Rupture Velocity Research Articles

Variation of seismic scalar moment–corner frequency relationship during development of a hydraulic fracture system

We propose to utilize the corner frequency and seismic scalar moment relation as a new approach to monitor temporal changes of static stress drop as well as rupture velocity during development of a hydraulic fracture system. We introduce a single parameter M1to describe a two-parameter relation (scalar moment and corner frequency relation) and analyze temporal variation of this two-parameter relation. Because M1relates rupture velocity and static stress drop, we can infer temporal variation of rupture velocity and stress drop quantitatively. The parameter M1is calculated in two case studies. We document that two types of fracturing processes exist: (1) stable rupture velocity and static stress drop during the development of rupture and (2) increase of rupture velocity and/or static stress drop while the fracture system develops. In the latter case, one possible scenario is increase of permeability at each fracture plane during development of the fracture system.

Geometric Controls on Pulse‐Like Rupture in a Dynamic Model of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake

AbstractThe 15 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal Gorkha earthquake occurred on a shallowly dipping portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). Notable features of the event include (1) the dominance of a slip pulse of about 6‐s duration that unlocked the lower edge of the MHT and (2) the near‐horizontal fault geometry, which, combined with proximity of the free surface, allows surface‐reflected phases to break the across‐fault symmetries of the seismic wavefield. Our dynamic rupture simulations in an elastoplastic medium yield earthquake parameters comparable to those deduced from kinematic inversions, including seismic moment and rupture velocity. The simulations reproduce pulse‐like behavior predicting pulse widths in agreement with those kinematic studies and supporting an interpretation in which the pulse‐like time dependence of slip is principally controlled by rupture geometry. This inference is strongly supported by comparison of synthetic ground velocity with the near‐field high‐rate GPS recording at station KKN4, which shows close agreement in pulse width, amplitude, and pulse shape. That comparison also constrains the updip extent of rupture and disfavors significant coseismic slip on the shallow ramp segment. Over most of the rupture length, the simulated rupture propagates at a near‐constant maximum velocity (~90% of the S wave speed) that is controlled by the antiplane geometry and off‐fault plastic yielding. Simulations also reveal the role of reflected seismic waves from the free surface, which may have contributed ~30% elongation of the slip pulse, and show the potential for significant free‐surface interaction effects in shallow events of similar geometry.

Energy-based average stress drop and its uncertainty during the 2015Mw 7.8 Nepal earthquake constrained by geodetic data and its implications to earthquake dynamics

The slip and static stress drop of the 2015 M-w 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake has been studied using its excellent near-source static observations and a newly developed finite fault inversion algorithm with an average stress drop constraint. A series of nonlinear inversions with different target stress drops are conducted to search for the solution that not only most accurately fits the geodetic data, but also has an energy-based stress drop, (Delta) over bar tau(E), matching the target value. Our result reveals that the misfit to the geodetic data gradually decreases when the (Delta) over bar tau(E) of the inverted slip model increases from 2 to 7MPa; but becomes nearly constant when (Delta) over bar tau(E) further increases. Hence, only the lower bound of (Delta) over bar tau(E), that is, (Delta) over bar tau(min)(E) (similar to 7 MPa), of the Gorkha earthquake can be constrained with near-fault geodetic measurements, consistent with our previous study using just far-field seismic data. The upper bound of (Delta) over bar tau(E) can be constrained with an extra constraint on the maximum local stress drop. An artificial upper bound can also be reached if using a large subfault size to represent the source. The lower bound of (Delta) over bar tau(E) leads to the lower bound of the apparent available energy and the upper bound of the radiation efficiency (eta(R), 0.09-0.15), though the latter is also sensitive to the determination of the radiated seismic energy. We find that the lower eta(R) and the reported high rupture velocity (80-93 per cent shear wave speed) can be reconciled by considering the aspect ratio of the dominant slip patch. We recommend using (Delta) over bar tau(min)(E) to replace various slip smoothing constraints to stabilize the finite fault inversion because of its clear physical meaning.

Numerical Simulation of M9 Megathrust Earthquakes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone

We estimate ground motions in the Pacific Northwest urban areas during M9 subduction scenario earthquakes on the Cascadia megathrust by simulating wave propagation from an ensemble of kinematic source descriptions. Velocities and densities in our computational mesh are defined by integrating the regional Cascadia Community Velocity Model (CVM) v1.6 (Stephenson et al. P-and S-wave velocity models incorporating the Cascadia subduction zone for 3D earthquake ground motion simulations—update for open-file report 2007–1348, US Geological Survey, 2017) including the ocean water layer with a local velocity model of the Georgia basin (Molnar, Predicting earthquake ground shaking due to 1D soil layering and 3D basin structure in SW British Columbia, Canada, 2011), including additional near-surface velocity information. We generate six source realizations, each consisting of a background slip distribution with correlation lengths, rise times and rupture velocities consistent with data from previous megathrust earthquakes (e.g., 2011 M 9 Tohoku or 2010 M 8.8 Maule). We then superimpose M ~ 8 subevents, characterized by short rise times and high stress drops on the background slip model to mimic high-frequency strong ground motion generation areas in the deeper portion of the rupture (Frankel, Bull Seismol Soc Am 107(1):372–386, 2017). The wave propagation is simulated using the discontinuous mesh (DM) version of the AWP finite difference code. We simulate frequencies up to 1.25 Hz, using a spatial discretization of 100 m in the fine grid, resulting in surface grid dimensions of 6540 × 10,728 mesh points. At depths below 8 km, the grid step increases to 300 m. We obtain stable and accurate results for the DM method throughout the simulation time of 7.5 min as verified against a solution obtained with a uniform 100 m grid spacing. Peak ground velocities (PGVs) range between 0.57 and 1.0 m/s in downtown Seattle and between 0.25 and 0.54 m/s in downtown Vancouver, while spectral accelerations at 2 s range between 1.7 and 3.6 m/s2 and 1.0 and 1.3 m/s2, respectively. These long-period ground motions are not significantly reduced if plastic Drucker-Prager yielding in shallow cohesionless sediments is taken into account. Effects of rupture directivity are significant at periods of ~ 10 s, but almost absent at shorter periods. We find that increasing the depth extent of the subducting slab from the truncation at 60 km in the Cascadia CVM version 1.6 to ~ 100 km increases the PGVs by 15% in Seattle and by 40% in Vancouver.

Energy Partitioning During Subcritical Mode I Crack Propagation Through a Heterogeneous Interface

AbstractThe energy budget during the propagation of tensile fractures typically includes two major energy dissipation modes: the fracture energy to create a new interface and the radiated energy. Since seismic hazard is related to the amount of seismic energy released, it is important to evaluate precisely the energy budget during fracture propagation and see in particular if it is constant or not. However, two aspects are typically limiting a precise estimate of the energy budget: first, the measurement of the nonseismic energy release and second, the rock heterogeneity‐like asperities or barriers. We conducted here laboratory experiments, using an analog material (Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)), of a stable mode I interfacial crack propagation close to brittle‐creep transition through a heterogeneous interface for different macroscopic rupture velocities to evaluate carefully their energy budget. Both acoustic and optical advances of the crack front were measured simultaneously, providing precise estimates of both types of dissipated energy. We computed the radiation efficiency ηR (ratio of the radiated energy to the available energy for driving the fracture) and observed a nonlinear increase of ηR with the average fracture propagation velocity v over 2 orders of magnitude independently of the initial quenched disorder. The experimental observations are supported by a model based on the fluctuations of the local rupture velocity induced by the crack front pinning on local asperities which leads to ηR ∝ v0.55. We discuss implications for slow shear rupture modes, seismicity rate evolution, and induced seismicity.

Earthquake Nucleation Size: Evidence of Loading Rate Dependence in Laboratory Faults.

Recent Global Positioning System observations of major earthquakes such as the 2014 Chile megathrust show a slow preslip phase releasing a significant portion of the total moment (Ruiz et al., 2014, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1256074). Despite advances from theoretical stability analysis (Rubin & Ampuero, 2005, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JB003686; Ruina, 1983, https://doi.org/10.1029/jb088ib12p10359) and modeling (Kaneko et al., 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071569), it is not fully understood what controls the prevalence and the amount of slip in the nucleation process. Here we present laboratory observations of slow slip preceding dynamic rupture, where we observe a dependence of nucleation size and position on the loading rate (laboratory equivalent of tectonic loading rate). The setup is composed of two polycarbonate plates under direct shear with a 30‐cm long slip interface. The results of our laboratory experiments are in agreement with the preslip model outlined by Ellsworth and Beroza (1995, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.268.5212.851) and observed in laboratory experiments (Latour et al., 2013, https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50974; Nielsen et al., 2010, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246x.2009.04444.x; Ohnaka & Kuwahara, 1990, https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1951(90)90138-X), which show a slow slip followed by an acceleration up to dynamic rupture velocity. However, further complexity arises from the effect of (1) rate of shear loading and (2) inhomogeneities on the fault surface. In particular, we show that when the loading rate is increased from 10−2 to 6 MPa/s, the nucleation length can shrink by a factor of 3, and the rupture nucleates consistently on higher shear stress areas. The nucleation lengths measured fall within the range of the theoretical limits L b and L∞ derived by Rubin and Ampuero (2005, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JB003686) for rate‐and‐state friction laws.

Rupture characteristics of a small-sized earthquake (MW 4.2), onshore the south Red Sea, Saudi Arabia

The present study is based on the use of Empirical Green's Function (EGF) deconvolution technique to retrieve the slip distribution of the 2014 Mw 4.2 Jizan earthquake, Saudi Arabia. Two datasets of complex Source Time Functions (STFs) were retrieved using two appropriate EGF events. We inverted the STF datasets to recover the slip distribution over both nodal planes, using the Bayesian modeling followed by a linear least-squares method. The inversion was performed assuming both planes as the fault plane and examined the goodness of fit for each nodal plane. Based on a series of finite-source inversions using different rupture velocities, we resolved the rupture velocity at 2.7–2.8 km/s and the fault plane of NNW trending; paralleling the Red Sea rift. Using the estimated rupture velocities and the preferred fault plane, we imaged quite similar slip models, exhibiting two slip patches located to the updip and downdip directions from the hypocentre. The spatiotemporal slip distributions revealed a complex rupture history of such small-sized earthquake is likely to that reported for large-sized earthquakes. A seismic moment of 2.8–3.2E+15 NM and a corresponding moment magnitude of 4.2-4-3 are inferred. The stress drops obtained from the slip distribution models were 2.2–2.5 MPa; indicating a typical value that characterized the plate-boundary earthquakes.

An Analytic Study of Frictional Effect on Slip Pulses of Earthquakes

Seismological observations show the existence of slip pulses with T R /T D >1; while the CS shows a crack-like rupture for VW friction when u is not too large. For SW friction, T R and T R /T D decrease when the slip pulse propagates in advance along the fault and when w o and g increase. T R and T R /T D also depend on v R (rupture velocity) and increasing L (fault length). For the PS, T p /T D is a good indication to show the existence of pulse-like oscillations at a site, because T p (t he predominant period of oscillations at a site) is slightly longer than T R . Results show the existence of a pulse-like oscillation at a site for the two types of friction. A pulse-like oscillation is generated when D >1.6 for SW friction and when u >0.6 for VW friction. T p /T D decreases with increasing D . For the two types of friction, T o /T D decreases when v R and L increase.

Numerical simulation of supershear ruptures in rock mass based on general particle dynamics

AbstractIn this paper, general particle dynamics code is developed to simulate initiation and growth of earthquake ruptures in rocks subjected to spontaneous dynamic unloading as well as the elastic stress distributions. The Mohr‐Coulomb criterion is applied to determine initiation and propagation of dynamic cracks. The effects of factors on the threshold of earthquake rupture from the slow, sub‐Rayleigh to supershear mode are investigated. The thresholds of the slow, sub‐Rayleigh and supershear mode are determined as well as the rupture velocity on the fault trace. It is found from the numerical results that the supershear rupture occurs when the ratio of shear stress to the normal stress acting on the surface of fault is larger than the critical threshold value; the supershear rupture also appears when friction coefficient, the stress drop ratio, confining pressure, and residual strength are less than the critical threshold value. The near‐field signatures in the both of ground velocity and stress records are determined. Moreover, both velocity wave and stress wave in the near field of supershear Mach fronts in the plane are analysed using general particle dynamics code.

A Dynamic Explanation for the Ruptures of Repeating Earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault at Parkfield

AbstractAnalyzing the relative source time functions (STFs) of repeating earthquakes (REs) at Parkfield and their spectra indicates that there are two groups of REs. One group of REs (G1) displays simple relative STFs and smooth spectra, whereas the other group (G2) displays complex relative STFs and spectra with obvious holes. We use the boundary integral equation method with different configurations of parameters to simulate the spontaneous dynamic ruptures and fit the observed characteristics. Finally, we find that the differences in the observed characteristics are due to the different configurations of the dynamic parameters. Earthquakes in G1 are self‐arresting ruptures, and earthquakes in G2 are runaway ruptures. Moreover, holes in the spectra of G2 are caused by the dynamic rupture propagation, and the frequency of the holes is a function of the radius of the circular fault, the angle between the station azimuth and the rupture propagation, and the rupture velocity.

The rupture extent of low frequency earthquakes near Parkfield, CA

The low frequency earthquakes (LFEs) that constitute tectonic tremor are often inferred to be slow: to have durations of 0.2 to 0.5 s, a factor of 10 to 100 longer than those of typical M_W 1-2 earthquakes. Here we examine LFEs near Parkfield, CA in order to assess several proposed explanations for LFEs’ long durations. We determine LFE rupture areas and location distributions using a new approach, similar to directivity analysis, where we examine how signals coming from various locations within LFEs’ finite rupture extents create differences in the apparent source time functions recorded at various stations. We use synthetic ruptures to determine how much the LFE signals recorded at each station would be modified by spatial variations of the source-station travel time within the rupture area given various possible rupture diameters, and then compare those synthetics with the data. Our synthetics show that the methodology can identify inter-station variations created by heterogeneous slip distributions or complex rupture edges, and thus lets us estimate LFE rupture extents for unilateral or bilateral ruptures. To obtain robust estimates of the sources’ similarity across stations, we stack signals from thousands of LFEs, using an empirical Green’s function approach to isolate the LFEs’ apparent source time functions from the path effects. Our analysis of LFEs in Parkfield implies that LFEs’ apparent source time functions are similar across stations at frequencies up to 8 to 16 Hz, depending on the family. The inter-station coherence observed at these relatively high frequencies, or short wave lengths (down to 0.2 to 0.5 km), suggest that LFEs in each of the 7 families examined occur on asperities. They are clustered in patches with sub-1-km diameters. The individual LFEs’ rupture diameters are estimated to be smaller than 1.1 km for all families, and smaller than 0.5 km and 1 km for the two shallowest families, which were previously found to have 0.2-s durations. Coupling the diameters with the durations suggests that it is possible to model these M_W 1-2 LFEs with earthquake-like rupture speeds: around 70% of the shear wave speed. However, that rupture speed matches the data only at the edge of our uncertainty estimates for the family with highest coherence. The data for that family are better matched if LFEs have rupture velocities smaller than 40% of the shear wave speed, or if LFEs have different rupture dynamics. They could have long rise times, contain composite sub-ruptures, or have slip distributions that persist from event to event.

Relation Between Near‐Fault Ground Motion Impulsive Signals and Source Parameters

AbstractNear‐fault ground motion records often present impulsive signals, characterized by a large amplitude in the velocity wavefield and by the energy concentrated in a short time window as compared to the total earthquake duration. This pulse‐like behavior is ascribed to the directivity of the seismic rupture, and it requires a stronger demand to the buildings not predicted by the classical design spectra. In this work we investigate the pulse occurrence and duration in near‐fault synthetic seismograms generated from an ensemble of k−2 source models. We exploited the fault geometry of the Mw = 6.3, 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, which represents a typical example of normal‐fault earthquake for which several records in the fault vicinity are available for comparison with synthetics. We show that impulsive records are sensitive to the rupture velocity, to the hypocenter depth, and to the station location, whether it is on the hanging wall or on the footwall. The pulse duration was also shown to be proportional to the risetime, and it scales with the source‐receiver distance and inversely with the rupture velocity. We model these results as an effect of the coupled along‐strike and updip directivity.

The relation between ME, ML and Mw in theory and numerical simulations for small to moderate earthquakes

This article addresses the question of how moment magnitude, Mw, local magnitude, ML, and energy magnitude, ME, of small to moderate earthquakes would scale with each other in an ideal elastic medium and why they scale differently in reality. It turns out that ML, in the way it is commonly determined, is a poor and inconsistent measure of earthquake size. For moderate to large events, the situation could be improved with a new magnitude, MA, that is not biased by the Wood-Anderson response. Mw is robust and can in principle be determined in a consistent way over the entire imaginable magnitude range, but it accounts only for the static component of the earthquake source. Could ME be an alternative? A simple conceptual analysis reveals the relation between radiated seismic energy, seismic moment, static stress drop, apparent stress, radiation efficiency and rupture velocity. Numerical simulations based on an extended-source model show that, to estimate the radiated seismic energy (and thus also ME), one needs to take into account the effects of rupture directivity and radiation pattern. Anelastic attenuation and the bandwidth of the recording instrument determine the magnitude limit below which pulse widths and corner frequencies remain nearly constant. Below this limit, all information about the dynamics of the source is lost and attempts to correct for this in the presence of noise and aleatory signal variability, even with well-calibrated attenuation models, are probably futile. We thus have to accept the fact that ME (just as ML) is a different measure of earthquake size for small earthquakes than for moderate to large earthquakes.

Dynamic Stress Drop for Selected Seismic Events at Rudna Copper Mine, Poland

In this paper, we report on an analysis of rupture processes of mining-induced events using the Empirical Green Function approach. The basic goal of this analysis is to estimate the dynamic stress drop—the quantity describing frictional forces at a slipping fault plane during the unstable part of an earthquake. The presented results cover 40 selected events with magnitude M_{rm{w}} ranging between 2.1 and 3.6 occurring in the Rudna copper mine (Poland) between 1996 and 2006. The spatial extent of the seismic network operated by the mine enabled us to estimate not only the dynamic stress drop but also the rupture velocities for most of the events studied. The results are analyzed in terms of correlations of the ratio of static to dynamic stress drop with other parameters characterizing the rupture processes. We also pose a question about the conditions of occurrence of over- and undershooting stress drop mechanisms. For all but two events, the estimated dynamic stress drop ranges between 0.1 and 4 MPa and is dominated by lower values. There are only two exceptions when it reaches the level of the order of 10 MPa. The reliability of these two exceptional cases is low, however. The rupture velocity, needed for dynamic stress drop calculation, was estimated from observed directivity effects. The obtained values ranged between 0.2 and almost 0.9 shear wave velocity, with dominating low velocities. The ratio of static to dynamic stress drop does not clearly correlate with the seismic scalar moment, source radius estimated according to Madariaga’s model, or static stress drop. It only positively correlates with the rupture velocity and ranges from values lower than 1 (undershooting mechanisms), mostly for slow events, up to values larger than 1 (overshooting mechanisms) for the majority of fast events. For all events with overshooting-type mechanisms, the estimated rupture velocity V_{rm{r}} was larger than half of the S-wave velocity V_{rm{s}}. On the other hand, for the undershooting-type events the associated rupture velocity was in most cases smaller than 0.6 V_{rm{s}} and large rupture speed was observed only in a few cases for this type of events.

Mode-III interfacial crack propagation in heterogeneous media.

We monitor optically the propagation of a slow interfacial mode III crack along a heterogeneous weak interface and compare it to mode I loading. Pinning and depinning of the front on local toughness asperities within the process zone are the main mechanisms for fracture roughening. Geometrical properties of the fracture fronts are derived in the framework of self-affine scale invariance and Family-Vicsek scaling. We characterize the small and large scale roughness exponents ζ_{-}=0.6 and ζ_{+}=0.35, the growth exponent at large scale β_{+}=0.58, and the power-law exponent of the local velocity distribution of the fracture fronts, η=2.55. All these analyzed properties are similar to those previously observed for mode I interfacial fractures. We also observe a common power-law decay of the probability distribution function of avalanche area. We finally observe that amplitude of front fluctuations, local rupture velocity correlation in time, and larger size of events highlight more dynamically unstable behavior of mode III crack ruptures.

Upper crustal low-frequency seismicity at Mount St. Helens detected with a dense geophone array

Mount St. Helens has been closely monitored by a permanent network including 16 seismometers located within a 15 km radius, yet some of its diverse seismic signals remain challenging to detect and relate to deformation processes. Data from a dense array of 904 geophones within 15 km of Mount St. Helens provide novel constraints on weak seismic signals observed during a two-week deployment in 2014. Here we report on the identification of weak low-frequency (LF) events that were either not detected by the permanent network or were misclassified as likely rockfalls. We refer to the signals as LF earthquakes because they have less power above ~10 Hz and longer durations compared to similar magnitude volcano-tectonic (VT) events. Reverse-time imaging with the entire geophone array indicates that the LF hypocenters overlap with the frequent VT seismicity in a sub-vertical column beneath the summit crater at ≤6 km below sea level. Beamforming of P-wave arrivals with an exceptionally dense sub-array yields slowness estimates that confirm a subsurface origin for 16 LF events. Occurrence of VT and LF events in approximately the same volume suggests distinct source processes rather than path effects as the primary explanation for their different signals. Some of the LF and VT events have multiple spectral peaks that may be consistent with source mechanisms involving resonance in fluid-filled cavities. However, the majority of LF and VT event spectra exhibit smooth amplitude decay with increasing frequency, consistent with shear failure sources. The depletion of high frequencies for LF events could be caused by unusually low rupture velocities or stress drops. Our results indicate a variety of earthquake source processes occur in a sub-vertical column at ≤6 km depth, which is thought to overly the primary upper crustal magma reservoir. LF events are typically associated with eruptive or near-eruptive activity and are generally not reported at depths greater than ~1 km at Mount St. Helens, but based on our short-duration high-density experiment we suggest that upper crustal LF events may be more common than previously recognized and occur across a broader depth range.

Modeling of the strong ground motion of 25th April 2015 Nepal earthquake using modified semi-empirical technique

On 25th April, 2015 a hazardous earthquake of moment magnitude 7.9 occurred in Nepal. Accelerographs were used to record the Nepal earthquake which is installed in the Kumaon region in the Himalayan state of Uttrakhand. The distance of the recorded stations in the Kumaon region from the epicenter of the earthquake is about 420–515 km. Modified semi-empirical technique of modeling finite faults has been used in this paper to simulate strong earthquake at these stations. Source parameters of the Nepal aftershock have been also calculated using the Brune model in the present study which are used in the modeling of the Nepal main shock. The obtained value of the seismic moment and stress drop is 8.26 × 1025 dyn cm and 10.48 bar, respectively, for the aftershock from the Brune model .The simulated earthquake time series were compared with the observed records of the earthquake. The comparison of full waveform and its response spectra has been made to finalize the rupture parameters and its location. The rupture of the earthquake was propagated in the NE–SW direction from the hypocenter with the rupture velocity 3.0 km/s from a distance of 80 km from Kathmandu in NW direction at a depth of 12 km as per compared results.

Constraining the Source of the Mw 8.1 Chiapas, Mexico Earthquake of 8 September 2017 Using Teleseismic and Tsunami Observations

The September 2017 Chiapas (Mexico) normal-faulting intraplate earthquake (Mw 8.1) occurred within the Tehuantepec seismic gap offshore Mexico. We constrained the finite-fault slip model of this great earthquake using teleseismic and tsunami observations. First, teleseismic body-wave inversions were conducted for both steep (NP-1) and low-angle (NP-2) nodal planes for rupture velocities (Vr) of 1.5–4.0 km/s. Teleseismic inversion guided us to NP-1 as the actual fault plane, but was not conclusive about the best Vr. Tsunami simulations also confirmed that NP-1 is favored over NP-2 and guided the Vr = 2.5 km/s as the best source model. Our model has a maximum and average slips of 13.1 and 3.7 m, respectively, over a 130 km × 80 km fault plane. Coulomb stress transfer analysis revealed that the probability for the occurrence of a future large thrust interplate earthquake at offshore of the Tehuantepec seismic gap had been increased following the 2017 Chiapas normal-faulting intraplate earthquake.

Complex Fault Geometry and Rupture Dynamics of the MW 6.5, 30 October 2016, Central Italy Earthquake

AbstractWe study the 30 October 2016 Norcia earthquake (MW 6.5) to retrieve the rupture history by jointly inverting seismograms and coseismic Global Positioning System displacements obtained by dense local networks. The adopted fault geometry consists of a main normal fault striking N155° and dipping 47° belonging to the Mt. Vettore‐Mt. Bove fault system (VBFS) and a secondary fault plane striking N210° and dipping 36° to the NW. The coseismic rupture initiated on the VBFS and propagated with similar rupture velocity on both fault planes. Updip from the nucleation point, two main slip patches have been imaged on these fault segments, both characterized by similar peak‐slip values (~3 m) and rupture times (~3 s). After the breakage of the two main slip patches, coseismic rupture further propagated southeastward along the VBFS, rupturing again the same fault portion that slipped during the 24 August earthquake. The retrieved coseismic slip distribution is consistent with the observed surface breakages and the deformation pattern inferred from interferometric synthetic aperture radar measurements. Our results show that three different fault systems were activated during the 30 October earthquake. The composite rupture model inferred in this study provides evidences that also a deep portion of the NNE trending section of the Olevano‐Antrodoco‐Sibillini thrust broke coseismically, implying the kinematic inversion of a thrust ramp. The obtained rupture history indicates that in this sector of the Apennines, compressional structures inherited from past tectonics can alternatively segment boundaries of NW trending active normal faults or break coseismically during moderate‐to‐large magnitude earthquakes.

Implications on 1 + 1 D Tsunami Runup Modeling due to Time Features of the Earthquake Source

The time characteristics of the seismic source are usually neglected in tsunami modeling, due to the difference in the time scale of both processes. Nonetheless, there are just a few analytical studies that intended to explain separately the role of the rise time and the rupture velocity. In this work, we extend an analytical 1 + 1 D solution for the shoreline motion time series, from the static case to the kinematic case, by including both rise time and rupture velocity. Our results show that the static case corresponds to a limit case of null rise time and infinite rupture velocity. Both parameters contribute in shifting the arrival time, but maximum runup may be affected by very slow ruptures and long rise time. Parametric analysis reveals that runup is strictly decreasing with the rise time while is highly amplified in a certain range of slow rupture velocities. For even lower rupture velocities, the tsunami excitation vanishes and for larger, quicker approaches to the instantaneous case.