Correlation of foreshocks and aftershocks and asperities

A close correlation in spatial distribution of local seismic activity and energy release patterns before and after the 1979 Petatlan, Mexico earthquake suggests heterogeneity within the fault plane of this major low-angle thrust event associated with subduction along the Middle America Trench. A simple two-asperity model is proposed to account for the complexity. Foreshocks and aftershocks of the neighboring 1981 Playa Azul earthquake showed a similar pattern. As both events occurred at the junction of the Orozco Fracture Zone and the Middle America Trench, we speculate that the observed complex fault plane is caused by subduction of the rugged ocean floor of the Orozco Fracture Zone. Short-term precursory seismicity prior to the Petatlan earthquake can be explained by using the asperity model and migration of a slip front from the south-east to the north-west across the main shock source region.     

Seismicity and stress evolution in heterogeneous faults with various degrees of roughness

We investigate the effects of the spatial distribution of stress drop ratios (SDRs) on the fault of an earthquake sequence as well as stress evolution. To achieve this, we test four fault models, each with its own SDRs which differ with regard to wavelength components (roughness) but which share first-order similarity and the same mean value. We assume rupture processes are quasi-static and fluid-controlled. The evidence clearly shows that the locations of large earthquakes are more sensitive to distribution than to the values of the SDRs. For this reason, it is expected that reducing fault roughness should increase the number of large earthquakes but decrease the number of small ones. It is also clearly apparent that a clustered distribution of large earthquakes should be more frequently observed on heterogeneous faults, especially in areas with small gradient values of the SDRs. These phenomena are consistent with our finding that long-wavelength components of stress usually develop in areas with low gradients of the SDRs. A fault with a smoother distribution of SDRs should, therefore, exhibit a greater likelihood to generate large earthquakes. By contrast, in that a rough fault covers a smaller area on which long-wavelengths can develop, it should result in fewer large earthquakes but a much more highly clustered distribution.     

2010年4月14日玉树Ms7.1地震加速度场预测

基于有限断层震源、且使用动力学拐角频率的地震动随机模拟方法预测玉树地震近断层的加速度场.首先,基于有限断层震源建模方法建立该次地震的震源模型;然后,基于上述地震动模拟方法预测玉树地震近断层191个节点的加速度时程.在此基础上,取每个结点的加速度峰值绘制该次地震的近断层加速度场.结果表明:(1)近断层加速度场主要受震源破裂过程和断层面上滑动分布的影响.断层面上凹凸体投影到地表的区域附近,加速度峰值最大,也是震害最严重的区域;(2)对于走滑地震,断层沿线附近的场地并非均会发生破裂方向性效应;发生破裂方向性效应的场地与凹凸体在断层面上的位置有关.     

Study on Potential Strong Earthquake Risks Around the Mabian Area,Southern Sichuan

Based on seismic data from the regional network for the last 34 years,we analyzed the present fault behavior of major fault zones around the Mabian area,southern Sichuan,and identified the risky fault-segments for potential strong and large earthquakes in the future.The method of analysis is a combination of spatial distribution of b-values with activity background of historical strong earthquakes and current seismicity.Our results mainly show:(1) The spatial distribution of b-values indicates significant heterogeneity in the studied area,which reflects the spatial difference of cumulative stress levels along various fault zones and segments.(2) Three anomalously low b-value areas with different dimensions were identified along the Mabian-Yanjin fault zone.These anomalies can be asperities under relatively high cumulated stress levels.Two asperities are located in the north of Mabian county,in Lidian town in western Muchuan county,and near Yanjin at the south end of the fault zone.These two areas represent potential large earthquake seismogenic sites around the Mabian area in the near future.Besides them,the third relatively smaller asperity is identified at southern Suijiang,as another potential strongearthquake source.(3) An asperity along the southwestern segment of the Longquanshan fault zone indicates the site of potential moderate-to-strong earthquakes.(4) The asperity along the segment between Huangmu town in Hanyuan county and Longchi town in Emeishan city on Jinkouhe-Meigu fault has potential for a moderate-strong earthquake.     

100 years Jura décollement hypothesis: how it affects Steinmann’s (1892) “Schwarzwaldlinie”

Steinmann, then professor of geology at Freiburg (Germany), more than a 100 years ago wondered about the southern end of the extensional Rhinegraben and proposed that elements of the graben penetrated the contractional Jura. In particular, he recognized the "Schwarzwaldlinie” in the southern prolongation of the eastern border of the southern Rhinegraben, a line-up of topographic as well as structural irregularities. He conjectured that it was caused by normal faults of the Rhinegraben system. Subsequently—100 years ago—Buxtorf (1907) proposed the hypothesis, that the Jura was a thin-skinned nappe sheared off on Triassic evaporites. In the autochthonous basement underneath the wrinkled skin, the ``Schwarzwald line” is difficult to define. It probably consists of a gentle flexure punctuated by faults that approximately coincides with Steinmann’s original projection, although he sought to identify its constituent faults in the badly deformed allochthonous skin. Current data place the thin-skin elements of the Schwarzwald line in a more westerly, allochthonous position where most of them were reactivated into sinistrally transpressional structures.     

The rupture process and tectonic implications of the great 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake

We have determined the rupture history of the March 28, 1964, Prince Williams Sound earthquake (M _w=9.2) from long-period WWSSNP-wave seismograms. Source time functions determined from the long-periodP waves indicate two major pulses of moment release. The first and largest moment pulse has a duration of approximately 100 seconds with a relatively smooth onset which reaches a peak moment release rate at about 75 seconds into the rupture. The second smaller pulse of moment release starts at approximately 160 seconds after the origin time and has a duration of roughly 40 seconds. Because of the large size of this event and thus a deficiency of on-scale, digitizableP-wave seismograms, it is impossible to uniquely invert for the location of moment release. However, if we assume a rupture direction based on the aftershock distribution and the results of surface wave directivity studies we are able to locate the spatial distribution of moment along the length of the fault. The first moment pulse most likely initiated near the epicenter at the northeastern down-dip edge of the aftershock area and then spread over the fault surface in a semi-circular fashion until the full width of the fault was activated. The rupture then extended toward the southwest approximately 300 km (Ruff andKanamori, 1983). The second moment pulse was located in the vicinity of Kodiak Island, starting at 500 km southwest of the epicenter and extending to about 600 km. Although the aftershock area extends southwest past the second moment pulse by at least 100 km, the moment release remained low. We interpret the 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake as a multiple asperity rupture with a very large dominant asperity in the epicentral region and a second major, but smaller, asperity in the Kodiak Island region.The zone that ruptured in the 1964 earthquake is segmented into two regions corresponding to the two regions of concentrated moment release. Historical earthquake data suggest that these segments behaved independently during previous events. The Kodiak Island region appears to rupture more frequently with previous events occurring in 1900, 1854, 1844, and 1792. In contrast, the Prince William Sound region has much longer recurrence intervals on the order of 400–1000 years.