Properties and Processes of Crustal Fault Zones: Volume I

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Seismic radiation from regions sustaining material damage

We discuss analytical results for seismic radiation during rapid episodes of inelastic brittle deformation that include, in addition to the standard moment term, a damage-related term stemming from changes of elastic moduli in the source region. The radiation from the damage-related term is associated with products of the changes of elastic moduli and the total elastic strain components in the source region. Order of magnitude estimates suggest that the damage-related contribution to the motion in the surrounding elastic solid, which is neglected in standard calculations, can have appreciable amplitude that may in some cases be comparable to or larger than the moment contribution. A decomposition analysis shows that the damage-related source term has an isotropic component that can be larger than its double-couple component

High-resolution imaging of the Bear Valley section of the San Andreas fault at seismogenic depths with fault-zone head waves and relocated seismicity

Author Posting. © Blackwell, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of Blackwell for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Journal International 163 (2005): 152–164, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2005.02703.x.Detailed imaging of fault-zone (FZ) material properties at seismogenic depths is a difficult seismological problem owing to the short length scales of the structural features. Seismic energy trapped within a low-velocity damage zone has been utilized to image the fault core at shallow depths, but these phases appear to lack sensitivity to structure in the depth range where earthquakes nucleate. Major faults that juxtapose rocks of significantly different elastic properties generate a related phase termed a fault-zone head wave (FZHW) that spends the majority of its path refracting along the fault. We utilize data from a dense temporary array of seismometers in the Bear Valley region of the San Andreas Fault to demonstrate that head waves have sensitivity to FZ structure throughout the seismogenic zone. Measured differential arrival times between the head waves and direct P arrivals and waveform modelling of these phases provide high-resolution information on the velocity contrast across the fault. The obtained values document along-strike, fault-normal, and downdip variations in the strength of the velocity contrast, ranging from 20 to 50 per cent depending on the regions being averaged by the ray paths. The complexity of the FZ waveforms increases dramatically in a region of the fault that has two active strands producing two separate bands of seismicity. Synthetic waveform calculations indicate that geological observations of the thickness and rock-type of the layer between the two strands are valid also for the subsurface structure of the fault. The results show that joint analysis of FZHWs and direct P arrivals can resolve important small-scale elements of the FZ structure at seismogenic depths. Detailed characterization of material contrasts across faults and their relation to earthquake ruptures is necessary for evaluating theoretical predictions of the effects that these structures have on rupture propagation.JM was supported by the Hoch Fund for innovative research

Properties of inelastic yielding zones generated by in-plane dynamic ruptures—I. Model description and basic results

We discuss results associated with 2-D numerical simulations of in-plane dynamic ruptures on a fault governed by slip-weakening and rate-and-state friction laws with off-fault yielding. The onset of yielding is determined by a Mohr–Coulomb-type criterion whereas the subsequent inelastic response is described by a Duvaut-Lions-type viscoplastic rheology. The study attempts to identify key parameters and conditions that control the spatial distribution and the intensity variation of off-fault yielding zones, the local orientation of the expected microfractures, and scaling relations or correlations among different quantities that can be used to characterize the yielding zones. In this paper, we present example results for crack and pulse ruptures, along with calculations of energy partition and characteristics of the simulated off-fault yielding zones. A companion follow-up paper provides a comprehensive parameter-space study of various examined features. In agreement with previous studies, the location and shape of the off-fault yielding zones depend strongly on the angle ψ of the background maximum compressive stress relative to the fault and the crack versus pulse mode of rupture. Following initial transients associated with nucleation of ruptures, the rate of various energy components (including off-fault dissipation) linearly increases with time for cracks, while approaching a constant level for pulse-like ruptures. The local angle to the fault of the expected microfractures is generally shallower and steeper than ψ in the compressional and extensional quadrants, respectively. The scalar seismic potency density decays logarithmically with increasing fault normal distance, with decay slope and maximum value that are influenced by the operating stress field

Abundant off-fault seismicity and orthogonal structures in the San Jacinto fault zone

The trifurcation area of the San Jacinto fault zone has produced more than 10% of all earthquakes in southern California since 2000, including the June 2016 M_w (moment magnitude) 5.2 Borrego Springs earthquake. In this area, the fault splits into three subparallel strands and is associated with broad V_P/V_S anomalies. We synthesize spatiotemporal properties of historical background seismicity and aftershocks of the June 2016 event. A template matching technique is used to detect and locate more than 23,000 aftershocks, which illuminate highly complex active fault structures in conjunction with a high-resolution regional catalog. The hypocenters form dipping seismicity lineations both along strike and nearly orthogonal to the main fault, and are composed of interlaced strike-slip and normal faults. The primary faults change dip with depth and become listric by transitioning to a dip of ~70° near a depth of 10 km. The M_w 5.2 Borrego Springs earthquake and past events with M > 4.0 occurred on the main faults, whereas most of the low-magnitude events are located in a damage zone (several kilometers wide) at seismogenic depths. The lack of significant low-magnitude seismicity on the main fault traces suggests that they do not creep. The very high rate of aftershocks likely reflects the large geometrical fault complexity and perhaps a relatively high stress due to a significant length of time elapsed since the last major event. The results provide important insights into the physics of faulting near the brittle-ductile transition

Properties of inelastic yielding zones generated by in-plane dynamic ruptures—II. Detailed parameter-space study

We perform a detailed parameter-space study on properties of yielding zones generated by 2-D in-plane dynamic ruptures on a planar fault with different friction laws and parameters, different initial stress conditions, different rock cohesion values, and different contrasts of elasticity and mass density across the fault. The focus is on cases corresponding to large strike-slip faults having high angle (ψ = 45◦) to the maximum compressive background stress. The simulations and analytical scaling results show that for crack-like ruptures (1) the maximum yielding zone thickness T_(max) linearly increases with rupture distance L and the ratio Tmax/L is inversely proportional to (1 + S)^2 with S being the relative strength parameter; (2) the potency density ε^p_0 decays logarithmically with fault normal distance at a rate depending on the stress state and S; (3) increasing rock cohesion reduces T_(max)/L, resulting in faster rupture speed and higher inclination angle Ф of expected microfractures on the extensional side of the fault. For slip pulses in quasi-steady state, T is approximately constant along strike with local values correlating with the maximum slip velocity (or final slip) at a location. For a bimaterial interface with ψ = 45◦, the energy dissipation to yielding contributes to developing macroscopically asymmetric rupture (at the scale of rupture length) with the same preferred propagation direction predicted for purely elastic cases with Coulomb friction. When ψ = 10◦, representative for thrust faulting, the energy dissipation to yielding leads to opposite preferred rupture propagation. In all cases, Ф is higher on average on the compliant side. For both crack and pulse ruptures with ψ = 45◦, T decreases and ε^p_0 increases for conditions representing greater depth. Significant damage asymmetry of the type observed across several large strike-slip faults likely implies persistent macroscopic rupture asymmetry (unilateral cracks, unilateral pulses or asymmetric bilateral pulses). The results on various features of yielding zones expected from this and other studies are summarized in a table along with observations from the field and laboratory experiments

Imaging the deep structure of the San Andreas Fault south of Hollister with joint analysis of fault zone head and direct P arrivals

Author Posting. © Blackwell, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Blackwell for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Journal International 169 (2007): 1028–1042, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03319.x.We perform a joint inversion of arrival time data generated by direct P and fault zone (FZ) head waves in the San Andreas Fault south of Hollister, CA, to obtain a high-resolution local velocity structure. The incorporation of head waves allows us to obtain a sharp image of the overall velocity contrast across the fault as a function of depth, while the use of near-fault data allows us to resolve internal variations in the FZ structure. The data consist of over 9800 direct P and over 2700 head wave arrival times from 450 events at up to 54 stations of a dense temporary seismic array and the permanent northern California seismic network in the area. One set of inversions is performed upon the whole data set, and five inversion sets are performed on various data subsets in an effort to resolve details of the FZ structure. The results imply a strong contrast of P-wave velocities across the fault of ~50 per cent in the shallow section, and lower contrasts of 10–20 per cent below 3 km, with the southwest being the side with faster velocities. The presence of a shallow low velocity zone around the fault, which could corresponds to the damage structures imaged in trapped wave studies, is detected by inversions using subsets of the data made up of only stations close to the fault. The faster southwest side of the fault shows the development of a shallow low velocity FZ layer in inversions using instruments closer and closer to the fault (<5 and <2 km). Such a feature is not present in results of inversions using only stations at greater distances from the fault. On the slower northeast side of the fault, the presence of a low velocity shallow layer is only detected in the inversions using the stations within 2 km of the fault. We interpret this asymmetry across the fault as a possible indication of a preferred propagation direction of earthquake ruptures in the region. Using events from different portions of the fault, the head wave inversions also resolve small-scale features of the fault visible in the surface geology and relocated seismicity

Toward reliable automated estimates of earthquake source properties from body wave spectra

We develop a two‐stage methodology for automated estimation of earthquake source properties from body wave spectra. An automated picking algorithm is used to window and calculate spectra for both P and S phases. Empirical Green's functions are stacked to minimize nongeneric source effects such as directivity and are used to deconvolve the spectra of target earthquakes for analysis. In the first stage, window lengths and frequency ranges are defined automatically from the event magnitude and used to get preliminary estimates of the P and S corner frequencies of the target event. In the second stage, the preliminary corner frequencies are used to update various parameters to increase the amount of data and overall quality of the deconvolved spectral ratios (target event over stacked Empirical Green's function). The obtained spectral ratios are used to estimate the corner frequencies, strain/stress drops, radiated seismic energy, apparent stress, and the extent of directivity for both P and S waves. The technique is applied to data generated by five small to moderate earthquakes in southern California at hundreds of stations. Four of the five earthquakes are found to have significant directivity. The developed automated procedure is suitable for systematic processing of large seismic waveform data sets with no user involvement

Elastodynamic Analysis for Slow Tectonic Loading with Spontaneous Rupture Episodes on Faults with Rate- and State-dependent Friction

We present an efficient and rigorous numerical procedure for calculating the elastodynamic response of a fault subjected to slow tectonic loading processes of long duration within which there are episodes of rapid earthquake failure. This is done for a general class of rate- and state-dependent friction laws with positive direct velocity effect. The algorithm allows us to treat accurately, within a single computational procedure, loading intervals of thousands of years and to calculate, for each earthquake episode, initially aseismic accelerating slip prior to dynamic rupture, the rupture propagation itself, rapid post seismic deformation which follows, and also ongoing creep slippage throughout the loading period in velocity-strengthening fault regions. The methodology is presented using the two-dimensional (2-D) antiplane spectral formulation and can be readily extended to the 2-D in-plane and 3-D spectral formulations and, with certain modifications, to the space-time boundary integral formulations as well as to their discretized development using finite difference or finite element methods. The methodology can be used to address a number of important issues, such as fault operation under low overall stress, interaction of dynamic rupture propagation with pore pressure development, patterns of rupture propagation in events nucleated naturally as a part of a sequence, the earthquake nucleation process, earthquake sequences on faults with heterogeneous frictional properties and/or normal stress, and others. The procedure is illustrated for a 2-D crustal strike-slip fault model with depth-variable properties. For lower values of the state-evolution distance of the friction law, small events appear. The nucleation phases of the small and large events are very similar, suggesting that the size of an event is determined by the conditions on the fault segments the event is propagating into rather than by the nucleation process itself. We demonstrate the importance of incorporating slow tectonic loading with elastodynamics by evaluating two simplified approaches, one with the slow tectonic loading but no wave effects and the other with all dynamic effects included but much higher loading rate.Earth and Planetary SciencesEngineering and Applied Science