scholarly journals Modeling High Stress Drops, Scaling, Interaction, and Irregularity of Repeating Earthquake Sequences Near Parkfield

2018 ◽  
Vol 123 (12) ◽  
pp. 10,854-10,879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semechah K. Y. Lui ◽  
Nadia Lapusta
1983 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-236
Author(s):  
M. Wyss ◽  
R. E. Habermann ◽  
Ch. Heiniger

abstract The rate of occurrence of earthquakes shallower than 100 km during the years 1963 to 1980 was studied as a function of time and space along the New Hebrides island arc. Systematic examination of the seismicity rates for different magnitude bands showed that events with mb < 4.8 were not reported consistently over time. The seismicity rate as defined by mb ≧ 4.8 events was examined quantitatively and systematically in the source volumes of three recent main shocks and within two seismic gaps. A clear case of seismic quiescence could be shown to have existed before one of the large main shocks if a major asperity was excluded from the volume studied. The 1980 Ms = 8 rupture in the northern New Hebrides was preceded by a pattern of 9 to 12 yr of quiescence followed by 5 yr of normal rate. This pattern does not conform to the hypothesis that quiescence lasts up to the mainshock which it precedes. The 1980 rupture also did not fully conform to the gap hypothesis: half of its aftershock area covered part of a great rupture which occurred in 1966. A major asperity seemed to play a critical role in the 1966 and 1980 great ruptures: it stopped the 1966 rupture, and both parts of the 1980 double rupture initiated from it. In addition, this major asperity made itself known by a seismicity rate and stress drops higher than in the surrounding areas. Stress drops of 272 earthquakes were estimated by the MS/mb method. Time dependence of stress drops could not be studied because of changes in the world data set of Ms and mb values. Areas of high stress drops did not correlate in general with areas of high seismicity rate. Instead, outstandingly high average stress drops were observed in two plate boundary segments with average seismicity rate where ocean floor ridges are being subducted. The seismic gaps of the central and northern New Hebrides each contain seismically quiet regions. In the central New Hebrides, the 50 to 100 km of the plate boundary near 18.5°S showed an extremely low seismicity rate during the entire observation period. Low seismicity could be a permanent property of this location. In the northern New Hebrides gap, seismic quiescence started in mid-1972, except in a central volume where high stress drops are observed. This volume is interpreted as an asperity, and the quiescence may be interpreted as part of the preparation process to a future large main shock near 13.5°S.


1993 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn L. Greig ◽  
Gail M. Atkinson

Abstract We compare the damage potential of three recent eastern North American (ENA) earthquakes (Nahanni, 1985; Saguenay, 1988; and Mont Laurier, 1990) to that of the 1989 Loma Prieta, California earthquake. The Saguenay and Mont Laurier events were noteworthy due to their unusually high stress drops. The comparisons are based on synthetic ground motion records generated by the stochastic method, using source and attenuation models that were derived from actual records for each event. Damage potential is characterized by inelastic strength demand spectra, obtained by analyzing the response of nonlinear oscillators to each record. There is a strong similarity between the inelastic spectra and the more familiar elastic response spectra, although some significant differences are observed. Comparisons between events show that a moderate high-stress ENA earthquake, like Saguenay, can be as damaging to high-frequency structures as a major California earthquake.


1981 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1215-1231
Author(s):  
John Cipar

abstract Short-period (SP) and long-period (LP) seismograms written by the main shock and two principal aftershocks of the 1976 Friuli, Italy, earthquake sequence are modeled in the time domain using synthetic seismograms. The main shock occurred on 6 May 1976 (20h 00m, Ms = 6.5) and both aftershocks on 15 September 1976 (03h 15m, Ms = 6.0 and 09h 21m, Ms = 5.9). Source models were determined initially by trial and error and then refined using a waveform inversion program. Two point sources of radiation are required to adequately model the aftershock short-period records. For the 09h 21m aftershock, the model derived from short-period records also produces good fits to the long-period data. The seismic moment of this earthquake is found to be 0.8 to 1.0 × 1025 dyne-cm. The SP model for the 03h 15m aftershock, on the other hand, predicts long-period synthetics which do not agree with the observations. In particular, the SP moment (0.37 × 1025 dyne-cm) is about 212 times smaller than the LP moment (1 × 1025 dyne-cm). Adding a long-period component to the SP model considerably improves LP waveform and moment agreement. In the case of the main shock, a reasonable fit to the observed SP data is obtained using three point sources of radiation. However, LP synthetics computed using this model do not agree with the observations, and the SP moment (0.65 × 1025 dyne-cm) is a small fraction of the LP moment (3 to 5 × 1025 dyne-cm). Time function durations indicate that the individual events inferred from the SP records are radiated from patches of the fault having radii of 2 to 4 km and stress drops in the range 35 to 276 bars. In comparison, stress drops estimated from LP data are found to be 12 bars (main shock) and 24 bars (09h 21m aftershock). These observations suggest that the short-period instruments are sensitive to the high-frequency radiation emitted from small, high-stress drop areas on the fault plane whereas the long-period instruments record the overall motion during the earthquake.


1984 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 1331-1347
Author(s):  
Jim Mori

Abstract Short- and long-period records of the P wave of the 1965 Rat Islands earthquake were analyzed to locate subevents within the main rupture. Four subevents were identified on the short-period records in the first 100 sec and on the two long-period records in the first 30 sec. The short-period subevents cluster in an area 100 km south of the initial epicenter which appears to be off of the main fault plane, an area in which two larger aftershocks have relatively high stress drops. The long-period subevents are located 90 km west of the initial epicenter. The times and locations of the first short- and long-period subevents indicate they were triggered by a front moving near the P-wave velocity.


1984 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 1529-1544
Author(s):  
Jim Mori ◽  
Kunihiko Shimazaki

Abstract Strong-motion records of the 1968 Tokachi-Oki earthquake were examined, and two very high stress drop subevents were identified. The first subevent had been previously located by Nagamune (1969), and the second subevent was located in this study using P waves recorded on short-period WWSSN records. Estimates of source parameters revealed small source dimensions (<1 per cent of the aftershock area) and very high dynamic and static stress drops in the kilobar range for both of the subevents. It is suggested that these subevents are important in driving the main rupture of this earthquake. The two subevents also produced the dominant accelerations on the strong-motion records, and it is shown that high-peak accelerations (150 to 200 cm/sec2) were recorded even at relatively large distances (100 to 200 km).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Folesky ◽  
Rens Hofman ◽  
Jörn Kummerow

<div> <div> <div> <p>At the northern Chilean subduction zone the IPOC network monitors seismicity since 2007. During the observation time period two very large earthquakes occurred, the 2007 MW 7.7 Tocopilla earthquake and the 2014 MW 8.1 Iquique earthquake and until today the subduction zone shows a vast amount of seismic activity. A large catalog was compiled and published including over 100000 events by Sippl et al. 2018. Therein, seismicity ranges from close to the trench till deep into the mantle to about 300km depth. Consequently, events occur under a broad variability of physical conditions.</p> <p>We extend the aforementioned catalog by applying a template matching technique to identify additional events, that are colocated with catalog events. Based on these events we apply an empirical Green’s function method called spectral ratio approach to estimate stress drops. The results cover different nucleation provinces i.e. the data set includes stress drops obtained at the interface, within the subducting plate, from crustal events, intermediate depth events, and from deep to very deep seismicity. The study therefore bears a great potential to better understand the stress drop distribution within an entire subduction zone.</p> </div> </div> </div><p>First results show no depth dependency in the shallowest 100 km but spatial variability with high stress drops focused to particular regions on the interface. We also find increased stress drop values in the crust when compared to events close or at the interface.</p>


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