Learning to read fault-slip behavior from fault-zone structure

Fault structure, frictional properties and mixed-mode fault slip behavior

a r t i c l e i n f o Recent high-resolution GPS and seismological data reveal that tectonic faults exhibit complex, multi-mode slip behavior including earthquakes, creep events, slow and silent earthquakes, low-frequency events and earthquake afterslip. The physical processes responsible for this range of behavior and the mechanisms that dictate fault slip rate or rupture propagation velocity ...

Constraining fault constitutive behavior with slip heterogeneity

We explore features of rupture dynamics that (1) lead to slip heterogeneity in earthquake ruptures and (2) maintain conditions that permit slip heterogeneity in subsequent events. Our 3-D finite-element simulations of magnitude 7 events on a vertical, planar strike-slip fault show that the conditions that lead to slip heterogeneity remain in place after large events when the initial shear stres...

Spatiotemporal patterns of fault slip rates across the Central Sierra Nevada frontal fault zone

Structural evidence on strike slip Kinematic inversion of the Kushk-e-Nosrat Fault zone, Central Iran

NW-tending faults in Central Iran are expected to represent dominant dextral components due to their orientation with respect to the northward motion of the Arabian Plate with respect to Eurasia. However, previously published works, as well as the focal mechanism solution of the area's earthquakes, indicate evidence of sinistral kinematic along the major faults in Central Iran. Here we present ...

Low-velocity damaged structure of the San Andreas Fault at Parkfield from fault zone trapped waves

[1] We used dense linear seismic arrays across and along the San Andreas Fault (SAF) at Parkfield, California to record fault zone trapped waves generated by explosions and microearthquakes in 2002. Prominent trapped waves appeared at stations close to the SAF main fault trace while some energy was trapped in the north strand at the array site. Observations and 3-D finitedifference simulations ...