High-resolution fault image from accurate locations and focal mechanisms of the 2008 swarm earthquakes in West Bohemia, Czech Republic

Abstract

We have analyzed 463 micro-earthquakes in the magnitude range from 0.5 to 3.8 that occurred during the 2008 earthquake swarm in West Bohemia, Czech Republic, in order to screen the detailed structure of the focal zone situated at depths between 7 and 11km. The double-difference location method was applied to records of 22 local seismic stations with an epicentral distance of less than 25km in order to retrieve highly accurate locations of hypocenters with an accuracy of less than 20m. The hypocenters are well-clustered and distinctly map the system of activated faults. The fault system has a complex geometry being composed of several fault segments with different orientations. Some of the segments intersect each other. The orientations of the segments coincide well with the focal mechanisms. We have introduced and evaluated the so-called fault instability of the individual fault segments. The fault instability ranges from 0 (most stable faults) to 1 (most unstable faults) and measures the susceptibility of the fault to be activated under specified stress. In the West Bohemia focal zone, two fault segments are optimally oriented with respect to the tectonic stress being characterized by an instability value higher than 0.9. Tractions on these fault segments are concentrated in the Mohr's diagram in the area of validity of the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion and the associated micro-earthquakes are mainly shear. The other fault segments are slightly misoriented with instability values between 0.7 and 0.9, and the shear traction is significantly lower. These earthquakes are probably more tensile and activated most likely by the local redistribution of Coulomb stress during swarm activity.