The dynamic Coulomb stress changes caused by remoteearthquakes based on the borehole strainmeter data

Abstract

<p>Sufficient shreds of evidence have proved the existence of the remote triggering effect of large earthquakes. To understand its mechanism, it is necessary to conduct detailed investigations on the influence of the far-field dynamic stress changes on the stress state of faults. As an important tool of ultra-broadband crustal stress monitoring, a four-component borehole strainmeter can directly record the dynamic changes of horizontal strain and stress caused by seismic waves. These data are of great importance to study the dynamic Coulomb stress changes and related triggering effects, but have not been paid sufficient attention to so far. This paper analyzes the data of the four-component borehole strainmeter at Gaotai and Tonghua stations, which recorded the far-field strain changes of four major earthquake events in the Pacific region in 2018. We successfully identify the seismic phases of P, S, and surface waves, and analyze the characteristics of different phases through the stress petal method. The dynamic stress changes are calculated, demonstrating the feasibility of using borehole strainmeter data to quantitatively study the triggering effect of teleseismic waves of earthquakes with different magnitudes at different epicentral distances. We find that the direction of the principal stress axis of the dynamic stress changes is generally consistent with the azimuth of the earthquake epicenter. We further discuss the Coulomb stress changes on the major faults near the stations. According to the results, the peak values of the dynamic Coulomb stress changes produced by four earthquakes on the fault planes near Gaotai and Tonghua stations are at the magnitude of hundreds of Pa, which are lower than the threshold value of dynamic triggering. This is also consistent with the observation that no dynamically triggered earthquakes are found on the faults. However, the idea and method of this paper provide useful insight into the detection of possible dynamic triggering of large earthquakes.</p>