PhD Thesis, LGIT Grenoble) suggest slip rates of around 9 mm/yr, supporting our best fit slip rate.

Structures associated with strike-slip faults that bound landslide elements

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fleming, R.W.; Johnson, A.M.

1989-01-01

Large landslides are bounded on their flanks and on elements within the landslides by structures analogous to strike-slip faults. We observed the formation of thwse strike-slip faults and associated structures at two large landslides in central Utah during 1983-1985. The strike-slip faults in landslides are nearly vertical but locally may dip a few degrees toward or away from the moving ground. Fault surfaces are slickensided, and striations are subparallel to the ground surface. Displacement along strike-slip faults commonly produces scarps; scarps occur where local relief of the failure surface or ground surface is displaced and becomes adjacent to higher or lower ground, or where the landslide is thickening or thinning as a result of internal deformation. Several types of structures are formed at the ground surface as a strike-slip fault, which is fully developed at some depth below the ground surface, propagates upward in response to displacement. The simplest structure is a tension crack oriented at 45?? clockwise or counterclockwise from the trend of an underlying right- or left-lateral strike-slip fault, respectively. The tension cracks are typically arranged en echelon with the row of cracks parallel to the trace of the underlying strike-slip fault. Another common structure that forms above a developing strike-slip fault is a fault segment. Fault segments are discontinuous strike-slip faults that contain the same sense of slip but are turned clockwise or counterclockwise from a few to perhaps 20?? from the underlying strike-slip fault. The fault segments are slickensided and striated a few centimeters below the ground surface; continued displacement of the landslide causes the fault segments to open and a short tension crack propagates out of one or both ends of the fault segments. These structures, open fault segments containing a short tension crack, are termed compound cracks; and the short tension crack that propagates from the tip of the fault segment is typically oriented 45?? to the trend of the underlying fault. Fault segments are also typically arranged en echelon above the upward-propagating strike-slip fault. Continued displacement of the landslide causes the ground to buckle between the tension crack portions of the compound cracks. Still more displacement produces a thrust fault on one or both limbs of the buckle fold. These compressional structures form at right angles to the short tension cracks at the tips of the fault segments. Thus, the compressional structures are bounded on their ends by one face of a tension crack and detached from underlying material by thrusting or buckling. The tension cracks, fault segments, compound cracks, folds, and thrusts are ephemeral; they are created and destroyed with continuing displacement of the landslide. Ultimately, the structures are replaced by a throughgoing strike-slip fault. At one landslide, we observed the creation and destruction of the ephemeral structures as the landslide enlarged. Displacement of a few centimeters to about a decimeter was sufficient to produce scattered tension cracks and fault segments. Sets of compound cracks with associated folds and thrusts were produced by displacements of up to 1 m, and 1 to 2 m of displacement was required to produce a throughgoing strike-slip fault. The type of first-formed structure above an upward-propagating strike-slip fault is apparently controlled by the rheology of the material. Brittle material such as dry topsoil or the compact surface of a gravel road produces echelon tension cracks and sets of tension cracks and compressional structures, wherein the cracks and compressional structures are normal to each other and 45?? to the strike-slip fault at depth. First-formed structures in more ductile material such as moist cohesive soil are fault segments. In very ductile material such as soft clay and very wet soil in swampy areas, the first-formed structure is a throughgoing strike-slip fault. There are othe

Advances in Geophysical Methods at Parkfield, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennington, Ninfa

The Parkfield segment of the San Andreas fault (SAF) is one of the most highly monitored fault sites in the world. I carry out two studies, taking advantage of the dense set of geophysical observations obtained for this segment of the fault. In the first study, I use geodetic data to had a model of coseismic slip for the 2004 Parkfield earthquake with the constraint that the edges of coseismic slip patches preferentially align with aftershocks. Application of the aftershock distribution constraint on coseismic slip yields a model that agrees in location and amplitude with features observed in previous geodetic studies and the majority of strong motion studies. The curvature-constrained solution shows slip primarily between aftershock "streaks" with the continuation of moderate levels of slip towards the 2004 Parkfield earthquake hypocenter. The observed continuation of coseismic slip towards the hypocenter is in good agreement with strong motion studies but is not observed in the majority of published geodetic slip models, which I attribute to resolution limitations. In the second study, I develop tomoDDMT, a joint inversion code that simultaneously inverts for resistivity and seismic velocity models under the cross- gradient constraint. This constraint uses a weighted penalty function to encourage areas where the two models are changing to be structurally similar. I present jointly inverted models of P-wave velocity (Vp) and resistivity for a cross-section centered on the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). The joint inversion scheme achieves structurally similar Vp and resistivity images that adequately fit the seismic and MT data without forcing model similarity where none exists. Using tomoDDMT, I obtain models or resistivity and Vp that yield increased insight into the geologic structure at Parkfield. I address key issues including: the location of the Franciscan formation at depth, the spatial extent of the Upper Great Valley sequence, the validity of the eastern wall as a fluid pathway, the distribution of the eastern conductor, and the distribution of the Salinian block at depth.

Astypalaea Linea: A Large-Scale Strike-Slip Fault on Europa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tufts, B. Randall; Greenberg, Richard; Hoppa, Gregory; Geissler, Paul

1999-09-01

Astypalaea Linea is an 810-km strike-slip fault, located near the south pole of Europa. In length, it rivals the San Andreas Fault in California, and it is the largest strike-slip fault yet known on Europa. The fault was discovered using Voyager 2 images, based upon the presence of familiar strike-slip features including linearity, pull-aparts, and possible braids, and upon the offset of multiple piercing points. Fault displacement is 42 km, right-lateral, in the southern and central parts and probably throughout. Pull-aparts present along the fault trace probably are gaps in the lithosphere bounded by vertical cracks, and which opened due to fault motion and filled with material from below. Crosscutting relationships suggest the fault to be of intermediate relative age. The fault may have initiated as a crack due to tension from combined diurnal tides and nonsynchronous rotation, according to the tectonic model of R. Greenberg et al. (1998a, Icarus135, 64-78). Under the influence of varying diurnal tides, strike-slip offset may have occurred through a process called “walking,” which depends upon an inelastic lithospheric response to displacement. Alternatively, fault displacement may have been driven by currents in the theorized Europan ocean, which may have created simple shear structures such as braids. The discovery of Astypalaea Linea extends the geographical range of lateral motion on Europa. Such motion requires the presence of a decoupling zone of ductile ice or liquid water, a sufficiently rigid lithosphere, and a mechanism to consume surface area.

GPS constraints on M 7-8 earthquake recurrence times for the New Madrid seismic zone

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stuart, W.D.

2001-01-01

Newman et al. (1999) estimate the time interval between the 1811-1812 earthquake sequence near New Madrid, Missouri and a future similar sequence to be at least 2,500 years, an interval significantly longer than other recently published estimates. To calculate the recurrence time, they assume that slip on a vertical half-plane at depth contributes to the current interseismic motion of GPS benchmarks. Compared to other plausible fault models, the half-plane model gives nearly the maximum rate of ground motion for the same interseismic slip rate. Alternative models with smaller interseismic fault slip area can satisfy the present GPS data by having higher slip rate and thus can have earthquake recurrence times much less than 2,500 years.

Refining fault slip rates using multiple displaced terrace risers-An example from the Honey Lake fault, NE California, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gold, Ryan D.; Briggs, Richard W.; Crone, Anthony J.; DuRoss, Christopher B.

2017-11-01

Faulted terrace risers are semi-planar features commonly used to constrain Quaternary slip rates along strike-slip faults. These landforms are difficult to date directly and therefore their ages are commonly bracketed by age estimates of the adjacent upper and lower terrace surfaces. However, substantial differences in the ages of the upper and lower terrace surfaces (a factor of 2.4 difference observed globally) produce large uncertainties in the slip-rate estimate. In this investigation, we explore how the full range of displacements and bounding ages from multiple faulted terrace risers can be combined to yield a more accurate fault slip rate. We use 0.25-m cell size digital terrain models derived from airborne lidar data to analyze three sites where terrace risers are offset right-laterally by the Honey Lake fault in NE California, USA. We use ages for locally extensive subhorizontal surfaces to bracket the time of riser formation: an upper surface is the bed of abandoned Lake Lahontan having an age of 15.8 ± 0.6 ka and a lower surface is a fluvial terrace abandoned at 4.7 ± 0.1 ka. We estimate lateral offsets of the risers ranging between 6.6 and 28.3 m (median values), a greater than fourfold difference in values. The amount of offset corresponds to the riser's position relative to modern stream meanders: the smallest offset is in a meander cutbank position, whereas the larger offsets are in straight channel or meander point-bar positions. Taken in isolation, the individual terrace-riser offsets yield slip rates ranging from 0.3 to 7.1 mm/a. However, when the offset values are collectively assessed in a probabilistic framework, we find that a uniform (linear) slip rate of 1.6 mm/a (1.4-1.9 mm/a at 95% confidence) can satisfy the data, within their respective uncertainties. This investigation demonstrates that integrating observations of multiple offset elements (crest, midpoint, and base) from numerous faulted and dated terrace risers at closely spaced sites can refine slip-rate estimates on strike-slip faults.

Refining fault slip rates using multiple displaced terrace risers—An example from the Honey Lake fault, NE California, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gold, Ryan D.; Briggs, Richard; Crone, Anthony J.; Duross, Christopher

2017-01-01

Faulted terrace risers are semi-planar features commonly used to constrain Quaternary slip rates along strike-slip faults. These landforms are difficult to date directly and therefore their ages are commonly bracketed by age estimates of the adjacent upper and lower terrace surfaces. However, substantial differences in the ages of the upper and lower terrace surfaces (a factor of 2.4 difference observed globally) produce large uncertainties in the slip-rate estimate. In this investigation, we explore how the full range of displacements and bounding ages from multiple faulted terrace risers can be combined to yield a more accurate fault slip rate. We use 0.25-m cell size digital terrain models derived from airborne lidar data to analyze three sites where terrace risers are offset right-laterally by the Honey Lake fault in NE California, USA. We use ages for locally extensive subhorizontal surfaces to bracket the time of riser formation: an upper surface is the bed of abandoned Lake Lahontan having an age of 15.8 ± 0.6 ka and a lower surface is a fluvial terrace abandoned at 4.7 ± 0.1 ka. We estimate lateral offsets of the risers ranging between 6.6 and 28.3 m (median values), a greater than fourfold difference in values. The amount of offset corresponds to the riser's position relative to modern stream meanders: the smallest offset is in a meander cutbank position, whereas the larger offsets are in straight channel or meander point-bar positions. Taken in isolation, the individual terrace-riser offsets yield slip rates ranging from 0.3 to 7.1 mm/a. However, when the offset values are collectively assessed in a probabilistic framework, we find that a uniform (linear) slip rate of 1.6 mm/a (1.4–1.9 mm/a at 95% confidence) can satisfy the data, within their respective uncertainties. This investigation demonstrates that integrating observations of multiple offset elements (crest, midpoint, and base) from numerous faulted and dated terrace risers at closely spaced sites can refine slip-rate estimates on strike-slip faults.

Frictional heterogeneities on carbonate-bearing normal faults: Insights from the Monte Maggio Fault, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carpenter, B. M.; Scuderi, M. M.; Collettini, C.; Marone, C.

2014-12-01

Observations of heterogeneous and complex fault slip are often attributed to the complexity of fault structure and/or spatial heterogeneity of fault frictional behavior. Such complex slip patterns have been observed for earthquakes on normal faults throughout central Italy, where many of the Mw 6 to 7 earthquakes in the Apennines nucleate at depths where the lithology is dominated by carbonate rocks. To explore the relationship between fault structure and heterogeneous frictional properties, we studied the exhumed Monte Maggio Fault, located in the northern Apennines. We collected intact specimens of the fault zone, including the principal slip surface and hanging wall cataclasite, and performed experiments at a normal stress of 10 MPa under saturated conditions. Experiments designed to reactivate slip between the cemented principal slip surface and cataclasite show a 3 MPa stress drop as the fault surface fails, then velocity-neutral frictional behavior and significant frictional healing. Overall, our results suggest that (1) earthquakes may readily nucleate in areas of the fault where the slip surface separates massive limestone and are likely to propagate in areas where fault gouge is in contact with the slip surface; (2) postseismic slip is more likely to occur in areas of the fault where gouge is present; and (3) high rates of frictional healing and low creep relaxation observed between solid fault surfaces could lead to significant aftershocks in areas of low stress drop.

Slip triggered on southern California faults by the 1992 Joshua Tree, Landers, and big bear earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bodin, Paul; Bilham, Roger; Behr, Jeff; Gomberg, Joan; Hudnut, Kenneth W.

1994-01-01

Five out of six functioning creepmeters on southern California faults recorded slip triggered at the time of some or all of the three largest events of the 1992 Landers earthquake sequence. Digital creep data indicate that dextral slip was triggered within 1 min of each mainshock and that maximum slip velocities occurred 2 to 3 min later. The duration of triggered slip events ranged from a few hours to several weeks. We note that triggered slip occurs commonly on faults that exhibit fault creep. To account for the observation that slip can be triggered repeatedly on a fault, we propose that the amplitude of triggered slip may be proportional to the depth of slip in the creep event and to the available near-surface tectonic strain that would otherwise eventually be released as fault creep. We advance the notion that seismic surface waves, perhaps amplified by sediments, generate transient local conditions that favor the release of tectonic strain to varying depths. Synthetic strain seismograms are presented that suggest increased pore pressure during periods of fault-normal contraction may be responsible for triggered slip, since maximum dextral shear strain transients correspond to times of maximum fault-normal contraction.

Accelerating slip rates on the puente hills blind thrust fault system beneath metropolitan Los Angeles, California, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bergen, Kristian J.; Shaw, John H.; Leon, Lorraine A.; Dolan, James F.; Pratt, Thomas L.; Ponti, Daniel J.; Morrow, Eric; Barrera, Wendy; Rhodes, Edward J.; Murari, Madhav K.; Owen, Lewis A.

2017-01-01

Slip rates represent the average displacement across a fault over time and are essential to estimating earthquake recurrence for proba-bilistic seismic hazard assessments. We demonstrate that the slip rate on the western segment of the Puente Hills blind thrust fault system, which is beneath downtown Los Angeles, California (USA), has accel-erated from ~0.22 mm/yr in the late Pleistocene to ~1.33 mm/yr in the Holocene. Our analysis is based on syntectonic strata derived from the Los Angeles River, which has continuously buried a fold scarp above the blind thrust. Slip on the fault beneath our field site began during the late-middle Pleistocene and progressively increased into the Holocene. This increase in rate implies that the magnitudes and/or the frequency of earthquakes on this fault segment have increased over time. This challenges the characteristic earthquake model and presents an evolving and potentially increasing seismic hazard to metropolitan Los Angeles.

Slip history and dynamic implications of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ji, C.; Helmberger, D.V.; Wald, D.J.; Ma, K.-F.

2003-01-01

We investigate the rupture process of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake using extensive near-source observations, including three-component velocity waveforms at 36 strong motion stations and 119 GPS measurements. A three-plane fault geometry derived from our previous inversion using only static data [Ji et al., 2001] is applied. The slip amplitude, rake angle, rupture initiation time, and risetime function are inverted simultaneously with a recently developed finite fault inverse method that combines a wavelet transform approach with a simulated annealing algorithm [Ji et al., 2002b]. The inversion results are validated by the forward prediction of an independent data set, the teleseismic P and SH ground velocities, with notable agreement. The results show that the total seismic moment release of this earthquake is 2.7 ?? 1020 N m and that most of the slip occured in a triangular-shaped asperity involving two fault segments, which is consistent with our previous static inversion. The rupture front propagates with an average rupture velocity of ???2.0 km s-1, and the average slip duration (risetime) is 7.2 s. Several interesting observations related to the temporal evolution of the Chi-Chi earthquake are also investigated, including (1) the strong effect of the sinuous fault plane of the Chelungpu fault on spatial and temporal variations in slip history, (2) the intersection of fault 1 and fault 2 not being a strong impediment to the rupture propagation, and (3 the observation that the peak slip velocity near the surface is, in general, higher than on the deeper portion of the fault plane, as predicted by dynamic modeling.

High resolution shallow co-seismic and post-seismic slip from the 2016 central Italy earthquake sequence captured using terrestrial laser scanning, structure from motion and low-cost near-field GNSS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wedmore, L. N. J.; Gregory, L. C.; McCaffrey, K. J. W.; Wilkinson, M.; Walters, R. J.

2017-12-01

Coseismic fault slip in the shallow crust is poorly constrained by many of the conventional tools used to record deformation during earthquakes. GNSS stations are often distributed too far from faults and radar images tend to decorrelate across earthquake surface ruptures. As a result, our understanding of near-field fault slip, shallow slip deficits, and off-fault deformation is limited. We present evidence from the 2016 central Italy earthquake sequence, during which we captured shallow coseismic and post-seismic slip using a combination of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), structure-from-motion (SfM), and near-field low-cost GNSS recording at 1Hz. Three Mw>6 earthquakes on the 24th August, 26th and 30th October all involved slip on the Mt Vettore-Mt Bove fault system. We collected TLS and SfM point clouds across three separate segments of this system. Each segment experienced a different record of slip during the earthquake sequence; all three ruptured in the largest event (Mw 6.6. on October 30th) but two segments also ruptured during either the 24th August or the 26th October earthquakes. Following the Mw 6.6 earthquake, the faults were repeatedly surveyed using TLS, with the first scan collected c. 5 hours following the earthquake. This represents the first known instance where shallow co-seismic slip has been recorded by pre- and post-event terrestrial laser scanning. Displacement continuously measured across GNSS pairs at 1 Hz demonstrates that permanent near field displacement developed across the fault in the immediate seconds following the initiation of the rupture. However, a discrepancy between on-fault field measurements of surface displacement and the GNSS recorded displacement over 1km long baselines hints at a more complex rupture processes and the possibility of high slip gradients in the shallow subsurface. Displacement measured by differential TLS confirms the presence of these shallow slip deficits but suggests that shallow slip gradient may be controlled by the pattern and timing of slip in the preceding earthquakes. Postseismic afterslip captured by repeated TLS surveys hints at more complicated temporal evolution of nearfield afterslip than is currently predicted by logarithmic models for this process.

A renormalization group model for the stick-slip behavior of faults

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smalley, R. F., Jr.; Turcotte, D. L.; Solla, S. A.

1983-01-01

A fault which is treated as an array of asperities with a prescribed statistical distribution of strengths is described. For a linear array the stress is transferred to a single adjacent asperity and for a two dimensional array to three ajacent asperities. It is shown that the solutions bifurcate at a critical applied stress. At stresses less than the critical stress virtually no asperities fail on a large scale and the fault is locked. At the critical stress the solution bifurcates and asperity failure cascades away from the nucleus of failure. It is found that the stick slip behavior of most faults can be attributed to the distribution of asperities on the fault. The observation of stick slip behavior on faults rather than stable sliding, why the observed level of seismicity on a locked fault is very small, and why the stress on a fault is less than that predicted by a standard value of the coefficient of friction are outlined.

Kinematics of shallow backthrusts in the Seattle fault zone, Washington State

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pratt, Thomas L.; Troost, K.G.; Odum, Jackson K.; Stephenson, William J.

2015-01-01

Near-surface thrust fault splays and antithetic backthrusts at the tips of major thrust fault systems can distribute slip across multiple shallow fault strands, complicating earthquake hazard analyses based on studies of surface faulting. The shallow expression of the fault strands forming the Seattle fault zone of Washington State shows the structural relationships and interactions between such fault strands. Paleoseismic studies document an ∼7000 yr history of earthquakes on multiple faults within the Seattle fault zone, with some backthrusts inferred to rupture in small (M ∼5.5–6.0) earthquakes at times other than during earthquakes on the main thrust faults. We interpret seismic-reflection profiles to show three main thrust faults, one of which is a blind thrust fault directly beneath downtown Seattle, and four small backthrusts within the Seattle fault zone. We then model fault slip, constrained by shallow deformation, to show that the Seattle fault forms a fault propagation fold rather than the alternatively proposed roof thrust system. Fault slip modeling shows that back-thrust ruptures driven by moderate (M ∼6.5–6.7) earthquakes on the main thrust faults are consistent with the paleoseismic data. The results indicate that paleoseismic data from the back-thrust ruptures reveal the times of moderate earthquakes on the main fault system, rather than indicating smaller (M ∼5.5–6.0) earthquakes involving only the backthrusts. Estimates of cumulative shortening during known Seattle fault zone earthquakes support the inference that the Seattle fault has been the major seismic hazard in the northern Cascadia forearc in the late Holocene.

Fault Mechanics and Post-seismic Deformation at Bam, SE Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wimpenny, S. E.; Copley, A.

2017-12-01

The extent to which aseismic deformation relaxes co-seismic stress changes on a fault zone is fundamental to assessing the future seismic hazard following any earthquake, and in understanding the mechanical behaviour of faults. We used models of stress-driven afterslip and visco-elastic relaxation, in conjunction with a dense time series of post-seismic InSAR measurements, to show that there has been minimal release of co-seismic stress changes through post-seismic deformation following the 2003 Mw 6.6 Bam earthquake. Our modelling indicates that the faults at Bam may remain predominantly locked, and that the co- plus inter-seismically accumulated elastic strain stored down-dip of the 2003 rupture patch may be released in a future Mw 6 earthquake. Modelling also suggests parts of the fault that experienced post-seismic creep between 2003-2009 overlapped with areas that also slipped co-seismically. Our observations and models also provide an opportunity to probe how aseismic fault slip leads to the growth of topography at Bam. We find that, for our modelled afterslip distribution to be consistent with forming the sharp step in the local topography at Bam over repeated earthquake cycles, and also to be consistent with the geodetic observations, requires either (1) far-field tectonic loading equivalent to a 2-10 MPa deviatoric stress acting across the fault system, which suggests it supports stresses 60-100 times less than classical views of static fault strength, or (2) that the fault surface has some form of mechanical anisotropy, potentially related to corrugations on the fault plane, that controls the sense of slip.

Coseismic and post-seismic activity associated with the 2008 Mw 6.3 Damxung earthquake, Tibet, constrained by InSAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bie, Lidong; Ryder, Isabelle; Nippress, Stuart E. J.; Bürgmann, Roland

2014-02-01

The 2008 Mw 6.3 Damxung earthquake on the Tibetan Plateau is investigated to (i) derive a coseismic slip model in a layered elastic Earth; (ii) reveal the relationship between coseismic slip, afterslip and aftershocks and (iii) place a lower bound on mid/lower crustal viscosity. The fault parameters and coseismic slip model were derived by inversion of Envisat InSAR data. We developed an improved non-linear inversion scheme to find an optimal rupture geometry and slip distribution on a fault in a layered elastic crust. Although the InSAR data for this event cannot distinguish between homogeneous and layered crustal models, the maximum slip of the latter model is smaller and deeper, while the moment release calculated from both models are similar. A ˜1.6 yr post-seismic deformation time-series starting 20 d after the main shock reveals localized deformation at the southern part of the fault. Inversions for afterslip indicate three localized slip patches, and the cumulative afterslip moment after 615 d is at least ˜11 per cent of the coseismic moment. The afterslip patches are distributed at different depths along the fault, showing no obvious systematic depth-dependence. The deeper of the three patches, however, shows a slight tendency to migrate to greater depth over time. No linear correlation is found for the temporal evolution of afterslip and aftershocks. Finally, modelling of viscoelastic relaxation in a Maxwell half-space yields a lower bound of 1 × 1018 Pa s on the viscosity of the mid/lower crust. This is consistent with viscosity estimates in other studies of post-seismic deformation across the Tibetan Plateau.

Evolution of Microroughness with Increasing Slip Magnitude on Pseudotachylyte-Bearing Fault Surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bessey, S.; Resor, P. G.; Di Toro, G.

2013-12-01

High velocity rock friction experiments reproducing seismic slip deformation conditions have shown that there is an initial shear strengthening prior to a significant weakening with slip. This change in shear resistance is inferred to occur due to the development of melt patches, which initially strengthen the fault, and is associated with the evolution of microroughness of the melt-wall rock interface (Hirose and Shimamoto, 2003). Additional melting leads to a continuous layer of melt, allowing easier sliding and weakening. Once there is a balance between formation and extrusion of melt, a steady state shear resistance (and associated effective friction coefficient) is reached (Nielsen et al. 2008). In natural fault zones, the process of frictional melting, slip weakening, and steady state is both recorded and influenced by the microroughness of the fault surface. Our study explores natural faults over a range of slip magnitudes from mm to m of slip, the magnitudes over which this process is most likely to occur during earthquakes. The Gole Larghe fault zone (Italy) is an exhumed strike-slip fault zone in tonalite of the Adamello batholith. The fault zone is characterized by multiple fault strands containing pseudotachylyte or pseudotachylyte overprinting cataclasite. We have sampled several individual faults segments from within the fault zone, with slips ranging from 23 mm to 1.9 m. The smaller scale samples are from pseudotachylyte-only fault strands and therefore probably record single-slip events. The two largest slip faults have pseudotachylyte and cataclasite, indicating that they may have more complicated slip histories. Individual samples consist of cores (2-3.5 cm diameter, 2-6 cm length) drilled parallel to the fault surface and ~perpendicular to the slip. Samples were scanned with an Xradia MicroCT scanner to image the 3D geometry of the fault and wall rocks. Fault surfaces (contact between the pseudotachylyte-bearing slipping zone and the wall rock) were extracted from the CT volume using an edge detection algorithm and their roughness was quantified using Fourier spectral and spatial analysis methods. At very small slip (<30 mm), roughness analysis showed anisotropy in the form of striations with smoothing in the direction of slip coupled with a lack of visible pseudotachylyte (i.e., the volume of pseudotachylyte produced was below the resolution of the MicroCT method), suggesting that the frictional work did not exchange sufficient heat to significantly melt the host rock along the fault surface. With increasing slip (~35mm-310mm), a trend of decreasing anisotropy is in evidence, as is a strong increase in local topography associated with recessed biotite grains. We infer that samples in this range of slip magnitude experienced significant wear due to melting. Microroughness shows a clear, albeit somewhat complicated, relationship with slip and may be used to infer the evolution of shear resistance with seismic slip.

Aspects of Non-Newtonian Viscoelastic Deformation Produced by Slip on a Major Strike- slip Fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Postek, E. W.; Houseman, G. A.; Jimack, P. K.

2008-12-01

Non-Newtonian flow occurs in crustal deformation processes on the long timescales associated with large- scale continental deformation, and also on the short time-scales associated with post-seismic deformation. The co-seismic displacement is determined by the instantaneous elastic response of the rocks on either side of the fault surface to the distribution of slip on the surface of the fault. The post-seismic deformation is determined by some combination of visco-elastic relaxation of the medium and post-seismic creep on the fault. The response of the crust may depend on elastic moduli, Poisson's ratio, temperature, pressure and creep function parameters including stress exponent, activation energy, activation volume and viscosity coefficient. We use the von Mises function in describing the non-linear Maxwell visco-elastic creep models. In this study we examine a model of a strike-slip fault crossing a 3D block. The fault slips at time zero, and we solve for the viscoelastic deformation field throughout the 3D volume using a 3D finite element method. We perform parametric studies on the constitutive equation by varying these parameters and the depth of the fault event. Our findings are focused on the fact that the system is very sensitive to the above mentioned parameters. In particular, the most important seems to be the temperature profiles and stress exponent. The activation energy and the pressure are of lower importance, however, they have their meaning. We investigated the relaxation times and the deformation patterns. We took the material properties as typical to dry quartzite and diabase. Depending on the parameters the surface can be deformed permanently or the deformation can decrease. We attempt to compare qualitatively the calculated post-seismic response in terms of the post-seismic displacement history of the earth's surface with InSAR patterns determined from recent major strike-slip earthquakes. Quantitative comparison of the observations with these numerical model results can in principle provide a better understanding of the physical properties of the sub-surface and further insight into the diagnostic properties of the earthquake cycles of major fault systems.

Viscoelastic shear zone model of a strike-slip earthquake cycle

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pollitz, F.F.

2001-01-01

I examine the behavior of a two-dimensional (2-D) strike-slip fault system embedded in a 1-D elastic layer (schizosphere) overlying a uniform viscoelastic half-space (plastosphere) and within the boundaries of a finite width shear zone. The viscoelastic coupling model of Savage and Prescott [1978] considers the viscoelastic response of this system, in the absence of the shear zone boundaries, to an earthquake occurring within the upper elastic layer, steady slip beneath a prescribed depth, and the superposition of the responses of multiple earthquakes with characteristic slip occurring at regular intervals. So formulated, the viscoelastic coupling model predicts that sufficiently long after initiation of the system, (1) average fault-parallel velocity at any point is the average slip rate of that side of the fault and (2) far-field velocities equal the same constant rate. Because of the sensitivity to the mechanical properties of the schizosphere-plastosphere system (i.e., elastic layer thickness, plastosphere viscosity), this model has been used to infer such properties from measurements of interseismic velocity. Such inferences exploit the predicted behavior at a known time within the earthquake cycle. By modifying the viscoelastic coupling model to satisfy the additional constraint that the absolute velocity at prescribed shear zone boundaries is constant, I find that even though the time-averaged behavior remains the same, the spatiotemporal pattern of surface deformation (particularly its temporal variation within an earthquake cycle) is markedly different from that predicted by the conventional viscoelastic coupling model. These differences are magnified as plastosphere viscosity is reduced or as the recurrence interval of periodic earthquakes is lengthened. Application to the interseismic velocity field along the Mojave section of the San Andreas fault suggests that the region behaves mechanically like a ???600-km-wide shear zone accommodating 50 mm/yr fault-parallel motion distributed between the San Andreas fault system and Eastern California Shear Zone. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.

Incipient Evolution of the Eastern California Shear Zone through a Transpressional Zone along the San Andreas Fault in the San Bernardino Mountains, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cochran, W. J.; Spotila, J. A.

2017-12-01

Measuring long-term accumulation of strike-slip displacements and transpressional uplift is difficult where strain is accommodated across wide shear zones, as opposed to a single major fault. The Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ) in southern California accommodates dextral shear across several strike-slip faults, and is potentially migrating and cutting through a formerly convergent zone of the San Bernardino Mountains (SBM). The advection of crust along the San Andreas fault to the SE has forced these two tectonic regimes into creating a nexus of interacting strike-slip faults north of San Gorgonio Pass. These elements make this region ideal for studying complex fault interactions, evolving fault geometries, and deformational overprinting within a wide shear zone. Using high-resolution topography and field mapping, this study aims to test whether diffuse, poorly formed strike-slip faults within the uplifted SBM block are nascent elements of the ECSZ. Topographic resolution of ≤ 1m was achieved using both lidar and UAV surveys along two Quaternary strike-slip faults, namely the Lake Peak fault and Lone Valley faults. Although the Lone Valley fault cuts across Quaternary alluvium, the geomorphic expression is obscured, and may be the result of slow slip rates. In contrast, the Lake Peak fault is located high elevations north of San Gorgonio Peak in the SBM, and displaces Quaternary glacial deposits. The deposition of large boulders along the escarpment also obscures the apparent magnitude of slip along the fault. Although determining fault offset is difficult, the Lake Peak fault does display evidence for minor right-lateral displacement, where the magnitude of slip would be consistent with individual faults within the ECSZ (i.e. ≤ 1 mm/yr). Compared to the preservation of displacement along strike-slip faults located within the Mojave Desert, the upland region of the SBM adds complexity for measuring fault offset. The distribution of strain across the entire SBM block, the slow rates of slip, and the geomorphic expression of these faults add difficulty for assessing fault-slip evolution. Although evidence for diffuse dextral faulting exists within the formerly uplifted SBM block, future work is needed along these faults to determine if the ECSZ is migrating west.

Optimum Sea Surface Displacement and Fault Slip Distribution of the 2017 Tehuantepec Earthquake (Mw 8.2) in Mexico Estimated From Tsunami Waveforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gusman, Aditya Riadi; Mulia, Iyan E.; Satake, Kenji

2018-01-01

The 2017 Tehuantepec earthquake (Mw 8.2) was the first great normal fault event ever instrumentally recorded to occur in the Middle America Trench. The earthquake generated a tsunami with an amplitude of 1.8 m (height = 3.5 m) in Puerto Chiapas, Mexico. Tsunami waveforms recorded at coastal tide gauges and offshore buoy stations were used to estimate the optimum sea surface displacement without assuming any fault. Our optimum sea surface displacement model indicated that the maximum uplift of 0.5 m is located near the trench and the maximum subsidence of 0.8 m on the coastal side near the epicenter. We then estimated the fault slip distribution that can best explain the optimum sea surface displacement assuming 10 different fault geometries. The best model suggests that a compact region of large slip (3-6 m) extends from a depth of 30 km to 90 km, centered at a depth of 60 km.

Crustal strain near the Big Bend of the San Andreas Fault: Analysis of the Los Padres-Tehachapi Trilateration Networks, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eberhart-Phillips, Donna; Lisowski, Michael; Zoback, Mark D.

1990-02-01

In the region of the Los Padres-Tehachapi geodetic network, the San Andreas fault (SAF) changes its orientation by over 30° from N40°W, close to that predicted by plate motion for a transform boundary, to N73°W. The strain orientation near the SAF is consistent with right-lateral shear along the fault, with maximum shear rate of 0.38±0.01 μrad/yr at N63°W. In contrast, away from the SAF the strain orientations on both sides of the fault are consistent with the plate motion direction, with maximum shear rate of 0.19±0.01 μrad/yr at N44°W. The strain rate does not drop off rapidly away from the fault, and thus the area is fit by either a broad shear zone below the SAF or a single fault with a relatively deep locking depth. The fit to the line length data is poor for locking depth d less than 25 km. For d of 25 km a buried slip rate of 30 ± 6 mm/yr is estimated. We also estimated buried slip for models that included the Garlock and Big Pine faults, in addition to the SAF. Slip rates on other faults are poorly constrained by the Los Padres-Tehachapi network. The best fitting Garlock fault model had computed left-lateral slip rate of 11±2 mm/yr below 10 km. Buried left-lateral slip of 15±6 mm/yr on the Big Pine fault, within the Western Transverse Ranges, provides significant reduction in line length residuals; however, deformation there may be more complicated than a single vertical fault. A subhorizontal detachment on the southern side of the SAF cannot be well constrained by these data. We investigated the location of the SAF and found that a vertical fault below the surface trace fits the data much better than either a dipping fault or a fault zone located south of the surface trace.

Smoothing of Fault Slip Surfaces by Scale Invariant Wear

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dascher-Cousineau, K.; Kirkpatrick, J. D.

2017-12-01

Fault slip surface roughness plays a determining role in the overall strength, friction, and dynamic behavior of fault systems. Previous wear models and field observations suggest that roughness decreases with increasing displacement. However, measurements have yet to isolate the effect of displacement from other possible controls, such as lithology or tectonic setting. In an effort to understand the effect of displacement, we present comprehensive qualitative and quantitative description of the evolution of fault slip surfaces in and around the San-Rafael Desert, S.E. Utah, United States. In the study area, faults accommodated regional extension at shallow (1 to 3 km) depth and are hosted in the massive, well-sorted, high-porosity Navajo and Entrada sandstones. Existing displacement profiles along with tight displacement controls readily measureable in the field, combined with uniform lithology and tectonic history, allowed us to isolate for the effect of displacement during the embryonic stages of faulting (0 to 60 m in displacement). Our field observations indicate a clear compositional and morphological progression from isolated joints or deformation bands towards smooth, continuous, and mirror-like fault slip surfaces with increasing displacement. We scanned pristine slip surfaces with a white light interferometer, a laser scanner, and a ground-based LiDAR. We produce and analyses more than 120 individual scans of fault slip surfaces. Results for the surfaces with the best displacement constraints indicate that roughness as defined by the power spectral density at any given length scale decreases with displacement according to a power law with an exponent of -1. Roughness measurements associated with only maximum constraints on displacements corroborate this result. Moreover, maximum roughness for any given fault is bounded by a primordial roughness corresponding to that of joint surfaces and deformation band edges. Building upon these results, we propose a multi-scale wear model to explain the evolution of faults with displacement. We suggest that together, asperity failure as a scale invariant process, and the stochastic strength of host rocks are consistent with qualitative and quantitative observational constraints made in this study.

New insights into the tectonic evolution of the Boconó Fault, Mérida Andes, Venezuela

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Backé, G.

2006-12-01

The Boconó fault is a major right-lateral strike-slip fault that cuts along strike the Mérida Andes in Venezuela. The uplift of this mountain range started in the Miocene as a consequence of the relative oblique convergence between two lithospheric units named the Maracaibo block to the northwest and the Guyana shield to the southeast. Deformation in the Mérida Andes is partitioned between a strike-slip component along the Boconó fault and shortening perpendicular to the belt. Distinctive features define the Boconó fault: it is shifted southward relative to the chain axis and it does not have a continuous and linear trace but is composed of several fault segments of different orientations striking N35°E to N65°E. Quaternary fault strike-slip motion has been evidenced by various independent studies. However, onset of the strike-slip motion, fault offset and geometry at depth remains a matter of debate. Our work, based on morphostructural analyses of satellite and digital elevation model imagery, provides new data on both the geometry and the tectonic evolution of this major structure. We argue that the Boconó fault affects only the upper crust and connects at depth to a décollement. Consequently, it can not be considered as a plate boundary. The Boconó fault does however form the boundary between two different tectonic areas in the central part of the Mérida Andes as revealed by the earthquake focal mechanisms. South of the Boconó fault, the focal mechanisms are mainly compressional and reverse oblique-slip in agreement with NW SE shortening in the foothills. North of the Boconó fault, extensional and strike-slip deformation dominates. Microtectonic measurements collected in the central part of the Boconó fault are characterized by polyphased tectonics. The dextral shearing along the fault is superimposed to reverse oblique-slip to reverse motion, showing that initiation of transcurrent movement is more likely to have occurred after a certain amount of shortening. The present day strain partitioning along the Mérida Andes seems to be younger than the rise of the chain and coeval with the initiation of right-lateral shearing along the Boconó fault, which would have then initiated in the Pliocene. The Mérida Andes can be therefore considered as a case study of the kinematic evolution of a major strike-slip fault.

Vitesses de glissement à long terme et dislocations cosismiques caractéristiques : clés du fonctionnement des failles actives et de l'aléa sismique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tapponnier, Paul; Ryerson, Frederick James; Van der Woerd, Jerome; Mériaux, Anne-Sophie; Lasserre, Cécile

2001-11-01

Over periods of thousands of years, active faults tend to slip at constant rates. Pioneer studies of large Asian faults show that cosmogenic radionuclides ( 10Be, 26Al) provide an unparalleled tool to date surface features, whose offsets yield the longest records of recent cumulative movement. The technique is thus uniquely suited to determine long-term (10-100 ka) slip rates. Such rates, combined with coseismic slip-amounts, can give access to recurrence times of earthquakes of similar sizes. Landform dating - morphochronology - is therefore essential to understand fault-behaviour, evaluate seismic hazard, and build physical earthquake models. It is irreplaceable because long-term slip-rates on interacting faults need not coincide with GPS-derived, interseismic rates, and can be difficult to obtain from paleo-seismological trenching.

What is the earthquake fracture energy?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Toro, G.; Nielsen, S. B.; Passelegue, F. X.; Spagnuolo, E.; Bistacchi, A.; Fondriest, M.; Murphy, S.; Aretusini, S.; Demurtas, M.

2016-12-01

The energy budget of an earthquake is one of the main open questions in earthquake physics. During seismic rupture propagation, the elastic strain energy stored in the rock volume that bounds the fault is converted into (1) gravitational work (relative movement of the wall rocks bounding the fault), (2) in- and off-fault damage of the fault zone rocks (due to rupture propagation and frictional sliding), (3) frictional heating and, of course, (4) seismic radiated energy. The difficulty in the budget determination arises from the measurement of some parameters (e.g., the temperature increase in the slipping zone which constraints the frictional heat), from the not well constrained size of the energy sinks (e.g., how large is the rock volume involved in off-fault damage?) and from the continuous exchange of energy from different sinks (for instance, fragmentation and grain size reduction may result from both the passage of the rupture front and frictional heating). Field geology studies, microstructural investigations, experiments and modelling may yield some hints. Here we discuss (1) the discrepancies arising from the comparison of the fracture energy measured in experiments reproducing seismic slip with the one estimated from seismic inversion for natural earthquakes and (2) the off-fault damage induced by the diffusion of frictional heat during simulated seismic slip in the laboratory. Our analysis suggests, for instance, that the so called earthquake fracture energy (1) is mainly frictional heat for small slips and (2), with increasing slip, is controlled by the geometrical complexity and other plastic processes occurring in the damage zone. As a consequence, because faults are rapidly and efficiently lubricated upon fast slip initiation, the dominant dissipation mechanism in large earthquakes may not be friction but be the off-fault damage due to fault segmentation and stress concentrations in a growing region around the fracture tip.

Distributing Earthquakes Among California's Faults: A Binary Integer Programming Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geist, E. L.; Parsons, T.

2016-12-01

Statement of the problem is simple: given regional seismicity specified by a Gutenber-Richter (G-R) relation, how are earthquakes distributed to match observed fault-slip rates? The objective is to determine the magnitude-frequency relation on individual faults. The California statewide G-R b-value and a-value are estimated from historical seismicity, with the a-value accounting for off-fault seismicity. UCERF3 consensus slip rates are used, based on geologic and geodetic data and include estimates of coupling coefficients. The binary integer programming (BIP) problem is set up such that each earthquake from a synthetic catalog spanning millennia can occur at any location along any fault. The decision vector, therefore, consists of binary variables, with values equal to one indicating the location of each earthquake that results in an optimal match of slip rates, in an L1-norm sense. Rupture area and slip associated with each earthquake are determined from a magnitude-area scaling relation. Uncertainty bounds on the UCERF3 slip rates provide explicit minimum and maximum constraints to the BIP model, with the former more important to feasibility of the problem. There is a maximum magnitude limit associated with each fault, based on fault length, providing an implicit constraint. Solution of integer programming problems with a large number of variables (>105 in this study) has been possible only since the late 1990s. In addition to the classic branch-and-bound technique used for these problems, several other algorithms have been recently developed, including pre-solving, sifting, cutting planes, heuristics, and parallelization. An optimal solution is obtained using a state-of-the-art BIP solver for M≥6 earthquakes and California's faults with slip-rates > 1 mm/yr. Preliminary results indicate a surprising diversity of on-fault magnitude-frequency relations throughout the state.

InSAR observations of low slip rates on the major faults of western Tibet.

PubMed

Wright, Tim J; Parsons, Barry; England, Philip C; Fielding, Eric J

2004-07-09

Two contrasting views of the active deformation of Asia dominate the debate about how continents deform: (i) The deformation is primarily localized on major faults separating crustal blocks or (ii) deformation is distributed throughout the continental lithosphere. In the first model, western Tibet is being extruded eastward between the major faults bounding the region. Surface displacement measurements across the western Tibetan plateau using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) indicate that slip rates on the Karakoram and Altyn Tagh faults are lower than would be expected for the extrusion model and suggest a significant amount of internal deformation in Tibet.

An empirically based steady state friction law and implications for fault stability

PubMed Central

Nielsen, S.; Violay, M.; Di Toro, G.

2016-01-01

Abstract Empirically based rate‐and‐state friction laws (RSFLs) have been proposed to model the dependence of friction forces with slip and time. The relevance of the RSFL for earthquake mechanics is that few constitutive parameters define critical conditions for fault stability (i.e., critical stiffness and frictional fault behavior). However, the RSFLs were determined from experiments conducted at subseismic slip rates (V < 1 cm/s), and their extrapolation to earthquake deformation conditions (V > 0.1 m/s) remains questionable on the basis of the experimental evidence of (1) large dynamic weakening and (2) activation of particular fault lubrication processes at seismic slip rates. Here we propose a modified RSFL (MFL) based on the review of a large published and unpublished data set of rock friction experiments performed with different testing machines. The MFL, valid at steady state conditions from subseismic to seismic slip rates (0.1 µm/s < V < 3 m/s), describes the initiation of a substantial velocity weakening in the 1–20 cm/s range resulting in a critical stiffness increase that creates a peak of potential instability in that velocity regime. The MFL leads to a new definition of fault frictional stability with implications for slip event styles and relevance for models of seismic rupture nucleation, propagation, and arrest. PMID:27667875

An experimental overview of the seismic cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spagnuolo, E.; Violay, M.; Passelegue, F. X.; Nielsen, S. B.; Di Toro, G.

2017-12-01

Earthquake nucleation is the last stage of the inter-seismic cycle where the fault surface evolves through the interplay of friction, healing, stress perturbations and strain events. Slip stability under rate-and state friction has been extensively discussed in terms of loading point velocity and equivalent fault stiffness, but fault evolution towards seismic runaway under complex loading histories (e.g. slow variations of tectonic stress, stress transfer from impulsive nearby seismic events) is not yet fully investigated. Nevertheless, the short term earthquake forecasting is based precisely on a relation between seismic productivity and loading history which remains up to date still largely unresolved. To this end we propose a novel experimental approach which avails of a closed loop control of the shear stress, a nominally infinite equivalent slip and transducers for continuous monitoring of acoustic emissions. This experimental simulation allows us to study the stress dependency and temporal evolution of spontaneous slip events occurring on a pre-existing fault subjected to different loading histories. The experimental fault has an initial roughness which mimic a population of randomly distributed asperities, which here are used as a proxy for patches which are either far or close to failure on an extended fault. Our observations suggest that the increase of shear stress may trigger either spontaneous slow slip (creep) or short-lived stick-slip bursts, eventually leading to a fast slip instability (seismic runaway) when slip rates are larger than a few cm/s. The event type and the slip rate are regulated at first order by the background shear stress whereas the ultimate strength of the entire fault is dominated by the number of asperities close to failure under a stress step. The extrapolation of these results to natural conditions might explain the plethora of events that often characterize seismic sequences. Nonetheless this experimental approach helps the definition of a scaling relation between the loading rate and cumulated slip which is relevant to the definition of a recurrence model for the seismic cycle.

Major and micro seismo-volcanic crises in the Asal Rift, Djibouti

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peltzer, G.; Doubre, C.; Tomic, J.

2009-05-01

The Asal-Ghoubbet Rift is located on the eastern branch of the Afar triple junction between the Arabia, Somalia, and Nubia tectonic plates. The last major seismo-volcanic crisis on this segment occurred in November 1978, involving two earthquakes of mb=5+, a basaltic fissure eruption, the development of many open fissures across the rift and up to 80 cm of vertical slip on the bordering faults. Geodetic leveling revealed ~2 m of horizontal opening of the rift accompanied by ~70 cm of subsidence of the inner-floor, consistent with models of the elastic deformation produced by the injection of magma in a system of two dykes. InSAR data acquired at 24-day intervals during the last 12 years by the Canadian Radarsat satellite over the Asal Rift show that the two main faults activated in 1978 continue to slip with periods of steady creep at rates of 0.3-1.3 mm/yr, interrupted by sudden slip events of a few millimeters, in 2000 and 2003. Slip events are coincident with bursts of micro earthquakes distributed around and over the Fieale volcanic center in the eastern part of the Asal Rift. In both cases (the 1978 crisis and micro-slip events), the observed geodetic moment released by fault slip exceeds by a few orders of magnitude the total seismic moment released by earthquakes over the same period. Aseismic fault slip is likely to be the faults response to a changing stress field associated with a volcanic process and not due to dry friction on faults. Sustained injection of magma (1978 crisis) and/or crustal fluids (micro-slip events) in dykes and fissures is a plausible mechanism to control fluid pressure in the basal parts of faults and trigger aseismic slip. In this respect, the micro-events observed by InSAR during a 12-year period of low activity in the rift and the 1978 seismo-volcanic episode are of same nature.

Slip Model of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal) Earthquake from Inversions of ALOS-2 and GPS Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, K.; Fialko, Y. A.

2015-12-01

We use surface deformation measurements including Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data acquired by the ALOS-2 mission of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Global Positioning System (GPS) data to invert for the fault geometry and coseismic slip distribution of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. Assuming that the ruptured fault connects to the surface trace of the of Main Frontal Thrust fault (MFT) between 84.34E and 86.19E, the best-fitting model suggests a dip angle of 7 degrees. The moment calculated from the slip model is 6.17*1020 Nm, corresponding to the moment magnitude of 7.79. The rupture of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake was dominated by thrust motion that was primarily concentrated in a 150-km long zone 50 to 100 km northward from the surface trace of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), with maximum slip of ~6 m at a depth of ~ 8 km. Data thus indicate that the 2015 Gorkha earthquake ruptured a deep part of the seismogenic zone, in contrast to the 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake, which had ruptured a shallow part of the adjacent fault segment to the East.

SDM - A geodetic inversion code incorporating with layered crust structure and curved fault geometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Rongjiang; Diao, Faqi; Hoechner, Andreas

2013-04-01

Currently, inversion of geodetic data for earthquake fault ruptures is most based on a uniform half-space earth model because of its closed-form Green's functions. However, the layered structure of the crust can significantly affect the inversion results. The other effect, which is often neglected, is related to the curved fault geometry. Especially, fault planes of most mega thrust earthquakes vary their dip angle with depth from a few to several tens of degrees. Also the strike directions of many large earthquakes are variable. For simplicity, such curved fault geometry is usually approximated to several connected rectangular segments, leading to an artificial loss of the slip resolution and data fit. In this presentation, we introduce a free FORTRAN code incorporating with the layered crust structure and curved fault geometry in a user-friendly way. The name SDM stands for Steepest Descent Method, an iterative algorithm used for the constrained least-squares optimization. The new code can be used for joint inversion of different datasets, which may include systematic offsets, as most geodetic data are obtained from relative measurements. These offsets are treated as unknowns to be determined simultaneously with the slip unknowns. In addition, a-priori and physical constraints are considered. The a-priori constraint includes the upper limit of the slip amplitude and the variation range of the slip direction (rake angle) defined by the user. The physical constraint is needed to obtain a smooth slip model, which is realized through a smoothing term to be minimized with the misfit to data. In difference to most previous inversion codes, the smoothing can be optionally applied to slip or stress-drop. The code works with an input file, a well-documented example of which is provided with the source code. Application examples are demonstrated.

Phanerozoic strike-slip faulting in the continental interior platform of the United States: Examples from the Laramide Orogen, midcontinent, and Ancestral Rocky Mountains

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marshak, S.; Nelson, W.J.; McBride, J.H.

2003-01-01

The continental interior platform of the United States is that part of the North American craton where a thin veneer of Phanerozoic strata covers Precambrian crystalline basement. N- to NE-trending and W- to NW-trending fault zones, formed initially by Proterozoic/Cambrian rifting, break the crust of the platform into rectilinear blocks. These zones were reactivated during the Phanerozoic, most notably in the late Palaeozoic Ancestral Rockies event and the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Laramide orogeny - some remain active today. Dip-slip reactivation can be readily recognized in cross section by offset stratigraphic horizons and monoclinal fault-propagation folds. Strike-slip displacement is hard to document because of poor exposure. Through offset palaeochannels, horizontal slip lineations, and strain at fault bends locally demonstrate strike-slip offset, most reports of strike-slip movements for interior-platform faults are based on occurrence of map-view belts of en echelon faults and anticlines. Each belt overlies a basement-penetrating master fault, which typically splays upwards into a flower structure. In general, both strike-slip and dip-slip components of displacement occur in the same fault zone, so some belts of en echelon structures occur on the flanks of monoclinal folds. Thus, strike-slip displacement represents the lateral components of oblique fault reactivation: dip-slip and strike-slip components are the same order of magnitude (tens of metres to tens of kilometres). Effectively, faults with strike-slip components of displacement act as transfers accommodating jostling of rectilinear crustal blocks. In this context, the sense of slip on an individual strike-slip fault depends on block geometry, not necessarily on the trajectory of regional ??1. Strike-slip faulting in the North American interior differs markedly from that of southern and central Eurasia, possibly because of a contrast in lithosphere strength. Weak Eurasia strained significantly during the Alpine-Himalayan collision, forcing crustal blocks to undergo significant lateral escape. The strong North American craton strained relatively little during collisional-convergent orogeny, so crustal blocks underwent relatively small displacements.

Repetition of large stress drop earthquakes on Wairarapa fault, New Zealand, revealed by LiDAR data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delor, E.; Manighetti, I.; Garambois, S.; Beaupretre, S.; Vitard, C.

2013-12-01

We have acquired high-resolution LiDAR topographic data over most of the onland trace of the 120 km-long Wairarapa strike-slip fault, New Zealand. The Wairarapa fault broke in a large earthquake in 1855, and this historical earthquake is suggested to have produced up to 18 m of lateral slip at the ground surface. This would make this earthquake a remarkable event having produced a stress drop much higher than commonly observed on other earthquakes worldwide. The LiDAR data allowed us examining the ground surface morphology along the fault at < 50 cm resolution, including in the many places covered with vegetation. In doing so, we identified more than 900 alluvial features of various natures and sizes that are clearly laterally offset by the fault. We measured the about 670 clearest lateral offsets, along with their uncertainties. Most offsets are lower than 100 m. Each measurement was weighted by a quality factor that quantifies the confidence level in the correlation of the paired markers. Since the slips are expected to vary along the fault, we analyzed the measurements in short, 3-5 km-long fault segments. The PDF statistical analysis of the cumulative offsets per segment reveals that the alluvial morphology has well recorded, at every step along the fault, no more than a few (3-6), well distinct cumulative slips, all lower than 80 m. Plotted along the entire fault, the statistically defined cumulative slip values document four, fairly continuous slip profiles that we attribute to the four most recent large earthquakes on the Wairarapa fault. The four slip profiles have a roughly triangular and asymmetric envelope shape that is similar to the coseismic slip distributions described for most large earthquakes worldwide. The four slip profiles have their maximum slip at the same place, in the northeastern third of the fault trace. The maximum slips vary from one event to another in the range 7-15 m; the most recent 1855 earthquake produced a maximum coseismic slip of 15 × 2 m at the ground surface. Our results thus confirm that the Wairarapa fault breaks in remarkably large stress drop earthquakes. Those repeating large earthquakes share both similar (rupture length, slip-length distribution, location of maximum slip) and distinct (maximum slip amplitudes) characteristics. Furthermore, the seismic behavior of the Wairarapa fault is markedly different from that of nearby large strike-slip faults (Wellington, Hope). The reasons for those differences in rupture behavior might reside in the intrinsic properties of the broken faults, especially in their structural maturity.

Stick-slip as a monitor of rates, states and frictional properties along thrusts in sand wedges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenau, Matthias; Santimano, Tasca; Ritter, Malte; Oncken, Onno

2014-05-01

We developed a sandbox setup which allows monitoring the push of the moving backwall indenting a layer of sand. Depending on the ratio between indenter compliancy versus strain weakening of the granular material, wedge deformation shows unstable slip marked by force drops of various sizes and at multiple temporal scales. Basically we observe long-period slip instabilities related to strain localization during the formation of new thrusts, intermediate-period slip instabilities related to reactivation of existing thrusts and short-period slip instabilities related to the stick-slip mechanism of slip accumulation along "seismic" faults. Observed stick-slip is characterized by highly correlated size and frequency ("regular stick-slip") and is sensitive to integrated normal load, slip rate and frictional properties along the active thrust(s). By independently constraining the frictional properties using a ring-shear tester, we infer the integrated normal loads on the active faults from the stick-slip events and benchmark the results against a model calculating the normal loads from the wedge geometry. This way we are able to monitor rates, states and frictional properties along thrusts in sand wedges at unprecedented detail. As an example of application, a kinematic analysis of the stick slip events in the sandbox demonstrates how slip rates along thrusts vary systematically within accretion cycles although the kinematic boundary condition is stationary. Accordingly transient fault slip rates may accelerate up to twice the long-term convergence rate during formation of new thrusts and decelerate in the post-thrust formation stage in a non-linear way. Applied to nature this suggests that fault slip rate variations at the thousand-year time scale might be attributable to the elasticity of plates and material weakening rather than changes in plate velocities.

Map and Database of Probable and Possible Quaternary Faults in Afghanistan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ruleman, C.A.; Crone, A.J.; Machette, M.N.; Haller, K.M.; Rukstales, K.S.

2007-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission in Afghanistan, has prepared a digital map showing the distribution of probable and suspected Quaternary faults in Afghanistan. This map is a key component of a broader effort to assess and map the country's seismic hazards. Our analyses of remote-sensing imagery reveal a complex array of tectonic features that we interpret to be probable and possible active faults within the country and in the surrounding border region. In our compilation, we have mapped previously recognized active faults in greater detail, and have categorized individual features based on their geomorphic expression. We assigned mapped features to eight newly defined domains, each of which contains features that appear to have similar styles of deformation. The styles of deformation associated with each domain provide insight into the kinematics of the modern tectonism, and define a tectonic framework that helps constrain deformational models of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt. The modern fault movements, deformation, and earthquakes in Afghanistan are driven by the collision between the northward-moving Indian subcontinent and Eurasia. The patterns of probable and possible Quaternary faults generally show that much of the modern tectonic activity is related to transfer of plate-boundary deformation across the country. The left-lateral, strike-slip Chaman fault in southeastern Afghanistan probably has the highest slip rate of any fault in the country; to the north, this slip is distributed onto several fault systems. At the southern margin of the Kabul block, the style of faulting changes from mainly strike-slip motion associated with the boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates, to transpressional and transtensional faulting. North and northeast of the Kabul block, we recognized a complex pattern of potentially active strike-slip, thrust, and normal faults that form a conjugate shear system in a transpressional region of the Trans-Himalayan orogenic belt. The general patterns and orientations of faults and the styles of deformation that we interpret from the imagery are consistent with the styles of faulting determined from focal mechanisms of historical earthquakes. Northwest-trending strike-slip fault zones are cut and displaced by younger, southeast-verging thrust faults; these relations define the interaction between northwest-southeast-oriented contraction and northwest-directed extrusion in the western Himalaya, Pamir, and Hindu Kush regions. Transpression extends into north-central Afghanistan where north-verging contraction along the east-west-trending Alburz-Marmul fault system interacts with northwest-trending strike-slip faults. Pressure ridges related to thrust faulting and extensional basins bounded by normal faults are located at major stepovers in these northwest-trending strike-slip systems. In contrast, young faulting in central and western Afghanistan indicates that the deformation is dominated by extension where strike-slip fault zones transition into regions of normal faults. In addition to these initial observations, our digital map and database provide a foundation that can be expanded, complemented, and modified as future investigations provide more detailed information about the location, characteristics, and history of movement on Quaternary faults in Afghanistan.

Multifaulting in a tectonic syntaxis revealed by InSAR: The case of the Ziarat earthquake sequence (Pakistan)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinel-Puysségur, B.; Grandin, R.; Bollinger, L.; Baudry, C.

2014-07-01

On 28-29 October 2008, within 12 h, two similar Mw = 6.4 strike-slip earthquakes struck Baluchistan (Pakistan), as part of a complex seismic sequence. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data reveal that the peak of surface displacement is near the Ziarat anticline, a large active fold affected by Quaternary strike-slip faulting. All coseismic interferograms integrate the deformation due to both earthquakes. As their causative faults ruptured close to each other, the individual signals cannot be separated. According to their focal mechanisms, each earthquake may have activated a NE-SW sinistral or a NW-SE dextral fault segment, which leads to four possible scenarios of fault orientations. A nonlinear inversion of the InSAR data set allows rejecting two scenarios. The best slip distributions on the two fault segments for the two remaining scenarios are determined by linear inversion. Stress-change modeling favors a scenario involving two abutting conjugate strike-slip faults. Two other fault segments accommodated left-lateral strike slip during the seismic sequence. The activated fault system includes multiple fault segments with different orientations and little surface expression. This may highlight, at a smaller scale, the distributed, possibly transient character of deformation within a broader right-lateral shear zone. It suggests that the activated faults delineate a small tectonic block extruding and subtly rotating within the shear zone. It occurs in the vicinity of the local tectonic syntaxis where orogenic structures sharply turn around a vertical axis. These mechanisms could participate in the long-term migration of active tectonic structures within this kinematically unstable tectonic syntaxis.

Constructing constitutive relationships for seismic and aseismic fault slip

USGS Publications Warehouse

Beeler, N.M.

2009-01-01

For the purpose of modeling natural fault slip, a useful result from an experimental fault mechanics study would be a physically-based constitutive relation that well characterizes all the relevant observations. This report describes an approach for constructing such equations. Where possible the construction intends to identify or, at least, attribute physical processes and contact scale physics to the observations such that the resulting relations can be extrapolated in conditions and scale between the laboratory and the Earth. The approach is developed as an alternative but is based on Ruina (1983) and is illustrated initially by constructing a couple of relations from that study. In addition, two example constitutive relationships are constructed; these describe laboratory observations not well-modeled by Ruina's equations: the unexpected shear-induced weakening of silica-rich rocks at high slip speed (Goldsby and Tullis, 2002) and fault strength in the brittle ductile transition zone (Shimamoto, 1986). The examples, provided as illustration, may also be useful for quantitative modeling.

Geometric and thermal controls on normal fault seismicity from rate-and-state friction models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mark, H. F.; Behn, M. D.; Olive, J. A. L.; Liu, Y.

2017-12-01

Seismic and geodetic observations from the last two decades have led to a growing realization that a significant amount of fault slip at plate boundaries occurs aseismically, and that the amount of aseismic displacement varies across settings. Here we investigate controls on the seismogenic behavior of crustal-scale normal faults that accommodate extensional strain at mid-ocean ridges and continental rifts. Seismic moment release rates measured along the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise suggest that the majority of fault growth occurs aseismically with almost no seismic slip. In contrast, at the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge seismic slip may represent up to 60% of the total fault displacement. Potential explanations for these variations include heterogeneous distributions of frictional properties on fault surfaces, effects of variable magma supply associated with seafloor spreading, and/or differences in fault geometry and thermal structure. In this study, we use rate-and-state friction models to study the seismic coupling coefficient (the fraction of total fault slip that occurs seismically) for normal faults at divergent plate boundaries, and investigate controls on fault behavior that might produce the variations in the coupling coefficient observed in natural systems. We find that the seismic coupling coefficient scales with W/h*, where W is the downdip width of the seismogenic area of the fault and h* is the critical earthquake nucleation size. At mid-ocean ridges, W is expected to increase with decreasing spreading rate. Thus, the observed relationship between seismic coupling and W/h* explains to first order variations in seismic coupling coefficient as a function of spreading rate. Finally, we use catalog data from the Gulf of Corinth to show that this scaling relationship can be extended into the thicker lithosphere of continental rift systems.

Holocene Geologic Slip Rate for the Banning Strand of the Southern San Andreas Fault near San Gorgonio Pass, Southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gold, P. O.; Behr, W. M.; Rood, D. H.; Kendrick, K. J.; Rockwell, T. K.; Sharp, W. D.

2014-12-01

We present the first Holocene geologic slip rate for the Banning strand of the southern San Andreas Fault in southern California. The southern San Andreas Fault splays into the sub-parallel Banning and Mission Creek strands in the northwestern Coachella Valley, and although it has long been surmised that the Banning strand eventually accommodates the majority of displacement and transfers it into San Gorgonio Pass, until now it has been uncertain how slip is actually partitioned between these two fault strands. Our new slip rate measurement, critically located at the northwestern end of the Banning strand, overlaps within errors with the published rate for the southern San Andreas Fault measured at Biskra Palms Oasis. This indicates that the majority of southern San Andreas Fault displacement transfers from the southeastern Mission Creek strand northwest to the Banning strand and into San Gorgonio Pass. Our result corroborates the UCERF3 hazard model, and is consistent with most previous interpretations of how slip is partitioned between the Banning and Mission Creek fault strands. To measure this slip rate, we used B4 airborne LiDAR to identify the apex of an alluvial fan offset laterally 30 ± 5 m from its source. We calculated the depositional age of the fan using 10Be in-situ cosmogenic exposure dating of 5 cobbles and a depth profile. We calculated a most probable fan age of 4.0 +2.0/-1.6 ka (1σ) by combining the inheritance-corrected cobble ages assuming Gaussian uncertainty. However, the probability density function yielded a multi-peaked distribution, which we attribute to variable 10Be inheritance in the cobbles, so we favor the depth profile age of 2.2-3.6 ka. Combined, these measurements yield a late Holocene slip rate for the Banning strand of the southern San Andreas Fault of 11.1 +3.1/-3.3 mm/yr. This slip rate does not preclude possibility that some slip transfers north along the Mission Creek strand and the Garnet Hill fault, but it does confirm that the Banning strand has been the most probable rupture path for earthquakes nucleated on the southern San Andreas Fault over the past few thousand years, and is likely to remain so in the near future. This clarification of slip partitioning within the northwest Coachella Valley is timely given that the southern San Andreas Fault is considered overdue for a large earthquake.

Evolution of the Median Tectonic Line fault zone, SW Japan, during exhumation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shigematsu, Norio; Kametaka, Masao; Inada, Noriyuki; Miyawaki, Masahiro; Miyakawa, Ayumu; Kameda, Jun; Togo, Tetsuhiro; Fujimoto, Koichiro

2017-01-01

Like many crustal-scale fault zones, the Median Tectonic Line (MTL) fault zone in Japan preserves fault rocks that formed across a broad range of physical conditions. We examined the architecture of the MTL at a large new outcrop in order to understand fault behaviours under different crustal levels. The MTL here strikes almost E-W, dips to the north, and juxtaposes the Sanbagawa metamorphic rocks to the south against the Izumi Group sediments to the north. The fault core consists mainly of Sanbagawa-derived fault gouges. The fault zone can be divided into several structural units, including two slip zones (upper and lower slip zones), where the lower slip zone is more conspicuous. Crosscutting relationships among structures and kinematics indicate that the fault zone records four stages of deformation. Microstructures and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses indicate that the four stages of deformation occurred under different temperature conditions. The oldest deformation (stage 1) was widely distributed, and had a top-to-the-east (dextral) sense of slip at deep levels of the seismogenic zone. Deformation with the same sense of slip, then became localised in the lower slip zone (stage 2). Subsequently, the slip direction in the lower slip zone changed to top-to-the-west (sinistral-normal) (stage 3). The final stage of deformation (stage 4) involved top-to-the-north normal faulting along the two slip zones within the shallow crust (near the surface). The widely distributed stage 1 damage zone characterises the deeper part of the seismogenic zone, while the sets of localised principal slip zones and branching faults of stage 4 characterise shallow depths. The fault zone architecture described in this paper leads us to suggest that fault zones display different behaviours at different crustal levels.

Misbheaving Faults: The Expanding Role of Geodetic Imaging in Unraveling Unexpected Fault Slip Behavior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnhart, W. D.; Briggs, R.

2015-12-01

Geodetic imaging techniques enable researchers to "see" details of fault rupture that cannot be captured by complementary tools such as seismology and field studies, thus providing increasingly detailed information about surface strain, slip kinematics, and how an earthquake may be transcribed into the geological record. For example, the recent Haiti, Sierra El Mayor, and Nepal earthquakes illustrate the fundamental role of geodetic observations in recording blind ruptures where purely geological and seismological studies provided incomplete views of rupture kinematics. Traditional earthquake hazard analyses typically rely on sparse paleoseismic observations and incomplete mapping, simple assumptions of slip kinematics from Andersonian faulting, and earthquake analogs to characterize the probabilities of forthcoming ruptures and the severity of ground accelerations. Spatially dense geodetic observations in turn help to identify where these prevailing assumptions regarding fault behavior break down and highlight new and unexpected kinematic slip behavior. Here, we focus on three key contributions of space geodetic observations to the analysis of co-seismic deformation: identifying near-surface co-seismic slip where no easily recognized fault rupture exists; discerning non-Andersonian faulting styles; and quantifying distributed, off-fault deformation. The 2013 Balochistan strike slip earthquake in Pakistan illuminates how space geodesy precisely images non-Andersonian behavior and off-fault deformation. Through analysis of high-resolution optical imagery and DEMs, evidence emerges that a single fault map slip as both a strike slip and dip slip fault across multiple seismic cycles. These observations likewise enable us to quantify on-fault deformation, which account for ~72% of the displacements in this earthquake. Nonetheless, the spatial distribution of on- and off-fault deformation in this event is highly spatially variable- a complicating factor for comparisons of geologic and geodetic slip rates. As such, detailed studies such as this will play a continuing vital role in the accurate assessment of short- and long-term fault slip kinematics.

InSAR and GPS derived coseismic deformation and fault model of the 2017 Ms7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake in the Northeast Bayanhar block

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Dezheng; Qu, Chunyan; Shan, Xinjian; Gong, Wenyu; Zhang, Yingfeng; Zhang, Guohong

2018-02-01

On 8 August 2017, a Ms7.0 earthquake stroke the city of Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan, China. The Jiuzhaigou earthquake occurred on a buried fault in the vicinity of three well-known active faults and this event offers a unique opportunity to study tectonic structures in the epicentral region and stress transferring. Here we present coseismic displacement field maps for this earthquake using descending and ascending Sentinel-1A Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data. Deformation covered an area of approximately 50 × 50 km, with a maximum line-of-sight (LOS) displacement of 22 cm in ascending and 14 cm in descending observations on the west side of the source fault. Based on InSAR and Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements, both separately and jointly, we constructed a one-segment model to invert the coseismic slip distribution and dip angle of this event. Our final fault slip model suggests that slip was concentrated at an upper depth of 15 km; there was a maximum slip of 1.3 m and the rupture was dominated by a left-lateral strike-slip motion. The inverted geodetic moment was approximately 6.75 × 1018 Nm, corresponding to a moment magnitude of Mw6.5, consistent with seismological results. The calculated static Coulomb stress changes indicate that most aftershocks occurred in stress increasing zones caused by the mainshock rupture; the Jiuzhaigou earthquake has brought the western part of the Tazang fault 0.1-0.4 MPa closer to failure, indicating an increasing seismic hazard in this region. The Coulomb stress changes caused by the 2008 Mw7.8 Wenchuan earthquake suggest that stress loading from this event acted as a trigger for the Jiuzhaigou earthquake.

Evolving geometrical heterogeneities of fault trace data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wechsler, Neta; Ben-Zion, Yehuda; Christofferson, Shari

2010-08-01

We perform a systematic comparative analysis of geometrical fault zone heterogeneities using derived measures from digitized fault maps that are not very sensitive to mapping resolution. We employ the digital GIS map of California faults (version 2.0) and analyse the surface traces of active strike-slip fault zones with evidence of Quaternary and historic movements. Each fault zone is broken into segments that are defined as a continuous length of fault bounded by changes of angle larger than 1°. Measurements of the orientations and lengths of fault zone segments are used to calculate the mean direction and misalignment of each fault zone from the local plate motion direction, and to define several quantities that represent the fault zone disorder. These include circular standard deviation and circular standard error of segments, orientation of long and short segments with respect to the mean direction, and normal separation distances of fault segments. We examine the correlations between various calculated parameters of fault zone disorder and the following three potential controlling variables: cumulative slip, slip rate and fault zone misalignment from the plate motion direction. The analysis indicates that the circular standard deviation and circular standard error of segments decrease overall with increasing cumulative slip and increasing slip rate of the fault zones. The results imply that the circular standard deviation and error, quantifying the range or dispersion in the data, provide effective measures of the fault zone disorder, and that the cumulative slip and slip rate (or more generally slip rate normalized by healing rate) represent the fault zone maturity. The fault zone misalignment from plate motion direction does not seem to play a major role in controlling the fault trace heterogeneities. The frequency-size statistics of fault segment lengths can be fitted well by an exponential function over the entire range of observations.

Fault Wear by Damage Evolution During Steady-State Slip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyakhovsky, Vladimir; Sagy, Amir; Boneh, Yuval; Reches, Ze'ev

2014-11-01

Slip along faults generates wear products such as gouge layers and cataclasite zones that range in thickness from sub-millimeter to tens of meters. The properties of these zones apparently control fault strength and slip stability. Here we present a new model of wear in a three-body configuration that utilizes the damage rheology approach and considers the process as a microfracturing or damage front propagating from the gouge zone into the solid rock. The derivations for steady-state conditions lead to a scaling relation for the damage front velocity considered as the wear-rate. The model predicts that the wear-rate is a function of the shear-stress and may vanish when the shear-stress drops below the microfracturing strength of the fault host rock. The simulated results successfully fit the measured friction and wear during shear experiments along faults made of carbonate and tonalite. The model is also valid for relatively large confining pressures, small damage-induced change of the bulk modulus and significant degradation of the shear modulus, which are assumed for seismogenic zones of earthquake faults. The presented formulation indicates that wear dynamics in brittle materials in general and in natural faults in particular can be understood by the concept of a "propagating damage front" and the evolution of a third-body layer.

Millennial strain partitioning revealed by 36Cl cosmogenic data on active bedrock fault scarps from Abruzzo, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregory, Laura; Roberts, Gerald; Cowie, Patience; Wedmore, Luke; McCaffrey, Ken; Shanks, Richard; Zijerveld, Leo; Phillips, Richard

2017-04-01

In zones of distributed continental faulting, it is critical to understand how slip is partitioned onto brittle structures over both long-term millennial time scales and shorter-term individual earthquake cycles. Measuring earthquake slip histories on different timescales is challenging due to earthquake repeat-times being longer or similar to historical earthquake records, and a paucity of data on fault activity covering millennial to Quaternary scales in detail. Cosmogenic isotope analyses from bedrock fault scarps have the potential to bridge the gap, as these datasets track the exposure of fault planes due to earthquakes with millennial resolution. In this presentation, we present new 36Cl data combined with historical earthquake records to document orogen-wide changes in the distribution of seismicity on millennial timescales in Abruzzo, central Italy. Seismic activity due to extensional faulting was concentrated on the northwest side of the mountain range during the historical period, or since approximately the 14th century. Seismicity is more limited on the southwest side of Abruzzo during historical times. This pattern has led some to suggest that faults on the southwest side of Abruzzo are not active, however clear fault scarps cutting Holocene-aged slopes are well preserved across the whole of the orogen. These scarps preserve an excellent record of Late Pleistocene to Holocene earthquake activity, which can be quantified using cosmogenic isotopes that track the exposure of the bedrock fault scarps. 36Cl accumulates in the fault scarps as the plane is progressively exhumed by earthquakes and the concentration of 36Cl measured up the fault plane reflects the rate and patterns of slip. We utilise Bayesian modelling techniques to estimate slip histories based on the cosmogenic data. Each sampling site is carefully characterised using LiDAR and GPR to ensure that fault plane exposure is due to slip during earthquakes and not sediment transport processes. In this presentation we will focus on new data from faults located across-strike in Abruzzo. Many faults in Abruzzo demonstrate slip rate variability on millennial timescales, with relatively fast slip interspersed between quiescent periods. We show that heightened activity is co-located and spatially migrates across Abruzzo over time. We highlight the importance of understanding this dynamic fault behaviour of migrating seismic activity, and in particular how our research is relevant to the 2016 Amatrice-Vettore seismic sequence in central Italy.

Slow slip and self-similar asymptotics of rate-strengthening faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viesca, R. C.; Dublanchet, P.

2016-12-01

We examine how slow slip progresses on rate-strengthening faults. We consider that the source of rate-strengthening may be a linear or non-linear (power-law) viscous fault rheology, a logarithmic rate-dependence, or a Dieterich-Ruina dependence on slip rate and its history. We show the existence of self-similar asymptotic solutions for slip rate of the form V = t^alpha f(x/t^beta). The exponent beta is determined by the nature of the elastic interaction (for slip between elastic half-spaces in contact, beta = 1; and for layer sliding above a substrate, beta = 1/2). The similarity exponent alpha is determined by the type of initial or boundary conditions. Such conditions may be, for example, an imposed (i) boundary slip rate or (ii) a sudden change in stress on the fault. We consider in-plane or anti-plane slip for examples (i) and (ii) and present the asymptotic solutions thereof, which may be found numerically or in closed form. The self-similar behavior of scenario (i) is, for a step increase in stress, that of an initially elevated slip rate decaying in time while spreading in space; and of scenario (ii) is that an elevated slip rate propagating along the fault. Under scenario (i) we show that the disparate fault rheologies share a common closed-form similarity solution for the decay of slip rate following the initial stress change. For comparison, we compute numerical solutions to the evolution equation for slip rate (and state, when applicable) and find precise agreement with the above analysis. We illustrate how the above solutions provide robust, low-parameter models to test whether there is a frictional basis for spatio-temporal observations indicating the accumulation of post-seismic slip or the occurrence of slow slip event. Such observations include those derived from (a) geodetic observations [e.g., Hsu et al., Science 2006], or migration of (b) low-frequency earthquakes and tremor [e.g., Obara and Hirose, Tectonophys. 2006], and of (c) micro-seismicity [e.g., Bourouis and Bernard, Geophys. J. Int., 2007].

Inversion analysis of slip distribution of the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku earthquake: Very high stress-drop or a conjugate fault slip?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukahata, Y.; Fukushima, Y.

2009-05-01

On 14 June 2008, the Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku earthquake struck northeast Japan, where active seismicity has been observed under east-west compressional stress fields. The magnitude and hypocenter depth of the earthquake are reported as Mj 7.2 and 8 km, respectively. The earthquake is considered to have occurred on a west-dipping reverse fault with a roughly north-south strike. The earthquake caused significant surface displacements, which were detected by PALSAR, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) onboard the Japanese ALOS satellite. Several pairs of PALSAR images from six different paths are available to measure the coseismic displacements. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) is useful to obtain crustal displacements in the region where coseismic displacement is not so large (less than 1 m), whereas range and azimuth offsets provide displacement measurements up to a few meters on the whole processed area. We inverted the obtained displacement data to estimate slip distribution on the fault. Since the precise location and direction of the fault are not well known, the inverse problem is nonlinear. Following the method of Fukahata and Wright (2008), we resolved the weak non-linearity based on Akaike's Bayesian Information Criterion. We first estimated slip distribution by assuming a pure dip slip. The optimal fault geometry was estimated at dip 26 and strike 203 degrees. The maximum slip is more than 8 m and most slips concentrate at shallow depths (less than 4 km). The azimuth offset data suggest non-negligible right lateral slip components, so we next estimated slip distribution without fixing the rake angle. Again, a large slip area with the maximum slip of about 8 m in the shallow depth was obtained. Such slip models contradict with our existing common sense; our results indicate that the released strain is more than 10 to the power of -3. Range and azimuth offsets computed from SAR images obtained from both ascending and descending orbits appear to be more consistent with a conjugate fault slip, which contributes to lower the stress drop possibly to a level typical to this kind of earthquakes.

Investigating Strain Transfer Along the Southern San Andreas Fault: A Geomorphic and Geodetic Study of Block Rotation in the Eastern Transverse Ranges, Joshua Tree National Park, CA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guns, K. A.; Bennett, R. A.; Blisniuk, K.

2017-12-01

To better evaluate the distribution and transfer of strain and slip along the Southern San Andreas Fault (SSAF) zone in the northern Coachella valley in southern California, we integrate geological and geodetic observations to test whether strain is being transferred away from the SSAF system towards the Eastern California Shear Zone through microblock rotation of the Eastern Transverse Ranges (ETR). The faults of the ETR consist of five east-west trending left lateral strike slip faults that have measured cumulative offsets of up to 20 km and as low as 1 km. Present kinematic and block models present a variety of slip rate estimates, from as low as zero to as high as 7 mm/yr, suggesting a gap in our understanding of what role these faults play in the larger system. To determine whether present-day block rotation along these faults is contributing to strain transfer in the region, we are applying 10Be surface exposure dating methods to observed offset channel and alluvial fan deposits in order to estimate fault slip rates along two faults in the ETR. We present observations of offset geomorphic landforms using field mapping and LiDAR data at three sites along the Blue Cut Fault and one site along the Smoke Tree Wash Fault in Joshua Tree National Park which indicate recent Quaternary fault activity. Initial results of site mapping and clast count analyses reveal at least three stages of offset, including potential Holocene offsets, for one site along the Blue Cut Fault, while preliminary 10Be geochronology is in progress. This geologic slip rate data, combined with our new geodetic surface velocity field derived from updated campaign-based GPS measurements within Joshua Tree National Park will allow us to construct a suite of elastic fault block models to elucidate rates of strain transfer away from the SSAF and how that strain transfer may be affecting the length of the interseismic period along the SSAF.

The Capacity for Compaction Weakening in Fault Gouge in Nature and Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faulkner, D.; Boulton, C. J.; Sanchez Roa, C.; Den Hartog, S. A. M.; Bedford, J. D.

2017-12-01

As faults form in low permeability rocks, the compaction of fault gouge can lead to significant pore-fluid pressure increases. The pore pressure increase results from the collapse of the porosity through shear-enhanced compaction and the low hydraulic diffusivity of the gouge that inhibits fluid flow. In experiments, the frictional properties of clay-bearing fault gouges are significantly affected by the development of locally high pore-fluid pressures when compaction rates are high due to fast displacement rates or slip in underconsolidated materials. We show how the coefficient of friction of fault gouges sheared at different slip velocities can be explained with a numerical model that is constrained by laboratory measurements of contemporaneous changes in permeability and porosity. In nature, for compaction weakening to play an important role in earthquake nucleation (and rupture propagation), a mechanism is required to reset the porosity, i.e., maintain underconsolidated gouge along the fault plane. We use the observations of structures within the principal slip zone of the Alpine Fault in New Zealand to suggest that cyclic fluidization of the gouge occurs during coseismic slip, thereby resetting the gouge porosity prior to the next seismic event. Results from confined laboratory rotary shear measurements at elevated slip rates appear to support the hypothesis that fluidization leads to underconsolidation and, thus, to potential weakening by shear-enhanced compaction-induced pore-fluid pressurization.

Ductile creep and compaction: A mechanism for transiently increasing fluid pressure in mostly sealed fault zones

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sleep, Norman H.; Blanpied, M.L.

1994-01-01

A simple cyclic process is proposed to explain why major strike-slip fault zones, including the San Andreas, are weak. Field and laboratory studies suggest that the fluid within fault zones is often mostly sealed from that in the surrounding country rock. Ductile creep driven by the difference between fluid pressure and lithostatic pressure within a fault zone leads to compaction that increases fluid pressure. The increased fluid pressure allows frictional failure in earthquakes at shear tractions far below those required when fluid pressure is hydrostatic. The frictional slip associated with earthquakes creates porosity in the fault zone. The cycle adjusts so that no net porosity is created (if the fault zone remains constant width). The fluid pressure within the fault zone reaches long-term dynamic equilibrium with the (hydrostatic) pressure in the country rock. One-dimensional models of this process lead to repeatable and predictable earthquake cycles. However, even modest complexity, such as two parallel fault splays with different pressure histories, will lead to complicated earthquake cycles. Two-dimensional calculations allowed computation of stress and fluid pressure as a function of depth but had complicated behavior with the unacceptable feature that numerical nodes failed one at a time rather than in large earthquakes. A possible way to remove this unphysical feature from the models would be to include a failure law in which the coefficient of friction increases at first with frictional slip, stabilizing the fault, and then decreases with further slip, destabilizing it. ?? 1994 Birkha??user Verlag.

Slip behaviour of carbonate-bearing faults subjected to fluid pressure stimulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Collettini, Cristiano; Scuderi, Marco; Marone, Chris

2017-04-01

Earthquakes caused by fluid injection within reservoir have become an important topic of political and social discussion as new drilling and improved technologies enable the extraction of oil and gas from previously unproductive formations. During reservoir stimulation, the coupled interactions of frictional and fluid flow properties together with the stress state control both the onset of fault slip and fault slip behaviour. However, currently, there are no studies under controlled, laboratory conditions for which the effect of fluid pressure on fault slip behaviour can be deduced. To cover this gap, we have developed laboratory experiments where we monitor fault slip evolution at constant shear stress but with increasing fluid pressure, i.e. reducing the effective normal stress. Experiments have been conducted in the double direct shear configuration within a pressure vessel on carbonate fault gouge, characterized by a slightly velocity strengthening friction that is indicative of stable aseismic creep. In our experiments fault slip history can be divided in three main stages: 1) for high effective normal stress the fault is locked and undergoes compaction; 2) when the shear and effective normal stress reach the failure condition, accelerated creep is associated to fault dilation; 3) further pressurization leads to an exponential acceleration during fault compaction and slip localization. Our results indicate that fault weakening induced by fluid pressurization overcomes the velocity strengthening behaviour of calcite gouge, resulting in fast acceleration and earthquake slip. As applied to tectonic faults our results suggest that a larger number of crustal faults, including those slightly velocity strengthening, can experience earthquake slip due to fluid pressurization.

The geometry of slip surfaces in the hanging-wall of the Sierra Madre fault, La-Canada, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dor, O.; Sammis, C. G.; Ben-Zion, Y.

2009-12-01

Fault-slip data from the granitic hanging-wall of the Sierra Madre fault near La-Canada, California, show a steeply dipping conjugate set of cm- to decimeter scale slip surfaces (115 data samples) with moderate to strong inclinations of slip vectors. These off-fault damage elements may be associated with Mohr-Coulomb slip in the stress field of a propagating earthquake rupture. At the microscale, we identified two dominant fracture orientations. The first appears both near and far from the fault and is compatible with Andersonian failure on the main fault. The second appears only within meters from the fault and may be associated with the formation of the slip surfaces. Characterization of damage fabric in the microscale suggests that in-situ failure of grains under tension with minimal strain immediately above the fault plane may be associated with an opening mode of rupture. We conclude that the architecture of the slip surfaces was developed during slip events over a finite displacement history with fairly stable faulting conditions, and that with continuing displacement, as the rock mass approached the surface, a dynamic opening mode could have led to the shattering of grains in the immediate vicinity of the slip zone.

Surface rupture and revised slip distribution on the Denali and Totschunda faults from the M 7.9 Denali fault earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haeussler, P. J.

2003-12-01

We revised the preliminary slip distribution (Science, 2003, v. 300, p. 1037ff) along the Denali and Totschunda faults after additional fieldwork this summer. Features of the surface trace had degraded in places due to melting of snow, permafrost, and soil. However, without snow cover, offset of fine-scale features was much clearer at many new localities. We were also able to add additional measurements on glaciers, where offset snow-filled crevasses could be observed. As a result, the revised slip distribution provides considerably more detail and a higher level of confidence than that inferred solely from measurements collected immediately after the earthquake. The primary features of the revised slip distribution are: 1) a broad plateau of roughly 5-m offsets extending from 70 to 170 km east of the epicenter along the central part of the Denali fault, 2) high-slip values of 6.5-8+ m between 170 and 212 km east of the epicenter, 3) the step up from the 5 m plateau to the higher is sharp, occurring over a lateral distance of one kilometer, 4) there are three new, and anomalously high, measurements of 7.2-8.2 m along a 7-km length of the fault within the plateau of 5-m slip values, 5) there was a maximum 3-m offset on the Totschunda fault, which is 0.9-m higher than previously measured; 6) A previously inferred region of high slip in the vicinity of the Trans Alaska Pipeline is less obvious or absent. However, slip in that area is higher than the region to the west of the Delta River, 7) In contrast to geodetic and seismologic slip models that infer low slip and moment release in a zone 100-160 km east of the epicenter, we find continuous surface offsets of about 5 m; 8) A drop to zero slip, previously inferred at the Totschunda-Denali junction appears to be a result of slip values obtained from transfer structures. The smallest robust measurements of lateral slip in the transition zone were about a meter. Denali Fault Earthquake Geology Working Group : T. Dawson, P. Haeussler, J. Lienkaemper, A. Matmon, D. Schwartz, H.Stenner, B. Sherrod (USGS), F. Cinti, P. Montone (INGV, Rome)

Seismogenic Potential of a Gouge-filled Fault and the Criterion for Its Slip Stability: Constraints From a Microphysical Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Jianye; Niemeijer, A. R.

2017-12-01

Physical constraints for the parameters of the rate-and-state friction (RSF) laws have been mostly lacking. We presented such constraints based on a microphysical model and demonstrated the general applicability to granular fault gouges deforming under hydrothermal conditions in a companion paper. In this paper, we examine the transition velocities for contrasting frictional behavior (i.e., strengthening to weakening and vice versa) and the slip stability of the model. The model predicts a steady state friction coefficient that increases with slip rate at very low and high slip rates and decreases in between. This allows the transition velocities to be theoretically obtained and the unstable slip regime (Vs→w < V < Vw→s) to be defined. In a spring-slider configuration, linear perturbation analysis provides analytical expressions of the critical stiffness (Kc) below which unstable slip occurs and of the critical recurrence wavelength (Wc) and static stress drop (Δμs) associated with self-sustained oscillations or stick slips. Numerical implementation of the model predicts frictional behavior that exhibits consecutive transitions from stable sliding, via periodic oscillations, to unstable stick slips with decreasing elastic stiffness or loading rate, and gives Kc, Wc, Δμs, Vs→w, and Vw→s values that are consistent with the analytical predictions. General scaling relations of these parameters given by the model are consistent with previous interpretations in the context of RSF laws and agree well with previous experiments, testifying to high validity. From these physics-based expressions that allow a more reliable extrapolation to natural conditions, we discuss the seismological implications for natural faults and present topics for future work.

The 2014, MW6.9 North Aegean earthquake: seismic and geodetic evidence for coseismic slip on persistent asperities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konca, Ali Ozgun; Cetin, Seda; Karabulut, Hayrullah; Reilinger, Robert; Dogan, Ugur; Ergintav, Semih; Cakir, Ziyadin; Tari, Ergin

2018-05-01

We report that asperities with the highest coseismic slip in the 2014 MW6.9 North Aegean earthquake persisted through the interseismic, coseismic and immediate post-seismic periods. We use GPS and seismic data to obtain the source model of the 2014 earthquake, which is located on the western extension of the North Anatolian Fault (NAF). The earthquake ruptured a bilateral, 90 km strike-slip fault with three slip patches: one asperity located west of the hypocentre and two to the east with a rupture duration of 40 s. Relocated pre-earthquake seismicity and aftershocks show that zones with significant coseismic slip were relatively quiet during both the 7 yr of interseismic and the 3-month aftershock periods, while the surrounding regions generated significant seismicity during both the interseismic and post-seismic periods. We interpret the unusually long fault length and source duration, and distribution of pre- and post-main-shock seismicity as evidence for a rupture of asperities that persisted through strain accumulation and coseismic strain release in a partially coupled fault zone. We further suggest that the association of seismicity with fault creep may characterize the adjacent Izmit, Marmara Sea and Saros segments of the NAF. Similar behaviour has been reported for sections of the San Andreas Fault, and some large subduction zones, suggesting that the association of seismicity with creeping fault segments and rapid relocking of asperities may characterize many large earthquake faults.

Simulation of Co-Seismic Off-Fault Stress Effects: Influence of Fault Roughness and Pore Pressure Coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fälth, B.; Lund, B.; Hökmark, H.

2017-12-01

Aiming at improved safety assessment of geological nuclear waste repositories, we use dynamic 3D earthquake simulations to estimate the potential for co-seismic off-fault distributed fracture slip. Our model comprises a 12.5 x 8.5 km strike-slip fault embedded in a full space continuum where we apply a homogeneous initial stress field. In the reference case (Case 1) the fault is planar and oriented optimally for slip, given the assumed stress field. To examine the potential impact of fault roughness, we also study cases where the fault surface has undulations with self-similar fractal properties. In both the planar and the undulated cases the fault has homogeneous frictional properties. In a set of ten rough fault models (Case 2), the fault friction is equal to that of Case 1, meaning that these models generate lower seismic moments than Case 1. In another set of ten rough fault models (Case 3), the fault dynamic friction is adjusted such that seismic moments on par with that of Case 1 are generated. For the propagation of the earthquake rupture we adopt the linear slip-weakening law and obtain Mw 6.4 in Case 1 and Case 3, and Mw 6.3 in Case 2 (35 % lower moment than Case 1). During rupture we monitor the off-fault stress evolution along the fault plane at 250 m distance and calculate the corresponding evolution of the Coulomb Failure Stress (CFS) on optimally oriented hypothetical fracture planes. For the stress-pore pressure coupling, we assume Skempton's coefficient B = 0.5 as a base case value, but also examine the sensitivity to variations of B. We observe the following: (I) The CFS values, and thus the potential for fracture slip, tend to increase with the distance from the hypocenter. This is in accordance with results by other authors. (II) The highest CFS values are generated by quasi-static stress concentrations around fault edges and around large scale fault bends, where we obtain values of the order of 10 MPa. (III) Locally, fault roughness may have a significant impact. The ratios (max CFS in Case 2) / (max CFS in Case 1) = 1.1 and (max CFS in Case 3) / (max CFS in Case 1) = 1.2 indicate a minor impact. However, at specific locations, CFS in Case 2 and Case 3 may be more than 5 times higher than in Case 1. (IV) The sensitivity to variations of B is modest; (max CFS in Case 1 with B = 0) / (max CFS in Case 1 with B = 1) = 1.15.

Modeling the evolution of the lower crust with laboratory derived rheological laws under an intraplate strike slip fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, X.; Sagiya, T.

2015-12-01

The earth's crust can be divided into the brittle upper crust and the ductile lower crust based on the deformation mechanism. Observations shows heterogeneities in the lower crust are associated with fault zones. One of the candidate mechanisms of strain concentration is shear heating in the lower crust, which is considered by theoretical studies for interplate faults [e.g. Thatcher & England 1998, Takeuchi & Fialko 2012]. On the other hand, almost no studies has been done for intraplate faults, which are generally much immature than interplate faults and characterized by their finite lengths and slow displacement rates. To understand the structural characteristics in the lower crust and its temporal evolution in a geological time scale, we conduct a 2-D numerical experiment on the intraplate strike slip fault. The lower crust is modeled as a 20km thick viscous layer overlain by rigid upper crust that has a steady relative motion across a vertical strike slip fault. Strain rate in the lower crust is assumed to be a sum of dislocation creep and diffusion creep components, each of which flows the experimental flow laws. The geothermal gradient is assumed to be 25K/km. We have tested different total velocity on the model. For intraplate fault, the total velocity is less than 1mm/yr, and for comparison, we use 30mm/yr for interplate faults. Results show that at a low slip rate condition, dislocation creep dominates in the shear zone near the intraplate fault's deeper extension while diffusion creep dominates outside the shear zone. This result is different from the case of interplate faults, where dislocation creep dominates the whole region. Because of the power law effect of dislocation creep, the effective viscosity in the shear zone under intraplate faults is much higher than that under the interplate fault, therefore, shear zone under intraplate faults will have a much higher viscosity and lower shear stress than the intraplate fault. Viscosity contract between inside and outside of the shear zone is smaller under an intraplate situation than in the interplate one, and smaller viscosity difference will result in a wider shear zone.

GPS Imaging of Time-Variable Earthquake Hazard: The Hilton Creek Fault, Long Valley California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammond, W. C.; Blewitt, G.

2016-12-01

The Hilton Creek Fault, in Long Valley, California is a down-to-the-east normal fault that bounds the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada/Great Valley microplate, and lies half inside and half outside the magmatically active caldera. Despite the dense coverage with GPS networks, the rapid and time-variable surface deformation attributable to sporadic magmatic inflation beneath the resurgent dome makes it difficult to use traditional geodetic methods to estimate the slip rate of the fault. While geologic studies identify cumulative offset, constrain timing of past earthquakes, and constrain a Quaternary slip rate to within 1-5 mm/yr, it is not currently possible to use geologic data to evaluate how the potential for slip correlates with transient caldera inflation. To estimate time-variable seismic hazard of the fault we estimate its instantaneous slip rate from GPS data using a new set of algorithms for robust estimation of velocity and strain rate fields and fault slip rates. From the GPS time series, we use the robust MIDAS algorithm to obtain time series of velocity that are highly insensitive to the effects of seasonality, outliers and steps in the data. We then use robust imaging of the velocity field to estimate a gridded time variable velocity field. Then we estimate fault slip rate at each time using a new technique that forms ad-hoc block representations that honor fault geometries, network complexity, connectivity, but does not require labor-intensive drawing of block boundaries. The results are compared to other slip rate estimates that have implications for hazard over different time scales. Time invariant long term seismic hazard is proportional to the long term slip rate accessible from geologic data. Contemporary time-invariant hazard, however, may differ from the long term rate, and is estimated from the geodetic velocity field that has been corrected for the effects of magmatic inflation in the caldera using a published model of a dipping ellipsoidal magma chamber. Contemporary time-variable hazard can be estimated from the time variable slip rate estimated from the evolving GPS velocity field.

Triggered surface slips in the Coachella Valley area associated with the 1992 Joshua Tree and Landers, California, Earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rymer, M.J.

2000-01-01

The Coachella Valley area was strongly shaken by the 1992 Joshua Tree (23 April) and Landers (28 June) earthquakes, and both events caused triggered slip on active faults within the area. Triggered slip associated with the Joshua Tree earthquake was on a newly recognized fault, the East Wide Canyon fault, near the southwestern edge of the Little San Bernardino Mountains. Slip associated with the Landers earthquake formed along the San Andreas fault in the southeastern Coachella Valley. Surface fractures formed along the East Wide Canyon fault in association with the Joshua Tree earthquake. The fractures extended discontinuously over a 1.5-km stretch of the fault, near its southern end. Sense of slip was consistently right-oblique, west side down, similar to the long-term style of faulting. Measured offset values were small, with right-lateral and vertical components of slip ranging from 1 to 6 mm and 1 to 4 mm, respectively. This is the first documented historic slip on the East Wide Canyon fault, which was first mapped only months before the Joshua Tree earthquake. Surface slip associated with the Joshua Tree earthquake most likely developed as triggered slip given its 5 km distance from the Joshua Tree epicenter and aftershocks. As revealed in a trench investigation, slip formed in an area with only a thin (<3 m thick) veneer of alluvium in contrast to earlier documented triggered slip events in this region, all in the deep basins of the Salton Trough. A paleoseismic trench study in an area of 1992 surface slip revealed evidence of two and possibly three surface faulting events on the East Wide Canyon fault during the late Quaternary, probably latest Pleistocene (first event) and mid- to late Holocene (second two events). About two months after the Joshua Tree earthquake, the Landers earthquake then triggered slip on many faults, including the San Andreas fault in the southeastern Coachella Valley. Surface fractures associated with this event formed discontinuous breaks over a 54-km-long stretch of the fault, from the Indio Hills southeastward to Durmid Hill. Sense of slip was right-lateral; only locally was there a minor (~1 mm) vertical component of slip. Measured dextral displacement values ranged from 1 to 20 mm, with the largest amounts found in the Mecca Hills where large slip values have been measured following past triggered-slip events.

Earthquake cycle deformation in Mexico and Central America constrained by GPS: Implications for coseismic, postseismic, and slow slip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graham, Shannon E.

Using surface deformation measured by GPS stations within Mexico and Central America, I model coseismic slip, Coulomb stress changes, postseismic afterslip, and slow slip events in order to increase our knowledge of the earthquake deformation cycle in seismically hazardous regions. In Chapter 1, I use GPS data to estimate coseismic slip due to the May 28, 2009 Swan Islands fault earthquake off the coast of Honduras and then use the slip distribution to calculate Coulomb stress changes for the earthquake. Coulomb stress change calculations resolve stress transfer to the seismically hazardous Motagua fault and further show an unclamping of normal faults in northern Honduras. In Chapter 2, the focus shifts to southern Mexico, where continuous GPS measurements since the mid-1990s are revolutionizing our understanding of the flatly subducting Cocos plate. I perform a time-dependent inversion of continuous GPS observations of the 2011-2012 slow slip event (SSE) to estimate the location and magnitude of slow slip preceding the March 20, 2012 Ometepec earthquake. Coulomb stress changes as a result of slip during the SSE are consistent with the hypothesis that the SSE triggered the Ometepec earthquake. Chapter 3 describes inversions for slip both during and after the Ometepec earthquake. Time-dependent modeling of the first six months of postseismic deformation reveals that fault afterslip extended ˜250 km inland to depths of ˜50 km along the Cocos plate subduction. The postseismic afterslip and previous SSEs in southern Mexico occur at similar depths down-dip from the seismogenic zone, indicating that transitional areas of the subduction interface underlie much of southern Mexico. Finally, I perform the first time-dependent modeling of SSEs below Mexico and the first to exploit all available continuous GPS stations in southern and central Mexico. The results provide a more complete and consistent catalog of modeled SSE for the Mexico subduction zone (MSZ) than is currently available and add to our understanding of how SSEs on the subduction interface evolve in time, migrate in space, and possibly interact. I find that slow slip along the MSZ migrates across the gap between the Guerrero and Oaxaca regions, contrary to previous results.

Tectonic reversal of the western Doruneh Fault System: Implications for Central Asian tectonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Javadi, Hamid Reza; Esterabi Ashtiani, Marzieh; Guest, Bernard; Yassaghi, Ali; Ghassemi, Mohammad Reza; Shahpasandzadeh, Majid; Naeimi, Amir

2015-10-01

The left-lateral Doruneh Fault System (DFS) bounds the north margin of the Central Iranian microplate and has played an important role in the structural evolution of the Turkish-Iranian plateau. The western termination of the DFS is a sinistral synthetic branch fault array that shows clear kinematic evidence of having undergone recent slip sense inversion from a dextral array to a sinistral array in the latest Neogene or earliest Quaternary. Similarly, kinematic evidence from the Anarak Metamorphic complex suggests that this complex initially developed at a transpressive left-stepping termination of the DFS and that it was inverted in the latest Neogene to a transtensional fault termination. The recognition that the DFS and other faults in NE Iran were inverted from dextral to sinistral strike slip in the latest Neogene and the likely connection between the DFS and the Herat Fault of Afghanistan suggests that prior to the latest Miocene, all of the north Iranian and northern Afghan ranges were part of a distributed dextral fault network that extended from the west Himalayan syntaxes to the western Alborz. Also, the recognition that regional slip sense inversion occurred across northern and northeastern Iran after the latest Miocene invalidates tectonic models that extrapolate Pleistocene to recent fault slip kinematics and rates back beyond this time.

Up-dip partitioning of displacement components on the oblique-slip Clarence Fault, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicol, Andrew; Van Dissen, Russell

2002-09-01

Active strike-slip faults in New Zealand occur within an obliquely-convergent plate boundary zone. Although the traces of these faults commonly delineate the base of mountain ranges, they do not always accommodate significant shortening at the free surface. Along the active trace of Clarence Fault in northeastern South Island, New Zealand, displaced landforms and slickenside striations indicate predominantly horizontal displacements at the ground surface, and a right-lateral slip rate of ca. 3.5-5 mm/year during the Holocene. The Inland Kaikoura mountain range occupies the hanging wall of the fault and rises steeply from the active trace to altitudes of ca. 3 km. The geomorphology of the range indicates active uplift and mountain building, which is interpreted to result, in part, from a vertical component of fault slip at depth. These data are consistent with the fault accommodating oblique-slip at depth aligned parallel to the plate-motion vector and compatible with regional geodetic data and earthquake focal-mechanisms. Oblique-slip on the Clarence Fault at depth is partitioned at the free surface into: (1) right-lateral displacement on the fault, and (2) hanging wall uplift produced by distributed displacement on small-scale faults parallel to the main fault. Decoupling of slip components reflects an up-dip transfer of fault throw to an off-fault zone of distributed uplift. Such zones are common in the hanging walls of thrusts and reverse faults, and support the idea that the dip of the oblique-slip Clarence Fault steepens towards the free surface.

The Origin of High-angle Dip-slip Earthquakes at Geothermal Fields in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbour, A. J.; Schoenball, M.; Martínez-Garzón, P.; Kwiatek, G.

2016-12-01

We examine the source mechanisms of earthquakes occurring in three California geothermal fields: The Geysers, Salton Sea, and Coso. We find source mechanisms ranging from strike slip faulting, consistent with the tectonic settings, to dip slip with unusually steep dip angles which are inconsistent with local structures. For example, we identify a fault zone in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field imaged using precisely-relocated hypocenters with a dip angle of 60° yet double-couple focal mechanisms indicate higher-angle dip-slip on ≥75° dipping planes. We observe considerable temporal variability in the distribution of source mechanisms. For example, at the Salton Sea we find that the number of high angle dip-slip events increased after 1989, when net-extraction rates were highest. There is a concurrent decline in strike-slip and strike-slip-normal faulting, the mechanisms expected from regional tectonics. These unusual focal mechanisms and their spatio-temporal patterns are enigmatic in terms of our understanding of faulting in geothermal regions. While near-vertical fault planes are expected to slip in a strike-slip sense, and dip slip is expected to occur on moderately dipping faults, we observe dip slip on near-vertical fault planes. However, for plausible stress states and accounting for geothermal production, the resolved fault planes should be stable. We systematically analyze the source mechanisms of these earthquakes using full moment tensor inversion to understand the constraints imposed by assuming a double-couple source. Applied to The Geysers field, we find a significant reduction in the number of high-angle dip-slip mechanisms using the full moment tensor. The remaining mechanisms displaying high-angle dip-slip could be consistent with faults accommodating subsidence and compaction associated with volumetric strain changes in the geothermal reservoir.

Source rupture process of the 2016 Kaikoura, New Zealand earthquake estimated from the kinematic waveform inversion of strong-motion data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Ao; Wang, Mingfeng; Yu, Xiangwei; Zhang, Wenbo

2018-03-01

On 2016 November 13, an Mw 7.8 earthquake occurred in the northeast of the South Island of New Zealand near Kaikoura. The earthquake caused severe damages and great impacts on local nature and society. Referring to the tectonic environment and defined active faults, the field investigation and geodetic evidence reveal that at least 12 fault sections ruptured in the earthquake, and the focal mechanism is one of the most complicated in historical earthquakes. On account of the complexity of the source rupture, we propose a multisegment fault model based on the distribution of surface ruptures and active tectonics. We derive the source rupture process of the earthquake using the kinematic waveform inversion method with the multisegment fault model from strong-motion data of 21 stations (0.05-0.35 Hz). The inversion result suggests the rupture initiates in the epicentral area near the Humps fault, and then propagates northeastward along several faults, until the offshore Needles fault. The Mw 7.8 event is a mixture of right-lateral strike and reverse slip, and the maximum slip is approximately 19 m. The synthetic waveforms reproduce the characteristics of the observed ones well. In addition, we synthesize the coseismic offsets distribution of the ruptured region from the slips of upper subfaults in the fault model, which is roughly consistent with the surface breaks observed in the field survey.

The role of large strike-slip faults in a convergent continental setting - first results from the Dzhungarian Fault in Eastern Kazakhstan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grützner, Christoph; Campbell, Grace; Elliott, Austin; Walker, Richard; Abdrakhmatov, Kanatbek

2016-04-01

The Tien Shan and the Dzhungarian Ala-tau mountain ranges in Eastern Kazakhstan and China take up a significant portion of the total convergence between India and Eurasia, despite the fact that they are more than 1000 km away from the actual plate boundary. Shortening is accommodated by large thrust faults that strike more or less perpendicular to the convergence vector, and by a set of conjugate strike-slip faults. Some of these strike-slip faults are major features of several hundred kilometres length and have produced great historical earthquakes. In most cases, little is known about their slip-rates and earthquake history, and thus, about their role in the regional tectonic setting. This study deals with the NW-SE trending Dzhungarian Fault, a more than 350 km-long, right-lateral strike slip feature. It borders the Dzhungarian Ala-tau range and forms one edge of the so-called Dzhungarian Gate. The fault curves from a ~305° strike at its NW tip in Kazakhstan to a ~328° strike in China. No historical ruptures are known from the Kazakh part of the fault. A possible rupture in 1944 in the Chinese part remains discussed. We used remote sensing, Structure-from-Motion (SfM), differential GPS, field mapping, and Quaternary dating of offset geological markers in order to map the fault-related morphology and to measure the slip rate of the fault at several locations along strike. We also aimed to find out the age of the last surface rupturing earthquake and to determine earthquake recurrence intervals and magnitudes. We were further interested in the relation between horizontal and vertical motion along the fault and possible fault segmentation. Here we present first results from our 2015 survey. High-resolution digital elevation models of offset river terraces allowed us to determine the slip vector of the most recent earthquake. Preliminary dating results from abandoned fluvial terraces allow us to speculate on a late Holocene surface rupturing event. Morphological data indicate that more than one fault strand was activated in the Holocene. Folded river terraces testify to the amplitude of long-term deformation associated with the Dzhungarian Fault, but no dating results are available yet.

Experimental Modeling of Dynamic Shallow Dip-Slip Faulting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uenishi, K.

2010-12-01

In our earlier study (AGU 2005, SSJ 2005, JPGU 2006), using a finite difference technique, we have conducted some numerical simulations related to the source dynamics of shallow dip-slip earthquakes, and suggested the possibility of the existence of corner waves, i.e., shear waves that carry concentrated kinematic energy and generate extremely strong particle motions on the hanging wall of a nonvertical fault. In the numerical models, a dip-slip fault is located in a two-dimensional, monolithic linear elastic half space, and the fault plane dips either vertically or 45 degrees. We have investigated the seismic wave field radiated by crack-like rupture of this straight fault. If the fault rupture, initiated at depth, arrests just below or reaches the free surface, four Rayleigh-type pulses are generated: two propagating along the free surface into the opposite directions to the far field, the other two moving back along the ruptured fault surface (interface) downwards into depth. These downward interface pulses may largely control the stopping phase of the dynamic rupture, and in the case the fault plane is inclined, on the hanging wall the interface pulse and the outward-moving Rayleigh surface pulse interact with each other and the corner wave is induced. On the footwall, the ground motion is dominated simply by the weaker Rayleigh pulse propagating along the free surface because of much smaller interaction between this Rayleigh and the interface pulse. The generation of the downward interface pulses and corner wave may play a crucial role in understanding the effects of the geometrical asymmetry on the strong motion induced by shallow dip-slip faulting, but it has not been well recognized so far, partly because those waves are not expected for a fault that is located and ruptures only at depth. However, the seismological recordings of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu, Japan, earthquakes as well as a more recent one in Iwate-Miyagi Inland, Japan in 2008, for example, seem to support the need for careful mechanical consideration. In this contribution, utilizing two-dimensional dynamic photoelasticity in conjunction with high speed digital cinematography, we try to perform "fully controlled" laboratory experiments of dip-slip faulting and observe the propagation of interface pulses and corner waves mentioned above. A birefringent material containing a (model) dip-slip fault plane is prepared, and rupture is initiated in that material using an Nd:YAG laser system, and the evolution of time-dependent isochromatic fringe patterns (contours of maximum in-plane shear stress) associated with the dynamic process of shallow dip-slip faulting is recorded. Use of Nd:YAG laser pulses, instead of ignition of explosives, for rupture initiation may enhance the safety of laboratory fracture experiments and enable us to evaluate the energy entering the material (and hence the energy balance in the system) more precisely, possibly in a more controlled way.

Seven big strike-slip earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lohman, R. B.; Simons, M.; Pritchard, M. E.

2003-12-01

We examine seven large (Mw > 7) strike-slip earthquakes that occurred since the beginning of ERS 1 and 2 missions. We invert GPS observations and InSAR interferograms and azimuth offsets for coseismic slip distributions. We explore two refinements to the traditional least-squares inversion technique with roughness constraints. First, we diverge from the usual definition of ``roughness'' as the average roughness over the entire fault plane, and allow ``variable smoothing'' constraints. Variable smoothing allows our inversion to select models that are more complex in regions that are well-resolved by the data, while still damping regions that are poorly resolved. Second, we choose our smoothing parameters using the jR_i criterion. The jR_i criterion draws on the theory behind cross-validation and the bootstrap method. We examine the theoretical basis behind such methods and use an analytical approximation technique for linear problems. We provide maps of model variance and spatial averaging scale over the fault plane, to explicitly show which features in our slip models are robust. We examine the 1992 Landers (CA), 1995 Sakhalin (Russia), 1995 Kobe (Japan), 1997 Ardekul (Iran), 1997 Manyi (Tibet), 1999 Hector Mine (CA), and 2001 Kunlun (Tibet) earthquakes. We compare features of the slip distributions such as the depth distribution of slip, the inferred magnitude and the degree of heterogeneity of slip over the fault plane, as resolved by the available InSAR and GPS data. We end with a brief description of the data coverage required for future earthquakes of similar size if we want to infer some of the above quantities to within a given confidence interval. We describe both the number of InSAR scenes and the distribution of GPS points that would be required, based on theoretical treatments of the fault plane/data point geometry using the jR_i method.

Elastic block and strain modeling of GPS data around the Haiyuan-Liupanshan fault, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yanchuan; Shan, Xinjian; Qu, Chunyan; Zhang, Yingfeng; Song, Xiaogang; Jiang, Yu; Zhang, Guohong; Nocquet, Jean-Mathieu; Gong, Wenyu; Gan, Weijun; Wang, Chisheng

2017-12-01

Based on the dense GPS velocity field in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau from 1999 to 2016, we have produced the deformation and strain characteristics of the Haiyuan fault and the Liupanshan fault. Estimated long-term slip rate along the Haiyuan-Liupanshan fault zones show a gradual decrease from 6.4 ± 1.6 mm/yr at the Tuolaishan fault to 2.9 ± 1.2 mm/yr at the Southern Liupanshan fault. Left-lateral thrusting movement was inverted for the Xiangshan-Tianjingshan fault (XS-TJS), which has an average slip rate of 2.1 ± 3.4 mm/yr during the study period. We also calculated the heterogeneous distribution of interseismic coupling along the fault zones. Our result also shows the locking depth of the Tianzhu seismic gap is ∼22 km. The slip rate deficit, the seismic moment accumulation rate, and the Coulomb stress accumulation rate are high on the fault planes, whereas the second invariant of the strain rate is low at the surface. The Liupanshan fault is locked to a depth of ∼23 km, and the corresponding seismic moment accumulation rate on the fault plane is high, while the strain rate at the surface is low. The accumulated strain along the Tianzhu seismic gap and the Liupanshan fault could be balanced by earthquakes with magnitudes of Mw7.9 and Mw7.4, considering the absence of large earthquakes over the last 1000 years and 1400 years respectively. The Haiyuan segments had ruptured during 1920 Haiyuan earthquake, and the estimated locking depth for period 1999-2016 is 5-10 km. Its seismic moment accumulation rate at depth is low and the strain rate at the surface is high. Our result indicates that 70% of the strike-slip along the Haiyuan segments transforms into thrusting along the Liupanshan fault, while the remaining 30% is related to the orogeny of the Liupanshan. For slip between the Haiyuan fault and the XS-TJS, about 27-34% of the slip is partitioned on the XS-TJS.

3D Constraints On Fault Architecture and Strain Distribution of the Newport-Inglewood Rose Canyon and San Onofre Trend Fault Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holmes, J. J.; Driscoll, N. W.; Kent, G. M.

2017-12-01

The Inner California Borderlands (ICB) is situated off the coast of southern California and northern Baja. The structural and geomorphic characteristics of the area record a middle Oligocene transition from subduction to microplate capture along the California coast. Marine stratigraphic evidence shows large-scale extension and rotation overprinted by modern strike-slip deformation. Geodetic and geologic observations indicate that approximately 6-8 mm/yr of Pacific-North American relative plate motion is accommodated by offshore strike-slip faulting in the ICB. The farthest inshore fault system, the Newport-Inglewood Rose Canyon (NIRC) Fault is a dextral strike-slip system that is primarily offshore for approximately 120 km from San Diego to the San Joaquin Hills near Newport Beach, California. Based on trenching and well data, the NIRC Fault Holocene slip rate is 1.5-2.0 mm/yr to the south and 0.5-1.0 mm/yr along its northern extent. An earthquake rupturing the entire length of the system could produce an Mw 7.0 earthquake or larger. West of the main segments of the NIRC Fault is the San Onofre Trend (SOT) along the continental slope. Previous work concluded that this is part of a strike-slip system that eventually merges with the NIRC Fault. Others have interpreted this system as deformation associated with the Oceanside Blind Thrust Fault purported to underlie most of the region. In late 2013, we acquired the first high-resolution 3D Parallel Cable (P-Cable) seismic surveys of the NIRC and SOT faults as part of the Southern California Regional Fault Mapping project. Analysis of stratigraphy and 3D mapping of this new data has yielded a new kinematic fault model of the area that provides new insight on deformation caused by interactions in both compressional and extensional regimes. For the first time, we can reconstruct fault interaction and investigate how strain is distributed through time along a typical strike-slip margin using 3D constraints on fault architecture.

Active tectonics of the Binalud Mountains, a key puzzle segment to describe Quaternary deformations at the northeastern boundary of the Arabia-Eurasia collision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shabanian, Esmaeil; Bellier, Olivier; Siame, Lionel L.; Abbassi, Mohammad R.; Leanni, Laetitia; Braucher, Régis; Farbod, Yassaman; Bourlès, Didier L.

2010-05-01

In northeast Iran, the Binalud Mountains accommodate part of active convergence between the Arabian and Eurasian plates. This fault-bounded mountain range has been considered a key region to describe Quaternary deformations at the northeastern boundary of the Arabia-Eurasia collision. But, the lack of knowledge on active faulting hampered evaluating the geological reliability of tectonic models describing the kinematics of deformation in northeast Iran. Morphotectonic investigations along both sides of the Binalud Mountains allowed us to characterize the structural and active faulting patterns along the Neyshabur and Mashhad fault systems on the southwest and northeast sides of the mountain range, respectively. We applied combined approaches of morphotectonic analyses based on satellite imageries (SPOT5 and Landsat ETM+), STRM and site-scale digital topographic data, and field surveys complemented with in situ-produced 10Be exposure dating to determine the kinematics and rate of active faulting. Three regional episodes of alluvial surface abandonments were dated at 5.3±1.1 kyr (Q1), 94±5 kyr (Q3), and 200±14 kyr (S3). The geomorphic reconstruction of both vertical and right-lateral fault offsets postdating these surface abandonment episodes yielded Quaternary fault slip rates on both sides of the Binalud Mountains. On the Neyshabur Fault System, thanks to geomorphic reconstructions of cumulative offsets recorded by Q3 fan surfaces, slip rates of 2.7±0.8 mm/yr and 2.4±0.2 mm/yr are estimated for right-lateral and reverse components of active faulting, respectively. Those indicate a total slip rate of 3.6±1.2 mm/yr for the late Quaternary deformation on the southwest flank of the Binalud Mountains. Reconstructing the cumulative right-lateral offset recorded by S3 surfaces, a middle-late Quaternary slip rate of 1.6±0.1 mm/yr is determined for the Mashhad Fault System. Altogether, our geomorphic observations reveal that, on both sides of the Binalud Mountains, the relative motion between central Iran and Eurasia is partly taken-up by dextral-reverse oblique-slip faulting along the Neyshabur and Mashhad fault systems. This faulting mechanism implies a long-term rate of ~4 mm/yr for the range-parallel strike-slip faulting, and an uplift rate of ~2.4 mm/yr due to the range-normal shortening during late Quaternary. Our data provide the first geological constraints on the rate of active faulting on both sides of the Binalud Mountains, and allow us to examine the geological reliability of preexisting tectonic models proposed to describe the kinematics of active deformation at the northeastern boundary of the Arabia-Eurasia collision. Our results favor the northward translation of central Iran with respect to Eurasia through strike-slip faulting localized along distinct crustal scale fault systems rather than systematic block rotations around vertical axes.

Distributed deformation and block rotation in 3D

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scotti, Oona; Nur, Amos; Estevez, Raul

1990-01-01

The authors address how block rotation and complex distributed deformation in the Earth's shallow crust may be explained within a stationary regional stress field. Distributed deformation is characterized by domains of sub-parallel fault-bounded blocks. In response to the contemporaneous activity of neighboring domains some domains rotate, as suggested by both structural and paleomagnetic evidence. Rotations within domains are achieved through the contemporaneous slip and rotation of the faults and of the blocks they bound. Thus, in regions of distributed deformation, faults must remain active in spite of their poor orientation in the stress field. The authors developed a model that tracks the orientation of blocks and their bounding faults during rotation in a 3D stress field. In the model, the effective stress magnitudes of the principal stresses (sigma sub 1, sigma sub 2, and sigma sub 3) are controlled by the orientation of fault sets in each domain. Therefore, adjacent fault sets with differing orientations may be active and may display differing faulting styles, and a given set of faults may change its style of motion as it rotates within a stationary stress regime. The style of faulting predicted by the model depends on a dimensionless parameter phi = (sigma sub 2 - sigma sub 3)/(sigma sub 1 - sigma sub 3). Thus, the authors present a model for complex distributed deformation and complex offset history requiring neither geographical nor temporal changes in the stress regime. They apply the model to the Western Transverse Range domain of southern California. There, it is mechanically feasible for blocks and faults to have experienced up to 75 degrees of clockwise rotation in a phi = 0.1 strike-slip stress regime. The results of the model suggest that this domain may first have accommodated deformation along preexisting NNE-SSW faults, reactivated as normal faults. After rotation, these same faults became strike-slip in nature.

Triggered surface slips in the Salton Trough associated with the 1999 Hector Mine, California, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rymer, M.J.; Boatwright, J.; Seekins, L.C.; Yule, J.D.; Liu, J.

2002-01-01

Surface fracturing occurred along the southern San Andreas, Superstition Hills, and Imperial faults in association with the 16 October 1999 (Mw 7.1) Hector Mine earthquake, making this at least the eighth time in the past 31 years that a regional earthquake has triggered slip along faults in the Salton Trough. Fractures associated with the event formed discontinuous breaks over a 39-km-long stretch of the San Andreas fault, from the Mecca Hills southeastward to Salt Creek and Durmid Hill, a distance from the epicenter of 107 to 139 km. Sense of slip was right lateral; only locally was there a minor (~1 mm) vertical component of slip. Dextral slip ranged from 1 to 13 mm. Maximum slip values in 1999 and earlier triggered slips are most common in the central Mecca Hills. Field evidence indicates a transient opening as the Hector Mine seismic waves passed the southern San Andreas fault. Comparison of nearby strong-motion records indicates several periods of relative opening with passage of the Hector Mine seismic wave-a similar process may have contributed to the field evidence of a transient opening. Slip on the Superstition Hills fault extended at least 9 km, at a distance from the Hector Mine epicenter of about 188 to 196 km. This length of slip is a minimum value, because we saw fresh surface breakage extending farther northwest than our measurement sites. Sense of slip was right lateral; locally there was a minor (~1 mm) vertical component of slip. Dextral slip ranged from 1 to 18 mm, with the largest amounts found distributed (or skewed) away from the Hector Mine earthquake source. Slip triggered on the Superstition Hills fault commonly is skewed away from the earthquake source, most notably in 1968, 1979, and 1999. Surface slip on the Imperial fault and within the Imperial Valley extended about 22 km, representing a distance from the Hector Mine epicenter of about 204 to 226 km. Sense of slip dominantly was right lateral; the right-lateral component of slip ranged from 1 to 19 mm. Locally there was a minor (~1-2 mm) vertical component of slip; larger proportions of vertical slip (up to 10 mm) occurred in Mesquite basin, where scarps indicate long-term oblique-slip motion for this part of the Imperial fault. Slip triggered on the Imperial fault appears randomly distributed relative to location along the fault and source direction. Multiple surface slips, both primary and triggered slip, indicate that slip repeatedly is small at locations of structural complexity.

The response of creeping parts of the San Andreas fault to earthquakes on nearby faults: Two examples

USGS Publications Warehouse

Simpson, R.W.; Schulz, S.S.; Dietz, L.D.; Burford, R.O.

1988-01-01

Rates of shallow slip on creeping sections of the San Andreas fault have been perturbed on a number of occasions by earthquakes occurring on nearby faults. One example of such perturbations occurred during the 26 January 1986 magnitude 5.3 Tres Pinos earthquake located about 10 km southeast of Hollister, California. Seven creepmeters on the San Andreas fault showed creep steps either during or soon after the shock. Both left-lateral (LL) and right-lateral (RL) steps were observed. A rectangular dislocation in an elastic half-space was used to model the coseismic fault offset at the hypocenter. For a model based on the preliminary focal mechanism, the predicted changes in static shear stress on the plane of the San Andreas fault agreed in sense (LL or RL) with the observed slip directions at all seven meters; for a model based on a refined focal mechanism, six of the seven meters showed the correct sense of motion. Two possible explanations for such coseismic and postseismic steps are (1) that slip was triggered by the earthquake shaking or (2) that slip occurred in response to the changes in static stress fields accompanying the earthquake. In the Tres Pinos example, the observed steps may have been of both the triggered and responsive kinds. A second example is provided by the 2 May 1983 magnitude 6.7 Coalinga earthquake, which profoundly altered slip rates at five creepmeters on the San Andreas fault for a period of months to years. The XMM1 meter 9 km northwest of Parkfield, California recorded LL creep for more than a year after the event. To simulate the temporal behavior of the XMM1 meter and to view the stress perturbation provided by the Coalinga earthquake in the context of steady-state deformation on the San Andreas fault, a simple time-evolving dislocation model was constructed. The model was driven by a single long vertical dislocation below 15 km in depth, that was forced to slip at 35 mm/yr in a RL sense. A dislocation element placed in the seismogenic layer under XMM1 was given a finite breaking strength of sufficient magnitude to produce a Parkfield-like earthquake every 22 years. When stress changes equivalent to a Coalinga earthquake were superposed on the model running in a steady state mode, the effect was to make a segment under XMM1, that could slip in a linear viscous fashion, creep LL and to delay the onset of the next Parkfield-like earthquake by a year or more. If static stress changes imposed by earthquakes off the San Andreas can indeed advance or delay earthquakes on the San Andreas by months or years, then such changes must be considered in intermediate-term prediction efforts. ?? 1988 Birkha??user Verlag.

Splay fault slip in a subduction margin, a new model of evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conin, Marianne; Henry, Pierre; Godard, Vincent; Bourlange, Sylvain

2012-08-01

In subduction zones, major thrusts called splay faults are thought to slip coseismically during large earthquakes affecting the main plate interface. We propose an analytical condition for the activation of a splay fault based on force balance calculations and suggest thrusting along the splay fault is generally conditioned by the growth of the accretionary wedge, or by the erosion of the hanging wall. In theory, normal slip on the splay fault may occur when the décollement has a very low friction coefficient seaward. Such a low friction also implies an unstable extensional state within the outer wedge. Finite element elasto-plastic calculations with a geometry based on the Nankai Kumano section were performed and confirm that this analytical condition is a valid approximation. Furthermore, localized extension at a shallow level in the splay hanging wall is observed in models for a wide range of friction coefficients (from ∼0 to the value of internal friction coefficient of the rock, here equals to 0.4). The timing of slip established for the splay fault branch drilled on Nankai Kumano transect suggests a phase of concurrent splay and accretionary wedge growth ≈2 Ma to ≈1.5 Ma, followed by a locking of the splay ≈1.3 Ma. Active extension is observed in the hanging wall. This evolution can be explained by the activation of a deeper and weaker décollement, followed by an interruption of accretion. Activation of a splay as a normal fault, as hypothesized in the case of the Tohoku 2011 earthquake, can be achieved only if the friction coefficient on the décollement drops to near zero. We conclude that the tectonic stress state largely determines long-term variations of tightly related splay fault and outer décollement activity and thus influences where and how coseismic rupture ends, but that occurrence of normal slip on a splay fault requires coseismic friction reduction.

The 2002 Denali fault earthquake, Alaska: A large magnitude, slip-partitioned event

USGS Publications Warehouse

Eberhart-Phillips, D.; Haeussler, Peter J.; Freymueller, J.T.; Frankel, A.D.; Rubin, C.M.; Craw, P.; Ratchkovski, N.A.; Anderson, G.; Carver, G.A.; Crone, A.J.; Dawson, T.E.; Fletcher, H.; Hansen, R.; Harp, E.L.; Harris, R.A.; Hill, D.P.; Hreinsdottir, S.; Jibson, R.W.; Jones, L.M.; Kayen, R.; Keefer, D.K.; Larsen, C.F.; Moran, S.C.; Personius, S.F.; Plafker, G.; Sherrod, B.; Sieh, K.; Sitar, N.; Wallace, W.K.

2003-01-01

The MW (moment magnitude) 7.9 Denali fault earthquake on 3 November 2002 was associated with 340 kilometers of surface rupture and was the largest strike-slip earthquake in North America in almost 150 years. It illuminates earthquake mechanics and hazards of large strike-slip faults. It began with thrusting on the previously unrecognized Susitna Glacier fault, continued with right-slip on the Denali fault, then took a right step and continued with right-slip on the Totschunda fault. There is good correlation between geologically observed and geophysically inferred moment release. The earthquake produced unusually strong distal effects in the rupture propagation direction, including triggered seismicity.

Is Slow Slip a Cause or a Result of Tremor?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Y.; Ampuero, J. P.

2017-12-01

While various modeling efforts have been conducted to reproduce subsets of observations of tremor and slow-slip events (SSE), a fundamental but yet unanswered question is whether slow slip is a cause or a result of tremor. Tremor is commonly regarded as driven by SSE. This view is mainly based on observations of SSE without detected tremors and on (frequency-limited) estimates of total tremor seismic moment being lower than 1% of their concomitant SSE moment. In previous studies we showed that models of heterogeneous faults, composed of seismic asperities embedded in an aseismic fault zone matrix, reproduce quantitatively the hierarchical patterns of tremor migration observed in Cascadia and Shikoku. To address the title question, we design two end-member models of a heterogeneous fault. In the SSE-driven-tremor model, slow slip events are spontaneously generated by the matrix (even in the absence of seismic asperities) and drive tremor. In the Tremor-driven-SSE model the matrix is stable (it slips steadily in the absence of asperities) and slow slip events result from the collective behavior of tremor asperities interacting via transient creep (local afterslip fronts). We study these two end-member models through 2D quasi-dynamic multi-cycle simulations of faults governed by rate-and-state friction with heterogeneous frictional properties and effective normal stress, using the earthquake simulation software QDYN (https://zenodo.org/record/322459). We find that both models reproduce first-order observations of SSE and tremor and have very low seismic to aseismic moment ratio. However, the Tremor-driven-SSE model assumes a simpler rheology than the SSE-driven-tremor model and matches key observations better and without fine tuning, including the ratio of propagation speeds of forward SSE and rapid tremor reversals and the decay of inter-event times of Low Frequency Earthquakes. These modeling results indicate that, in contrast to a common view, SSE could be a result of tremor activity. We also find that, despite important interactions between asperities, tremor activity rates are proportional to the underlying aseismic slip rate, supporting an approach to estimate SSE properties with high spatial-temporal resolutions via tremor activity.

Preslip and cascade processes initiating laboratory stick slip

USGS Publications Warehouse

McLaskey, Gregory C.; Lockner, David A.

2014-01-01

Recent modeling studies have explored whether earthquakes begin with a large aseismic nucleation process or initiate dynamically from the rapid growth of a smaller instability in a “cascade-up” process. To explore such a case in the laboratory, we study the initiation of dynamic rupture (stick slip) of a smooth saw-cut fault in a 76mm diameter cylindrical granite laboratory sample at 40–120MPa confining pressure. We use a high dynamic range recording system to directly compare the seismic waves radiated during the stick-slip event to those radiated from tiny (M _6) discrete seismic events, commonly known as acoustic emissions (AEs), that occur in the seconds prior to each large stick slip. The seismic moments, focal mechanisms, locations, and timing of the AEs all contribute to our understanding of their mechanics and provide us with information about the stick-slip nucleation process. In a sequence of 10 stick slips, the first few microseconds of the signals recorded from stick-slip instabilities are nearly indistinguishable from those of premonitory AEs. In this sense, it appears that each stick slip begins as an AE event that rapidly (~20 μs) grows about 2 orders of magnitude in linear dimension and ruptures the entire 150mm length of the simulated fault. We also measure accelerating fault slip in the final seconds before stick slip. We estimate that this slip is at least 98% aseismic and that it both weakens the fault and produces AEs that will eventually cascade-up to initiate the larger dynamic rupture.

Deformation associated with continental normal faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Resor, Phillip G.

Deformation associated with normal fault earthquakes and geologic structures provide insights into the seismic cycle as it unfolds over time scales from seconds to millions of years. Improved understanding of normal faulting will lead to more accurate seismic hazard assessments and prediction of associated structures. High-precision aftershock locations for the 1995 Kozani-Grevena earthquake (Mw 6.5), Greece image a segmented master fault and antithetic faults. This three-dimensional fault geometry is typical of normal fault systems mapped from outcrop or interpreted from reflection seismic data and illustrates the importance of incorporating three-dimensional fault geometry in mechanical models. Subsurface fault slip associated with the Kozani-Grevena and 1999 Hector Mine (Mw 7.1) earthquakes is modeled using a new method for slip inversion on three-dimensional fault surfaces. Incorporation of three-dimensional fault geometry improves the fit to the geodetic data while honoring aftershock distributions and surface ruptures. GPS Surveying of deformed bedding surfaces associated with normal faulting in the western Grand Canyon reveals patterns of deformation that are similar to those observed by interferometric satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) for the Kozani Grevena earthquake with a prominent down-warp in the hanging wall and a lesser up-warp in the footwall. However, deformation associated with the Kozani-Grevena earthquake extends ˜20 km from the fault surface trace, while the folds in the western Grand Canyon only extend 500 m into the footwall and 1500 m into the hanging wall. A comparison of mechanical and kinematic models illustrates advantages of mechanical models in exploring normal faulting processes including incorporation of both deformation and causative forces, and the opportunity to incorporate more complex fault geometry and constitutive properties. Elastic models with antithetic or synthetic faults or joints in association with a master normal fault illustrate how these secondary structures influence the deformation in ways that are similar to fault/fold geometry mapped in the western Grand Canyon. Specifically, synthetic faults amplify hanging wall bedding dips, antithetic faults reduce dips, and joints act to localize deformation. The distribution of aftershocks in the hanging wall of the Kozani-Grevena earthquake suggests that secondary structures may accommodate strains associated with slip on a master fault during postseismic deformation.

Constraints and inferences of conditions of seismic slip from analyses of exhumed faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, J. P.

2008-12-01

The study of exhumed faults, where constrained by geochemical or geochronologic evidence for depth of deformation, has provided abundant insights into the processes by which the upper crust accommodates strain. What remains elusive in these studies are: a] what evidence do we have for diagnosing [paleo] seismic slip, b ] how do we extrapolate the textures and composition of formerly active faults to constraining the conditions at depth, c] determining the conditions that promote seismic vs. aseismic slip, and d] to what degree do interseismic [healing] and post-slip processes exhumation affect what we see at the surface. Field evidence for the conditions that promote or are of diagnostic seismic vs. aseismic slip, is elusive, as there are few ways to determine seismic rates of slip in faults other than the presence of pseudotachylytes. Recent work on these rocks in a variety of settings and the increase in recognition of the presence of fault- related melts document the relationships between pseudotachylytes and cataclastically deformed rocks in what is thought to be the frictional regime, or with ductily deformed rocks at the base of a fault. Conditions that appear to promote seismic slip are alteration of granitic host rock to lower melting temperature phases and the presence of geometric complexities that may act as stress risers in the faults. Drilling into portions of faults where earthquakes occur at the top of the seismogenic zone have sampled fault-related rocks that have striking similarities to exhumed faults, exhibiting narrow slip surfaces, foliated cataclasites, injected gouge textures, polished slip surfaces, and thermally altered rocks along slip surfaces. We review the recent work from a wide range of studies to suggest that relatively small changes in conditions may initiate seismic slip, and suggest further avenues of investigation.

Geochemistry, mineralization, structure, and permeability of a normal-fault zone, Casino mine, Alligator Ridge district, north central Nevada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammond, K. Jill; Evans, James P.

2003-05-01

We examine the geochemical signature and structure of the Keno fault zone to test its impact on the flow of ore-mineralizing fluids, and use the mined exposures to evaluate structures and processes associated with normal fault development. The fault is a moderately dipping normal-fault zone in siltstone and silty limestone with 55-100 m of dip-slip displacement in north-central Nevada. Across-strike exposures up to 180 m long, 65 m of down-dip exposure and 350 m of along-strike exposure allow us to determine how faults, fractures, and fluids interact within mixed-lithology carbonate-dominated sedimentary rocks. The fault changes character along strike from a single clay-rich slip plane 10-20 mm thick at the northern exposure to numerous hydrocarbon-bearing, calcite-filled, nearly vertical slip planes in a zone 15 m wide at the southern exposure. The hanging wall and footwall are intensely fractured but fracture densities do not vary markedly with distance from the fault. Fault slip varies from pure dip-slip to nearly pure strike-slip, which suggests that either slip orientations may vary on faults in single slip events, or stress variations over the history of the fault caused slip vector variations. Whole-rock major, minor, and trace element analyses indicate that Au, Sb, and As are in general associated with the fault zone, suggesting that Au- and silica-bearing fluids migrated along the fault to replace carbonate in the footwall and adjacent hanging wall rocks. Subsequent fault slip was associated with barite and calcite and hydrocarbon-bearing fluids deposited at the southern end of the fault. No correlation exists at the meter or tens of meter scale between mineralization patterns and fracture density. We suggest that the fault was a combined conduit-barrier system in which the fault provides a critical connection between the fluid sources and fractures that formed before and during faulting. During the waning stages of deposit formation, the fault behaved as a localized conduit to hydrocarbon-bearing calcite veins. The results of this study show that fault-zone character may change dramatically over short, deposit- or reservoir-scale distances. The presence of damage zones may not be well correlated at the fine scale with geochemically defined regions of the fault, even though a gross spatial correlation may exist.

Simulation Based Earthquake Forecasting with RSQSim

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilchrist, J. J.; Jordan, T. H.; Dieterich, J. H.; Richards-Dinger, K. B.

2016-12-01

We are developing a physics-based forecasting model for earthquake ruptures in California. We employ the 3D boundary element code RSQSim to generate synthetic catalogs with millions of events that span up to a million years. The simulations incorporate rate-state fault constitutive properties in complex, fully interacting fault systems. The Unified California Earthquake Rupture Forecast Version 3 (UCERF3) model and data sets are used for calibration of the catalogs and specification of fault geometry. Fault slip rates match the UCERF3 geologic slip rates and catalogs are tuned such that earthquake recurrence matches the UCERF3 model. Utilizing the Blue Waters Supercomputer, we produce a suite of million-year catalogs to investigate the epistemic uncertainty in the physical parameters used in the simulations. In particular, values of the rate- and state-friction parameters a and b, the initial shear and normal stress, as well as the earthquake slip speed, are varied over several simulations. In addition to testing multiple models with homogeneous values of the physical parameters, the parameters a, b, and the normal stress are varied with depth as well as in heterogeneous patterns across the faults. Cross validation of UCERF3 and RSQSim is performed within the SCEC Collaboratory for Interseismic Simulation and Modeling (CISM) to determine the affect of the uncertainties in physical parameters observed in the field and measured in the lab, on the uncertainties in probabilistic forecasting. We are particularly interested in the short-term hazards of multi-event sequences due to complex faulting and multi-fault ruptures.

Slip on the San Andreas fault at Parkfield, California, over two earthquake cycles, and the implications for seismic hazard

USGS Publications Warehouse

Murray, J.; Langbein, J.

2006-01-01

Parkfield, California, which experienced M 6.0 earthquakes in 1934, 1966, and 2004, is one of the few locales for which geodetic observations span multiple earthquake cycles. We undertake a comprehensive study of deformation over the most recent earthquake cycle and explore the results in the context of geodetic data collected prior to the 1966 event. Through joint inversion of the variety of Parkfield geodetic measurements (trilateration, two-color laser, and Global Positioning System), including previously unpublished two-color data, we estimate the spatial distribution of slip and slip rate along the San Andreas using a fault geometry based on precisely relocated seismicity. Although the three most recent Parkfield earthquakes appear complementary in their along-strike distributions of slip, they do not produce uniform strain release along strike over multiple seismic cycles. Since the 1934 earthquake, more than 1 m of slip deficit has accumulated on portions of the fault that slipped in the 1966 and 2004 earthquakes, and an average of 2 m of slip deficit exists on the 33 km of the fault southeast of Gold Hill to be released in a future, perhaps larger, earthquake. It appears that the fault is capable of partially releasing stored strain in moderate earthquakes, maintaining a disequilibrium through multiple earthquake cycles. This complicates the application of simple earthquake recurrence models that assume only the strain accumulated since the most recent event is relevant to the size or timing of an upcoming earthquake. Our findings further emphasize that accumulated slip deficit is not sufficient for earthquake nucleation.

On boundary-element models of elastic fault interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, T. W.; Schott, B.

2002-12-01

We present the freely available, modular, and UNIX command-line based boundary-element program interact. It is yet another implementation of Crouch and Starfield's (1983) 2-D and Okada's (1992) half-space solutions for constant slip on planar fault segments in an elastic medium. Using unconstrained or non-negative, standard-package matrix routines, the code can solve for slip distributions on faults given stress boundary conditions, or vice versa, both in a local or global reference frame. Based on examples of complex fault geometries from structural geology, we discuss the effects of different stress boundary conditions on the predicted slip distributions of interacting fault systems. Such one-step calculations can be useful to estimate the moment-release efficiency of alternative fault geometries, and so to evaluate the likelihood which system may be realized in nature. A further application of the program is the simulation of cyclic fault rupture based on simple static-kinetic friction laws. We comment on two issues: First, that of the appropriate rupture algorithm. Cellular models of seismicity often employ an exhaustive rupture scheme: fault cells fail if some critical stress is reached, then cells slip once-only by a given amount, and subsequently the redistributed stress is used to check for triggered activations on other cells. We show that this procedure can lead to artificial complexity in seismicity if time-to-failure is not calculated carefully because of numerical noise. Second, we address the question if foreshocks can be viewed as direct expressions of a simple statistical distribution of frictional strength on individual faults. Repetitive failure models based on a random distribution of frictional coefficients initially show irregular seismicity. By repeatedly selecting weaker patches, the fault then evolves into a quasi-periodic cycle. Each time, the pre-mainshock events build up the cumulative moment release in a non-linear fashion. These temporal seismicity patterns roughly resemble the accelerated moment-release features which are sometimes observed in nature.

Three-dimensional Upper Crustal Velocity and Attenuation Structures of the Central Tibetan Plateau from Local Earthquake Tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, B.; Liang, X.; Lin, G.; Tian, X.; Zhu, G.; Mechie, J.; Teng, J.

2017-12-01

A series of V-shaped conjugate strike-slip faults are the most spectacular geologic features in the central Tibetan plateau. A previous study suggested that this conjugate strike-slip fault system accommodates the east-west extension and coeval north-south contraction. Another previous study suggested that the continuous convergence between the Indian and Eurasian continents and the eastward asthenospheric flow generated lithospheric paired general-shear (PGS) deformation, which then caused the development of conjugate strike-slip faults in central Tibet. Local seismic tomography can image three dimensional upper-crustal velocity and attenuation structures in central Tibet, which will provide us with more information about the spatial distribution of physical properties and compositional variations around the conjugate strike-slip fault zone. Ultimately, this information could improve our understanding of the development mechanism of the conjugate strike-slip fault system. In this study, we collected 6,809 Pg and 2,929 Sg arrival times from 414 earthquakes recorded by the temporary SANDWICH and permanent CNSN networks from November 2013 to November 2015. We also included 300 P and 17 S arrival times from 12 shots recorded by the INDEPTH III project during the summer of 1998 in the velocity tomography. We inverted for preliminary Vp and Vp/Vs models using the SIMUL2000 tomography algorithm, and then relocated the earthquakes with these preliminary velocity models. After that, we inverted for the final velocity models with these improved source locations and origin times. After the velocity inversion, we performed local attenuation tomography using t* measurements from the same dataset with an already existing approach. There are correlated features in the velocity and attenuation structures. From the surface to 10 km depth, the study area is dominated by high Vp and Qp anomalies. However, from 10 km to 20 km depth, there is a low Vp and Qp zone distributed along the conjugate strike-slip fault zone, with high Vp and Qp zones located north and south of the low Vp and Qp region. The prominent low velocity and Qp features in the image might reflect depth variations of physical properties or compositional differences related to the development of the conjugate strike-slip fault zone.

Active fault characterization throughout the Caribbean and Central America for seismic hazard modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Styron, Richard; Pagani, Marco; Garcia, Julio

2017-04-01

The region encompassing Central America and the Caribbean is tectonically complex, defined by the Caribbean plate's interactions with the North American, South American and Cocos plates. Though active deformation over much of the region has received at least cursory investigation the past 50 years, the area is chronically understudied and lacks a modern, synoptic characterization. Regardless, the level of risk in the region - as dramatically demonstrated by the 2010 Haiti earthquake - remains high because of high-vulnerability buildings and dense urban areas home to over 100 million people, who are concentrated near plate boundaries and other major structures. As part of a broader program to study seismic hazard worldwide, the Global Earthquake Model Foundation is currently working to quantify seismic hazard in the region. To this end, we are compiling a database of active faults throughout the region that will be integrated into similar models as recently done in South America. Our initial compilation hosts about 180 fault traces in the region. The faults show a wide range of characteristics, reflecting the diverse styles of plate boundary and plate-margin deformation observed. Regional deformation ranges from highly localized faulting along well-defined strike-slip faults to broad zones of distributed normal or thrust faulting, and from readily-observable yet slowly-slipping structures to inferred faults with geodetically-measured slip rates >10 mm/yr but essentially no geomorphic expression. Furthermore, primary structures such as the Motagua-Polochic Fault Zone (the strike-slip plate boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates in Guatemala) display strong along-strike slip rate gradients, and many other structures are undersea for most or all of their length. A thorough assessment of seismic hazard in the region will require the integration of a range of datasets and techniques and a comprehensive characterization of epistemic uncertainties driving the overall variability of hazard and risk results. For this reason and in order to leverage from the knowledge available in the region, datasets and the hazard model will be developed in close collaboration with local experts coherently with GEM's principles of transparency and collaboration. For what pertains active faults in shallow crust, we are currently working on assigning slip rates to structures based on geologic and geodetic strain rates, though this will be challenging in areas of sparse constraints. An additional area of ongoing work is the delineation of 3D seismic sources from disjoint fault traces; we are currently evaluating methods for this. Though work in the region is challenging, we anticipate that our results will not only lead to more robust seismic hazard and risk estimates for the region, but may serve as a template for workflows in other zones of poor or inhomogeneous data.

Late Pleistocene, Holocene, and decadal constancy of slip-rate of the Doruneh strike-slip fault, Iran.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, R. T.; Fattahi, M.; Mousavi, Z.; Pathier, E.; Sloan, R. A.; Talebian, M.; Thomas, A. L.; Walpersdorf, A.

2014-12-01

The Doruneh left-lateral strike-slip fault of NE Iran has a prominent expression in the landscape, showing that the fault is active in the late Quaternary. Existing estimates of its slip-rate vary, however, which has led to suggestions that it may exhibit temporal changes in activity. Using high-resolution optical satellite imagery we make reconstructions of displacement across four alluvial fans that cross the Doruneh fault, and determine the ages of these fans using luminescence dating, combined with U-series dating of pedogenic carbonates in one case. The four fans, which vary in age from 10-100 kyr, yield estimates of slip rate of ~2-3 mm/yr. We compare the average slip-rate measurements to the rate of accumulation of strain across the Doruneh fault using GPS and InSAR measurements, and find that the slip-rate is likely to have remained constant - within the uncertainty of our measurements - over the last ~100 ka. The slip-rate that we measure is consistent with the E-W left-lateral Doruneh fault accommodating N-S right-lateral faulting by 'bookshelf' faulting, with clockwise rotation about a vertical axis, in a similar manner to the Eastern California Shear Zone.

Pore Fluid Pressure Development in Compacting Fault Gouge in Theory, Experiments, and Nature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faulkner, D. R.; Sanchez-Roa, C.; Boulton, C.; den Hartog, S. A. M.

2018-01-01

The strength of fault zones is strongly dependent on pore fluid pressures within them. Moreover, transient changes in pore fluid pressure can lead to a variety of slip behavior from creep to unstable slip manifested as earthquakes or slow slip events. The frictional properties of low-permeability fault gouge in nature and experiment can be affected by pore fluid pressure development through compaction within the gouge layer, even when the boundaries are drained. Here the conditions under which significant pore fluid pressures develop are analyzed analytically, numerically, and experimentally. Friction experiments on low-permeability fault gouge at different sliding velocities show progressive weakening as slip rate is increased, indicating that faster experiments are incapable of draining the pore fluid pressure produced by compaction. Experiments are used to constrain the evolution of the permeability and pore volume needed for numerical modeling of pore fluid pressure build up. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experiments, indicating that the principal physical processes have been considered. The model is used to analyze the effect of pore fluid pressure transients on the determination of the frictional properties, illustrating that intrinsic velocity-strengthening behavior can appear velocity weakening if pore fluid pressure is not given sufficient time to equilibrate. The results illustrate that care must be taken when measuring experimentally the frictional characteristics of low-permeability fault gouge. The contribution of compaction-induced pore fluid pressurization leading to weakening of natural faults is considered. Cyclic pressurization of pore fluid within fault gouge during successive earthquakes on larger faults may reset porosity and hence the capacity for compaction weakening.

Plate tectonics and crustal deformation around the Japanese Islands

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hashimoto, Manabu; Jackson, David D.

1993-01-01

We analyze over a century of geodetic data to study crustal deformation and plate motion around the Japanese Islands, using the block-fault model for crustal deformation developed by Matsu'ura et al. (1986). We model the area including the Japanese Islands with 19 crustal blocks and 104 faults based on the distribution of active faults and seismicity. Geodetic data are used to obtain block motions and average slip rates of faults. This geodetic model predicts that the Pacific plate moves N deg 69 +/- 2 deg W at about 80 +/- 3 mm/yr relative to the Eurasian plate which is much lower than that predicted in geologic models. Substantial aseismic slip occurs on the subduction boundaries. The block containing the Izu Peninsula may be separated from the rigid part of the Philippine Sea plate. The faults on the coast of Japan Sea and the western part of the Median Tectonic Line have slip rates exceeding 4 mm/yr, while the Fossa Magna does not play an important role in the tectonics of the central Japan. The geodetic model requires the division of northeastern Japan, contrary to the hypothesis that northeastern Japan is a part of the North American plate. Owing to rapid convergence, the seismic risk in the Nankai trough may be larger than that of the Tokai gap.

Dynamics of folding: Impact of fault bend folds on earthquake cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sathiakumar, S.; Barbot, S.; Hubbard, J.

2017-12-01

Earthquakes in subduction zones and subaerial convergent margins are some of the largest in the world. So far, forecasts of future earthquakes have primarily relied on assessing past earthquakes to look for seismic gaps and slip deficits. However, the roles of fault geometry and off-fault plasticity are typically overlooked. We use structural geology (fault-bend folding theory) to inform fault modeling in order to better understand how deformation is accommodated on the geological time scale and through the earthquake cycle. Fault bends in megathrusts, like those proposed for the Nepal Himalaya, will induce folding of the upper plate. This introduces changes in the slip rate on different fault segments, and therefore on the loading rate at the plate interface, profoundly affecting the pattern of earthquake cycles. We develop numerical simulations of slip evolution under rate-and-state friction and show that this effect introduces segmentation of the earthquake cycle. In crustal dynamics, it is challenging to describe the dynamics of fault-bend folds, because the deformation is accommodated by small amounts of slip parallel to bedding planes ("flexural slip"), localized on axial surface, i.e. folding axes pinned to fault bends. We use dislocation theory to describe the dynamics of folding along these axial surfaces, using analytic solutions that provide displacement and stress kernels to simulate the temporal evolution of folding and assess the effects of folding on earthquake cycles. Studies of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, have shown that fault geometry can affect earthquake segmentation. Here, we show that in addition to the fault geometry, the actual geology of the rocks in the hanging wall of the fault also affect critical parameters, including the loading rate on parts of the fault, based on fault-bend folding theory. Because loading velocity controls the recurrence time of earthquakes, these two effects together are likely to have a strong impact on the earthquake cycle.

A kinematic model for the evolution of the Eastern California Shear Zone and Garlock Fault, Mojave Desert, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dixon, Timothy H.; Xie, Surui

2018-07-01

The Eastern California shear zone in the Mojave Desert, California, accommodates nearly a quarter of Pacific-North America plate motion. In south-central Mojave, the shear zone consists of six active faults, with the central Calico fault having the fastest slip rate. However, faults to the east of the Calico fault have larger total offsets. We explain this pattern of slip rate and total offset with a model involving a crustal block (the Mojave Block) that migrates eastward relative to a shear zone at depth whose position and orientation is fixed by the Coachella segment of the San Andreas fault (SAF), southwest of the transpressive "big bend" in the SAF. Both the shear zone and the Garlock fault are assumed to be a direct result of this restraining bend, and consequent strain redistribution. The model explains several aspects of local and regional tectonics, may apply to other transpressive continental plate boundary zones, and may improve seismic hazard estimates in these zones.

Microplate model for the present-day deformation of Tibet

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thatcher, W.

2007-01-01

Site velocities from 349 Global Positioning System (GPS) stations are used to construct an 11-element quasi-rigid block model of the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings. Rigid rotations of five major blocks are well determined, and average translation velocities of six smaller blocks can be constrained. Where data are well distributed the velocity field can be explained well by rigid block motion and fault slip across block boundaries. Residual misfits average 1.6 mm/yr compared to typical one standard deviation velocity uncertainties of 1.3 mm/yr. Any residual internal straining of the blocks is small and heterogeneous. However, residual substructure might well represent currently unresolved motions of smaller blocks. Although any smaller blocks must move at nearly the same rate as the larger blocks within which they lie, undetected relative motions between them could be significant, particularly where there are gaps in GPS coverage. Predicted relative motions between major blocks agree with the observed sense of slip and along-strike partitioning of motion across major faults. However, predicted slip rates across Tibet's major strike-slip faults are low, only 5-12 mm/yr, a factor of 2-3 smaller than most rates estimated from fault offset features dated by radiometric methods as ???2000 to ???100,000 year old. Previous work has suggested that both GPS data and low fault slip rates are incompatible with rigid block motions of Tibet. The results reported here overcome these objections.

Fault-slip directions in central and southern Greece measured from striated and corrugated fault planes: Comparison with focal mechanism and geodetic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roberts, Gerald P.; Ganas, Athanassios

2000-10-01

Fault-slip directions recorded by outcropping striated and corrugated fault planes in central and southern Greece have been measured for comparison with extension directions derived from focal mechanism and Global Positioning System (GPS) data for the last ˜100 years to test how far back in time velocity fields and deformation dynamics derived from the latter data sets can be extrapolated. The fault-slip data have been collected from the basin-bounding faults to Plio-Pleistocene to recent extensional basins and include data from arrays of footwall faults formed during the early stages of fault growth. We show that the orientation of the inferred stress field varies along faults and earthquake ruptures, so we use only slip-directions from the centers of faults, where dip-slip motion occurs, to constrain regionally significant extension directions. The fault-slip directions for the Peloponnese and Gulfs of Evia and Corinth are statistically different at the 99% confidence level but statistically the same as those implied by earthquake focal mechanisms for each region at the 99% confidence level; they are also qualitatively similar to the principal strain axes derived from GPS studies. Extension directions derived from fault-slip data are 043-047° for the southern Peloponnese, 353° for the Gulf of Corinth, and 015-014° for the Gulf of Evia. Extension on active normal faults in the two latter areas appears to grade into strike-slip along the North Anatolian Fault through a gradual change in fault-slip directions and fault strikes. To reconcile the above with 5° Myr-1 clockwise rotations suggested for the area, we suggest that the faults considered formed during a single phase of extension. The deformation and formation of the normal fault systems examined must have been sufficiently rapid and recent for rotations about vertical axes to have been unable to disperse the fault-slip directions from the extension directions implied by focal mechanisms and GPS data. Thus, in central and southern Greece the velocity fields derived from focal mechanism and GPS data may help explain the dynamics of the deformation over longer time periods than the ˜100 years over which they were measured; this may include the entire deformation history of the fault systems considered, a time period that may exceed 1-2 Myr.

Evaluating sources of uncertainties in finite-fault source models: lessons from the 2009 Mw6.1 L'Aquila earthquake, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ragon, T.; Sladen, A.; Bletery, Q.; Simons, M.; Magnoni, F.; Avallone, A.; Cavalié, O.; Vergnolle, M.

2016-12-01

Despite the diversity of available data for the Mw 6.1 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, published finite fault slip models are surprisingly different. For instance, the amplitude of the maximum coseismic slip patch varies from 80cm to 225cm, and its depth oscillates between 5 and 15km. Discrepancies between proposed source parameters are believed to result from three sources: observational uncertainties, epistemic uncertainties, and the inherent non-uniqueness of inverse problems. We explore the whole solution space of fault-slip models compatible with the data within the range of both observational and epistemic uncertainties by performing a fully Bayesian analysis. In this initial stage, we restrict our analysis to the static problem.In terms of observation uncertainty, we must take into account the difference in time span associated with the different data types: InSAR images provide excellent spatial coverage but usually correspond to a period of a few days to weeks after the mainshock and can thus be potentially biased by significant afterslip. Continuous GPS stations do not have the same shortcoming, but in contrast do not have the desired spatial coverage near the fault. In the case of the L'Aquila earthquake, InSAR images include a minimum of 6 days of afterslip. Here, we explicitly account for these different time windows in the inversion by jointly inverting for coseismic and post-seismic fault slip. Regarding epistemic or modeling uncertainties, we focus on the impact of uncertain fault geometry and elastic structure. Modeling errors, which result from inaccurate model predictions and are generally neglected, are estimated for both earth model and fault geometry as non-diagonal covariance matrices. The L'Aquila earthquake is particularly suited to investigation of these effects given the availability of a detailed aftershock catalog and 3D velocity models. This work aims at improving our knowledge of the L'Aquila earthquake as well as at providing a more general perspective on which uncertainties are the most critical in finite-fault source studies.

High-resolution mapping of two large-scale transpressional fault zones in the California Continental Borderland: Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge and Ferrelo faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Legg, Mark R.; Kohler, Monica D.; Shintaku, Natsumi; Weeraratne, Dayanthie S.

2015-05-01

New mapping of two active transpressional fault zones in the California Continental Borderland, the Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge fault and the Ferrelo fault, was carried out to characterize their geometries, using over 4500 line-km of new multibeam bathymetry data collected in 2010 combined with existing data. Faults identified from seafloor morphology were verified in the subsurface using existing seismic reflection data including single-channel and multichannel seismic profiles compiled over the past three decades. The two fault systems are parallel and are capable of large lateral offsets and reverse slip during earthquakes. The geometry of the fault systems shows evidence of multiple segments that could experience throughgoing rupture over distances exceeding 100 km. Published earthquake hypocenters from regional seismicity studies further define the lateral and depth extent of the historic fault ruptures. Historical and recent focal mechanisms obtained from first-motion and moment tensor studies confirm regional strain partitioning dominated by right slip on major throughgoing faults with reverse-oblique mechanisms on adjacent structures. Transpression on west and northwest trending structures persists as far as 270 km south of the Transverse Ranges; extension persists in the southern Borderland. A logjam model describes the tectonic evolution of crustal blocks bounded by strike-slip and reverse faults which are restrained from northwest displacement by the Transverse Ranges and the southern San Andreas fault big bend. Because of their potential for dip-slip rupture, the faults may also be capable of generating local tsunamis that would impact Southern California coastlines, including populated regions in the Channel Islands.

Spatial and temporal patterns of fault creep across an active salt system, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kravitz, K.; Mueller, K. J.; Furuya, M.; Tiampo, K. F.

2017-12-01

First order conditions that control creeping behavior on faults include the strength of faulted materials, fault maturity and stress changes associated with seismic cycles. We present mapping of surface strain from differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) of actively creeping faults in Eastern Utah that form by reactivation of older joints and faults. A nine-year record of displacement across the region using descending ERS scenes from 1992-2001 suggests maximum slip rates of 1 mm/yr. Time series analysis shows near steady rates across the region consistent with the proposed ultra-weak nature of these faults as suggested by their dilating nature, based on observations of sinkholes, pit chains and recently opened fissures along their lengths. Slip rates along the faults in the main part of the array are systematically faster with closer proximity to the Colorado River Canyon, consistent with mechanical modeling of the boundary conditions that control the overall salt system. Deeply incised side tributaries coincide with and control the edges of the region with higher strain rates. Comparison of D:L scaling at decadal scales in fault bounded grabens (as defined by InSAR) with previous measurements of total slip (D) to length (L) is interpreted to suggest that faults reached nearly their current lengths relatively quickly (i.e. displaying low displacement to length scaling). We argue this may then have been followed by along strike slip distributions where the centers of the grabens slip more rapidly than their endpoints, resulting in a higher D:L ratio over time. InSAR mapping also points to an increase in creep rates in overlap zones where two faults became hard-linked at breached relay ramps. Additionally, we see evidence for soft-linkage, where displacement profiles along a graben coincide with obvious fault segments. While an endmember case (ultra-weak faults sliding above a plastic substrate), structures in this region highlight mechanical behavior driven by rheological conditions that promote steady state slip in a complex array of extensional faults. Besides defining how creep varies along strike on individual faults, our work also hints at how strain rates may vary within the context of ongoing strain and fault linkage in a complex fault array.

Depth varying rupture properties during the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yue, Han; Simons, Mark; Duputel, Zacharie; Jiang, Junle; Fielding, Eric; Liang, Cunren; Owen, Susan; Moore, Angelyn; Riel, Bryan; Ampuero, Jean Paul; Samsonov, Sergey V.

2017-09-01

On April 25th 2015, the Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake ruptured a portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust underlying Kathmandu and surrounding regions. We develop kinematic slip models of the Gorkha earthquake using both a regularized multi-time-window (MTW) approach and an unsmoothed Bayesian formulation, constrained by static and high rate GPS observations, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) offset images, interferometric SAR (InSAR), and teleseismic body wave records. These models indicate that Kathmandu is located near the updip limit of fault slip and approximately 20 km south of the centroid of fault slip. Fault slip propagated unilaterally along-strike in an ESE direction for approximately 140 km with a 60 km cross-strike extent. The deeper portions of the fault are characterized by a larger ratio of high frequency (0.03-0.2 Hz) to low frequency slip than the shallower portions. From both the MTW and Bayesian results, we can resolve depth variations in slip characteristics, with higher slip roughness, higher rupture velocity, longer rise time and higher complexity of subfault source time functions in the deeper extents of the rupture. The depth varying nature of rupture characteristics suggests that the up-dip portions are characterized by relatively continuous rupture, while the down-dip portions may be better characterized by a cascaded rupture. The rupture behavior and the tectonic setting indicate that the earthquake may have ruptured both fully seismically locked and a deeper transitional portions of the collision interface, analogous to what has been seen in major subduction zone earthquakes.

Transient cnoidal waves explain the formation and geometry of fault damage zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veveakis, Manolis; Schrank, Christoph

2017-04-01

The spatial footprint of a brittle fault is usually dominated by a wide area of deformation bands and fractures surrounding a narrow, highly deformed fault core. This diffuse damage zone relates to the deformation history of a fault, including its seismicity, and has a significant impact on flow and mechanical properties of faulted rock. Here, we propose a new mechanical model for damage-zone formation. It builds on a novel mathematical theory postulating fundamental material instabilities in solids with internal mass transfer associated with volumetric deformation due to elastoviscoplastic p-waves termed cnoidal waves. We show that transient cnoidal waves triggered by fault slip events can explain the characteristic distribution and extent of deformation bands and fractures within natural fault damage zones. Our model suggests that an overpressure wave propagating away from the slipping fault and the material properties of the host rock control damage-zone geometry. Hence, cnoidal-wave theory may open a new chapter for predicting seismicity, material and geometrical properties as well as the location of brittle faults.

Interplate coupling and seismic-aseismic slip patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Senatorski, Piotr

2017-04-01

Numerical simulations were carried out to explain the seismic and aseismic slip paradox. Recent observations of megathrust faults show that stable and unstable slip movements can occur at the same locations. This contradicts the previous view based on frictional sliding theories. In the present work, an asperity fault model with the slip-dependent friction and stress dependent healing is used to show that the character of slip can change, even if friction parameters, such as strength and slip-weakening distance, are fixed. The reason is that the slow versus fast slip interplay is more than just about the friction law problem. The character of slip depends both on the local friction and on the system stiffness. The stiffness is related to the slipping area size and distribution of slips, so it changes from one event to another. It is also shown that the high strength interplate patches, such as subducted seamounts, can both promote and restrain large earthquakes, depending on the slip-weakening distance lengths.

Slip model of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake from inversions of ALOS-2 and GPS data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Kang; Fialko, Yuri

2015-09-01

We use surface deformation measurements including Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar data acquired by the ALOS-2 mission of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and Global Positioning System (GPS) data to invert for the fault geometry and coseismic slip distribution of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. Assuming that the ruptured fault connects to the surface trace of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) fault between 84.34°E and 86.19°E, the best fitting model suggests a dip angle of 7°. The moment calculated from the slip model is 6.08 × 1020 Nm, corresponding to the moment magnitude of 7.79. The rupture of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake was dominated by thrust motion that was primarily concentrated in a 150 km long zone 50 to 100 km northward from the surface trace of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), with maximum slip of ˜ 5.8 m at a depth of ˜8 km. Data thus indicate that the 2015 Gorkha earthquake ruptured a deep part of the seismogenic zone, in contrast to the 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake, which had ruptured a shallow part of the adjacent fault segment to the east.

The Mechanics of Transient Fault Slip and Slow Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marone, C.; Leeman, J.; Scuderi, M.; Saffer, D. M.; Collettini, C.

2015-12-01

Earthquakes are understood as frictional stick-slip instabilities in which stored elastic energy is released suddenly, driving catastrophic failure. In normal (fast) earthquakes the rupture zone expands at a rate dictated by elastic wave speeds, a few km/s, and fault slip rates reach 1-10 m/s. However, tectonic faults also fail in slow earthquakes with rupture durations of months and fault slip speeds of ~100 micron/s or less. We know very little about the mechanics of slow earthquakes. What determines the rupture propagation velocity in slow earthquakes and in other forms of quasi-dynamic rupture? What processes limit stress drop and fault slip speed in slow earthquakes? Existing lab studies provide some help via observations of complex forms of stick-slip, creep-slip, or, in a few cases, slow slip. However, these are mainly anecdotal and rarely include examples of repetitive slow slip or systematic measurements that could be used to isolate the underlying mechanisms. Numerical studies based on rate and state friction also shed light on transiently accelerating slip, showing that slow slip can occur if: 1) fault rheology involves a change in friction rate dependence (a-b) with velocity or unusually large values of the frictional weakening distance Dc, or 2) fault zone elastic stiffness equals the critical frictional weakening rate kc = (b-a)/Dc. Recent laboratory work shows that the latter can occur much more commonly that previously thought. We document the complete spectrum of stick-slip behaviors from transient slow slip to fast stick-slip for a narrow range of conditions around k/kc = 1.0. Slow slip occurs near the threshold between stable and unstable failure, controlled by the interplay of fault zone frictional properties, normal stress, and elastic stiffness of the surrounding rock. Our results provide a generic mechanism for slow earthquakes, consistent with the wide range of conditions for which slow slip has been observed.

The Ural-Herirud transcontinental postcollisional strike-slip fault and its role in the formation of the Earth's crust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leonov, Yu. G.; Volozh, Yu. A.; Antipov, M. P.; Kheraskova, T. N.

2015-11-01

The paper considers the morphology, deep structure, and geodynamic features of the Ural-Herirud postorogenic strike-slip fault (UH fault), along which the Moho (the "M") shifts along the entire axial zone of the Ural Orogen, then further to the south across the Scythian-Turan Plate to the Herirud sublatitudinal fault in Afghanistan. The postcollisional character of dextral displacements along the Ural-Herirud fault and its Triassic-Jurassic age are proven. We have estimated the scale of displacements and made an attempt to make a paleoreconstruction, illustrating the relationship between the Variscides of the Urals and the Tien Shan before tectonic displacements. The analysis of new data includes the latest generation of 1: 200000 geological maps and the regional seismic profiling data obtained in the most elevated part of the Urals (from the seismic profile of the Middle Urals in the north to the Uralseis seismic profile in the south), as well as within the sedimentary cover of the Turan Plate, from Mugodzhary to the southern boundaries of the former water area of the Aral Sea. General typomorphic signs of transcontinental strike-slip fault systems are considered and the structural model of the Ural-Herirud postcollisional strike-slip fault is presented.

Interaction between regional and magma-induced stresses and their impact on volcano-tectonic seismicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vargas-Bracamontes, D. M.; Neuberg, J. W.

2012-10-01

Recent seismological observations have reported volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes with fault-plane solutions exhibiting a change of ~ 90° in their pressure axes relative to the regional stress field. Interestingly, they are recorded mainly during periods preceding eruptive activity and coexisting with those VTs showing a regional trend. This study explains the occurrence of such trends in VT seismicity and discusses the possible patterns of earthquake locations related to the interaction of regional and magma-induced stresses caused by pressurization or depressurization of magmatic sources. Our analysis shows that in the presence of a dominant regional stress field, faulting will occur on faults whose associated slip direction is close to or in agreement with the background regional stress. Failure on faults with an opposite slip direction is unlikely to occur. As magma pressure starts counter-acting the regional stresses, the likelihood of faults to slip in either a regional or opposite sense of slip relative to regional maximum compression increases, allowing the co-existence of possible failure with both slip tendencies, however the spatial distribution of possible faulting differs. As the pressure is progressively increased, the stress patterns gradually approach those corresponding to the absence of a regional stress field. The presented modeling results have implications for volcanic monitoring routines aiming to detect changes in stress patterns. They will ultimately help to improve the correct interpretation of volcano-tectonic seismicity.

Geodetic Imaging of the Earthquake Cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tong, Xiaopeng

In this dissertation I used Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) to recover crustal deformation caused by earthquake cycle processes. The studied areas span three different types of tectonic boundaries: a continental thrust earthquake (M7.9 Wenchuan, China) at the eastern margin of the Tibet plateau, a mega-thrust earthquake (M8.8 Maule, Chile) at the Chile subduction zone, and the interseismic deformation of the San Andreas Fault System (SAFS). A new L-band radar onboard a Japanese satellite ALOS allows us to image high-resolution surface deformation in vegetated areas, which is not possible with older C-band radar systems. In particular, both the Wenchuan and Maule InSAR analyses involved L-band ScanSAR interferometry which had not been attempted before. I integrated a large InSAR dataset with dense GPS networks over the entire SAFS. The integration approach features combining the long-wavelength deformation from GPS with the short-wavelength deformation from InSAR through a physical model. The recovered fine-scale surface deformation leads us to better understand the underlying earthquake cycle processes. The geodetic slip inversion reveals that the fault slip of the Wenchuan earthquake is maximum near the surface and decreases with depth. The coseismic slip model of the Maule earthquake constrains the down-dip extent of the fault slip to be at 45 km depth, similar to the Moho depth. I inverted for the slip rate on 51 major faults of the SAFS using Green's functions for a 3-dimensional earthquake cycle model that includes kinematically prescribed slip events for the past earthquakes since the year 1000. A 60 km thick plate model with effective viscosity of 10 19 Pa · s is preferred based on the geodetic and geological observations. The slip rates recovered from the plate models are compared to the half-space model. The InSAR observation reveals that the creeping section of the SAFS is partially locked. This high-resolution deformation model will refine the moment accumulation rates and shear strain rates, which are not well resolved by previous models.

Subduction zone locking, strain partitioning, intraplate deformation and their implications to Seismic Hazards in South America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galgana, G. A.; Mahdyiar, M.; Shen-Tu, B.; Pontbriand, C. W.; Klein, E.; Wang, F.; Shabestari, K.; Yang, W.

2014-12-01

We analyze active crustal deformation in South America (SA) using published GPS observations and historic seismicity along the Nazca Trench and the active Ecuador-Colombia-Venezuela Plate boundary Zone. GPS-constrained kinematisc models that incorporate block and continuum techniques are used to assess patterns of regional tectonic deformation and its implications to seismic potential. We determine interplate coupling distributions, fault slip-rates, and intraplate crustal strain rates in combination with historic earthquakes within 40 seismic zones crust to provide moment rate constraints. Along the Nazca subduction zone, we resolve a series of highly coupled patches, interpreted as high-friction producing "asperities" beneath the coasts of Ecuador, Peru and Chile. These include areas responsible for the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule Earthquake and the 2014 Mw 8.2 Iquique Earthquake. Predicted tectonic block motions and fault slip rates reveal that the northern part of South America deforms rapidly, with crustal fault slip rates as much as ~20 mm/a. Fault slip and locking patterns reveal that the Oca Ancón-Pilar-Boconó fault system plays a key role in absorbing most of the complex eastward and southward convergence patterns in northeastern Colombia and Venezuela, while the near-parallel system of faults in eastern Colombia and Ecuador absorb part of the transpressional motion due to the ~55 mm/a Nazca-SA plate convergence. These kinematic models, in combination with historic seismicity rates, provide moment deficit rates that reveal regions with high seismic potential, such as coastal Ecuador, Bucaramanga, Arica and Antofagasta. We eventually use the combined information from moment rates and fault coupling patterns to further constrain stochastic seismic hazard models of the region by implementing realistic trench rupture scenarios (see Mahdyiar et al., this volume).

Earthquake mechanism and predictability shown by a laboratory fault

USGS Publications Warehouse

King, C.-Y.

1994-01-01

Slip events generated in a laboratory fault model consisting of a circulinear chain of eight spring-connected blocks of approximately equal weight elastically driven to slide on a frictional surface are studied. It is found that most of the input strain energy is released by a relatively few large events, which are approximately time predictable. A large event tends to roughen stress distribution along the fault, whereas the subsequent smaller events tend to smooth the stress distribution and prepare a condition of simultaneous criticality for the occurrence of the next large event. The frequency-size distribution resembles the Gutenberg-Richter relation for earthquakes, except for a falloff for the largest events due to the finite energy-storage capacity of the fault system. Slip distributions, in different events are commonly dissimilar. Stress drop, slip velocity, and rupture velocity all tend to increase with event size. Rupture-initiation locations are usually not close to the maximum-slip locations. ?? 1994 Birkha??user Verlag.

Extrapolating subsurface geometry by surface expressions in transpressional strike slip fault, deduced from analogue experiments with settings of rheology and convergence angle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsieh, Shang Yu; Neubauer, Franz

2015-04-01

The internal structure of major strike-slip faults is still poorly understood, particularly how to extrapolate subsurface structures by surface expressions. Series of brittle analogue experiments by Leever et al., 2011 resulted the convergence angle is the most influential factor for surface structures. Further analogue models with different ductile settings allow a better understanding in extrapolating surface structures to the subsurface geometry of strike-slip faults. Fifteen analogue experiments were constructed to represent strike-slip faults in nature in different geological settings. As key parameters investigated in this study include: (a) the angle of convergence, (b) the thickness of brittle layer, (c) the influence of a rheological weak layer within the crust, and (d) influence of a thick and rheologically weak layer at the base of the crust. The experiments are aimed to explain first order structures along major transcurrent strike-slip faults such as the Altyn, Kunlun, San Andrea and Greendale (Darfield earthquake 2010) faults. The preliminary results show that convergence angle significantly influences the overall geometry of the transpressional system with greater convergence angles resulting in wider fault zones and higher elevation. Different positions, densities and viscosities of weak rheological layers have not only different surface expressions but also affect the fault geometry in the subsurface. For instance, rheological weak material in the bottom layer results in stretching when experiment reaches a certain displacement and a buildup of a less segmented, wide positive flower structure. At the surface, a wide fault valley in the middle of the fault zone is the reflection of stretching along the velocity discontinuity at depth. In models with a thin and rheologically weaker layer in the middle of the brittle layer, deformation is distributed over more faults and the geometry of the fault zone below and above the weak zone shows significant differences, suggesting that the correlation of structures across a weak layer has to be supported by geophysical data, which help constraining the geometry of the deep part. This latter experiment has significantly similar phenomena in reality, such as few pressure ridges along Altyn fault. The experimental results underline the need to understand the role of the convergence angle and the influence of rheology on fault evolution, in order to connect between surface deformation and subsurface geometry.

Flower-strucutre deformation pattern of theTian Shan mountains as revealed by Late Quaternary geological and modern Geodesy slip rates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, C.; Zhang, P.; Zheng, W.; Wang, H.; Zhang, Z.; Ren, Z.; Zheng, D.; Yu, J.; Wu, G.

2017-12-01

The deformation pattern and strain distribution of the Tian Shan is a hot issue.Previous studies mainly focus on the thrust-fold systems on both sides of Tian Shan, the strike-slip faults within the mountains are rarely reported. The understanding about the deformation characteristics of Tian Shan is not complete for lacking information of these strike-slip faults.Our studies show the NEE trending structures of Maidan fault and Nalati fault in the southwestern Tian Shan are all active during the Holence. These faults are characterized by sinistral strike-slip and thrust movement. The minimum average sinistral strike-slip rate of the Maidan fault is 1.07 ± 0.13 mm/yr. During the late Quaternary, the average shortening rate and sinistral strike-slip rate of the Nalati fault are 2.1 ±0.4 mm/yr and 2.56 ±0.25 mm/yr, respectively . In the interior of the Tian Shan area, two groups of strike-slip faults were developed. The NEE trending faults with sinistral strike-slipmovement, and the NWW trending faults with dextral strike-slip movement show the shape of "X"in geometrical structure. The piedmont thrust faults and the thrust strike-slip faults in the interior mountain constitute the tectonic framework of Tian Shan. Threegroups of active fault systems are the main seismogenic and geological structures, which control the current tectonic deformation pattern of Tian Shan (Figure 1). GPS observation data also showthe similar deformation characteristics with the geological results (Figures 2, 3). In addition to the crustal shortening, there is a certain strike-slip shear movement in the interior of the Tian Shan.The strike-slip rate defined by the geological and GPS data is approximately consistent with each other near the same longitude. We suggest the two groups of strike-slip faults in the interior of mountains is a set of conjugate structures. The whole Tian Shan forms a large flower-structure in a profile view. The complete tectonic deformation of the Tian Shan mountains consists ofthe shortening deformationof the N-S direction and the lateral extrusion of the E-W direction (Figure 2). The late Cenozoic deformation of the Tian Shan mountains is due to the northward subduction of Tarim Block. Although the activedeformation of the Tian Shan decrease eastward, the geological sturcutrein eastern Tian Shan is similar.

Low-angle faulting in strike-slip dominated settings: Seismic evidence from the Maritimes Basin, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinet, Nicolas; Dietrich, Jim; Duchesne, Mathieu J.; Hinds, Steve J.; Brake, Virginia

2018-07-01

The Maritimes Basin is an upper Paleozoic sedimentary basin centered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada). Early phases of basin formation included the development of partly connected sub-basins bounded by high-angle faults, in an overall strike-slip setting. Interpretation of reprocessed seismic reflection data indicates that a low-angle detachment contributed to the formation of a highly asymmetric sub-basin. This detachment was rotated toward a lower angle and succeeded by high-angle faults that sole into the detachment or cut it. This model bears similarities to other highly extended terranes and appears to be applicable to strike-slip and/or transtensional settings.

Slip and Dilation Tendency Analysis of the Tuscarora Geothermal Area

DOE Data Explorer

Faulds, James E.

2013-12-31

Critically stressed fault segments have a relatively high likelihood of acting as fluid flow conduits (Sibson, 1994). As such, the tendency of a fault segment to slip (slip tendency; Ts; Morris et al., 1996) or to dilate (dilation tendency; Td; Ferrill et al., 1999) provides an indication of which faults or fault segments within a geothermal system are critically stressed and therefore likely to transmit geothermal fluids. The slip tendency of a surface is defined by the ratio of shear stress to normal stress on that surface: Ts = τ / σn (Morris et al., 1996). Dilation tendency is defined by the stress acting normal to a given surface: Td = (σ1-σn) / (σ1-σ3) (Ferrill et al., 1999). Slip and dilation were calculated using 3DStress (Southwest Research Institute). Slip and dilation tendency are both unitless ratios of the resolved stresses applied to the fault plane by ambient stress conditions. Values range from a maximum of 1, a fault plane ideally oriented to slip or dilate under ambient stress conditions to zero, a fault plane with no potential to slip or dilate. Slip and dilation tendency values were calculated for each fault in the focus study areas at, McGinness Hills, Neal Hot Springs, Patua, Salt Wells, San Emidio, and Tuscarora on fault traces. As dip is not well constrained or unknown for many faults mapped in within these we made these calculations using the dip for each fault that would yield the maximum slip tendency or dilation tendency. As such, these results should be viewed as maximum tendency of each fault to slip or dilate. The resulting along-fault and fault-to-fault variation in slip or dilation potential is a proxy for along fault and fault-to-fault variation in fluid flow conduit potential. Stress Magnitudes and directions Stress field variation within each focus area was approximated based on regional published data and the world stress database (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2010; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012; Moeck et al., 2010; Moos and Ronne, 2010 and Reinecker et al., 2005) as well as local stress information if applicable. For faults within these focus systems we applied either a normal faulting stress regime where the vertical stress (sv) is larger than the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (sv>shmax>shmin) or strike-slip faulting stress regime where the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) is larger than the vertical stress (sv) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (shmax >sv>shmin) depending on the general tectonic province of the system. Based on visual inspection of the limited stress magnitude data in the Great Basin we used magnitudes such that shmin/shmax = .527 and shmin/sv= .46, which are consistent with complete and partial stress field determinations from Desert Peak, Coso, the Fallon area and Dixie valley (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2011; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012). Slip and dilation tendency for the Tuscarora geothermal field was calculated based on the faults mapped Tuscarora area (Dering, 2013). The Tuscarora area lies in the Basin and Range Province, as such we applied a normal faulting stress regime to the Tuscarora area faults, with a minimum horizontal stress direction oriented 115, based on inspection of local and regional stress determinations, as explained above. Under these stress conditions north-northeast striking, steeply dipping fault segments have the highest dilation tendency, while north-northeast striking 60° dipping fault segments have the highest tendency to slip. Tuscarora is defined by a left-step in a major north- to-north northeast striking, west-dipping range-bounding normal fault system. Faults within the broad step define an anticlinal accommodation zone...

Extrapolating surface structures to depth in transpressional systems: the role of rheology and convergence angle deduced from analogue experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsieh, Shang Yu; Neubauer, Franz; Cloetingh, Sierd; Willingshofer, Ernst; Sokoutis, Dimitrios

2014-05-01

The internal structure of major strike-slip faults is still poorly understood, particularly how the deep structure could be inferred from its surface expression (Molnar and Dayem, 2011 and references therein). Previous analogue experiments suggest that the convergence angle is the most influential factor (Leever et al., 2011). Further analogue modeling may allow a better understanding how to extrapolate surface structures to the subsurface geometry of strike-slip faults. Various scenarios of analogue experiments were designed to represent strike-slip faults in nature from different geological settings. As such key parameters, which are investigated in this study include: (a) the angle of convergence, (b) the thickness of brittle layer, (c) the influence of a rheological weak layer within the crust, and (d) influence of a thick and rheologically weak layer at the base of the crust. The latter aimed to simulate the effect of a hot metamorphic core complex or an alignment of uprising plutons bordered by a transtensional/transpressional strike-slip fault. The experiments are aimed to explain first order structures along major transcurrent strike-slip faults such as the Altyn, Kunlun, San Andrea and Greendale (Darfield earthquake 2010) faults. The preliminary results show that convergence angle significantly influences the overall geometry of the transpressive system with greater convergence angles resulting in wider fault zones and higher elevation. Different positions, densities and viscosities of weak rheological layers have not only different surface expressions but also affect the fault geometry in the subsurface. For instance, rheological weak material in the bottom layer results in stretching when experiment reaches a certain displacement and a buildup of a less segmented, wide positive flower structure. At the surface, a wide fault valley in the middle of the fault zone is the reflection of stretching along the velocity discontinuity at depth. In models with a thin and rheologically weaker layer in the middle of the brittle layer, deformation is distributed over more faults and the geometry of the fault zone below and above the weak zone shows significant differences, suggesting that the correlation of structures across a weak layer has to be supported by geophysical data, which help constraining the geometry of the deep part. This latter experiment has significantly similar phenomena in reality, such as few pressure ridges along Altyn fault. The experimental results underline the need to understand the role of the convergence angle and the influence of rheology on fault evolution, in order to connect between surface deformation and subsurface geometry. References Leever, K. A., Gabrielsen, R. H., Sokoutis, D., Willingshofer, E., 2011. The effect of convergence angle on the kinematic evolution of strain partitioning in transpressional brittle wedges: Insight from analog modeling and high-resolution digital image analysis. Tectonics, 30(2), TC2013. Molnar, P., Dayem, K.E., 2010. Major intracontinental strike-slip faults and contrasts in lithospheric strength. Geosphere, 6, 444-467.

Spatial and temporal deformation along the northern San Jacinto fault, southern California: Implications for slip rates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kendrick, K.J.; Morton, D.M.; Wells, S.G.; Simpson, R.W.

2002-01-01

The San Timoteo badlands is an area of uplift and erosional dissection that has formed as a result of late Quaternary uplift along a restraining bend in the San Jacinto fault, of the San Andreas fault system in southern California. This bend currently is located in a region where late Quaternary deposits and associated surfaces have formed in lower San Timoteo Canyon. We have used morphometric analysis of these surfaces, in conjunction with computer modeling of deformational patterns along the San Jacinto fault, to reconstruct spatial and temporal variations in uplift along the bend. Morphometric techniques used include envelope/subenvelope mapping, a gradient-length index along channels, and denudation values. Age control is determined using a combination of thermoluminescence (TL) and near infrared optical simulation luminescence dating (IROSL) and correlation of soil-development indices. These approaches are combined with an elastic half-space model used to determine the deformation associated with the fault bend. The region of modeled uplift has a similar distribution as that determined by morphometric techniques. Luminescence dates and soil-correlation age estimates generally agree. Based on soil development, surfaces within the study area were stabilized at approximately 300-700 ka for Q3, 43-67 ka for Q2, and 27.5-67 ka for Q1. Luminescence ages (both TL and IROSL) for the formation of the younger two surfaces are 58 to 94 ka for Q2 and 37 to 62 ka for Q1 (ages reported to 1?? uncertainty). Periods of uplift were determined for the surfaces in the study area, resulting in approximate uplift rates of 0.34 to 0.84 m/ka for the past 100 ka and 0.13 to 1.00 m/ka for the past 66 ka. Comparison of these rates of uplift to those generated by the model support a higher rate of lateral slip along the San Jacinto fault than commonly assumed (greater than 20 mm/yr, as compared to 8-12 mm/yr commonly cited). This higher slip rate supports the proposal that a greater amount of slip has transferred from the San Andreas fault to the San Jacinto fault than generally held. The San Jacinto fault may have accommodated a significant portion of the plate boundary slip during the past 100 ka.

Earthquake rupture process recreated from a natural fault surface

USGS Publications Warehouse

Parsons, Thomas E.; Minasian, Diane L.

2015-01-01

What exactly happens on the rupture surface as an earthquake nucleates, spreads, and stops? We cannot observe this directly, and models depend on assumptions about physical conditions and geometry at depth. We thus measure a natural fault surface and use its 3D coordinates to construct a replica at 0.1 m resolution to obviate geometry uncertainty. We can recreate stick-slip behavior on the resulting finite element model that depends solely on observed fault geometry. We clamp the fault together and apply steady state tectonic stress until seismic slip initiates and terminates. Our recreated M~1 earthquake initiates at contact points where there are steep surface gradients because infinitesimal lateral displacements reduce clamping stress most efficiently there. Unclamping enables accelerating slip to spread across the surface, but the fault soon jams up because its uneven, anisotropic shape begins to juxtapose new high-relief sticking points. These contacts would ultimately need to be sheared off or strongly deformed before another similar earthquake could occur. Our model shows that an important role is played by fault-wall geometry, though we do not include effects of varying fluid pressure or exotic rheologies on the fault surfaces. We extrapolate our results to large fault systems using observed self-similarity properties, and suggest that larger ruptures might begin and end in a similar way, though the scale of geometrical variation in fault shape that can arrest a rupture necessarily scales with magnitude. In other words, fault segmentation may be a magnitude dependent phenomenon and could vary with each subsequent rupture.

Analogue modelling for localization of deformation in the extensional pull-apart basins: comparison with the west part of NAF, Turkey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bulkan, Sibel; Storti, Fabrizio; Cavozzi, Cristian; Vannucchi, Paola

2017-04-01

Analogue modelling remains one of the best methods for investigating progressive deformation of pull apart systems in strike slip faults that are poorly known. Analogue model experiments for the North Anatolian Fault (NAF) system around the Sea of Marmara are extremely rare in the geological literature. Our purpose in this work is to monitor the relation between the horizontal propagation and branching of the strike slip fault, and the structural and topographic expression resulting from this process. These experiments may provide insights into the geometric evolution and kinematic of west part of the NAF system. For this purpose, we run several 3D sand box experiments, appropriately scaled. Plexiglass sheets were purposely cut to simulate the geometry of the NAF. Silicone was placed on the top of these to simulate the viscous lower crust, while the brittle upper crust was simulated with pure dry sand. Dextral relative fault motion was imposed as well using different velocities to reproduce different strain rates and pull apart formation at the releasing bend. Our experiments demonstrate the variation of the shear zone shapes and how the master-fault propagates during the deformation, helping to cover the gaps between geodetic and geologic slip information. Lower crustal flow may explain how the deformation is transferred to the upper crust, and stress partitioned among the strike slip faults and pull-apart basin systems. Stress field evolution seems to play an interesting role to help strain localization. We compare the results of these experiments with natural examples around the western part of NAF and with seismic observations.

Effect of Critical Displacement Parameter on Slip Regime at Subduction Fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muldashev, Iskander; Sobolev, Stephan

2016-04-01

It is widely accepted that for the simple fault models value of critical displacement parameter (Dc) in Ruina-Dietrich's rate-and-state friction law is responsible for the transition from stick-slip regime at low Dc to non-seismic creep regime at large Dc. However, neither the value of "transition" Dc parameter nor the character of the transition is known for the realistic subduction zone setting. Here we investigate effect of Dc on regime of slip at subduction faults for two setups, generic model similar to simple shear elastic slider under quasistatic loading and full subduction model with appropriate geometry, stress and temperature distribution similar to the setting at the site of the Great Chile Earthquake of 1960. In our modeling we use finite element numerical technique that employs non-linear elasto-visco-plastic rheology in the entire model domain with rate-and-state plasticity within the fault zone. The model generates spontaneous earthquake sequence. Adaptive time-step integration procedure varies time step from 40 seconds at instability (earthquake), and gradually increases it to 5 years during postseismic relaxation. The technique allows observing the effect of Dc on period, magnitude of earthquakes through the cycles. We demonstrate that our modeling results for the generic model are consistent with the previous theoretical and numeric modeling results. For the full subduction model we obtain transition from non-seismic creep to stick-slip regime at Dc about 20 cm. We will demonstrate and discuss the features of the transition regimes in both generic and realistic subduction models.

Active backstop faults in the Mentawai region of Sumatra, Indonesia, revealed by teleseismic broadband waveform modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xin; Bradley, Kyle Edward; Wei, Shengji; Wu, Wenbo

2018-02-01

Two earthquake sequences that affected the Mentawai islands offshore of central Sumatra in 2005 (Mw 6.9) and 2009 (Mw 6.7) have been highlighted as evidence for active backthrusting of the Sumatran accretionary wedge. However, the geometry of the activated fault planes is not well resolved due to large uncertainties in the locations of the mainshocks and aftershocks. We refine the locations and focal mechanisms of medium size events (Mw > 4.5) of these two earthquake sequences through broadband waveform modeling. In addition to modeling the depth-phases for accurate centroid depths, we use teleseismic surface wave cross-correlation to precisely relocate the relative horizontal locations of the earthquakes. The refined catalog shows that the 2005 and 2009 "backthrust" sequences in Mentawai region actually occurred on steeply (∼60 degrees) landward-dipping faults (Masilo Fault Zone) that intersect the Sunda megathrust beneath the deepest part of the forearc basin, contradicting previous studies that inferred slip on a shallowly seaward-dipping backthrust. Static slip inversion on the newly-proposed fault fits the coseismic GPS offsets for the 2009 mainshock equally well as previous studies, but with a slip distribution more consistent with the mainshock centroid depth (∼20 km) constrained from teleseismic waveform inversion. Rupture of such steeply dipping reverse faults within the forearc crust is rare along the Sumatra-Java margin. We interpret these earthquakes as 'unsticking' of the Sumatran accretionary wedge along a backstop fault separating imbricated material from the stronger Sunda lithosphere. Alternatively, the reverse faults may have originated as pre-Miocene normal faults of the extended continental crust of the western Sunda margin. Our waveform modeling approach can be used to further refine global earthquake catalogs in order to clarify the geometries of active faults.

Magmatically triggered slow slip at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii.

PubMed

Brooks, Benjamin A; Foster, James; Sandwell, David; Wolfe, Cecily J; Okubo, Paul; Poland, Michael; Myer, David

2008-08-29

We demonstrate that a recent dike intrusion probably triggered a slow fault-slip event (SSE) on Kilauea volcano's mobile south flank. Our analysis combined models of Advanced Land Observing Satellite interferometric dike-intrusion displacement maps with continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) displacement vectors to show that deformation nearly identical to four previous SSEs at Kilauea occurred at far-field sites shortly after the intrusion. We model stress changes because of both secular deformation and the intrusion and find that both would increase the Coulomb failure stress on possible SSE slip surfaces by roughly the same amount. These results, in concert with the observation that none of the previous SSEs at Kilauea was directly preceded by intrusions but rather occurred during times of normal background deformation, suggest that both extrinsic (intrusion-triggering) and intrinsic (secular fault creep) fault processes can lead to SSEs.

An insight on correlations between kinematic rupture parameters from dynamic ruptures on rough faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thingbijam, Kiran Kumar; Galis, Martin; Vyas, Jagdish; Mai, P. Martin

2017-04-01

We examine the spatial interdependence between kinematic parameters of earthquake rupture, which include slip, rise-time (total duration of slip), acceleration time (time-to-peak slip velocity), peak slip velocity, and rupture velocity. These parameters were inferred from dynamic rupture models obtained by simulating spontaneous rupture on faults with varying degree of surface-roughness. We observe that the correlations between these parameters are better described by non-linear correlations (that is, on logarithm-logarithm scale) than by linear correlations. Slip and rise-time are positively correlated while these two parameters do not correlate with acceleration time, peak slip velocity, and rupture velocity. On the other hand, peak slip velocity correlates positively with rupture velocity but negatively with acceleration time. Acceleration time correlates negatively with rupture velocity. However, the observed correlations could be due to weak heterogeneity of the slip distributions given by the dynamic models. Therefore, the observed correlations may apply only to those parts of rupture plane with weak slip heterogeneity if earthquake-rupture associate highly heterogeneous slip distributions. Our findings will help to improve pseudo-dynamic rupture generators for efficient broadband ground-motion simulations for seismic hazard studies.

An Application of the Geo-Semantic Micro-services in Seamless Data-Model Integration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, P.; Elag, M.; Kumar, P.; Liu, R.; Hu, Y.; Marini, L.; Peckham, S. D.; Hsu, L.

2016-12-01

We are applying machine learning (ML) techniques to continuous acoustic emission (AE) data from laboratory earthquake experiments. Our goal is to apply explicit ML methods to this acoustic datathe AE in order to infer frictional properties of a laboratory fault. The experiment is a double direct shear apparatus comprised of fault blocks surrounding fault gouge comprised of glass beads or quartz powder. Fault characteristics are recorded, including shear stress, applied load (bulk friction = shear stress/normal load) and shear velocity. The raw acoustic signal is continuously recorded. We rely on explicit decision tree approaches (Random Forest and Gradient Boosted Trees) that allow us to identify important features linked to the fault friction. A training procedure that employs both the AE and the recorded shear stress from the experiment is first conducted. Then, testing takes place on data the algorithm has never seen before, using only the continuous AE signal. We find that these methods provide rich information regarding frictional processes during slip (Rouet-Leduc et al., 2017a; Hulbert et al., 2017). In addition, similar machine learning approaches predict failure times, as well as slip magnitudes in some cases. We find that these methods work for both stick slip and slow slip experiments, for periodic slip and for aperiodic slip. We also derive a fundamental relationship between the AE and the friction describing the frictional behavior of any earthquake slip cycle in a given experiment (Rouet-Leduc et al., 2017b). Our goal is to ultimately scale these approaches to Earth geophysical data to probe fault friction. References Rouet-Leduc, B., C. Hulbert, N. Lubbers, K. Barros, C. Humphreys and P. A. Johnson, Machine learning predicts laboratory earthquakes, in review (2017). https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.05774Rouet-LeDuc, B. et al., Friction Laws Derived From the Acoustic Emissions of a Laboratory Fault by Machine Learning (2017), AGU Fall Meeting Session S025: Earthquake source: from the laboratory to the fieldHulbert, C., Characterizing slow slip applying machine learning (2017), AGU Fall Meeting Session S019: Slow slip, Tectonic Tremor, and the Brittle-to-Ductile Transition Zone: What mechanisms control the diversity of slow and fast earthquakes?

Earthquake signatures from fast slip and dynamic fracture propagation: state of the art

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Griffith, W. A.; Rowe, C. D.

2014-12-01

Earthquakes are dynamic slip events that propagate along fault surfaces, radiating seismic waves. The majority of energy released is expended in heating and breaking of rocks along the fault. The fracture damage is linked to transient stress conditions at the rupture tip which only exist during dynamic slip, while the frictional heating depends on high velocity slip behind the rupture tip to generate heat energy faster than it can be dissipated, causing transient local temperature rise. One might think that extensive damage and alteration would result, creating an unambiguous geological fingerprint, but in fact, there are few unequivocal indicators for past seismic slip. In 1999, the rare fault rock pseudotachylyte (melt formed when frictional heating exceeds the solidus) was the only accepted evidence (Cowan, 1999). Recently, more indicators of fossilized earthquakes have been proposed. We define "evidence of past earthquakes" as evidence of either fast fault slip (at rates that only occur during earthquakes) or evidence of the propagation of dynamic rupture. We first summarize advances made in identifying evidence in the rock record of fast slip. Much of the work during the past 15 years has focused on integrating carefully controlled laboratory friction experiments, and constraints from numerical modeling, with field observations in an attempt to re-create structures observed in fault rocks and then relate these to the specific boundary conditions required to form them in the laboratory. This approach has yielded a number of advances in identifying textures and geochemical signatures diagnostic of fast slip via temperature rises which may not reach the bulk melting temperature of the fault rocks. Next, we focus on damage near the tip of shear ruptures propagating at velocities characteristic of earthquakes, an approach which has received less attention in the geological literature than fast slip but is equally diagnostic. Finally, we try to frame some of the remaining challenges in this field. These challenges include future work on diagnostic features of earthquake deformation along faults, but also a more philosophical discussion of what an earthquake actually is.

Regional Slip Tendency Analysis of the Great Basin Region

DOE Data Explorer

Faulds, James E.

2013-09-30

Slip and dilation tendency on the Great Basin fault surfaces (from the USGS Quaternary Fault Database) were calculated using 3DStress (software produced by Southwest Research Institute). Slip and dilation tendency are both unitless ratios of the resolved stresses applied to the fault plane by the measured ambient stress field. - Values range from a maximum of 1 (a fault plane ideally oriented to slip or dilate under ambient stress conditions) to zero (a fault plane with no potential to slip or dilate). - Slip and dilation tendency values were calculated for each fault in the Great Basin. As dip is unknown for many faults in the USGS Quaternary Fault Database, we made these calculations using the dip for each fault that would yield the maximum slip or dilation tendency. As such, these results should be viewed as maximum slip and dilation tendency. - The resulting along‐fault and fault‐to‐fault variation in slip or dilation potential is a proxy for along fault and fault‐to‐fault variation in fluid flow conduit potential. Stress Magnitudes and directions were calculated across the entire Great Basin. Stress field variation within each focus area was approximated based on regional published data and the world stress database (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson‐Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2010; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012; Moeck et al., 2010; Moos and Ronne, 2010 and Reinecker et al., 2005). The minimum horizontal stress direction (Shmin) was contoured, and spatial bins with common Shmin directions were calculated. Based on this technique, we subdivided the Great Basin into nine regions (Shmin <070, 070140). Slip and dilation tendency were calculated using 3DStress for the faults within each region using the mean Shmin for the region. Shmin variation throughout Great Basin are shown on Figure 3. For faults within the Great Basin proper, we applied a normal faulting stress regime, where the vertical stress (sv) is larger than the maximum horizontal stress (shmax), which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (sv>shmax>shmin). Based on visual inspection of the limited stress magnitude data in the Great Basin, we used magnitudes such that shmin/shmax = .527 and shmin/sv= .46. These values are consistent with stress magnitude data at both Dixie Valley (Hickman et al., 2000) and Yucca Mountain (Stock et al., 1985). For faults within the Walker Lane/Eastern California Shear Zone, we applied a strike‐slip faulting stress, where shmax > sv > shmin. Upon visual inspection of limited stress magnitude data from the Walker Lane and Eastern California Shear zone, we chose values such that SHmin/SHmax = .46 and Shmin/Sv= .527 representative of the region. Results: The results of our slip and dilation tendency analysis are shown in Figures 4 (dilation tendency), 5 (slip tendency) and 6 (slip tendency + dilation tendency). Shmin varies from northwest to east‐west trending throughout much of the Great Basin. As such, north‐ to northeast‐striking faults have the highest tendency to slip and to dilate, depending on the local trend of shmin. These results provide a first order filter on faults and fault systems in the Great Basin, affording focusing of local‐scale exploration efforts for blind or hidden geothermal resources.

New Geologic Data on the Seismic Risks of the Most Dangerous Fault on Shore in Central Japan, the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line Active Fault System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okumura, K.; Kondo, H.; Toda, S.; Takada, K.; Kinoshita, H.

2006-12-01

Ten years have past since the first official assessment of the long-term seismic risks of the Itoigawa-Shizuoka tectonic line active fault system (ISTL) in 1996. The disaster caused by the1995 Kobe (Hyogo-ken-Nanbu) earthquake urged the Japanese government to initiated a national project to assess the long-term seismic risks of on-shore active faults using geologic information. ISTL was the first target of the 98 significant faults and the probability of a M7 to M8 event turned out to be the highest among them. After the 10 years of continued efforts to understand the ISTL, now it is getting ready to revise the assessment. Fault mapping and segmentation: The most active segment of the Gofukuji fault (~1 cm/yr left-lateral strike slip, R=500~800 yrs.) had been maped only for less than 10 km. Adjacent segments were much less active. This large slip on such a short segment was contradictory. However, detailed topographic study including Lidar survey revealed the length of the Gofukuji fault to be 25 km or more. High slip rate with frequent earthquakes may be restricted to the Gofukuji fault while the 1996 assessment modeled frequent >100 km rupture scenario. The geometry of the fault is controversial especially on the left-lateral strike-slip section of the ISTL. There are two models of high-angle Middel ISTL and low-angle Middle ISTL with slip partitioning. However, all geomorphic and shallow geologic data supports high-angle almost pure strike slip on the faults in the Middle ISTL. CRIEPI's 3- dimensional trenching in several sites as well as the previous results clearly demonstrated repeated pure strike-slip offset during past a few events. In Middle ISTL, there is no evidence of recent activity of pre-existing low-angle thrust faults that are inferred to be active from shallow seismic survey. Separation of high (~3000 m) mountain ranges and low (<1000 m) basin floor requires significant dip-slip component, but basin-fill sediments and geology of the range do not need vertical separation along the Gofukuji fault. The key issue for the time-dependent assessment of the Northern ISTL (east dipping reverse faults) was the lack of reliable time constraints on past earthquakes. In order to solve this problem, we have carried out intensive geoslicer and boring survey of buried faults at Kisaki. Along a 35 m long transect, we collected total 150 m complete cores in 9 geoslicer and 5 all-core boring holes. This is one of the most intensive surveys of a buried fault scarp under the water table. About 20 m vertical offset of 6000-year-old buried A-horizon is now underlain by a series of flood deposits, point bars and over-bank sediments, that intercalates 2 or 3 faulting events. The precise timing and offset of each event recorded in the section will be the critical evidence to tell the synchroneity of earthquakes in the Northern ISTL and the Middle ISTL. The magnitude of the coming event on ISTL is the most important but uncertain parameter of the 1996 assessment. The structural and paleoseimological information will present better constraints on the earthquake.

Observations, models, and mechanisms of failure of surface rocks surrounding planetary surface loads

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schultz, R. A.; Zuber, M. T.

1994-01-01

Geophysical models of flexural stresses in an elastic lithosphere due to an axisymmetric surface load typically predict a transition with increased distance from the center of the load of radial thrust faults to strike-slip faults to concentric normal faults. These model predictions are in conflict with the absence of annular zones of strike-slip faults around prominent loads such as lunar maria, Martian volcanoes, and the Martian Tharsis rise. We suggest that this paradox arises from difficulties in relating failure criteria for brittle rocks to the stress models. Indications that model stresses are inappropriate for use in fault-type prediction include (1) tensile principal stresses larger than realistic values of rock tensile strength, and/or (2) stress differences significantly larger than those allowed by rock-strength criteria. Predictions of surface faulting that are consistent with observations can be obtained instead by using tensile and shear failure criteria, along with calculated stress differences and trajectories, with model stress states not greatly in excess of the maximum allowed by rock fracture criteria.

Geodetic constraints on the 2014 M 6.0 South Napa earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Barnhart, William D.; Murray, Jessica R.; Yun, S H; Svarc, Jerry L.; Samsonov, SV; Fielding, EJ; Brooks, Benjamin A.; Milillo, Pietro

2014-01-01

On 24 August 2014, the M 6.0 South Napa earthquake shook much of the San Francisco Bay area, leading to significant damage in the Napa Valley. The earthquake occurred in the vicinity of the West Napa fault (122.313° W, 38.22° N, 11.3 km), a mapped structure located between the Rodger’s Creek and Green Valley faults, with nearly pure right‐lateral strike‐slip motion (strike 157°, dip 77°, rake –169°; http://comcat.cr.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72282711#summary, last accessed December 2014) (Fig. 1). The West Napa fault previously experienced an M 5 strike‐slip event in 2000 but otherwise exhibited no previous definitive evidence of historic earthquake rupture (Rodgers et al., 2008; Wesling and Hanson, 2008). Evans et al. (2012) found slip rates of ∼9.5  mm/yr along the West Napa fault, with most slip rate models for the Bay area placing higher slip rates and greater earthquake potential on the Rodger’s Creek and Green Valley faults, respectively (e.g., Savage et al., 1999; d’Alessio et al., 2005; Funning et al., 2007).

Modeling Of Spontaneous Multiscale Roughening And Branching of Ruptures Propagating On A Slip-Weakening Frictional Fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elbanna, A. E.

2013-12-01

Numerous field and experimental observations suggest that faults surfaces are rough at multiple scales and tend to produce a wide range of branch sizes ranging from micro-branching to large scale secondary faults. The development and evolution of fault roughness and branching is believed to play an important role in rupture dynamics and energy partitioning. Previous work by several groups has succeeded in determining conditions under which a main rupture may branch into a secondary fault. Recently, there great progress has been made in investigating rupture propagation on rough faults with and without off-fault plasticity. Nonetheless, in most of these models the heterogeneity, whether the roughness profile or the secondary faults orientation, was built into the system from the beginning and consequently the final outcome depends strongly on the initial conditions. Here we introduce an adaptive mesh technique for modeling mode-II crack propagation on slip weakening frictional interfaces. We use a Finite Element Framework with random mesh topology that adapts to crack dynamics through element splitting and sequential insertion of frictional interfaces dictated by the failure criterion. This allows the crack path to explore non-planar paths and develop the roughness profile that is most compatible with the dynamical constraints. It also enables crack branching at different scales. We quantify energy dissipation due to the roughening process and small scale branching. We compare the results of our model to a reference case for propagation on a planar fault. We show that the small scale processes of roughening and branching influence many characteristics of the rupture propagation including the energy partitioning, rupture speed and peak slip rates. We also estimate the fracture energy required for propagating a crack on a planar fault that will be required to produce comparable results. We anticipate that this modeling approach provides an attractive methodology that complements the current efforts in modeling off-fault plasticity and damage.

Denali fault slip rates and Holocene-late Pleistocene kinematics of central Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Matmon, A.; Schwartz, D.P.; Haeussler, Peter J.; Finkel, R.; Lienkaemper, J.J.; Stenner, Heidi D.; Dawson, T.E.

2006-01-01

The Denali fault is the principal intracontinental strike-slip fault accommodating deformation of interior Alaska associated with the Yakutat plate convergence. We obtained the first quantitative late Pleistocene-Holocene slip rates on the Denali fault system from dating offset geomorphic features. Analysis of cosmogenic 10Be concentrations in boulders (n = 27) and sediment (n = 13) collected at seven sites, offset 25-170 m by the Denali and Totschunda faults, gives average ages that range from 2.4 ± 0.3 ka to 17.0 ± 1.8 ka. These offsets and ages yield late Pleistocene-Holocene average slip rates of 9.4 ± 1.6, 12.1 ± 1.7, and 8.4 ± 2.2 mm/yr-1 along the western, central, and eastern Denali fault, respectively, and 6.0 ± 1.2 mm/yr-1 along the Totschunda fault. Our results suggest a westward decrease in the mean Pleistocene-Holocene slip rate. This westward decrease likely results from partitioning of slip from the Denali fault system to thrust faults to the north and west. 2006 Geological Society of America.

The Baja California Borderland and the Neogene Evolution of the Pacific-North American Plate Boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fletcher, J. M.; Eakins, B. W.

2001-12-01

New observational data on Neogene faulting in the borderland of Baja California places important constraints on tectonic models for the evolution of the Pacific-North American (P-NA) plate boundary and rifting in the Gulf of California. Neogene faults in the borderland range from strike slip to normal slip and accommodate integrated transtension. Most have east-facing escarpments and likely reactivate the former east-dipping accretionary complex. Numerous lines of evidence indicate that Neogene faults are still active and accomplish a significant component ( ~1-5 mm/yr) of Pacific-North American shearing. Quaternary volcanoes are found offshore and along the Pacific coastal margin, Quaternary marine terraces are warped and uplifted as high as 200 masl. Many of the offshore faults have fresh escarpments and cut Holocene sediments. Extensive arrays of Quaternary fault scarps are found throughout the coastal region and in Bahia Magdalena they are clearly associated with major faults that bound recently uplifted islands. A prominent band of seismicity follows the coast and eight earthquakes (Ms>5.0) were teleseismically recorded between 1973 and 1998. This evidence for active shearing indicates that the Baja microplate has not yet been completely transferred to the Pacific plate. The best lithologic correlation that can be used to define the total Neogene slip across the borderland faults is the offset between the Magdalena submarine fan and its Baja source terrane. The distal facies of the fan drilled during DSDP leg 63 is dominated by mudstone and siltstone that contain reworked Paleogene cocoliths derived from strata correlative with the Tepetate formation found throughout the borderland and fine-grained sandstone derived from a source terrane of granitoid basement. The Middle Miocene La Calera formation of the Cabo trough is one of many granitoid-clast syn-rift alluvial deposits that could form the continental counterpart of the submarine fan near the mouth of the proto-gulf. However, regardless of the exact source, the Magdalena fan must have been transported beyond a major submarine canyon system south of Todos Santos by 13.5 Ma when sedimentation rates significantly diminished. This places a maximum of { ~}200 km total slip on the borderland faults since 13.5 Ma. Alternatively, all components of the Magdalena fan could have been derived from reworking Cenozoic strata within the borderland. The sandstone facies could be derived from the Oligocene El Cien Fm., which is a granitoid clast conglomerate that overlies the Tepetate Fm. and crops out ~100 km west of La Paz. If true, the total slip across borderland faults may be only a few tens of kilometers. Key structural relations along the submarine Tosco-Abreojos fault system support this lower slip estimate including: relatively short ({ ~}30 km width) pull-apart basins, correlative strata on either side of the fault, and a strong pattern of splaying, which indicates a lateral termination only { ~}50 km to the SE of the Magdalena fan. These new observations require significant modifications to existing tectonic models, which usually assign { ~}300 km of offset to the borderland. Lower finite slip estimates suggest that the borderland may not have formed the main P-NA plate boundary and long-term Neogene slip rates need not be significantly different from Quaternary slip rates. Lower finite slip estimates also allow stronger correlations between Farallon derived microplates and the patterns of Neogene faulting, volcanism, topographic variations, and surface heat flow in the overlying continental crust of Baja California.

Fault zone structure and seismic reflection characteristics in zones of slow slip and tsunami earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, Rebecca; Henrys, Stuart; Sutherland, Rupert; Barker, Daniel; Wallace, Laura; Holden, Caroline; Power, William; Wang, Xiaoming; Morgan, Joanna; Warner, Michael; Downes, Gaye

2015-04-01

Over the last couple of decades we have learned that a whole spectrum of different fault slip behaviour takes place on subduction megathrust faults from stick-slip earthquakes to slow slip and stable sliding. Geophysical data, including seismic reflection data, can be used to characterise margins and fault zones that undergo different modes of slip. In this presentation we will focus on the Hikurangi margin, New Zealand, which exhibits marked along-strike changes in seismic behaviour and margin characteristics. Campaign and continuous GPS measurements reveal deep interseismic coupling and deep slow slip events (~30-60 km) at the southern Hikurangi margin. The northern margin, in contrast, experiences aseismic slip and shallow (<10-15 km) slow slip events (SSE) every 18-24 months with equivalent moment magnitudes of Mw 6.5-6.8. Updip of the SSE region two unusual megathrust earthquakes occurred in March and May 1947 with characteristics typical of tsunami earthquakes. The Hikurangi margin is therefore an excellent natural laboratory to study differential fault slip behaviour. Using 2D seismic reflection, magnetic anomaly and geodetic data we observe in the source areas of the 1947 tsunami earthquakes i) low amplitude interface reflectivity, ii) shallower interface relief, iii) bathymetric ridges, iv) magnetic anomaly highs and in the case of the March 1947 earthquake v) stronger geodetic coupling. We suggest that this is due to the subduction of seamounts, similar in dimensions to seamounts observed on the incoming Pacific plate, to depths of <10 km. We propose a source model for the 1947 tsunami earthquakes based on geophysical data and find that extremely low rupture velocities (c. 300 m/s) are required to model the observed large tsunami run-up heights (Bell et al. 2014, EPSL). Our study suggests that subducted topography can cause the nucleation of moderate earthquakes with complex, low velocity rupture scenarios that enhance tsunami waves, and the role of subducted rough topography in seismic hazard should not be under-estimated. 2D seismic reflection data along the northern Hikurangi margin also image thick (c. 2 km) high-amplitude reflectivity zones (HRZ) coinciding broadly with the source areas of shallow SSEs. The HRZ may be the result of high-fluid content within subduction sediments, suggesting fluids may exert an important control on the generation of SSEs by reducing effective stress (Bell et al. 2010, GJI). However, this hypothesis remains untested. In this presentation, using synthetic models, we will discuss planned future applications of an advanced seismic imaging technique called Full-waveform inversion, integrated with drilling, at subduction margins like Hikurangi to recover fault physical properties at high-resolution in 3D to examine the properties of heterogeneous fault zones.

Paleogeodesy of the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains Frontal Thrusts, Silicon Valley, CA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aron, F.; Johnstone, S. A.; Mavrommatis, A. P.; Sare, R.; Hilley, G. E.

2015-12-01

We present a method to infer long-term fault slip rate distributions using topography by coupling a three-dimensional elastic boundary element model with a geomorphic incision rule. In particular, we used a 10-m-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) to calculate channel steepness (ksn) throughout the actively deforming southern Santa Cruz Mountains in Central California. We then used these values with a power-law incision rule and the Poly3D code to estimate slip rates over seismogenic, kilometer-scale thrust faults accommodating differential uplift of the relief throughout geologic time. Implicit in such an analysis is the assumption that the topographic surface remains unchanged over time as rock is uplifted by slip on the underlying structures. The fault geometries within the area are defined based on surface mapping, as well as active and passive geophysical imaging. Fault elements are assumed to be traction-free in shear (i.e., frictionless), while opening along them is prohibited. The free parameters in the inversion include the components of the remote strain-rate tensor (ɛij) and the bedrock resistance to channel incision (K), which is allowed to vary according to the mapped distribution of geologic units exposed at the surface. The nonlinear components of the geomorphic model required the use of a Markov chain Monte Carlo method, which simulated the posterior density of the components of the remote strain-rate tensor and values of K for the different mapped geologic units. Interestingly, posterior probability distributions of ɛij and K fall well within the broad range of reported values, suggesting that the joint use of elastic boundary element and geomorphic models may have utility in estimating long-term fault slip-rate distributions. Given an adequate DEM, geologic mapping, and fault models, the proposed paleogeodetic method could be applied to other crustal faults with geological and morphological expressions of long-term uplift.

Observations that Constrain the Scaling of Apparent Stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McGarr, A.; Fletcher, J. B.

2002-12-01

Slip models developed for major earthquakes are composed of distributions of fault slip, rupture time, and slip velocity time function over the rupture surface, as divided into many smaller subfaults. Using a recently-developed technique, the seismic energy radiated from each subfault can be estimated from the time history of slip there and the average rupture velocity. Total seismic energies, calculated by summing contributions from all of the subfaults, agree reasonably well with independent estimates based on seismic energy flux in the far-field at regional or teleseismic distances. Two recent examples are the 1999 Izmit, Turkey and the 1999 Hector Mine, California earthquakes for which the NEIS teleseismic measurements of radiated energy agree fairly closely with seismic energy estimates from several different slip models, developed by others, for each of these events. Similar remarks apply to the 1989 Loma Prieta, 1992 Landers, and 1995 Kobe earthquakes. Apparent stresses calculated from these energy and moment results do not indicate any moment or magnitude dependence. The distributions of both fault slip and seismic energy radiation over the rupture surfaces of earthquakes are highly inhomogeneous. These results from slip models, combined with underground and seismic observations of slip for much smaller mining-induced earthquakes, can provide stronger constraint on the possible scaling of apparent stress with moment magnitude M or seismic moment. Slip models for major earthquakes in the range M6.2 to M7.4 show maximum slips ranging from 1.6 to 8 m. Mining-induced earthquakes at depths near 2000 m in South Africa are associated with peak slips of 0.2 to 0.37 m for events of M4.4 to M4.6. These maximum slips, whether derived from a slip model or directly observed underground in a deep gold mine, scale quite definitively as the cube root of the seismic moment. In contrast, peak slip rates (maximum subfault slip/rise time) appear to be scale invariant. A 1.25 m/s slip rate for one of the mining-induced earthquakes was estimated by dividing the corresponding slip observed at depth by the duration of the seismically-recorded slip pulse. Peak slip rates determined from the slip models for the major earthquakes are similar, ranging from about 0.8 to 4.8 m/s. Thus, for earthquakes in the moment magnitude range 4.4 to 7.4, the peak slip rate shows no dependence on M. Whatever variation there is in slip rate is probably due to factors related to the strength of the seismogenic rock mass such as depth. These observations support the idea that apparent stress does not vary systematically with seismic moment inasmuch as the apparent stress is determined by slip rate. Indeed, our finding that fault behavior of M4.4 earthquakes can be scaled readily to events of M greater than 7 with slips up to about 8 m suggests, quite persuasively, that the source physics for crustal earthquakes is much the same over this magnitude range. Interestingly, the mining-induced earthquakes involved brittle failure across very old pre-existing faults for which the cohesive strength is high and the pore pressure is zero, due to mining operations.

Active faulting, earthquakes, and restraining bend development near Kerman city in southeastern Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Richard Thomas; Talebian, Morteza; Saiffori, Sohei; Sloan, Robert Alastair; Rasheedi, Ali; MacBean, Natasha; Ghassemi, Abbas

2010-08-01

We provide descriptions of strike-slip and reverse faulting, active within the late Quaternary, in the vicinity of Kerman city in southeastern Iran. The faults accommodate north-south, right-lateral, shear between central Iran and the Dasht-e-Lut depression. The regions that we describe have been subject to numerous earthquakes in the historical and instrumental periods, and many of the faults that are documented in this paper constitute hazards for local populations, including the city of Kerman itself (population ˜200,000). Faults to the north and east of Kerman are associated with the transfer of slip from the Gowk to the Kuh Banan right-lateral faults across a 40 km-wide restraining bend. Faults south and west of the city are associated with oblique slip on the Mahan and Jorjafk systems. The patterns of faulting observed along the Mahan-Jorjafk system, the Gowk-Kuh Banan system, and also the Rafsanjan-Rayen system further to the south, appear to preserve different stages in the development of these oblique-slip fault systems. We suggest that the faulting evolves through time. Topography is initially generated on oblique slip faults (as is seen on the Jorjafk fault). The shortening component then migrates to reverse faults situated away from the high topography whereas strike-slip continues to be accommodated in the high, mountainous, regions (as is seen, for example, on the Rafsanjan fault). The reverse faults may then link together and eventually evolve into new, through-going, strike-slip faults in a process that appears to be occurring, at present, in the bend between the Gowk and Kuh Banan faults.

Dynamic Modelling of Fault Slip Induced by Stress Waves due to Stope Production Blasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sainoki, Atsushi; Mitri, Hani S.

2016-01-01

Seismic events can take place due to the interaction of stress waves induced by stope production blasts with faults located in close proximity to stopes. The occurrence of such seismic events needs to be controlled to ensure the safety of the mine operators and the underground mine workings. This paper presents the results of a dynamic numerical modelling study of fault slip induced by stress waves resulting from stope production blasts. First, the calibration of a numerical model having a single blast hole is performed using a charge weight scaling law to determine blast pressure and damping coefficient of the rockmass. Subsequently, a numerical model of a typical Canadian metal mine encompassing a fault parallel to a tabular ore deposit is constructed, and the simulation of stope extraction sequence is carried out with static analyses until the fault exhibits slip burst conditions. At that point, the dynamic analysis begins by applying the calibrated blast pressure to the stope wall in the form of velocities generated by the blast holes. It is shown from the results obtained from the dynamic analysis that the stress waves reflected on the fault create a drop of normal stresses acting on the fault, which produces a reduction in shear stresses while resulting in fault slip. The influence of blast sequences on the behaviour of the fault is also examined assuming several types of blast sequences. Comparison of the blast sequence simulation results indicates that performing simultaneous blasts symmetrically induces the same level of seismic events as separate blasts, although seismic energy is more rapidly released when blasts are performed symmetrically. On the other hand when nine blast holes are blasted simultaneously, a large seismic event is induced, compared to the other two blasts. It is concluded that the separate blasts might be employed under the adopted geological conditions. The developed methodology and procedure to arrive at an ideal blast sequence can be applied to other mines where faults are found in the vicinity of stopes.

Numerical Modeling Describing the Effects of Heterogeneous Distributions of Asperities on the Quasi-static Evolution of Frictional Slip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selvadurai, P. A.; Parker, J. M.; Glaser, S. D.

2017-12-01

A better understanding of how slip accumulates along faults and its relation to the breakdown of shear stress is beneficial to many engineering disciplines, such as, hydraulic fracture and understanding induced seismicity (among others). Asperities forming along a preexisting fault resist the relative motion of the two sides of the interface and occur due to the interaction of the surface topographies. Here, we employ a finite element model to simulate circular partial slip asperities along a nominally flat frictional interface. Shear behavior of our partial slip asperity model closely matched the theory described by Cattaneo. The asperity model was employed to simulate a small section of an experimental fault formed between two bodies of polymethyl methacrylate, which consisted of multiple asperities whose location and sizes were directly measured using a pressure sensitive film. The quasi-static shear behavior of the interface was modeled for cyclical loading conditions, and the frictional dissipation (hysteresis) was normal stress dependent. We further our understanding by synthetically modeling lognormal size distributions of asperities that were randomly distributed in space. Synthetic distributions conserved the real contact area and aspects of the size distributions from the experimental case, allowing us to compare the constitutive behaviors based solely on spacing effects. Traction-slip behavior of the experimental interface appears to be considerably affected by spatial clustering of asperities that was not present in the randomly spaced, synthetic asperity distributions. Estimates of bulk interfacial shear stiffness were determined from the constitutive traction-slip behavior and were comparable to the theoretical estimates of multi-contact interfaces with non-interacting asperities.

Are recent empirical directivity models sufficient in capturing near-fault directivity effect?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yen-Shin; Cotton, Fabrice; Pagani, Marco; Weatherill, Graeme; Reshi, Owais; Mai, Martin

2017-04-01

It has been widely observed that the ground motion variability in the near field can be significantly higher than that commonly reported in published GMPEs, and this has been suggested to be a consequence of directivity. To capture the spatial variation in ground motion amplitude and frequency caused by the near-fault directivity effect, several models for engineering applications have been developed using empirical or, more recently, the combination of empirical and simulation data. Many research works have indicated that the large velocity pulses mainly observed in the near-field are primarily related to slip heterogeneity (i.e., asperities), suggesting that the slip heterogeneity is a more dominant controlling factor than the rupture velocity or source rise time function. The first generation of broadband directivity models for application in ground motion prediction do not account for heterogeneity of slip and rupture speed. With the increased availability of strong motion recordings (e.g., NGA-West 2 database) in the near-fault region, the directivity models moved from broadband to narrowband models to include the magnitude dependence of the period of the rupture directivity pulses, wherein the pulses are believed to be closely related to the heterogeneity of slip distribution. After decades of directivity models development, does the latest generation of models - i.e. the one including narrowband directivity models - better capture the near-fault directivity effects, particularly in presence of strong slip heterogeneity? To address this question, a set of simulated motions for an earthquake rupture scenario, with various kinematic slip models and hypocenter locations, are used as a basis for a comparison with the directivity models proposed by the NGA-West 2 project for application with ground motion prediction equations incorporating a narrowband directivity model. The aim of this research is to gain better insights on the accuracy of narrowband directivity models under conditions commonly encountered in the real world. Our preliminary result shows that empirical models including directivity factors better predict physics based ground-motion and their spatial variability than classical empirical models. However, the results clearly indicate that it is still a challenge for the directivity models to capture the strong directivity effect if a high level of slip heterogeneity is involved during the source rupture process.

Latest Quaternary paleoseismology and evidence of distributed dextral shear along the Mohawk Valley fault zone, northern Walker Lane, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gold, Ryan D.; Briggs, Richard; Personius, Stephen; Crone, Anthony J.; Mahan, Shannon; Angster, Stephen

2014-01-01

The dextral-slip Mohawk Valley fault zone (MVFZ) strikes northwestward along the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada in the northern Walker Lane. Geodetic block modeling indicates that the MVFZ may accommodate ~3 mm/yr of regional dextral strain, implying that it is the highest slip-rate strike-slip fault in the region; however, only limited geologic data are available to constrain the system’s slip rate and earthquake history. We mapped the MVFZ using airborne lidar data and field observations and identified a site near Sulphur Creek for paleoseismic investigation. At this site, oblique dextral-normal faulting on the steep valley margin has created a closed depression that floods annually during spring snowmelt to form an ephemeral pond. We excavated three fault-perpendicular trenches at the site and exposed pond sediment that interfingers with multiple colluvial packages eroded from the scarp that bounds the eastern side of the pond. We documented evidence for four surface-rupturing earthquakes on this strand of the MVFZ. OxCal modeling of radiocarbon and luminescence ages indicates that these earthquakes occurred at 14.0 ka, 12.8 ka, 5.7 ka, and 1.9 ka. The mean ~4 kyr recurrence interval is inconsistent with slip rates of ~3 mm/yr; these rates imply surface ruptures of more than 10 m per event, which is geologically implausible for the subdued geomorphic expression and 60 km length of the MVFZ. We propose that unidentified structures not yet incorporated into geodetic models may accommodate significant dextral shear across the northern Walker Lane, highlighting the role of distributed deformation in this region.

Late Quaternary slip rate determination by CRN dating on the Haiyuan fault, China, and implication for complex geometry fault systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matrau, Rémi; Klinger, Yann; Van der Woerd, Jérôme; Liu-Zeng, Jing; Li, Zhanfei; Xu, Xiwei

2017-04-01

Late Quaternary slip rate determination by CRN dating on the Haiyuan fault, China, and implication for complex geometry fault systems Matrau Rémi, Klinger Yann, Van der Woerd Jérôme, Liu-Zeng Jing, Li Zhanfei, Xu Xiwei The Haiyuan fault in Gansu Province, China, is a major left-lateral strike-slip fault forming the northeastern boundary of the Tibetan plateau and accommodating part of the deformation from the India-Asia collision. Geomorphic and geodetic studies of the Haiyuan fault show slip rates ranging from 4 mm/yr to 19 mm/yr from east to west along 500 km of the fault. Such discrepancy could be explained by the complex geometry of the fault system, leading to slip distribution on multiple branches. Combining displacement measurements of alluvial terraces from high-resolution Pléiades images and 10Be - 26Al cosmogenic radionuclides (CRN) dating, we bracket the late Quaternary slip rate along the Hasi Shan fault segment (37°00' N, 104°25' E). At our calibration site, terrace riser offsets for 5 terraces ranging from 6 m to 227 m and CRN ages ranging from 6.5±0.6 kyr to 41±4 kyr - yield geological left-lateral slip rates from 2.0 mm/yr to 4.4 mm/yr. We measured consistent terrace riser offset values along the entire 25 km-long segment, which suggests that some external forcing controls the regional river-terrace emplacement, regardless of each specific catchment. Hence, we extend our slip rate determination to the entire Hasi Shan fault segment to be 4.0±1.0 mm/yr since the last 40 kyr. This rate is consistent with other long-term rates of 4 mm/yr to 5 mm/yr east and west of Hasi Shan - as well as geodetic rates of 4 mm/yr to 6 mm/yr west of Hasi Shan. However, Holocene terraces and moraines offsets have suggested higher rates of 15 to 20 mm/yr further west. Such disparate rates may be explained by slip distribution on multiple branches. In particular, the Zhongwei fault splay in the central part of the Haiyuan fault, with a slip rate of 4-5 mm/yr could partly explain the faster rates on the western single stranded Haiyuan fault. In addition we constrained 0.55±0.1 mm/yr of uplift rate along the Hasi Shan, where the fault strike veers southward, indicating slip partitioning. Our slip rate along the Hasi Shan segment is consistent with most of the long-term and short-term slip rates ( 5 mm/yr) measured along the central and eastern parts of the Haiyuan fault. However the discrepancy with other studies to the west highlights the major implication of complex geometries on the slip distribution over large fault systems.

Long-period spectral features of the Sumatra-Andaman 2004 earthquake rupture process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clévédé, E.; Bukchin, B.; Favreau, P.; Mostinskiy, A.; Aoudia, A.; Panza, G. F.

2012-12-01

The goal of this study is to investigate the spatial variability of the seismic radiation spectral content of the Sumatra-Andaman 2004 earthquake. We determine the integral estimates of source geometry, duration and rupture propagation given by the stress glut moments of total degree 2 of different source models. These models are constructed from a single or a joint use of different observations including seismology, geodesy, altimetry and tide gauge data. The comparative analysis shows coherency among the different models and no strong contradictions are found between the integral estimates of geodetic and altimetric models, and those retrieved from very long period seismic records (up to 2000-3000 s). The comparison between these results and the integral estimates derived from observed surface wave spectra in period band from 500 to 650 s suggests that the northern part of the fault (to the north of 8°N near Nicobar Islands) did not radiate long period seismic waves, that is, period shorter than 650 s at least. This conclusion is consistent with the existing composite short and long rise time tsunami model: with short rise time of slip in the southern part of the fault and very long rise time of slip at the northern part. This complex space-time slip evolution can be reproduced by a simple dynamic model of the rupture assuming a crude phenomenological mechanical behaviour of the rupture interface at the fault scales combining an effective slip-controlled exponential weakening effect, related to possible friction and damage breakdown processes of the fault zone, and an effective linear viscous strengthening effect, related to possible interface lubrication processes. While the rupture front speed remains unperturbed with initial short slip duration, a slow creep wave propagates behind the rupture front in the case of viscous effects accounting for the long slip duration and the radiation characteristics in the northern segment.

Pseudotachylyte increases the post-slip strength of faults

USGS Publications Warehouse

Proctor, Brooks; Lockner, David A.

2016-01-01

Solidified frictional melts, or pseudotachylytes, are observed in exhumed faults from across the seismogenic zone. These unique fault rocks, and many experimental studies, suggest that frictional melting can be an important process during earthquakes. However, it remains unknown how melting affects the post-slip strength of the fault and why many exhumed faults do not contain pseudotachylyte. Analyses of triaxial stick-slip events on Westerly Granite (Rhode Island, USA) sawcuts at confining pressures from 50 to 400 MPa show evidence for frictional heating, including some events energetic enough to generate surface melt. Total and partial stress drops were observed with slip as high as 6.5 mm. We find that in dry samples following melt-producing stick slip, the shear failure strength increased as much as 50 MPa, while wet samples had <10 MPa strengthening. Microstructural analysis indicates that the strengthening is caused by welding of the slip surface during melt quenching, suggesting that natural pseudotachylytes may also strengthen faults after earthquakes. These results predict that natural pseudotachylyte will inhibit slip reactivation and possibly generate stress heterogeneities along faults. Wet samples do not exhibit melt welding, possibly because of thermal pressurization of water reducing frictional heating during slip.

Capturing Postseismic Processes of the 2016 Mw 7.1 Kumamoto Earthquake, Japan, Using Dense, Continuous GPS and Short-repeat Time ALOS-2 InSAR Data: Implications for the Shallow Slip Deficit Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milliner, C. W. D.; Burgmann, R.; Wang, T.; Inbal, A.; Bekaert, D. P.; Liang, C.; Fielding, E. J.

2017-12-01

Separating the contribution of shallow coseismic slip from rapidly decaying, postseismic afterslip in surface rupturing events has been difficult to resolve due to the typically sparse configuration of GPS networks and long-repeat time of InSAR acquisitions. Whether shallow fault motion along surface ruptures is a result of coseismic slip, or largely a product of rapid afterslip occurring within the first minutes to days, has significant implications for our understanding of the mechanics and frictional behavior of faulting in the shallow crust. To test this behavior in the case of a major surface rupturing event, we attempt to quantify the co- and postseismic slip of the 2016 Mw 7.1 Kumamoto earthquake sequence using a dense and continuous GPS network ( 10 km spacing), with short-repeat time, ALOS-2 InSAR data. Using the Network Inversion Filter method, we jointly invert the GPS and InSAR data to obtain a time history of afterslip in the first minutes to months following the mainshock. From our initial results, we find no clear evidence of significant shallow afterslip (i.e., no observable slip > 30 cm at depths of < 3 km, a minimum resolvable value), that could account for the 1 m of coseismic deficit of shallow slip inferred from our static finite-fault inversion. Our results show, aside from significant volumetric changes related to poroelastic processes, the majority of shallow fault slip was largely complete after rupture cessation. We also attempt to improve our coseismic slip model by implementing a method that inverts changes in seismicity rates for coseismic slip, helping constrain parts of the model space at depth where geodetic data loses resolving power. The use of geodetic data with the ability to resolve near-field, coseismic deformation and rapidly decaying postseismic processes will aid in our understanding of the frictional properties of shallow faulting, giving more reliable predictions for ground motion simulations and seismic hazard assessments.

Slip and Dilation Tendency Anlysis of Neal Hot Springs Geothermal Area

DOE Data Explorer

Faulds, James E.

2013-12-31

Slip and Dilation Tendency in focus areas Critically stressed fault segments have a relatively high likelihood of acting as fluid flow conduits (Sibson, 1994). As such, the tendency of a fault segment to slip (slip tendency; Ts; Morris et al., 1996) or to dilate (dilation tendency; Td; Ferrill et al., 1999) provides an indication of which faults or fault segments within a geothermal system are critically stressed and therefore likely to transmit geothermal fluids. The slip tendency of a surface is defined by the ratio of shear stress to normal stress on that surface: Ts = τ / σn (Morris et al., 1996). Dilation tendency is defined by the stress acting normal to a given surface: Td = (σ1-σn) / (σ1-σ3) (Ferrill et al., 1999). Slip and dilation were calculated using 3DStress (Southwest Research Institute). Slip and dilation tendency are both unitless ratios of the resolved stresses applied to the fault plane by ambient stress conditions. Values range from a maximum of 1, a fault plane ideally oriented to slip or dilate under ambient stress conditions to zero, a fault plane with no potential to slip or dilate. Slip and dilation tendency values were calculated for each fault in the focus study areas at, McGinness Hills, Neal Hot Springs, Patua, Salt Wells, San Emidio, and Tuscarora on fault traces. As dip is not well constrained or unknown for many faults mapped in within these we made these calculations using the dip for each fault that would yield the maximum slip tendency or dilation tendency. As such, these results should be viewed as maximum tendency of each fault to slip or dilate. The resulting along-fault and fault-to-fault variation in slip or dilation potential is a proxy for along fault and fault-to-fault variation in fluid flow conduit potential. Stress Magnitudes and directions Stress field variation within each focus area was approximated based on regional published data and the world stress database (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2010; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012; Moeck et al., 2010; Moos and Ronne, 2010 and Reinecker et al., 2005) as well as local stress information if applicable. For faults within these focus systems we applied either a normal faulting stress regime where the vertical stress (sv) is larger than the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (sv>shmax>shmin) or strike-slip faulting stress regime where the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) is larger than the vertical stress (sv) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (shmax >sv>shmin) depending on the general tectonic province of the system. Based on visual inspection of the limited stress magnitude data in the Great Basin we used magnitudes such that shmin/shmax = .527 and shmin/sv= .46, which are consistent with complete and partial stress field determinations from Desert Peak, Coso, the Fallon area and Dixie valley (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2011; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012). Based on inversion of fault kinematic data, Edwards (2013) interpreted that two discrete stress orientations are preserved at Neal Hot Springs. An older episode of east-west directed extension and a younger episode of southwest-northeast directed sinistral, oblique -normal extension. This interpretation is consistent with the evolution of Cenozoic tectonics in the region (Edwards, 2013). As such we applied a southwest-northeast (060) directed normal faulting stress regime, consistent with the younger extensional episode, to the Neal Hot Springs faults. Under these stress conditions northeast striking steeply dipping fault segments have the highest tendency to dilate and northeast striking 60° dipping fault segments have the highest tendency to slip. Under these stress condition...

Block modeling of crustal deformation in Tierra del Fuego from GNSS velocities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mendoza, L.; Richter, A.; Fritsche, M.; Hormaechea, J. L.; Perdomo, R.; Dietrich, R.

2015-05-01

The Tierra del Fuego (TDF) main island is divided by a major transform boundary between the South America and Scotia tectonic plates. Using a block model, we infer slip rates, locking depths and inclinations of active faults in TDF from inversion of site velocities derived from Global Navigation Satellite System observations. We use interseismic velocities from 48 sites, obtained from field measurements spanning 20 years. Euler vectors consistent with a simple seismic cycle are estimated for each block. In addition, we introduce far-field information into the modeling by applying constraints on Euler vectors of major tectonic plates. The difference between model and observed surface deformation near the Magallanes Fagnano Fault System (MFS) is reduced by considering finite dip in the forward model. For this tectonic boundary global plate circuits models predict relative movements between 7 and 9 mm yr- 1, while our regional model indicates that a strike-slip rate of 5.9 ± 0.2 mm yr- 1 is accommodated across the MFS. Our results indicate faults dipping 66- 4+ 6° southward, locked to a depth of 11- 5+ 5 km, which are consistent with geological models for the MFS. However, normal slip also dominates the fault perpendicular motion throughout the eastern MFS, with a maximum rate along the Fagnano Lake.

Kinematic evolution of the junction of the San Andreas, Garlock, and Big Pine faults, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bohannon, Robert G.; Howell, David G.

1982-01-01

If the San Andreas fault with about 300 km of right slip, the Carlock fault with about 60 km of left slip, and the Big Pine fault with about 15 km of left slip are considered to have been contemporaneously active, a space problem at their high-angle junctions becomes apparent. Large crustal masses converge in the area of the junctions as a result of the simultaneous large displacements on the faults. We present here a model in which an early straight north-northwest–trending San Andreas deforms to its present bent configuration in response to a westward displacement of crust north of the Garlock fault. During this deformation, the crust north of the Garlock in the vicinity of the junction undergoes north-south shortening, while the fault junction migrates along the trace of the San Andreas fault to the southeast relative to its original position. As a result of this migration, the Mojave area is displaced to the east relative to the original junction position. We suggest a similar history in mirror image for the Big Pine fault and the areas of crust adjacent to it.

Irregular earthquake recurrence patterns and slip variability on a plate-boundary Fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wechsler, N.; Rockwell, T. K.; Klinger, Y.

2015-12-01

The Dead Sea fault in the Levant represents a simple, segmented plate boundary from the Gulf of Aqaba northward to the Sea of Galilee, where it changes its character into a complex plate boundary with multiple sub-parallel faults in northern Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The studied Jordan Gorge (JG) segment is the northernmost part of the simple section, before the fault becomes more complex. Seven fault-crossing buried paleo-channels, offset by the Dead Sea fault, were investigated using paleoseismic and geophysical methods. The mapped offsets capture the long-term rupture history and slip-rate behavior on the JG fault segment for the past 4000 years. The ~20 km long JG segment appears to be more active (in term of number of earthquakes) than its neighboring segments to the south and north. The rate of movement on this segment varies considerably over the studied period: the long-term slip-rate for the entire 4000 years is similar to previously observed rates (~4 mm/yr), yet over shorter time periods the rate varies from 3-8 mm/yr. Paleoseismic data on both timing and displacement indicate a high COV >1 (clustered) with displacement per event varying by nearly an order of magnitude. The rate of earthquake production does not produce a time predictable pattern over a period of 2 kyr. We postulate that the seismic behavior of the JG fault is influenced by stress interactions with its neighboring faults to the north and south. Coulomb stress modelling demonstrates that an earthquake on any neighboring fault will increase the Coulomb stress on the JG fault and thus promote rupture. We conclude that deriving on-fault slip-rates and earthquake recurrence patterns from a single site and/or over a short time period can produce misleading results. The definition of an adequately long time period to resolve slip-rate is a question that needs to be addressed and requires further work.

Plate rotations, fault slip rates, fault locking, and distributed deformation in northern Central America from 1999-2017 GPS observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellis, A. P.; DeMets, C.; Briole, P.; Cosenza, B.; Flores, O.; Guzman-Speziale, M.; Hernandez, D.; Kostoglodov, V.; La Femina, P. C.; Lord, N. E.; Lasserre, C.; Lyon-Caen, H.; McCaffrey, R.; Molina, E.; Rodriguez, M.; Staller, A.; Rogers, R.

2017-12-01

We describe plate rotations, fault slip rates, and fault locking estimated from a new 100-station GPS velocity field at the western end of the Caribbean plate, where the Motagua-Polochic fault zone, Middle America trench, and Central America volcanic arc faults converge. In northern Central America, fifty-one upper-plate earthquakes caused approximately 40,000 fatalities since 1900. The proximity of main population centers to these destructive earthquakes and the resulting loss of human life provide strong motivation for studying the present-day tectonics of Central America. Plate rotations, fault slip rates, and deformation are quantified via a two-stage inversion of daily GPS position time series using TDEFNODE modeling software. In the first stage, transient deformation associated with three M>7 earthquakes in 2009 and 2012 is estimated and removed from the GPS position time series. In Stage 2, linear velocities determined from the corrected GPS time series are inverted to estimate deformation within the western Caribbean plate, slip rates along the Motagua-Polochic faults and faults in the Central America volcanic arc, and the gradient of extension in the Honduras-Guatemala wedge. Major outcomes of the second inversion include the following: (1) Confirmation that slip rates on the Motagua fault decrease from 17-18 mm/yr at its eastern end to 0-5 mm/yr at its western end, in accord with previous results. (2) A transition from moderate subduction zone locking offshore from southern Mexico and parts of southern Guatemala to weak or zero coupling offshore from El Salvador and parts of Nicaragua along the Middle America trench. (3) Evidence for significant east-west extension in southern Guatemala between the Motagua fault and volcanic arc. Our study also shows evidence for creep on the eastern Motagua fault that diminishes westward along the North America-Caribbean plate boundary.

Holocene earthquakes of magnitude 7 during westward escape of the Olympic Mountains, Washington

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nelson, Alan R.; Personius, Stephen; Wells, Ray; Schermer, Elizabeth R.; Bradley, Lee-Ann; Buck, Jason; Reitman, Nadine G.

2017-01-01

The Lake Creek–Boundary Creek fault, previously mapped in Miocene bedrock as an oblique thrust on the north flank of the Olympic Mountains, poses a significant earthquake hazard. Mapping using 2015 light detection and ranging (lidar) confirms 2004 lidar mapping of postglacial (<13  ka"><13  ka) and Holocene fault scarps along the 22‐km‐long eastern section of the fault and documents Holocene scarps that extend ≥14  km">≥14  km along a splay fault, the Sadie Creek fault, west of Lake Crescent. Scarp morphology suggests repeated earthquake ruptures along the eastern section of the Lake Creek–Boundary Creek fault and the Sadie Creek fault since ∼13  ka">∼13  ka. Right‐lateral (∼11–28  m">∼11–28  m) and vertical (1–2 m) cumulative fault offsets suggest slip rates of ∼1–2  mm/yr">∼1–2  mm/yr Stratigraphic and age‐model data from five trenches perpendicular to scarps at four sites on the eastern section of the fault show evidence of 3–5 surface‐rupturing earthquakes. Near‐vertical fault dips and upward‐branching fault patterns in trenches, abrupt changes in the thickness of stratigraphic units across faults, and variations in vertical displacement of successive stratigraphic units along fault traces also suggest a large lateral component of slip. Age models suggest two earthquakes date from 1.3±0.8">1.3±0.8 and 2.9±0.6  ka">2.9±0.6  ka; evidence and ages for 2–3 earlier earthquakes are less certain. Assuming 3–5 postglacial earthquakes, lateral and vertical cumulative fault offsets yield average slip per earthquake of ∼4.6  m">∼4.6  m, a lateral‐to‐vertical slip ratio of ∼10:1">∼10:1, and a recurrence interval of 3.5±1.0  ka">3.5±1.0  ka. Empirical relations yield moment magnitude estimates of M 7.2–7.5 (slip per earthquake) and 7.1–7.3 (56 km maximum rupture length). An apparent left‐lateral Miocene to right‐lateral Holocene slip reversal on the faults is probably related to overprinting of east‐directed, accretion‐dominated deformation in the eastern core of the Olympic Mountains by north‐directed, margin‐parallel shortening and westward escape of the mountains.

Recent state of stress change in the Walker Lane zone, western Basin and Range province, United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellier, Olivier; Zoback, Mary Lou

1995-06-01

The NW to north-trending Walker Lane zone (WLZ) is located along the western boundary of the northern Basin and Range province with the Sierra Nevada. This zone is distinguished from the surrounding Basin and Range province on the basis of irregular topography and evidence for both normal and strike-slip Holocene faulting. Inversion of slip vectors from active faults, historic fault offsets, and earthquake focal mechanisms indicate two distinct Quaternary stress regimes within the WLZ, both of which are characterized by a consistent WNW σ3 axis; these are a normal faulting regime with a mean σ3 axis of N85°±9°W and a mean stress ratio (R value) (R=(σ2-σ1)/(σ3-σ1)) of 0.63-0.74 and a younger strike-slip faulting regime with a similar mean σ3 axis (N65° - 70°W) and R values ranging between ˜ 0.1 and 0.2. This younger regime is compatible with historic fault offsets and earthquake focal mechanisms. Both the extensional and strike-slip stress regimes reactivated inherited Mesozoic and Cenozoic structures and also produced new faults. The present-day strike-slip stress regime has produced strike-slip, normal oblique-slip, and normal dip-slip historic faulting. Previous workers have explained the complex interaction of active strike-slip, oblique, and normal faulting in the WLZ as a simple consequence of a single stress state with a consistent WNW σ3 axis and transitional between strike-slip and normal faulting (maximum horizontal stress approximately equal to vertical stress, or R ≈ 0 in both regimes) with minor local fluctuations. The slip data reported here support previous results from Owens Valley that suggest deformation within temporally distinct normal and strike-slip faulting stress regimes with a roughly constant WNW trending σ3 axis (Zoback, 1989). A recent change from a normal faulting to a strike-slip faulting stress regime is indicated by the crosscutting striae on faults in basalts <300,000 years old and is consistent with the dominantly strike-slip earthquake focal mechanisms and the youngest striae observed on faults in Plio-Quaternary deposits. Geologic control on the timing of the change is poor; it is impossible to determine if there has been a single recent absolute change or if there is, rather, an alternating or cyclical variation in stress magnitudes. Our slip data, in particular, the cross-cutting normal and strike-slip striae on the same fault plane, are inconsistent with postulated simple strain partitioning of deformation within a single regional stress field suggested for the WLZ by Wesnousky and Jones [1994]. The location of the WLZ between the deep-seated regional extension of the Basin and Range and the right-lateral strike-slip regional tectonics of the San Andreas fault zone is probably responsible for the complex interaction of tectonic regimes in this transition zone. In early to mid-Tertiary time the WLZ appears to have had a similarly complex deformational history, in this case as a back arc or intra-arc region, accommodating at least part of the right-lateral component of oblique convergence as well as a component of extension.

Crustal Deformation across the Jericho Valley Section of the Dead Sea Fault as Resolved by Detailed Field and Geodetic Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamiel, Yariv; Piatibratova, Oksana; Mizrahi, Yaakov; Nahmias, Yoav; Sagy, Amir

2018-04-01

Detailed field and geodetic observations of crustal deformation across the Jericho Fault section of the Dead Sea Fault are presented. New field observations reveal several slip episodes that rupture the surface, consist with strike slip and extensional deformation along a fault zone width of about 200 m. Using dense Global Positioning System measurements, we obtain the velocities of new stations across the fault. We find that this section is locked for strike-slip motion with a locking depth of 16.6 ± 7.8 km and a slip rate of 4.8 ± 0.7 mm/year. The Global Positioning System measurements also indicate asymmetrical extension at shallow depths of the Jericho Fault section, between 0.3 and 3 km. Finally, our results suggest the vast majority of the sinistral slip along the Dead Sea Fault in southern Jorden Valley is accommodated by the Jericho Fault section.

Block rotations, fault domains and crustal deformation in the western US

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nur, Amos

1990-01-01

The aim of the project was to develop a 3D model of crustal deformation by distributed fault sets and to test the model results in the field. In the first part of the project, Nur's 2D model (1986) was generalized to 3D. In Nur's model the frictional strength of rocks and faults of a domain provides a tight constraint on the amount of rotation that a fault set can undergo during block rotation. Domains of fault sets are commonly found in regions where the deformation is distributed across a region. The interaction of each fault set causes the fault bounded blocks to rotate. The work that has been done towards quantifying the rotation of fault sets in a 3D stress field is briefly summarized. In the second part of the project, field studies were carried out in Israel, Nevada and China. These studies combined both paleomagnetic and structural information necessary to test the block rotation model results. In accordance with the model, field studies demonstrate that faults and attending fault bounded blocks slip and rotate away from the direction of maximum compression when deformation is distributed across fault sets. Slip and rotation of fault sets may continue as long as the earth's crustal strength is not exceeded. More optimally oriented faults must form, for subsequent deformation to occur. Eventually the block rotation mechanism may create a complex pattern of intersecting generations of faults.

A-Priori Rupture Models for Northern California Type-A Faults

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wills, Chris J.; Weldon, Ray J.; Field, Edward H.

2008-01-01

This appendix describes how a-priori rupture models were developed for the northern California Type-A faults. As described in the main body of this report, and in Appendix G, ?a-priori? models represent an initial estimate of the rate of single and multi-segment surface ruptures on each fault. Whether or not a given model is moment balanced (i.e., satisfies section slip-rate data) depends on assumptions made regarding the average slip on each segment in each rupture (which in turn depends on the chosen magnitude-area relationship). Therefore, for a given set of assumptions, or branch on the logic tree, the methodology of the present Working Group (WGCEP-2007) is to find a final model that is as close as possible to the a-priori model, in the least squares sense, but that also satisfies slip rate and perhaps other data. This is analogous the WGCEP- 2002 approach of effectively voting on the relative rate of each possible rupture, and then finding the closest moment-balance model (under a more limiting set of assumptions than adopted by the present WGCEP, as described in detail in Appendix G). The 2002 Working Group Report (WCCEP, 2003, referred to here as WGCEP-2002), created segmented earthquake rupture forecast models for all faults in the region, including some that had been designated as Type B faults in the NSHMP, 1996, and one that had not previously been considered. The 2002 National Seismic Hazard Maps used the values from WGCEP-2002 for all the faults in the region, essentially treating all the listed faults as Type A faults. As discussed in Appendix A, the current WGCEP found that there are a number of faults with little or no data on slip-per-event, or dates of previous earthquakes. As a result, the WGCEP recommends that faults with minimal available earthquake recurrence data: the Greenville, Mount Diablo, San Gregorio, Monte Vista-Shannon and Concord-Green Valley be modeled as Type B faults to be consistent with similarly poorly-known faults statewide. As a result, the modified segmented models discussed here only concern the San Andreas, Hayward-Rodgers Creek, and Calaveras faults. Given the extensive level of effort given by the recent Bay-Area WGCEP-2002, our approach has been to adopt their final average models as our preferred a-prior models. We have modified the WGCEP-2002 models where necessary to match data that were not available or not used by that WGCEP and where the models needed by WGCEP-2007 for a uniform statewide model require different assumptions and/or logic-tree branch weights. In these cases we have made what are usually slight modifications to the WGCEP-2002 model. This Appendix presents the minor changes needed to accomodate updated information and model construction. We do not attempt to reproduce here the extensive documentation of data, model parameters and earthquake probablilities in the WG-2002 report.

Active tectonics around the Yakutat indentor: New geomorphological constraints on the eastern Denali, Totschunda and Duke River Faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marechal, Anaïs; Ritz, Jean-François; Ferry, Matthieu; Mazzotti, Stephane; Blard, Pierre-Henri; Braucher, Régis; Saint-Carlier, Dimitri

2018-01-01

The Yakutat collision in SE Alaska - SW Yukon is an outstanding example of indentor tectonics. The impinging Yakutat block strongly controls the pattern of deformation inland. However, the relationship between this collision system and inherited tectonic structures such as the Denali, Totschunda, and Duke River Faults remains debated. A detailed geomorphological analysis, based on high-resolution imagery, digital elevation models, field observations, and cosmogenic nuclide dating, allow us to estimate new slip rates along these active structures. Our results show a vertical motion of 0.9 ± 0.3 mm/yr along the whole eastern Denali Fault, while the dextral component of the fault tapers to less than 1 mm/yr ∼80 km south of the Denali-Totschunda junction. In contrast, the Totschunda Fault accommodates 14.6 ± 2.7 mm/yr of right-lateral strike-slip along its central section ∼100 km south of the junction. Further south, preliminary observations suggest a slip rate comprised between 3.5 and 6.5 mm/yr along the westernmost part of the Duke River thrust fault. Our results highlight the complex partitioning of deformation inland of the Yakutat collision, where the role and slip rate of the main faults vary significantly over distances of ∼100 km or less. We propose a schematic model of present-day tectonics that suggests ongoing partitioning and reorganization of deformation between major inherited structures, relay zones, and regions of distributed deformation, in response to the radial stress and strain pattern around the Yakutat collision eastern syntaxis.

Slip Inversion Along Inner Fore-Arc Faults, Eastern Tohoku, Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Regalla, Christine; Fisher, Donald M.; Kirby, Eric; Oakley, David; Taylor, Stephanie

2017-11-01

The kinematics of deformation in the overriding plate of convergent margins may vary across timescales ranging from a single seismic cycle to many millions of years. In Northeast Japan, a network of active faults has accommodated contraction across the arc since the Pliocene, but several faults located along the inner fore arc experienced extensional aftershocks following the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake, opposite that predicted from the geologic record. This observation suggests that fore-arc faults may be favorable for stress triggering and slip inversion, but the geometry and deformation history of these fault systems are poorly constrained. Here we document the Neogene kinematics and subsurface geometry of three prominent fore-arc faults in Tohoku, Japan. Geologic mapping and dating of growth strata provide evidence for a 5.6-2.2 Ma initiation of Plio-Quaternary contraction along the Oritsume, Noheji, and Futaba Faults and an earlier phase of Miocene extension from 25 to 15 Ma along the Oritsume and Futaba Faults associated with the opening of the Sea of Japan. Kinematic modeling indicates that these faults have listric geometries, with ramps that dip 40-65°W and sole into subhorizontal detachments at 6-10 km depth. These fault systems can experience both normal and thrust sense slip if they are mechanically weak relative to the surrounding crust. We suggest that the inversion history of Northeast Japan primed the fore arc with a network of weak faults mechanically and geometrically favorable for slip inversion over geologic timescales and in response to secular variations in stress state associated with the megathrust seismic cycle.

Seismic and Aseismic Slip on the Cascadia Megathrust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Michel, S. G. R. M.; Gualandi, A.; Avouac, J. P.

2017-12-01

Our understanding of the dynamics governing aseismic and seismic slip hinges on our ability to image the time evolution of fault slip during and in between earthquakes and transients. Such kinematic descriptions are also pivotal to assess seismic hazard as, on the long term, elastic strain accumulating around a fault should be balanced by elastic strain released by seismic slip and aseismic transients. In this presentation, we will discuss how such kinematic descriptions can be obtained from the analysis and modelling of geodetic time series. We will use inversion methods based on Independent Component Analysis (ICA) decomposition of the time series to extract and model the aseismic slip (afterslip and slow slip events). We will show that this approach is very effective to identify, and filter out, non-tectonic sources of geodetic strain such as the strain due to surface loads, which can be estimated using gravimetric measurements from GRACE, and thermal strain. We will discuss in particular the application to the Cascadia subduction zone.

Earthquake fracture energy inferred from kinematic rupture models on extended faults

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tinti, E.; Spudich, P.; Cocco, M.

2005-01-01

We estimate fracture energy on extended faults for several recent earthquakes by retrieving dynamic traction evolution at each point on the fault plane from slip history imaged by inverting ground motion waveforms. We define the breakdown work (Wb) as the excess of work over some minimum traction level achieved during slip. Wb is equivalent to "seismological" fracture energy (G) in previous investigations. Our numerical approach uses slip velocity as a boundary condition on the fault. We employ a three-dimensional finite difference algorithm to compute the dynamic traction evolution in the time domain during the earthquake rupture. We estimate Wb by calculating the scalar product between dynamic traction and slip velocity vectors. This approach does not require specifying a constitutive law and assuming dynamic traction to be collinear with slip velocity. If these vectors are not collinear, the inferred breakdown work depends on the initial traction level. We show that breakdown work depends on the square of slip. The spatial distribution of breakdown work in a single earthquake is strongly correlated with the slip distribution. Breakdown work density and its integral over the fault, breakdown energy, scale with seismic moment according to a power law (with exponent 0.59 and 1.18, respectively). Our estimates of breakdown work range between 4 ?? 105 and 2 ?? 107 J/m2 for earthquakes having moment magnitudes between 5.6 and 7.2. We also compare our inferred values with geologic surface energies. This comparison might suggest that breakdown work for large earthquakes goes primarily into heat production. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

Is the co-seismic slip distribution fractal?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milliner, Christopher; Sammis, Charles; Allam, Amir; Dolan, James

2015-04-01

Co-seismic along-strike slip heterogeneity is widely observed for many surface-rupturing earthquakes as revealed by field and high-resolution geodetic methods. However, this co-seismic slip variability is currently a poorly understood phenomenon. Key unanswered questions include: What are the characteristics and underlying causes of along-strike slip variability? Do the properties of slip variability change from fault-to-fault, along-strike or at different scales? We cross-correlate optical, pre- and post-event air photos using the program COSI-Corr to measure the near-field, surface deformation pattern of the 1992 Mw 7.3 Landers and 1999 Mw 7.1 Hector Mine earthquakes in high-resolution. We produce the co-seismic slip profiles of both events from over 1,000 displacement measurements and observe consistent along-strike slip variability. Although the observed slip heterogeneity seems apparently complex and disordered, a spectral analysis reveals that the slip distributions are indeed self-affine fractal i.e., slip exhibits a consistent degree of irregularity at all observable length scales, with a 'short-memory' and is not random. We find a fractal dimension of 1.58 and 1.75 for the Landers and Hector Mine earthquakes, respectively, indicating that slip is more heterogeneous for the Hector Mine event. Fractal slip is consistent with both dynamic and quasi-static numerical simulations that use non-planar faults, which in turn causes heterogeneous along-strike stress, and we attribute the observed fractal slip to fault surfaces of fractal roughness. As fault surfaces are known to smooth over geologic time due to abrasional wear and fracturing, we also test whether the fractal properties of slip distributions alters between earthquakes from immature to mature fault systems. We will present results that test this hypothesis by using the optical image correlation technique to measure historic, co-seismic slip distributions of earthquakes from structurally mature, large cumulative displacement faults and compare these slip distributions to those from immature fault systems. Our results have fundamental implications for an understanding of slip heterogeneity and the behavior of the rupture process.

Surface faulting and paleoseismic history of the 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake area, west-central Nevada, and implications for modern tectonics of the Walker Lane

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bell, J.W.; DePolo, C.M.; Ramelli, A.R.; Sarna-Wojcicki, A. M.; Meyer, C.E.

1999-01-01

The 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake (Ms 7.2) was one of the largest historical events in the Walker Lane region of western Nevada, and it produced a complicated strike-slip rupture pattern on multiple Quaternary faults distributed through three valleys. Primary, right-lateral surface ruptures occurred on north-striking faults in Monte Cristo Valley; small-scale lateral and normal offsets occurred in Stewart Valley; and secondary, normal faulting occurred on north-northeast-striking faults in the Gabbs Valley epicentral region. A reexamination of the surface ruptures provides new displacement and fault-zone data: maximum cumulative offset is estimated to be 2.7 m, and newly recognized faults extend the maximum width and end-to-end length of the rupture zone to 17 and 75 km, respectively. A detailed Quaternary allostratigraphic chronology based on regional alluvialgeomorphic relationships, tephrochronology, and radiocarbon dating provides a framework for interpreting the paleoseismic history of the fault zone. A late Wisconsinan alluvial-fan and piedmont unit containing a 32-36 ka tephra layer is a key stratigraphic datum for paleoseismic measurements. Exploratory trenching and radiocarbon dating of tectonic stratigraphy provide the first estimates for timing of late Quaternary faulting along the Cedar Mountain fault zone. Three trenches display evidence for six faulting events, including that in 1932, during the past 32-36 ka. Radiocarbon dating of organic soils interstratified with tectonically ponded silts establishes best-fit ages of the pre-1932 events at 4, 5,12,15, and 18 ka, each with ??2 ka uncertainties. On the basis of an estimated cumulative net slip of 6-12 m for the six faulting events, minimum and maximum late Quaternary slip rates are 0.2 and 0.7 mm/yr, respectively, and the preferred rate is 0.4-0.5 mm/yr. The average recurrence (interseismic) interval is 3600 yr. The relatively uniform thickness of the ponded deposits suggests that similar-size, characteristic rupture events may characterize late Quaternary slip on the zone. A comparison of event timing with the average late Quaternary recurrence interval indicates that slip has been largely regular (periodic) rather than temporally clustered. To account for the spatial separation of the primary surface faulting in Monte Cristo Valley from the epicenter and for a factor-of-two-to-three disparity between the instrumentally and geologically determined seismic moments associated with the earthquake, we hypothesize two alternative tectonic models containing undetected subevents. Either model would adequately account for the observed faulting on the basis of wrench-fault kinematics that may be associated with the Walker Lane. The 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake is considered an important modern analogue for seismotectonic modeling and estimating seismic hazard in the Walker Lane region. In contrast to most other historical events in the Basin and Range province, the 1932 event did not occur along a major range-bounding fault, and no single, throughgoing basement structure can account for the observed rupture pattern. The 1932 faulting supports the concept that major earthquakes in the Basin and Range province can exhibit complicated distributive rupture patterns and that slip rate may not be a reliable criterion for modeling seismic hazard.

Effects of Bounded Fault on Seismic Radiation and Rupture Propagation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weng, H.; Yang, H.

2016-12-01

It has been suggested that narrow rectangle fault may emit stopping phases that can largely affect seismic radiation and thus rupture propagation, e.g., generation of short-duration pulse-like ruptures. Here we investigate the effects of narrow along-dip rectangle fault (analogously to 2015 Nepal earthquake with 200 km * 40 km) on seismic radiation and rupture propagation through numerical modeling in the framework of the linear slip-weakening friction law. First, we found the critical slip-weakening distance Dc may largely affect the seismic radiation and other source parameters, such as rupture speed, final slip and stress drop. Fixing all other uniform parameters, decreasing Dc could decrease the duration time of slip rate and increase the peak slip rate, thus increase the seismic radiation energy spectrum of slip acceleration. In addition, smaller Dc could lead to larger rupture speed (close to S wave velocity), but smaller stress drop and final slip. The results show that Dc may control the efficiency of far-field radiation. Furthermore, the duration time of slip rate at locations close to boundaries is 1.5 - 4 s less than that in the center of the fault. Such boundary effect is especially remarkable for smaller Dc due to the smaller average duration time of slip rate, which could increase the high-frequency radiation energy and impede low-frequency component near the boundaries from the analysis of energy spectrum of slip acceleration. These results show high frequency energy tends to be radiated near the fault boundaries as long as Dc is small enough. In addition, ruptures are fragile and easy to self-arrest if the width of the seismogenic zone is very narrow. In other words, the sizes of nucleation zone need to be larger to initiate runaway ruptures. Our results show the critical sizes of nucleation zones increase as the widths of seismogenic zones decrease.

Finite-fault source inversion using teleseismic P waves: Simple parameterization and rapid analysis

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mendoza, C.; Hartzell, S.

2013-01-01

We examine the ability of teleseismic P waves to provide a timely image of the rupture history for large earthquakes using a simple, 2D finite‐fault source parameterization. We analyze the broadband displacement waveforms recorded for the 2010 Mw∼7 Darfield (New Zealand) and El Mayor‐Cucapah (Baja California) earthquakes using a single planar fault with a fixed rake. Both of these earthquakes were observed to have complicated fault geometries following detailed source studies conducted by other investigators using various data types. Our kinematic, finite‐fault analysis of the events yields rupture models that similarly identify the principal areas of large coseismic slip along the fault. The results also indicate that the amount of stabilization required to spatially smooth the slip across the fault and minimize the seismic moment is related to the amplitudes of the observed P waveforms and can be estimated from the absolute values of the elements of the coefficient matrix. This empirical relationship persists for earthquakes of different magnitudes and is consistent with the stabilization constraint obtained from the L‐curve in Tikhonov regularization. We use the relation to estimate the smoothing parameters for the 2011 Mw 7.1 East Turkey, 2012 Mw 8.6 Northern Sumatra, and 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku, Japan, earthquakes and invert the teleseismic P waves in a single step to recover timely, preliminary slip models that identify the principal source features observed in finite‐fault solutions obtained by the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center (USGS/NEIC) from the analysis of body‐ and surface‐wave data. These results indicate that smoothing constraints can be estimated a priori to derive a preliminary, first‐order image of the coseismic slip using teleseismic records.

Surface rupture and slip distribution of the Denali and Totschunda faults in the 3 November 2002 M 7.9 earthquake, Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haeussler, Peter J.; Schwartz, David P.; Dawson, Timothy E.; Stenner, Heidi D.; Lienkaemper, James J.; Sherrod, Brian; Cinti, Francesca R.; Montone, Paola; Craw, Patricia; Crone, Anthony J.; Personius, Stephen F.

2004-01-01

The 3 November 2002 Denali fault, Alaska, earthquake resulted in 341 km of surface rupture on the Susitna Glacier, Denali, and Totschunda faults. The rupture proceeded from west to east and began with a 48-km-long break on the previously unknown Susitna Glacier thrust fault. Slip on this thrust averaged about 4 m (Crone et al., 2004). Next came the principal surface break, along 226 km of the Denali fault, with average right-lateral offsets of 4.5–5.1 m and a maximum offset of 8.8 m near its eastern end. The Denali fault trace is commonly left stepping and north side up. About 99 km of the fault ruptured through glacier ice, where the trace orientation was commonly influenced by local ice fabric. Finally, slip transferred southeastward onto the Totschunda fault and continued for another 66 km where dextral offsets average 1.6–1.8 m. The transition from the Denali fault to the Totschunda fault occurs over a complex 25-km-long transfer zone of right-slip and normal fault traces. Three methods of calculating average surface slip all yield a moment magnitude of Mw 7.8, in very good agreement with the seismologically determined magnitude of M 7.9. A comparison of strong-motion inversions for moment release with our slip distribution shows they have a similar pattern. The locations of the two largest pulses of moment release correlate with the locations of increasing steps in the average values of observed slip. This suggests that slip-distribution data can be used to infer moment release along other active fault traces.

Surface slip and off-fault deformation patterns in the 2013 MW 7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake: Implications for controls on the distribution of near-surface coseismic slip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zinke, Robert; Hollingsworth, James; Dolan, James F.

2014-12-01

Comparison of 398 fault offsets measured by visual analysis of WorldView high-resolution satellite imagery with deformation maps produced by COSI-Corr subpixel image correlation of Landsat-8 and SPOT5 imagery reveals significant complexity and distributed deformation along the 2013 Mw 7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake. Average slip along the main trace of the fault was 4.2 m, with local maximum offsets up to 11.4 m. Comparison of slip measured from offset geomorphic features, which record localized slip along the main strand of the fault, to the total displacement across the entire width of the surface deformation zone from COSI-Corr reveals ˜45% off-fault deformation. While previous studies have shown that the structural maturity of the fault exerts a primary control on the total percentage of off-fault surface deformation, large along-strike variations in the percentage of strain localization observed in the 2013 rupture imply the influence of important secondary controls. One such possible secondary control is the type of near-surface material through which the rupture propagated. We therefore compared the percentage off-fault deformation to the type of material (bedrock, old alluvium, and young alluvium) at the surface and the distance of the fault to the nearest bedrock outcrop (a proxy for sediment thickness along this hybrid strike slip/reverse slip fault). We find significantly more off-fault deformation in younger and/or thicker sediments. Accounting for and predicting such off-fault deformation patterns has important implications for the interpretation of geologic slip rates, especially for their use in probabilistic seismic hazard assessments, the behavior of near-surface materials during coseismic deformation, and the future development of microzonation protocols for the built environment.

Transform fault earthquakes in the North Atlantic: Source mechanisms and depth of faulting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bergman, Eric A.; Solomon, Sean C.

1987-01-01

The centroid depths and source mechanisms of 12 large earthquakes on transform faults of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge were determined from an inversion of long-period body waveforms. The earthquakes occurred on the Gibbs, Oceanographer, Hayes, Kane, 15 deg 20 min, and Vema transforms. The depth extent of faulting during each earthquake was estimated from the centroid depth and the fault width. The source mechanisms for all events in this study display the strike slip motion expected for transform fault earthquakes; slip vector azimuths agree to 2 to 3 deg of the local strike of the zone of active faulting. The only anomalies in mechanism were for two earthquakes near the western end of the Vema transform which occurred on significantly nonvertical fault planes. Secondary faulting, occurring either precursory to or near the end of the main episode of strike-slip rupture, was observed for 5 of the 12 earthquakes. For three events the secondary faulting was characterized by reverse motion on fault planes striking oblique to the trend of the transform. In all three cases, the site of secondary reverse faulting is near a compression jog in the current trace of the active transform fault zone. No evidence was found to support the conclusions of Engeln, Wiens, and Stein that oceanic transform faults in general are either hotter than expected from current thermal models or weaker than normal oceanic lithosphere.

Horizontal surface-slip distribution through several seismic cycles: The Eastern Bogd fault, Gobi-Altai, Mongolia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurtz, R.; Klinger, Y.; Ferry, M.; Ritz, J.-F.

2018-06-01

The 1957, MW 8.1, Gobi-Altai earthquake, Southern Mongolia, produced a 360-km-long surface rupture along the Eastern Bogd fault. Cumulative offsets of geomorphic features suggest that the Eastern Bogd fault might produce characteristic slip over the last seismic cycles. Using orthophotographs derived from a dataset of historical aerial photographs acquired in 1958, we measured horizontal offsets along two thirds ( 170 km) of the 1957 left-lateral strike-slip surface rupture. We propose a new empirical methodology to extract the average slip for each past earthquake that could be recognized along successive fault segments, to determine the slip distribution associated with successive past earthquakes. Our results suggest that the horizontal slip distribution of the 1957 Gobi-Altai earthquake is fairly flat, with an average offset of 3.5 m ± 1.3 m. A combination of our lateral measurements with vertical displacements derived from the literature, allows us to re-assess the magnitude of the Gobi-Altai earthquake to be between MW 7.8 and MW 8.2, depending on the depth of the rupture, and related value of the shear modulus. When comparing this magnitude to magnitudes derived from seismic data, it suggests that the rupture may have extended deeper than the 15 km to 20 km usually considered for the seismogenic crust. We observe that some fault segments are more likely than others to record seismic deformation through several seismic cycles, depending on the local rupture complexity and geomorphology. Additionally, our results allow us to model the horizontal slip function for the 1957 Gobi-Altai earthquake and for three previous paleoseismic events along 70% of the studied area. Along about 50% of the fault sections where we could recognize three past earthquakes, our results suggest that the slip per event was similar for each earthquake.

Late Cretaceous through Cenozoic strike-slip tectonics of southwestern Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Miller, M.L.; Bradley, D.C.; Bundtzen, T.K.; McClelland, W.

2002-01-01

New geologic mapping and geochronology show that margin-parallel strike-slip faults on the western limb of the southern Alaska orocline have experienced multiple episodes of dextral motion since ~100 Ma. These faults are on the upper plate of a subduction zone ~350-450 km inboard of the paleotrench. In southwestern Alaska, dextral displacement is 134 km on the Denali fault, at least 88-94 km on the Iditarod-Nixon Fork fault, and perhaps tens of kilometers on the Dishna River fault. The strike-slip regime coincided with Late Cretaceous sedimentation and then folding in the Kuskokwim basin, and with episodes of magmatism and mineralization at ~70, ~60, and ~30 Ma. No single driving mechanism can explain all of the ~95 million-year history of strike-slip faulting. Since ~40 Ma, the observed dextral sense of strike slip has run contrary to the sense of subduction obliquity. This may be explained by northward motion of the Pacific plate driving continental margin slivers into and/or around the oroclinal bend. From 44 to 66 Ma, oroclinal rotation, perhaps involving large-scale flexural slip, may have been accompanied by westward escape of crustal blocks along strike-slip faults. However, reconstructions of this period involve unproven assumptions about the identity of the subducting plate, the position of subducting ridges, and the exact timing of oroclinal bending, thus obscuring the driving mechanisms of strike slip. Prior to 66 Ma, oblique subduction is the most plausible driving mechanism for dextral strike slip. Cumulative displacement on all faults of the western limb of the orocline is at least 400 km, about half that on the eastern limb; this discrepancy might be explained by a combination of thrusting and unrecognized strike-slip faulting.

Major strike-slip faulting along the tectonic boundary between East and West Antarctica: implications for early Gondwana break-up and Jurassic granitic magma emplacement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jordan, T. A.; Ferraccioli, F.; Anderson, L.; Ross, N.; Corr, H.; Leat, P. T.; Bingham, R.; Rippin, D. M.; Le Brocq, A. M.; Siegert, M. J.

2013-12-01

The fragmentation of the Gondwana supercontinent began with continental rifting between the Weddell Sea region of Antarctica and South Africa during the Jurassic. This initial Jurassic phase of continental rifting is critical for understanding the process that initiated supercontinent breakup and dispersal, including the role of mantle plumes and major intracrustal tectonic structures. However, due to the remote location and blanketing ice sheets, the tectonic and magmatic evolution of the Weddell Sea Sector of Antarctica has remained relatively poorly understood. Our recent aeromagnetic and airborne gravity investigations have revealed the inland extent of the Weddell Sea Rift system beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and indicate the presence of a major left-lateral strike slip fault system separating the Ellsworth Whitmore block (a possible exotic microcontinent derived from the Natal Embayment, or the Shackleton Range region of East Antarctica) from East Antarctica (Jordan et al., 2013 Tectonophysics). In this study we use GPlates plate-tectonic reconstruction software to start evaluating the influence of strike-slip faulting between East and West Antarctica on Gondwana breakup models. Specifically, we investigate the possibility of poly-phase motion along the fault system and explore scenarios involving more diffuse strike slip faulting extending into the interior of East Antarctica in the hinterland of the Transantarctic Mountains. Our preliminary models suggest that there may be a link between the prominent step in the flank of the later Cretaceous-Cenozoic West Antarctic Rift System (at the southern end of Ellsworth-Whitmore Block) and the earlier Jurassic Weddell Sea rift system. Additionally, we present preliminary joint 3D magnetic and gravity models to investigate the crustal architecture of the proposed strike-slip fault system and assess its influence on the emplacement of voluminous Jurassic granitic magmatism along the boundary of the Ellsworth-Whitmore block.

Experimental study on propagation of fault slip along a simulated rock fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizoguchi, K.

2015-12-01

Around pre-existing geological faults in the crust, we have often observed off-fault damage zone where there are many fractures with various scales, from ~ mm to ~ m and their density typically increases with proximity to the fault. One of the fracture formation processes is considered to be dynamic shear rupture propagation on the faults, which leads to the occurrence of earthquakes. Here, I have conducted experiments on propagation of fault slip along a pre-cut rock surface to investigate the damaging behavior of rocks with slip propagation. For the experiments, I used a pair of metagabbro blocks from Tamil Nadu, India, of which the contacting surface simulates a fault of 35 cm in length and 1cm width. The experiments were done with the similar uniaxial loading configuration to Rosakis et al. (2007). Axial load σ is applied to the fault plane with an angle 60° to the loading direction. When σ is 5kN, normal and shear stresses on the fault are 1.25MPa and 0.72MPa, respectively. Timing and direction of slip propagation on the fault during the experiments were monitored with several strain gauges arrayed at an interval along the fault. The gauge data were digitally recorded with a 1MHz sampling rate and 16bit resolution. When σ is 4.8kN is applied, we observed some fault slip events where a slip nucleates spontaneously in a subsection of the fault and propagates to the whole fault. However, the propagation speed is about 1.2km/s, much lower than the S-wave velocity of the rock. This indicates that the slip events were not earthquake-like dynamic rupture ones. More efforts are needed to reproduce earthquake-like slip events in the experiments. This work is supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (26870912).

The vertical slip rate of the Sertengshan piedmont fault, Inner Mongolia, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hao; He, Zhongtai; Ma, Baoqi; Long, Jianyu; Liang, Kuan; Wang, Jinyan

2017-08-01

The vertical slip rate of a normal fault is one of the most important parameters for evaluating its level of activity. The Sertengshan piedmont fault has been studied since the 1980s, but its absolute vertical slip rate has not been determined. In this paper, we calculate the displacements of the fault by measuring the heights of piedmont terraces on the footwall and the stratigraphic depths of marker strata in the hanging wall. We then calculate the vertical slip rate of the fault based on the displacements and ages of the marker strata. We selected nine sites uniformly along the fault to study the vertical slip rates of the fault. The results show that the elevations of terraces T3 and T1 are approximately 1060 m and 1043 m, respectively. The geological boreholes in the basin adjacent to the nine study sites reveal that the elevation of the bottom of the Holocene series is between 1017 and 1035 m and that the elevation of the top of the lacustrine strata is between 925 and 1009 m. The data from the terraces and boreholes also show that the top of the lacustrine strata is approximately 65 ka old. The vertical slip rates are calculated at 0.74-1.81 mm/a since 65 ka and 0.86-2.28 mm/a since the Holocene. The slip rate is the highest along the Wujiahe segment and is lower to the west and east. Based on the findings of a previous study on the fault system along the northern margin of the Hetao graben basin, the vertical slip rates of the Daqingshan and Langshan faults are higher than those of the Sertengshan and Wulashan faults, and the strike-slip rates of these four northern Hetao graben basin faults are low. These results agree with the vertical slip components of the principal stress field on the faults. The results of our analysis indicate that the Langshankou, Wujiahe, and Wubulangkou areas and the eastern end of the Sertengshan fault are at high risk of experiencing earthquakes in the future.

M(sub W) = 7.2-7.4 Estimated for A.D. 900 Seattle Fault Earthquake by Modeling the Uplift of a Lidar-Mapped Marine Terrace

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muller, Jordan R.; Harding, David J.

2006-01-01

Inverse modeling of slip on the Seattle fault system, constrained by elevations of uplifted marine terraces, provides a well-constrained estimate of the magnitude of the largest known upper-crust earthquake in the Puget Sound region within the past 2500 years. The terrace elevations that constrain the slip inversion are extracted from elevation and slope images generated from LIDAR surveys of the Puget Sound collected in 1996-2002. The images reveal a single uplifted terrace, dated to 1000 cal yr B.P. near Restoration Point, which is morphologically continuous along the southern shoreline of Bainbridge Island and is visible at comparable elevations within a 25 km by 12 km region encompassing coastlines of West Seattle, Bremerton, East Bremerton, Port Orchard, and Waterman Point. Considering sea level changes since A.D. 900, the maximum uplift magnitudes of shoreline inner edges approach 9 m and are located at the southernmost coastline of Bainbridge Island and the northern tip of Waterman Point, while tilt magnitudes are modest - approaching 0.1 degrees. For each of several different Seattle fault geometry interpretations, we use a linear inversion code to solve for distributed slip on the fault surfaces. Moment magnitudes of 7.2 to 7.4 are calculated directly from the different slip solutions. In general, the greatest slip of the A.D. 900 event was confined to the frontal thrust of the Seattle fault system and was centered beneath Puget Sound between Restoration Point and Alki Point.

UAVSAR observations of triggered slip on the Imperial, Superstition Hills, and East Elmore Ranch Faults associated with the 2010 M 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donnellan, Andrea; Parker, Jay; Hensley, Scott; Pierce, Marlon; Wang, Jun; Rundle, John

2014-03-01

4 April 2010 M 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake that occurred in Baja California, Mexico and terminated near the U.S. Mexican border caused slip on the Imperial, Superstition Hills, and East Elmore Ranch Faults. The pattern of slip was observed using radar interferometry from NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument collected on 20-21 October 2009 and 12-13 April 2010. Right-lateral slip of 36 ± 9 and 14 ± 2 mm occurred on the Imperial and Superstition Hills Faults, respectively. Left-lateral slip of 9 ± 2 mm occurred on the East Elmore Ranch Fault. The widths of the zones of displacement increase northward suggesting successively more buried fault motion to the north. The observations show a decreasing pattern of slip northward on a series of faults in the Salton Trough stepping between the El Mayor-Cucapah rupture and San Andreas Fault. Most of the motion occurred at the time of the M 7.2 earthquake and the UAVSAR observations are consistent with field, creepmeter, GPS, and Envisat observations. An additional 28 ± 1 mm of slip at the southern end of the Imperial Fault over a <1 km wide zone was observed over a 1 day span a week after the earthquake suggesting that the fault continued to slip at depth following the mainshock. The total moment release on the three faults is 2.3 × 1023-1.2 × 1024 dyne cm equivalent to a moment magnitude release of 4.9-5.3, assuming shallow slip depths ranging from 1 to 5 km.

Foreshocks during the nucleation of stick-slip instability

USGS Publications Warehouse

McLaskey, Gregory C.; Kilgore, Brian D.

2013-01-01

We report on laboratory experiments which investigate interactions between aseismic slip, stress changes, and seismicity on a critically stressed fault during the nucleation of stick-slip instability. We monitor quasi-static and dynamic changes in local shear stress and fault slip with arrays of gages deployed along a simulated strike-slip fault (2 m long and 0.4 m deep) in a saw cut sample of Sierra White granite. With 14 piezoelectric sensors, we simultaneously monitor seismic signals produced during the nucleation phase and subsequent dynamic rupture. We observe localized aseismic fault slip in an approximately meter-sized zone in the center of the fault, while the ends of the fault remain locked. Clusters of high-frequency foreshocks (Mw ~ −6.5 to −5.0) can occur in this slowly slipping zone 5–50 ms prior to the initiation of dynamic rupture; their occurrence appears to be dependent on the rate at which local shear stress is applied to the fault. The meter-sized nucleation zone is generally consistent with theoretical estimates, but source radii of the foreshocks (2 to 70 mm) are 1 to 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the theoretical minimum length scale over which earthquake nucleation can occur. We propose that frictional stability and the transition between seismic and aseismic slip are modulated by local stressing rate and that fault sections, which would typically slip aseismically, may radiate seismic waves if they are rapidly stressed. Fault behavior of this type may provide physical insight into the mechanics of foreshocks, tremor, repeating earthquake sequences, and a minimum earthquake source dimension.

Tilted lake shorelines record the onset of motion along the Hilton Creek fault adjacent to Long Valley caldera, CA, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perkins, J. P.; Finnegan, N. J.; Cervelli, P. F.; Langbein, J. O.

2010-12-01

Prominent normal faults occur within and around Long Valley caldera, in the eastern Sierra Nevada of California. However, their relationship to both the magmatic and tectonic evolution of the caldera since the 760 ka eruption of the Bishop Tuff remains poorly understood. In particular, in the Mono-Inyo Craters north of Long Valley, extensional faulting appears to be replaced by dike intrusion where magma is available in the crust. However, it is unclear whether extensional faults in Long Valley caldera have been active since the eruption of the Bishop Tuff (when the current topography was established) or are a relatively young phenomenon owing to the cooling and crystallization of the Long Valley magma reservoir. Here we use GPS geodesy and geomorphology to investigate the evolution of the Hilton Creek fault, the primary range-front fault bounding Long Valley caldera to the southwest. Our primary goals are to determine how long the Hilton Creek fault has been active and whether slip rates have been constant over that time interval. To characterize the modern deformation field, we capitalize on recently (July, 2010) reoccupied GPS benchmarks first established in 1999-2000. These fixed-array GPS data show no discernible evidence for recent slip on the Hilton Creek fault, which further highlights the need for longer-term constraints on fault motion. To establish a fault slip history, we rely on a suite of five prominent shorelines from Pleistocene Long Valley Lake whose ages are well constrained based on field relationships to dated lavas, and that are tilted southward toward the Hilton Creek fault. A preliminary analysis of shoreline orientations using GPS surveys and a 5-m-resolution Topographic Synthetic Aperture Radar (TOPSAR) digital elevation model shows that lake shorelines tilt towards the Hilton Creek fault at roughly parallel gradients (~ 0.6%). The measured shorelines range in inferred age from 100 ka to 500 ka, which constrain recent slip on the Hilton Creek fault to the last 100 kyr and imply a late Pleistocene slip rate of ~0.8 mm/yr, consistent with shorter (~ 25 kyr) timescale estimates of ~1 mm/yr from displacement of LGM moraines and terraces along the active fault scarp. These data show that tilting in Long Valley caldera related to slip on the Hilton Creek fault commenced after 100 ka, and that slip rates are seemingly uniform over that time period. The 22 km-long trace of the Hilton Creek fault, with at least 1070 m of offset at McGee Mountain to the south, must have experienced significant pre-caldera slip. A lack of apparent tilting within Long Valley caldera from 500 ka to 100 ka may therefore be interpreted in one of two ways. Either extension ceased here for at least~ 400 kyr, or more likely, accommodation of Hilton Creek extension occurred either elsewhere (outside of the Caldera) or via a different physical mechanism, such as dike intrusion.

Plate convergence, transcurrent faults and internal deformation adjacent to Southeast Asia and the western Pacific

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fitch, T. J.

1971-01-01

A model for oblique convergence between plates of lithosphere is proposed in which at least a fraction of slip parallel to the plate margin results in transcurrent movements on a nearly vertical fault which is located on the continental side of a zone of plate consumption. In an extreme case of complete decoupling only the component of slip normal to the plate margin can be inferred from underthrusting. Recent movements in the western Sunda region provide the most convincing evidence for decoupling of slip, which in this region is thought to be oblique to the plate margin. A speculative model for convergence along the margins of the Philippine Sea is constructed from an inferred direction of oblique slip in the Philippine region. This model requires that the triple point formed by the junction of the Japanese and Izu-Bonin trenches and the Nankai trough migrate along the Sagami trough.

Refining the Magnitude of the Shallow Slip Deficit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, X.; Tong, X.; Sandwell, D. T.; Milliner, C. W. D.

2014-12-01

Geodetic inversions for slip versus depth for several major (Mw > 7) strike-slip earthquakes (e.g. 1992 Landers, 1999 Hector Mine, 2010 El_Mayor-Cucapah) show a 10% to 40% reduction in slip near surface (depth < 2 km) compared to the slip at deeper depths (5 to 8 km). This has been called the shallow slip deficit (SSD). The large magnitude of this deficit has been an enigma since it cannot be explained by shallow creep during the interseismic period or by triggered slip from nearby earthquakes. One potential explanation for the SSD is that the previous geodetic inversions used incomplete data that do not go close to fault so the shallow portions of the slip models were poorly resolved and generally underestimated. In this study we improve the geodetic inversion, especially at shallow depth by: 1) refining the InSAR processing with non-boxcar phase filtering, model-dependent range corrections, more complete phase unwrapping by SNAPHU using a correlation mask and allowing a phase discontinuity along the rupture; 2) including near-fault offset data from optical imagery and SAR azimuth offsets; 3) using more detailed fault geometry; 4) and using additional campaign GPS data. With these improved observations, the slip inversion has significantly increased resolution at shallow depth. For the Landers rupture the SSD is reduced from 45% to 16%. Similarly for the Hector Mine rupture the SSD is reduced from 15% to 5%. We are assembling all the relevant co-seismic data for the El Major-Cucapah earthquake and will report the inversion result with its SSD at the meeting.

Fault-based PSHA of an active tectonic region characterized by low deformation rates: the case of the Lower Rhine Graben

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanneste, Kris; Vleminckx, Bart; Camelbeeck, Thierry

2016-04-01

The Lower Rhine Graben (LRG) is one of the few regions in intraplate NW Europe where seismic activity can be linked to active faults, yet probabilistic seismic hazard assessments of this region have hitherto been based on area-source models, in which the LRG is modeled as a single or a small number of seismotectonic zones with uniform seismicity. While fault-based PSHA has become common practice in more active regions of the world (e.g., California, Japan, New Zealand, Italy), knowledge of active faults has been lagging behind in other regions, due to incomplete tectonic inventory, low level of seismicity, lack of systematic fault parameterization, or a combination thereof. The past few years, efforts are increasingly being directed to the inclusion of fault sources in PSHA in these regions as well, in order to predict hazard on a more physically sound basis. In Europe, the EC project SHARE ("Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe", http://www.share-eu.org/) represented an important step forward in this regard. In the frame of this project, we previously compiled the first parameterized fault model for the LRG that can be applied in PSHA. We defined 15 fault sources based on major stepovers, bifurcations, gaps, and important changes in strike, dip direction or slip rate. Based on the available data, we were able to place reasonable bounds on the parameters required for time-independent PSHA: length, width, strike, dip, rake, slip rate, and maximum magnitude. With long-term slip rates remaining below 0.1 mm/yr, the LRG can be classified as a low-deformation-rate structure. Information on recurrence interval and elapsed time since the last major earthquake is lacking for most faults, impeding time-dependent PSHA. We consider different models to construct the magnitude-frequency distribution (MFD) of each fault: a slip-rate constrained form of the classical truncated Gutenberg-Richter MFD (Anderson & Luco, 1983) versus a characteristic MFD following Youngs & Coppersmith (1985). The summed Anderson & Luco fault MFDs show a remarkably good agreement with the MFD obtained from the historical and instrumental catalog for the entire LRG, whereas the summed Youngs & Coppersmith MFD clearly underpredicts low to moderate magnitudes, but yields higher occurrence rates for M > 6.3 than would be obtained by simple extrapolation of the catalog MFD. The moment rate implied by the Youngs & Coppersmith MFDs is about three times higher, but is still within the range allowed by current GPS uncertainties. Using the open-source hazard engine OpenQuake (http://openquake.org/), we compute hazard maps for return periods of 475, 2475, and 10,000 yr, and for spectral periods of 0 s (PGA) and 1 s. We explore the impact of various parameter choices, such as MFD model, GMPE distance metric, and inclusion of a background zone to account for lower magnitudes, and we also compare the results with hazard maps based on area-source models. References: Anderson, J. G., and J. E. Luco (1983), Consequences of slip rate constraints on earthquake occurrence relations, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 73(2), 471-496. Youngs, R. R., and K. J. Coppersmith (1985), Implications of fault slip rates and earthquake recurrence models to probabilistic seismic hazard estimates, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 75(4), 939-964.

Slip and Dilation Tendency Anlysis of McGinness Hills Geothermal Area

DOE Data Explorer

Faulds, James E.

2013-12-31

Slip and Dilation Tendency in focus areas Critically stressed fault segments have a relatively high likelihood of acting as fluid flow conduits (Sibson, 1994). As such, the tendency of a fault segment to slip (slip tendency; Ts; Morris et al., 1996) or to dilate (dilation tendency; Td; Ferrill et al., 1999) provides an indication of which faults or fault segments within a geothermal system are critically stressed and therefore likely to transmit geothermal fluids. The slip tendency of a surface is defined by the ratio of shear stress to normal stress on that surface: Ts = τ / σn (Morris et al., 1996). Dilation tendency is defined by the stress acting normal to a given surface: Td = (σ1-σn) / (σ1-σ3) (Ferrill et al., 1999). Slip and dilation were calculated using 3DStress (Southwest Research Institute). Slip and dilation tendency are both unitless ratios of the resolved stresses applied to the fault plane by ambient stress conditions. Values range from a maximum of 1, a fault plane ideally oriented to slip or dilate under ambient stress conditions to zero, a fault plane with no potential to slip or dilate. Slip and dilation tendency values were calculated for each fault in the focus study areas at, McGinness Hills, Neal Hot Springs, Patua, Salt Wells, San Emidio, and Tuscarora on fault traces. As dip is not well constrained or unknown for many faults mapped in within these we made these calculations using the dip for each fault that would yield the maximum slip tendency or dilation tendency. As such, these results should be viewed as maximum tendency of each fault to slip or dilate. The resulting along-fault and fault-to-fault variation in slip or dilation potential is a proxy for along fault and fault-to-fault variation in fluid flow conduit potential. Stress Magnitudes and directions Stress field variation within each focus area was approximated based on regional published data and the world stress database (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2010; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012; Moeck et al., 2010; Moos and Ronne, 2010 and Reinecker et al., 2005) as well as local stress information if applicable. For faults within these focus systems we applied either a normal faulting stress regime where the vertical stress (sv) is larger than the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (sv>shmax>shmin) or strike-slip faulting stress regime where the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) is larger than the vertical stress (sv) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (shmax >sv>shmin) depending on the general tectonic province of the system. Based on visual inspection of the limited stress magnitude data in the Great Basin we used magnitudes such that shmin/shmax = .527 and shmin/sv= .46, which are consistent with complete and partial stress field determinations from Desert Peak, Coso, the Fallon area and Dixie valley (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2011; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012). Slip and dilation tendency for the McGinness Hills geothermal field was calculated based on the faults mapped McGinness Hills area (Siler 2012, unpublished). The McGinness Hills area lies in the Basin and Range Province, as such we applied a normal faulting stress regime to the McGinness area faults, with a minimum horizontal stress direction oriented 115, based on inspection of local and regional stress determinations, as explained above. Under these stress conditions north-northeast striking, steeply dipping fault segments have the highest dilation tendency, while north-northeast striking 60° dipping fault segments have the highest tendency to slip. The McGinness Hills geothermal system is characterized by a left-step in a north-northeast striking west-dipping fault system wit...

Holocene slip rate along the northern Kongur Shan extensional system: insights on the large pull-apart structure in the NE Pamir

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, J.; Li, H.; Chevalier, M.; Liu, D.; Sun, Z.; Pei, J.; Wu, F.; Xu, W.

2013-12-01

Located at the northwestern end of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogenic belt, the Kongur Shan extensional system (KES) is a significant tectonic unit in the Chinese Pamir. E-W extension of the KES accommodates deformation due to the India/Asia collision in this area. Cenozoic evolution of the KES has been extensively studied, whereas Late Quaternary deformation along the KES is still poorly constrained. Besides, whether the KES is the northern extension of the Karakorum fault is still debated. Well-preserved normal fault scarps are present all along the KES. Interpretation of satellite images as well as field investigation allowed us to map active normal faults and associated vertically offset geomorphological features along the KES. At one site along the northern Kongur Shan detachment fault, in the eastern Muji basin, a Holocene alluvial fan is vertically offset by the active fault. We measured the vertical displacement of the fan with total station, and collected quartz cobbles for cosmogenic nuclide 10Be dating. Combining the 5-7 m offset and the preliminary surface-exposure ages of ~2.7 ka, we obtain a Holocene vertical slip-rate of 1.8-2.6 mm/yr along the fault. This vertical slip-rate is comparable to the right-lateral horizontal-slip rate along the Muji fault (~4.5 mm/yr, which is the northern end of the KES. Our result is also similar to the Late Quaternary slip-rate derived along the KES around the Muztagh Ata as well as the Tashkurgan normal fault (1-3 mm/yr). Geometry, kinematics, and geomorphology of the KES combined with the compatible slip-rate between the right-lateral strike-slip Muji fault and the Kongur Shan normal fault indicate that the KES may be an elongated pull-apart basin formed between the EW-striking right-lateral strike-slip Muji fault and the NW-SE-striking Karakorum fault. This unique elongated pull-apart structure with long normal fault in the NS direction and relatively short strike-slip fault in the ~EW direction seems to still be in formation, with the Karakorum fault still propagating to the north.

Secondary Fracturing of Europa's Crust in Response to Combined Slip and Dilation Along Strike-Slip Faults

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kattenhorn, S. A.

2003-01-01

A commonly observed feature in faulted terrestrial rocks is the occurrence of secondary fractures alongside faults. Depending on exact morphology, such fractures have been termed tail cracks, wing cracks, kinks, or horsetail fractures, and typically form at the tip of a slipping fault or around small jogs or steps along a fault surface. The location and orientation of secondary fracturing with respect to the fault plane or the fault tip can be used to determine if fault motion is left-lateral or right-lateral.

A tectonic model for the Tertiary evolution of strike slip faults and rift basins in SE Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morley, C. K.

2002-04-01

Models for the Tertiary evolution of SE Asia fall into two main types: a pure escape tectonics model with no proto-South China Sea, and subduction of proto-South China Sea oceanic crust beneath Borneo. A related problem is which, if any, of the main strike-slip faults (Mae Ping, Three Pagodas and Aliao Shan-Red River (ASRR)) cross Sundaland to the NW Borneo margin to facilitate continental extrusion? Recent results investigating strike-slip faults, rift basins, and metamorphic core complexes are reviewed and a revised tectonic model for SE Asia proposed. Key points of the new model include: (1) The ASRR shear zone was mainly active in the Eocene-Oligocene in order to link with extension in the South China Sea. The ASRR was less active during the Miocene (tens of kilometres of sinistral displacement), with minor amounts of South China Sea spreading centre extension transferred to the ASRR shear zone. (2) At least three important regions of metamorphic core complex development affected Indochina from the Oligocene-Miocene (Mogok gneiss belt; Doi Inthanon and Doi Suthep; around the ASRR shear zone). Hence, Paleogene crustal thickening, buoyancy-driven crustal collapse, and lower crustal flow are important elements of the Tertiary evolution of Indochina. (3) Subduction of a proto-South China Sea oceanic crust during the Eocene-Early Miocene is necessary to explain the geological evolution of NW Borneo and must be built into any model for the region. (4) The Eocene-Oligocene collision of NE India with Burma activated extrusion tectonics along the Three Pagodas, Mae Ping, Ranong and Klong Marui faults and right lateral motion along the Sumatran subduction zone. (5) The only strike-slip fault link to the NW Borneo margin occurred along the trend of the ASRR fault system, which passes along strike into a right lateral transform system including the Baram line.

Tsunami Source Inversion Using Tide Gauge and DART Tsunami Waveforms of the 2017 Mw8.2 Mexico Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adriano, Bruno; Fujii, Yushiro; Koshimura, Shunichi; Mas, Erick; Ruiz-Angulo, Angel; Estrada, Miguel

2018-01-01

On September 8, 2017 (UTC), a normal-fault earthquake occurred 87 km off the southeast coast of Mexico. This earthquake generated a tsunami that was recorded at coastal tide gauge and offshore buoy stations. First, we conducted a numerical tsunami simulation using a single-fault model to understand the tsunami characteristics near the rupture area, focusing on the nearby tide gauge stations. Second, the tsunami source of this event was estimated from inversion of tsunami waveforms recorded at six coastal stations and three buoys located in the deep ocean. Using the aftershock distribution within 1 day following the main shock, the fault plane orientation had a northeast dip direction (strike = 320°, dip = 77°, and rake =-92°). The results of the tsunami waveform inversion revealed that the fault area was 240 km × 90 km in size with most of the largest slip occurring on the middle and deepest segments of the fault. The maximum slip was 6.03 m from a 30 × 30 km2 segment that was 64.82 km deep at the center of the fault area. The estimated slip distribution showed that the main asperity was at the center of the fault area. The second asperity with an average slip of 5.5 m was found on the northwest-most segments. The estimated slip distribution yielded a seismic moment of 2.9 × 10^{21} Nm (Mw = 8.24), which was calculated assuming an average rigidity of 7× 10^{10} N/m2.

A crack between two big pieces of rock is made up of different pieces. This controlled how much the rocks slipped last year.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hubbard, J.; Almeida, R. V.; Foster, A. E.; Sapkota, S. N.; Burgi, P.; Tapponnier, P.

2016-12-01

The outside layer of the world is broken up into pieces that move. Some of these pieces are moving towards each other. For a very long time, two of these pieces of rock have been pushing together. This has pushed the ground up and has made the highest land in the world. When two big pieces of rock push together, the rocks between them move and change without breaking, because rocks are strong. But eventually, the force is too much, so they break and slip. The place where they slip is called a fault. Try this with a stick - you can force the two ends closer together without breaking it. But if you push the ends together too much, it will snap. Like your stick, when the rocks slip, it happens very suddenly. This makes the ground shake. Last year, the rocks under the highest land in the world broke and slipped. This made the ground shake. Houses and rocks fell down. It killed a lot of people. People knew that this was possible. For years, they have tried to understand how big the shaking might be in this area. To do this, they tried to figure out what the fault looks like. This was hard. They did not agree. They did not know enough about the fault. When the slip happened last year, people used boxes with things inside to learn more about it. Some boxes tell us how the ground moved. Others tell us how the ground shook. We used this to figure out what the fault is like. We think that the fault is made up of different pieces that join together. We colored the fault by how much the rocks slipped. In some places, the rocks slipped only a little bit. In other places, they slipped more than two times as far as a grown-up is tall. When we look at the colors on the fault, we can see that the area that slipped fits onto one piece. The slip stopped at the edges of this piece, where it is joined to other pieces of fault. We think that the way that the pieces of fault are joined controlled how the slip happened. If the slip on a fault stops at the edges of fault pieces both here and in other places, this is important. We need to look all over the world at different faults. We need to learn how the faults are made up of different pieces. Figuring out what controls slip on faults is important. Rocks that break and slip make the ground shake. If we can figure out how much shaking there can be, we can help people get ready. In places where the ground shaking will shake a lot, people can build stronger houses. This will make them safer.

Strike-slip faulting of ridged plains near Valles Marineris, Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, R. A.

1989-10-01

This paper identifies and documents several well-preserved examples of Martian strike-slip faults and examines their relationships to wrinkle-ridges. The strike-slip faulting predates or overlaps periods of wrinkle-ridge growth southeast of Valles Marineris, and some wrinkle ridges may have nucleated and grown as a result of strike-slip displacements along the echelon fault arrays. Lateral displacements of several km inferred along these arrays may be related to tectonism in Tharsis.

Study on the Evaluation Method for Fault Displacement: Probabilistic Approach Based on Japanese Earthquake Rupture Data - Distributed fault displacements -

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Inoue, N.; Kitada, N.; Tonagi, M.

2016-12-01

Distributed fault displacements in Probabilistic Fault Displace- ment Analysis (PFDHA) have an important rule in evaluation of important facilities such as Nuclear Installations. In Japan, the Nu- clear Installations should be constructed where there is no possibility that the displacement by the earthquake on the active faults occurs. Youngs et al. (2003) defined the distributed fault as displacement on other faults or shears, or fractures in the vicinity of the principal rup- ture in response to the principal faulting. Other researchers treated the data of distribution fault around principal fault and modeled according to their definitions (e.g. Petersen et al., 2011; Takao et al., 2013 ). We organized Japanese fault displacements data and constructed the slip-distance relationship depending on fault types. In the case of reverse fault, slip-distance relationship on the foot-wall indicated difference trend compared with that on hanging-wall. The process zone or damaged zone have been studied as weak structure around principal faults. The density or number is rapidly decrease away from the principal faults. We contrasted the trend of these zones with that of distributed slip-distance distributions. The subsurface FEM simulation have been carried out to inves- tigate the distribution of stress around principal faults. The results indicated similar trend compared with the distribution of field obser- vations. This research was part of the 2014-2015 research project `Development of evaluating method for fault displacement` by the Secretariat of Nuclear Regulation Authority (S/NRA), Japan.

Neogene-Recent Reactivation of Cretaceous-age Faults in Southern Vietnam, with Implications for the Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burberry, C. M.; Elkins, L. J.; Hoang, N.; Anh, L. D.; Dinh, S. Q.

2017-12-01

The tectonic activity and ongoing diffuse volcanic activity of the Central Highlands of Vietnam have, to date, been challenging to explain using accepted plate tectonics principles. The various hypotheses invoked to explain the voluminous magmatism include extrusion related to the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen, extension related to the South China Sea, and plume activity beneath Hainan. We present a combined remote sensing and field study, focused on fault orientation and age relative to lava flows in order to discriminate between these models. Landsat ETM+ and SPOT data were processed to highlight variations in lithology and to remove vegetation, and lineaments were interpreted from these images. The lineament data were compared to existing geologic maps, and to regions of known flow age. Key locations were visited in the field, where fault orientations and relative age were recorded. At many locations, the slip direction could be measured using trend and plunge of mineral lineations. The remote data reveal a complex pattern of lineaments, with prominent N-S, NE-SW and NW-SE directions. Lineaments are observed to cut lava flows with ages of 2.2+/- 0.1 Ma and younger. In the field, NE-SW oriented faults were identified in Jurassic-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks with two phases of movement; a dip-slip phase and a younger, dominantly strike-slip phase. Strike-slip faults were identified in lava flows of approx. 3.2 Ma, also oriented NE-SW. These results indicate that there has been fault activity since the Pliocene, and that this fault activity includes reactivation of dip-slip faults as strike-slip. This is consistent with the movement vector of the southern Indochina Block SE with respect to the Sunda block, and with microplate rotation due to asthenospheric extrusion. These results therefore suggest that ongoing Himalayan-Tibetan collision is still being accommodated, in part, by active lithospheric extrusion of the Indo-China block.

Influence of crystallised igneous intrusions on fault nucleation and reactivation during continental extension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magee, Craig; McDermott, Kenneth G.; Stevenson, Carl T. E.; Jackson, Christopher A.-L.

2014-05-01

Continental rifting is commonly accommodated by the nucleation of normal faults, slip on pre-existing fault surfaces and/or magmatic intrusion. Because crystallised igneous intrusions are pervasive in many rift basins and are commonly more competent (i.e. higher shear strengths and Young's moduli) than the host rock, it is theoretically plausible that they locally intersect and modify the mechanical properties of pre-existing normal faults. We illustrate the influence that crystallised igneous intrusions may have on fault reactivation using a conceptual model and observations from field and subsurface datasets. Our results show that igneous rocks may initially resist failure, and promote the preferential reactivation of favourably-oriented, pre-existing faults that are not spatially-associated with solidified intrusions. Fault segments situated along strike from laterally restricted fault-intrusion intersections may similarly be reactivated. This spatial and temporal control on strain distribution may generate: (1) supra-intrusion folds in the hanging wall; (2) new dip-slip faults adjacent to the igneous body; or (3) sub-vertical, oblique-slip faults oriented parallel to the extension direction. Importantly, stress accumulation within igneous intrusions may eventually initiate failure and further localise strain. The results of our study have important implications for the structural of sedimentary basins and the subsurface migration of hydrocarbons and mineral-bearing fluids.

Late Neogene slip transfer and extension within the curved Whisky Flat fault system central Walker Lane, west-central Nevada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biholar, Alexander Kenneth Casian

In Whisky Flat of west-central Nevada, northwest-striking faults in the Walker Lane curve to east-northeast orientations at the northern limits of the Mina deflection. This curve in strike results in the formation of ˜685 m deep depression bounded by north-south convex to the east range-front faults that at the apex of fault curvature are bisected at a high angle by a structural stepover. We use the vertical offset of a late Miocene erosional surface mapped in the highlands and inferred from gravity depth inversion in the basin to measure the magnitude of displacement on faults. A N65°W extensional axis determined through fault-slip inversion is used to constrain the direction in displacement models. Through the use of a forward rectilinear displacement model, we document that the complex array of faults is capable of developing with broadly contemporaneous displacements on all structures since the opening of the basin during the Pliocene.

Coulomb stress transfer and tectonic loading preceding the 2002 Denali fault earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bufe, Charles G.

2006-01-01

Pre-2002 tectonic loading and Coulomb stress transfer are modeled along the rupture zone of the M 7.9 Denali fault earthquake (DFE) and on adjacent segments of the right-lateral Denali–Totschunda fault system in central Alaska, using a three-dimensional boundary-element program. The segments modeled closely follow, for about 95°, the arc of a circle of radius 375 km centered on an inferred asperity near the northeastern end of the intersection of the Patton Bay fault with the Alaskan megathrust under Prince William Sound. The loading model includes slip of 6 mm/yr below 12 km along the fault system, consistent with rotation of the Wrangell block about the asperity at a rate of about 1°/m.y. as well as slip of the Pacific plate at 5 cm/yr at depth along the Fairweather–Queen Charlotte transform fault system and on the Alaska megathrust. The model is consistent with most available pre-2002 Global Positioning System (GPS) displacement rate data. Coulomb stresses induced on the Denali–Totschunda fault system (locked above 12 km) by slip at depth and by transfer from the M 9.2 Prince William Sound earthquake of 1964 dominated the changing Coulomb stress distribution along the fault. The combination of loading (∼70–85%) and coseismic stress transfer from the great 1964 earthquake (∼15–30%) were the principal post-1900 stress factors building toward strike-slip failure of the northern Denali and Totschunda segments in the M 7.9 earthquake of November 2002. Postseismic stresses transferred from the 1964 earthquake may also have been a significant factor. The M 7.2–7.4 Delta River earthquake of 1912 (Carver et al., 2004) may have delayed or advanced the timing of the DFE, depending on the details and location of its rupture. The initial subevent of the 2002 DFE earthquake was on the 40-km Susitna Glacier thrust fault at the western end of the Denali fault rupture. The Coulomb stress transferred from the 1964 earthquake moved the Susitna Glacier thrust fault uniformly away from thrust failure by about 100 kPa. The initiation of the Denali fault earthquake was advanced by transfer of 30–50 kPa of positive Coulomb stress to the Susitna Glacier fault (Anderson and Ji, 2003) by the nearby M 6.7 Nenana Mountain foreshock of 23 October 2002. The regional tectonic loading model used here suggests that the Semidi (Alaska Peninsula) segment of the megathrust that ruptured in 1938 (M 8.2) may be reloaded and approaching failure.

Reports on block rotations, fault domains and crustal deformation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nur, Amos

1990-01-01

Studies of block rotations, fault domains and crustal deformation in the western United States, Israel, and China are discussed. Topics include a three-dimensional model of crustal fracture by distributed fault sets, distributed deformation and block rotation in 3D, stress field rotation, and multiple strike slip fault sets.

Models of recurrent strike-slip earthquake cycles and the state of crustal stress

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lyzenga, Gregory A.; Raefsky, Arthur; Mulligan, Stephanie G.

1991-01-01

Numerical models of the strike-slip earthquake cycle, assuming a viscoelastic asthenosphere coupling model, are examined. The time-dependent simulations incorporate a stress-driven fault, which leads to tectonic stress fields and earthquake recurrence histories that are mutually consistent. Single-fault simulations with constant far-field plate motion lead to a nearly periodic earthquake cycle and a distinctive spatial distribution of crustal shear stress. The predicted stress distribution includes a local minimum in stress at depths less than typical seismogenic depths. The width of this stress 'trough' depends on the magnitude of crustal stress relative to asthenospheric drag stresses. The models further predict a local near-fault stress maximum at greater depths, sustained by the cyclic transfer of strain from the elastic crust to the ductile asthenosphere. Models incorporating both low-stress and high-stress fault strength assumptions are examined, under Newtonian and non-Newtonian rheology assumptions. Model results suggest a preference for low-stress (a shear stress level of about 10 MPa) fault models, in agreement with previous estimates based on heat flow measurements and other stress indicators.

An Integrated Geophysical and Geological Investigation of the Transition Zone between the Colorado Plateau, Rio Grande Rift and Basin and Range Provinces: Arizona and New Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-12-01

The thrust faults often contain enough strike- slip motion to be termed oblique faults (Seager and...Chapin cites the presence of left-lateral 160 oblique slip faults at its northern and southern boundaries, that the down- faulted section almost...and Bilodeau (1984) report that strike- slip motion may involve pre-existing faults , possibly faults associated with the Antler orogeny (Coney,

The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake: Simultaneous rupture of the subduction interface and overlying faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Teng; Wei, Shengji; Shi, Xuhua; Qiu, Qiang; Li, Linlin; Peng, Dongju; Weldon, Ray J.; Barbot, Sylvain

2018-01-01

The distribution of slip during an earthquake and how it propagates among faults in the subduction system play a major role in seismic and tsunami hazards, yet they are poorly understood because offshore observations are often lacking. Here we derive the slip distribution and rupture evolution during the 2016 Mw 7.9 Kaikōura (New Zealand) earthquake that reconcile the surface rupture, space geodetic measurements, seismological and tsunami waveform records. We use twelve fault segments, with eleven in the crust and one on the megathrust interface, to model the geodetic data and match the major features of the complex surface ruptures. Our modeling result indicates that a large portion of the moment is distributed on the subduction interface, making a significant contribution to the far field surface deformation and teleseismic body waves. The inclusion of local strong motion and teleseismic waveform data in the joint inversion reveals a unilateral rupture towards northeast with a relatively low averaged rupture speed of ∼1.5 km/s. The first 30 s of the rupture took place on the crustal faults with oblique slip motion and jumped between fault segments that have large differences in strike and dip. The peak moment release occurred at ∼65 s, corresponding to simultaneous rupture of both plate interface and the overlying splay faults with rake angle changes progressively from thrust to strike-slip. The slip on the Papatea fault produced more than 2 m of offshore uplift, making a major contribution to the tsunami at the Kaikōura station, while the northeastern end of the rupture can explain the main features at the Wellington station. Our inversions and simulations illuminate complex up-dip rupture behavior that should be taken into consideration in both seismic and tsunami hazard assessment. The extreme complex rupture behavior also brings new challenges to the earthquake dynamic simulations and understanding the physics of earthquakes.

Late Quaternary strike-slip along the Taohuala Shan-Ayouqi fault zone and its tectonic implications in the Hexi Corridor and the southern Gobi Alashan, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Jing-xing; Zheng, Wen-jun; Zhang, Pei-zhen; Lei, Qi-yun; Wang, Xu-long; Wang, Wei-tao; Li, Xin-nan; Zhang, Ning

2017-11-01

The Hexi Corridor and the southern Gobi Alashan are composed of discontinuous a set of active faults with various strikes and slip motions that are located to the north of the northern Tibetan Plateau. Despite growing understanding of the geometry and kinematics of these active faults, the late Quaternary deformation pattern in the Hexi Corridor and the southern Gobi Alashan remains controversial. The active E-W trending Taohuala Shan-Ayouqi fault zone is located in the southern Gobi Alashan. Study of the geometry and nature of slip along this fault zone holds crucial value for better understanding the regional deformation pattern. Field investigations combined with high-resolution imagery show that the Taohuala Shan fault and the E-W trending faults within the Ayouqi fault zone (F2 and F5) are left-lateral strike-slip faults, whereas the NW or WNW-trending faults within the Ayouqi fault zone (F1 and F3) are reverse faults. We collected Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and cosmogenic exposure age dating samples from offset alluvial fan surfaces, and estimated a vertical slip rate of 0.1-0.3 mm/yr, and a strike-slip rate of 0.14-0.93 mm/yr for the Taohuala Shan fault. Strata revealed in a trench excavated across the major fault (F5) in the Ayouqi fault zone and OSL dating results indicate that the most recent earthquake occurred between ca. 11.05 ± 0.52 ka and ca. 4.06 ± 0.29 ka. The geometry and kinematics of the Taohuala Shan-Ayouqi fault zone enable us to build a deformation pattern for the entire Hexi Corridor and the southern Gobi Alashan, which suggest that this region experiences northeastward oblique extrusion of the northern Tibetan Plateau. These left-lateral strike-slip faults in the region are driven by oblique compression but not associated with the northeastward extension of the Altyn Tagh fault.

Rapid acceleration leads to rapid weakening in earthquake-like laboratory experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, J. C.; Lockner, D. A.; Reches, Z.

2012-12-01

We simulated the slip of a fault-patch during a large earthquake by rapidly loading an experimental, ring-shaped fault with energy stored in a spinning flywheel. The flywheel abruptly delivers a finite amount of energy by spinning the fault-patch that spontaneously dissipates the energy without operator intervention. We conducted 42 experiments on Sierra White granite (SWG) samples, and 24 experiments on Kasota dolomite (KD) samples. Each experiment starts by spinning a 225 kg disk-shaped flywheel to a prescribed angular velocity. We refer to this experiment as an "earthquake-like slip-event" (ELSE). The strength-evolution in ELSE experiments is similar to the strength-evolution proposed for earthquake models and observed in stick-slip experiments. Further, we found that ELSE experiments are similar to earthquakes in at least three ways: (1) slip driven by the release of a finite amount of stored energy; (2) pattern of fault strength evolution; and (3) seismically observed values, such as average slip, peak-velocity and rise-time. By assuming that the measured slip, D, in ELSE experiments is equivalent to the average slip during an earthquake, we found that ELSE experiments (D = 0.003-4.6 m) correspond to earthquakes in moment-magnitude range of Mw = 4-8. In ELSE experiments, the critical-slip-distance, dc, has mean values of 2.7 cm and 1.2 cm for SWG and KD, that are much shorter than the 1-10 m in steady-state classical experiments in rotary shear systems. We attribute these dc values, to ELSE loading in which the fault-patch is abruptly loaded by impact with a spinning flywheel. Under this loading, the friction-velocity relations are strikingly different from those under steady-state loading on the same rock samples with the same shear system (Reches and Lockner, Nature, 2010). We further note that the slip acceleration in ELSE evolves systematically with fault strength and wear-rate, and that the dynamic weakening is restricted to the period of intense acceleration (up to 25 m/s2 during ~0.1 s). Thus, the weakening distance, dc, is reached within the initial acceleration spike. These observations are not unique, and similar weakening-acceleration associations were reported in stick-slip, rotary shear, and impact shear experiments. These studies greatly differ from each other in slip distance, normal stress, acceleration, and slip-velocities with the outstanding commonality of abrupt loading and intense acceleration. We propose that impact loading induces extremely high strain-rates that significantly increase rock brittleness, fracture tendency, and fragmentation. We envision that these processes intensify fault wear as manifested in ELSE experiments by extremely high initial wear-rates. This intense, early wear generates a layer of fine-grain gouge that reduces the fault strength by powder-lubrication. Our analysis indicates that rapid acceleration associated with earthquake rupture accelerates fault weakening and shortens the weakening-distance.

Estimating slip deficit of the North Anatolian Fault beneath the Sea of Marmara, Turkey, using on- and off-shore geodetic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamamoto, R.; Kido, M.; Ohta, Y.; Takahashi, N.; Yamamoto, Y.; Kalafat, D.; Pinar, A.; Ozener, H.; Ozeren, M. S.; Yoshiyuki, K.

2016-12-01

The North Anatolian Fault (NAF) in the northern Turkey regionally has right-lateral strike-slip motion. In the last decade, seismic activities have been migrating from east to west along the fault. In 1999, Izmit and Duzce Earthquakes were respectively occurred at 100 km and 200 km east of Istanbul, while it remains un-ruptured in the vicinity of Istanbul beneath the Sea of Marmara. In this region, onshore geodetic tools cannot be used and we instead used "seafloor acoustic extensometers" to detect slip deficit rate across the western part of the NAF (around 27.7 °E). A pair of extensometers can periodically measure precise range (about 3-4 mm precision per 1 km baseline) by observing round-trip time of acoustic signal between the two. We installed four instruments in September 2014 and an additional one in March 2015 across the NAF. We have recovered data for about 600-days through acoustic modem. By correcting travel-times for sound velocity using concurrently measured temperature, pressure and tilt change of instruments, we obtained 8-10 ±1 mm/yr of right-lateral movement at the site. Combing the result with on-shore GNSS data across the Sea of Marmara, we constructed a possible fault model. According to the model in Kaneko et al. (2013), we simply assume a bimodal slip condition on the fault plane that infinitely continues to the E-W direction; full-creep (25 mm/yr as is given at infinite distant from the fault plane) deeper than 15 km and applied an overriding partially locked layer (17 mm/yr slip deficit as is obtained by extensometers). We calculated 2-D displacement field in a homogeneous elastic half-space medium. With this model, N-S variation of on-shore GNSS data across the Sea of Marmara can be reasonably explained. However, due to the lack of GNSS site near the fault plane, constraint on the depth of the partially locked layer is not sufficient. We have newly installed GNSS sites, one of which is closer to the fault plane ( 10 km) than before and will be expected to provide much information on the fault condition. Acknowledgement: This observation is carried out in the MarDiM (Marmara Disaster Mitigation) project, SATREPS promoted by JICA/JST and Ministry of Development of Turkey.

Mechanics of Multifault Earthquake Ruptures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fletcher, J. M.; Oskin, M. E.; Teran, O.

2015-12-01

The 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake of magnitude Mw 7.2 produced the most complex rupture ever documented on the Pacific-North American plate margin, and the network of high- and low-angle faults activated in the event record systematic changes in kinematics with fault orientation. Individual faults have a broad and continuous spectrum of slip sense ranging from endmember dextral strike slip to normal slip, and even faults with thrust sense of dip slip were commonly observed in the aftershock sequence. Patterns of coseismic slip are consistent with three-dimensional constrictional strain and show that integrated transtensional shearing can be accommodated in a single earthquake. Stress inversions of coseismic surface rupture and aftershock focal mechanisms define two coaxial, but permuted stress states. The maximum (σ1) and intermediate (σ2) principal stresses are close in magnitude, but flip orientations due to topography- and density-controlled gradients in lithostatic load along the length of the rupture. Although most large earthquakes throughout the world activate slip on multiple faults, the mechanical conditions of their genesis remain poorly understood. Our work attempts to answer several key questions. 1) Why do complex fault systems exist? They must do something that simple, optimally-oriented fault systems cannot because the two types of faults are commonly located in close proximity. 2) How are faults with diverse orientations and slip senses prepared throughout the interseismic period to fail spontaneously together in a single earthquake? 3) Can a single stress state produce multi-fault failure? 4) Are variations in pore pressure, friction and cohesion required to produce simultaneous rupture? 5) How is the fabric of surface rupture affected by variations in orientation, kinematics, total geologic slip and fault zone architecture?

Crustal deformation in great California earthquake cycles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Victor C.; Rice, James R.

1986-01-01

Periodic crustal deformation associated with repeated strike slip earthquakes is computed for the following model: A depth L (less than or similiar to H) extending downward from the Earth's surface at a transform boundary between uniform elastic lithospheric plates of thickness H is locked between earthquakes. It slips an amount consistent with remote plate velocity V sub pl after each lapse of earthquake cycle time T sub cy. Lower portions of the fault zone at the boundary slip continuously so as to maintain constant resistive shear stress. The plates are coupled at their base to a Maxwellian viscoelastic asthenosphere through which steady deep seated mantle motions, compatible with plate velocity, are transmitted to the surface plates. The coupling is described approximately through a generalized Elsasser model. It is argued that the model gives a more realistic physical description of tectonic loading, including the time dependence of deep slip and crustal stress build up throughout the earthquake cycle, than do simpler kinematic models in which loading is represented as imposed uniform dislocation slip on the fault below the locked zone.

Present-Day Strain and Rotation in the Lebanese Restraining Bend of the Dead Sea Fault System Based on Analysis of GPS Velocities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gomez, F.; Jaafar, R.; Abdallah, C.; Karam, G.

2012-12-01

The Lebanese Restraining Bend (LRB) is a ~200-km-long bend in the central part of the Dead Sea Fault system (DSFS). As with other large restraining bends, this part of the transform is characterized by more complicated structure than other parts. Additionally, results from recent GPS studies have documented slower velocities north of the LRB than are observed along the southern DSFS to the south. In an effort to understand how strain is transferred through the LRB, this study analyzes improved GPS velocities within the central DSFS based on new data and additional stations. Despite relatively modest rates of seismicity, the Dead Sea Fault system (DSFS) has a historically documented record of producing large and devastating earthquakes. Hence, geodetic measurements of crustal deformation may provide key constraints on processes of strain accumulation that may not be evident in instrumentally recorded seismicity. Within the LRB, the transform splays into two prominent strike-slip faults: The through-going Yammouneh fault and the Serghaya fault. The latter appears to terminate in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Additionally, some oblique plate motion is accommodated by thrusting along the coast of Lebanon. This study used GPS observations from survey-mode GPS sites, as well as continuous GPS stations in the region. In total, 22 GPS survey sites have been measured in Lebanon between 2002 and 2010, along with GPS data from the adjacent area. Elastic models are used for initial assessment of fault slip rates. Incorporating two major strike-slip faults, as well as an offshore thrust fault, this modeling suggests left-lateral slip rates of 3.8 mm/yr and 1.1 mm/yr for the Yammouneh and Serghaya faults, respectively. The GPS survey network has sufficient density for analyzing velocity gradients in an effort to quantify tectonic strains and rotations. The velocity gradients suggest that differential rotations play a role in accommodating some plate motion.

Insights into the relationship between surface and subsurface activity from mechanical modeling of the 1992 Landers M7.3 earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madden, E. H.; Pollard, D. D.

2009-12-01

Multi-fault, strike-slip earthquakes have proved difficult to incorporate into seismic hazard analyses due to the difficulty of determining the probability of these ruptures, despite collection of extensive data associated with such events. Modeling the mechanical behavior of these complex ruptures contributes to a better understanding of their occurrence by elucidating the relationship between surface and subsurface earthquake activity along transform faults. This insight is especially important for hazard mitigation, as multi-fault systems can produce earthquakes larger than those associated with any one fault involved. We present a linear elastic, quasi-static model of the southern portion of the 28 June 1992 Landers earthquake built in the boundary element software program Poly3D. This event did not rupture the extent of any one previously mapped fault, but trended 80km N and NW across segments of five sub-parallel, N-S and NW-SE striking faults. At M7.3, the earthquake was larger than the potential earthquakes associated with the individual faults that ruptured. The model extends from the Johnson Valley Fault, across the Landers-Kickapoo Fault, to the Homestead Valley Fault, using data associated with a six-week time period following the mainshock. It honors the complex surface deformation associated with this earthquake, which was well exposed in the desert environment and mapped extensively in the field and from aerial photos in the days immediately following the earthquake. Thus, the model incorporates the non-linearity and segmentation of the main rupture traces, the irregularity of fault slip distributions, and the associated secondary structures such as strike-slip splays and thrust faults. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) images of the Landers event provided the first satellite images of ground deformation caused by a single seismic event and provide constraints on off-fault surface displacement in this six-week period. Insight is gained by comparing the density, magnitudes and focal plane orientations of relocated aftershocks for this time frame with the magnitude and orientation of planes of maximum Coulomb shear stress around the fault planes at depth.

Slip and Dilation Tendency Analysis of the San Emidio Geothermal Area

DOE Data Explorer

Faulds, James E.

2013-12-31

Critically stressed fault segments have a relatively high likelihood of acting as fluid flow conduits (Sibson, 1994). As such, the tendency of a fault segment to slip (slip tendency; Ts; Morris et al., 1996) or to dilate (dilation tendency; Td; Ferrill et al., 1999) provides an indication of which faults or fault segments within a geothermal system are critically stressed and therefore likely to transmit geothermal fluids. The slip tendency of a surface is defined by the ratio of shear stress to normal stress on that surface: Ts = τ / σn (Morris et al., 1996). Dilation tendency is defined by the stress acting normal to a given surface: Td = (σ1-σn) / (σ1-σ3) (Ferrill et al., 1999). Slip and dilation were calculated using 3DStress (Southwest Research Institute). Slip and dilation tendency are both unitless ratios of the resolved stresses applied to the fault plane by ambient stress conditions. Values range from a maximum of 1, a fault plane ideally oriented to slip or dilate under ambient stress conditions to zero, a fault plane with no potential to slip or dilate. Slip and dilation tendency values were calculated for each fault in the focus study areas at, McGinness Hills, Neal Hot Springs, Patua, Salt Wells, San Emidio, and Tuscarora on fault traces. As dip is not well constrained or unknown for many faults mapped in within these we made these calculations using the dip for each fault that would yield the maximum slip tendency or dilation tendency. As such, these results should be viewed as maximum tendency of each fault to slip or dilate. The resulting along-fault and fault-to-fault variation in slip or dilation potential is a proxy for along fault and fault-to-fault variation in fluid flow conduit potential. Stress Magnitudes and directions Stress field variation within each focus area was approximated based on regional published data and the world stress database (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2010; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012; Moeck et al., 2010; Moos and Ronne, 2010 and Reinecker et al., 2005) as well as local stress information if applicable. For faults within these focus systems we applied either a normal faulting stress regime where the vertical stress (sv) is larger than the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (sv>shmax>shmin) or strike-slip faulting stress regime where the maximum horizontal stress (shmax) is larger than the vertical stress (sv) which is larger than the minimum horizontal stress (shmax >sv>shmin) depending on the general tectonic province of the system. Based on visual inspection of the limited stress magnitude data in the Great Basin we used magnitudes such that shmin/shmax = .527 and shmin/sv= .46, which are consistent with complete and partial stress field determinations from Desert Peak, Coso, the Fallon area and Dixie valley (Hickman et al., 2000; Hickman et al., 1998 Robertson-Tait et al., 2004; Hickman and Davatzes, 2011; Davatzes and Hickman, 2006; Blake and Davatzes 2011; Blake and Davatzes, 2012). Slip and dilation tendency for the San Emidio geothermal field was calculated based on the faults mapped Tuscarora area (Rhodes, 2011). The San Emidio area lies in the Basin and Range Province, as such we applied a normal faulting stress regime to the San Emidio area faults, with a minimum horizontal stress direction oriented 115, based on inspection of local and regional stress determinations, as explained above. This is consistent with the shmin determined through inversion of fault data by Rhodes (2011). Under these stress conditions north-northeast striking, steeply dipping fault segments have the highest dilation tendency, while north-northeast striking 60° dipping fault segments have the highest tendency to slip. Interesting, the San Emidio geothermal field lies in an area of primarily north striking faults, which...

Slip maxima at fault junctions and rupturing of barriers during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shen, Z.-K.; Sun, Jielun; Zhang, P.; Wan, Y.; Wang, M.; Burgmann, R.; Zeng, Y.; Gan, Weijun; Liao, H.; Wang, Q.

2009-01-01

The disastrous 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China took the local population as well as scientists by surprise. Although the Longmen Shan fault zonewhich includes the fault segments along which this earthquake nucleatedwas well known, geologic and geodetic data indicate relatively low (<3 mm yr -1) deformation rates. Here we invert Global Positioning System and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar data to infer fault geometry and slip distribution associated with the earthquake. Our analysis shows that the geometry of the fault changes along its length: in the southwest, the fault plane dips moderately to the northwest but becomes nearly vertical in the northeast. Associated with this is a change in the motion along the fault from predominantly thrusting to strike-slip. Peak slip along the fault occurs at the intersections of fault segments located near the towns of Yingxiu, Beichuan and Nanba, where fatalities and damage were concentrated. We suggest that these locations represent barriers that failed in a single event, enabling the rupture to cascade through several fault segments and cause a major moment magnitude (Mw) 7.9 earthquake. Using coseismic slip distribution and geodetic and geological slip rates, we estimate that the failure of barriers and rupture along multiple segments takes place approximately once in 4,000 years. ?? 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Character and Significance of Surface Rupture Near the Intersection of the Denali and Totschunda Faults, M7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake, Alaska, November 3, 2002

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wallace, W. K.; Sherrod, B. L.; Dawson, T. E.

2002-12-01

Preliminary observations suggest that right-lateral strike-slip on the Denali fault is transferred to the Totschunda fault via an extensional bend in the Little Tok River valley. Most of the surface rupture during the Denali fault earthquake was along an east- to east-southeast striking, gently curved segment of the Denali fault. However, in the Little Tok River valley, rupture transferred to the southeast-striking Totschunda fault and continued to the southeast for another 75 km. West of the Little Tok River valley, 5-7 m of right-lateral slip and up to 2 m of vertical offset occurred on the main strand of the Denali fault, but no apparent displacement occurred on the Denali fault east of the valley. Rupture west of the intersection also occurred on multiple discontinuous strands parallel to and south of the main strand of the Denali fault. In the Little Tok River valley, the northern part of the Totschunda fault system consists of multiple discontinuous southeast-striking strands that are connected locally by south-striking stepover faults. Faults of the northern Totschunda system display 0-2.5 m of right-lateral slip and 0-2.75 m of vertical offset, with the largest vertical offset on a dominantly extensional stepover fault. The strands of the Totschunda system converge southeastward to a single strand that had up to 2 m of slip. Complex and discontinuous faulting may reflect in part the immaturity of the northern Totschunda system, which is known to be younger and have much less total slip than the Denali. The Totschunda fault forms an extensional bend relative to the dominantly right-lateral Denali fault to the west. The fault geometry and displacements at the intersection suggest that slip on the Denali fault during the earthquake was accommodated largely by extension in the northern Totschunda fault system, allowing a significant decrease in strike-slip relative to the Denali fault. Strands to the southwest in the area of the bend may represent shortcut faults that have reduced the curvature at the intersection of the two fault systems.

Earthquake Rupture at Focal Depth, Part I: Structure and Rupture of the Pretorius Fault, TauTona Mine, South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heesakkers, V.; Murphy, S.; Reches, Z.

2011-12-01

We analyze the structure of the Archaean Pretorius fault in TauTona mine, South Africa, as well as the rupture-zone that recently reactivated it. The analysis is part of the Natural Earthquake Laboratory in South African Mines (NELSAM) project that utilizes the access to 3.6 km depth provided by the mining operations. The Pretorius fault is a ~10 km long, oblique-strike-slip fault with displacement of up to 200 m that crosscuts fine to very coarse grain quartzitic rocks in TauTona mine. We identify here three structural zones within the fault-zone: (1) an outer damage zone, ~100 m wide, of brittle deformation manifested by multiple, widely spaced fractures and faults with slip up to 3 m; (2) an inner damage zone, 25-30 m wide, with high density of anastomosing conjugate sets of fault segments and fractures, many of which carry cataclasite zones; and (3) a dominant segment, with a cataclasite zone up to 50 cm thick that accommodated most of the Archaean slip of the Pretorius fault, and is regarded as the `principal slip zone' (PSZ). This fault-zone structure indicates that during its Archaean activity, the Pretorius fault entered the mature fault stage in which many slip events were localized along a single, PSZ. The mining operations continuously induce earthquakes, including the 2004, M2.2 event that rejuvenated the Pretorius fault in the NELSAM project area. Our analysis of the M2.2 rupture-zone shows that (1) slip occurred exclusively along four, pre-existing large, quasi-planer segments of the ancient fault-zone; (2) the slipping segments contain brittle cataclasite zones up to 0.5 m thick; (3) these segments are not parallel to each other; (4) gouge zones, 1-5 mm thick, composed of white `rock-flour' formed almost exclusively along the cataclasite-host rock contacts of the slipping segments; (5) locally, new, fresh fractures branched from the slipping segments and propagated in mixed shear-tensile mode; (6) the maximum observed shear displacement is 25 mm in oblique-normal slip. The mechanical analysis of this rupture-zone is presented in Part II (H eesakkers et al., Earthquake Rupture at Focal Depth, Part II: Mechanics of the 2004 M2.2 Earthquake Along the Pretorius Fault, TauTona mine, South Africa 2011, this volume).