[1] We develop a two-dimensional boundary element earthquake cycle model including deep interseismic creep on vertical strike-slip faults in an elastic lithosphere coupled to a viscoelastic asthenosphere. Uniform slip on the upper part of the fault is prescribed periodically to represent great strike-slip earthquakes. Below the coseismic rupture the fault creeps in response to lithospheric shea...

The geometry of faults is usually thought to be more complicated at the surface than at depth and to control the initiation, propagation and arrest of seismic ruptures1–6. The fault system that runs from southern California into Mexico is a simple strike-slip boundary: the west side of California and Mexico moves northwards with respect to the east. However, the Mw 7.2 2010 El Mayor–Cucapah ear...

[1] We use ground geodetic and interferometric synthetic aperture radar satellite observations across the southern San Andreas (SAF)-San Jacinto (SJF) fault systems to constrain their slip rates and the viscosity structure of the lower crust and upper mantle on the basis of periodic earthquake cycle, Maxwell viscoelastic, finite element models. Key questions for this system are the SAF and SJF ...

[1] Field observations of mature crustal faults suggest that slip in individual events occurs primarily within a thin shear zone, <1–5 mm, within a finely granulated, ultracataclastic fault core. Relevant weakening processes in large crustal events are therefore suggested to be thermal, and to involve the following: (1) thermal pressurization of pore fluid within and adjacent to the deforming f...

S U M M A R Y We develop a frequency-based approach to earthquake slip inversion that requires no prior information on the rupture velocity or slip-rate functions. Because the inversion is linear and is performed separately at each frequency, it is computationally efficient and suited to imaging the finest resolvable spatial details of rupture. We demonstrate the approach on synthetic seismogra...

[1] The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, Mw = 7.6, broke a major thrust fault along the western foothills of the Central Range of Taiwan. We have measured the horizontal coseismic displacement field by correlating optical satellite images acquired before and after the earthquake. These data reveal the fault trace and a clockwise rotation of surface displacements toward the north with much larger displa...

The 27 February 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile, earthquake ruptured over 500 km along a mature seismic gap between 341 S and 381 S—the Concepción–Constitución gap, where no large megathrust earthquakes had occurred since the 1835Mw 8.5 event. Notable discrepancies exist in slip distribution and moment magnitude estimated by various models inverted using traditional observations such as teleseismic ne...

Kuhbanan fault system, as one of the intracontinental faults of central Iran, is recognized by considerable seismogenic activities and modern morphotectonics evidences with a strike-slip (reverse component) motion. According to the geometric and kinematics data, Kuhbanan fault has been divided into 5 segments (S26, S27, S28, S29, S30) in Bahabad region. Measured geomorphic indices of ratio of v...

The 8 August 2017 Ms 7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake was generated in the transition zone between Tazang fault, Huya and Minjiang all being part of East Kunlun fault system. In this study, two pairs SAR (synthetic aperture radar) data from Sentinel-1 satellite were used to derive surface displacement observations along line-of-sight (LOS) directions using differential interferometric (D-InSAR) method...

We discuss 2D simulations of in-plane ruptures on a fault between different solids in a model that includes dynamic generation of plastic strain off the fault. The fault is governed by a regularized friction with a gradual response to abrupt changes of normal stress, while plastic strain in the bulk is governed by a Coulomb yielding criterion. The occurrence of off-fault damage stabilizes the s...