Project Abstract
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Studies under this project attempt to quantify the levels of heterogeneity in California faults using two observational approaches. The two approaches employ different measures of heterogeneities and utilize data with different spatial and temporal sampling. In the first approach, fault trace data describe the surface expression of fault displacement accumulated over tens of thousands of years. In the second, focal mechanism data sample the geometry of seismic faulting throughout the seismogenic crust (~0-15 km) over a ~20 year period. The level of geometrical complexity in a fault zone has important implications for the evolution of faults, the physics of the associated earthquakes. Improved understanding of the variations in the complexity of different fault zones can be useful for future seismic hazard assessments. The studies supported partially two students and led to two submitted papers (one on each research direction) |