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Linking seismicity and fault surface properties

Magali Barba, Kristy F. Tiampo, & Margaret T. Glasscoe

Published August 16, 2017, SCEC Contribution #7893, 2017 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #070

Recent work linking asperities and seismicity suggests that changing the spatial configuration of asperities or increasing the total number of asperities can generate a greater number of larger events (Kazemian et al., 2013). The expansion of seismic networks globally and advances in space geodesy provide the ability to invert for the slip distribution on the fault surface occurring both before and during the earthquake fault rupture (González et al., 2012; Tiampo et al., 2013). The resulting slip distribution can be directly related to the stress distribution on the fault, including the asperity profile (Lorito et al., 2011). We investigate the relationship between earthquake seismicity and fault structure for a variety of mechanisms and spatiotemporal behaviors by analyzing GR statistics and slip rate distributions for seismically well-documented historic sequences and well-monitored fault segments. For events with inconclusive slip rate distributions or for those lacking sufficient resolution, we invert coseismic interferograms and seismic data. Full-resolution coseismic interferograms are constructed using JPL ISCE software (Gurrola et al., 2010) and the finite element modeling of the fault segments and slip distributions is performed using JPL GeoFEST software (Lyzenga et al., 2000). Linking stress dissipation with fault surface properties through better quantification of the statistical parameters that control those sequences has the potential to improve our understanding of their short- and long-term behavior.

Citation
Barba, M., Tiampo, K. F., & Glasscoe, M. T. (2017, 08). Linking seismicity and fault surface properties. Poster Presentation at 2017 SCEC Annual Meeting.


Related Projects & Working Groups
Seismology