Low-frequency earthquakes in Shikoku, Japan, and their relationship to episodic tremor and slip

Non-volcanic seismic tremor was discovered in the Nankai trough subduction zone in southwest Japan and subsequently identified in the Cascadia subduction zone. In both locations, tremor is observed to coincide temporally with large, slow slip events on the plate interface downdip of the seismogenic zone. The relationship between tremor and aseismic slip remains uncertain, however, largely owing to difficulty in constraining the source depth of tremor. In southwest Japan, a high quality borehole seismic network allows identification of coherent S-wave (and sometimes P-wave) arrivals within the tremor, whose sources are classified as low-frequency earthquakes. As low-frequency earthquakes comprise at least a portion of tremor, understanding their mechanism is critical to understanding tremor as a whole. Here, we provide strong evidence that these earthquakes occur on the plate interface, coincident with the inferred zone of slow slip. The locations and characteristics of these events suggest that they are generated by shear slip during otherwise aseismic transients, rather than by fluid flow. High pore-fluid pressure in the immediate vicinity, as implied by our estimates of seismic P- and S-wave speeds, may act to promote this transient mode of failure. Low-frequency earthquakes could potentially contribute to seismic hazard forecasting by providing a new means to monitor slow slip at depth.     

Non-volcanic tremor driven by large transient shear stresses

Non-impulsive seismic radiation or 'tremor' has long been observed at volcanoes and more recently around subduction zones. Although the number of observations of non-volcanic tremor is steadily increasing, the causative mechanism remains unclear. Some have attributed non-volcanic tremor to the movement of fluids, while its coincidence with geodetically observed slow-slip events at regular intervals has led others to consider slip on the plate interface as its cause. Low-frequency earthquakes in Japan, which are believed to make up at least part of non-volcanic tremor, have focal mechanisms and locations that are consistent with tremor being generated by shear slip on the subduction interface. In Cascadia, however, tremor locations appear to be more distributed in depth than in Japan, making them harder to reconcile with a plate interface shear-slip model. Here we identify bursts of tremor that radiated from the Cascadia subduction zone near Vancouver Island, Canada, during the strongest shaking from the moment magnitude M(w) = 7.8, 2002 Denali, Alaska, earthquake. Tremor occurs when the Love wave displacements are to the southwest (the direction of plate convergence of the overriding plate), implying that the Love waves trigger the tremor. We show that these displacements correspond to shear stresses of approximately 40 kPa on the plate interface, which suggests that the effective stress on the plate interface is very low. These observations indicate that tremor and possibly slow slip can be instantaneously induced by shear stress increases on the subduction interface-effectively a frictional failure response to the driving stress.     

Earthquakes triggered by silent slip events on Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii

Slow-slip events, or 'silent earthquakes', have recently been discovered in a number of subduction zones including the Nankai trough in Japan, Cascadia, and Guerrero in Mexico, but the depths of these events have been difficult to determine from surface deformation measurements. Although it is assumed that these silent earthquakes are located along the plate megathrust, this has not been proved. Slow slip in some subduction zones is associated with non-volcanic tremor, but tremor is difficult to locate and may be distributed over a broad depth range. Except for some events on the San Andreas fault, slow-slip events have not yet been associated with high-frequency earthquakes, which are easily located. Here we report on swarms of high-frequency earthquakes that accompany otherwise silent slips on Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii. For the most energetic event, in January 2005, the slow slip began before the increase in seismicity. The temporal evolution of earthquakes is well explained by increased stressing caused by slow slip, implying that the earthquakes are triggered. The earthquakes, located at depths of 7-8 km, constrain the slow slip to be at comparable depths, because they must fall in zones of positive Coulomb stress change. Triggered earthquakes accompanying slow-slip events elsewhere might go undetected if background seismicity rates are low. Detection of such events would help constrain the depth of slow slip, and could lead to a method for quantifying the increased hazard during slow-slip events, because triggered events have the potential to grow into destructive earthquakes.     

Non-volcanic tremor and low-frequency earthquake swarms

Non-volcanic tremor is a weak, extended duration seismic signal observed episodically on some major faults, often in conjunction with slow slip events. Such tremor may hold the key to understanding fundamental processes at the deep roots of faults, and could signal times of accelerated slip and hence increased seismic hazard. The mechanism underlying the generation of tremor and its relationship to aseismic slip are, however, as yet unresolved. Here we demonstrate that tremor beneath Shikoku, Japan, can be explained as a swarm of small, low-frequency earthquakes, each of which occurs as shear faulting on the subduction-zone plate interface. This suggests that tremor and slow slip are different manifestations of a single process.     

Slip rate along the Lijiang-Ninglang fault zone estimated from repeating microearthquakes

Seismicity and slip rates along the Lijiang-Ninglang fault zone between 1999 and 2006 were investigated with the waveform data recorded by the Yunnan digital Seismic Network. The relocated seismicity by the double difference method clearly exhibits different features between the northern and southern segments. More than 76% earthquakes occurred in the southern segment of the fault near the Lijiang area. The relocated seismicity appears to reflect the crustal velocity structure of the study area. Using cross-correlation analysis, we identified a total of 92 doublets and 70 multiplets that show high waveform similarity. Most of these sequences are aperiodic with recurrence intervals varying from a few minutes to hundreds of days. Using two sequences that occurred regularly over the study period, we obtained a fault slip rate of approximately 5 mm/a at ∼23 km, in good agreement with geologic and surface GPS measurement. Supported by National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2004CB418405) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40174014)     

A wide depth distribution of seismic tremors along the northern Cascadia margin

The Cascadia subduction zone is thought to be capable of generating major earthquakes with moment magnitude as large as M(w) = 9 at an interval of several hundred years. The seismogenic portion of the plate interface is mostly offshore and is currently locked, as inferred from geodetic data. However, episodic surface displacements-in the direction opposite to the long-term deformation motions caused by relative plate convergence across a locked interface-are observed about every 14 months with an unusual tremor-like seismic signature. Here we show that these tremors are distributed over a depth range exceeding 40 km within a limited horizontal band. Many occurred within or close to the strong seismic reflectors above the plate interface where local earthquakes are absent, suggesting that the seismogenic process for tremors is fluid-related. The observed depth range implies that tremors could be associated with the variation of stress field induced by a transient slip along the deeper portion of the Cascadia interface or, alternatively, that episodic slip is more diffuse than originally suggested.     

Earthquake slip weakening and asperities explained by thermal pressurization

An earthquake occurs when a fault weakens during the early portion of its slip at a faster rate than the release of tectonic stress driving the fault motion. This slip weakening occurs over a critical distance, D(c). Understanding the controls on D(c) in nature is severely limited, however, because the physical mechanism of weakening is unconstrained. Conventional friction experiments, typically conducted at slow slip rates and small displacements, have obtained D(c) values that are orders of magnitude lower than values estimated from modelling seismological data for natural earthquakes. Here we present data on fluid transport properties of slip zone rocks and on the slip zone width in the centre of the Median Tectonic Line fault zone, Japan. We show that the discrepancy between laboratory and seismological results can be resolved if thermal pressurization of the pore fluid is the slip-weakening mechanism. Our analysis indicates that a planar fault segment with an impermeable and narrow slip zone will become very unstable during slip and is likely to be the site of a seismic asperity.     

A scaling law for slow earthquakes

Recently, a series of unusual earthquake phenomena have been discovered, including deep episodic tremor, low-frequency earthquakes, very-low-frequency earthquakes, slow slip events and silent earthquakes. Each of these has been demonstrated to arise from shear slip, just as do regular earthquakes, but with longer characteristic durations and radiating much less seismic energy. Here we show that these slow events follow a simple, unified scaling relationship that clearly differentiates their behaviour from that of regular earthquakes. We find that their seismic moment is proportional to the characteristic duration and their moment rate function is constant, with a spectral high-frequency decay of f(-1). This scaling and spectral behaviour demonstrates that they can be thought of as different manifestations of the same phenomena and that they comprise a new earthquake category. The observed scale dependence of rupture velocity for these events can be explained by either a constant low-stress drop model or a diffusional constant-slip model. This new scaling law unifies a diverse class of slow seismic events and may lead to a better understanding of the plate subduction process and large earthquake generation.     

Measuring the onset of locking in the Peru-Chile trench with GPS and acoustic measurements

The subduction zone off the west coast of South America marks the convergence of the oceanic Nazca plate and the continental South America plate. Nazca-South America convergence over the past 23 million years has created the 6-km-deep Peru-Chile trench, 150 km offshore. High pressure between the plates creates a locked zone, leading to deformation of the overriding plate. The surface area of this locked zone is thought to control the magnitude of co-seismic release and is limited by pressure, temperature, sediment type and fluid content. Here we present seafloor deformation data from the submerged South America plate obtained from a combination of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and acoustic transponders. We estimate that the measured horizontal surface motion perpendicular to the trench is consistent with a model having no slip along the thrust fault between 2 and 40 km depth. A tsunami in 1996, 200 km north of our site, was interpreted as being the result of an anomalously shallow interplate earthquake. Seismic coupling at shallow depths, such as we observe, may explain why co-seismic events in the Peruvian subduction zone create large tsunamis.     

The potential for giant tsunamigenic earthquakes in the northern Bay of Bengal

The great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 came as a surprise to most of the earth science community. Although it is now widely recognized that the risk of another giant earthquake is high off central Sumatra, just east of the 2004 earthquake, there seems to be relatively little concern about the subduction zone to the north, in the northern Bay of Bengal along the coast of Myanmar. Here I show that similar indicators suggest a high potential for giant earthquakes along the coast of Myanmar. These indicators include the tectonic environment, which is similar to other subduction zones that experience giant megathrust earthquakes, stress and crustal strain observations, which indicate that the seismogenic zone is locked, and historical earthquake activity, which indicates that giant tsunamigenic earthquakes have occurred there in the past. These are all consistent with active subduction in the Myanmar subduction zone and I suggest that the seismogenic zone extends beneath the Bengal Fan. I conclude therefore that giant earthquakes probably occur off the coast of Myanmar, and that a large and vulnerable population is thereby exposed to a significant earthquake and tsunami hazard.     

Some thoughts on seismotectonics of major earthquake occurrence zones in China

A major earthquake occurrence zone means a place where M≥6 events have occurred since the Holocene and similar shocks may happen again in the future. The dynamic context of the major earthquake occurrence zones in China is primarily associated with the NNE-directed push of the India plate,next with the westward subduction of the Pacific plate. The Chinese mainland is a grand mosaic structure of many crust blocks bounded by faults and sutures. When it is suffered from boundary stresses,deformation takes place along these faults or sutures while the block interiors remain relatively stable or intact. Since the Quaternary,for example,left slip on the Xianshuihe-Xiaojiang fault zone in southwestern China has produced a number of fault-depression basins in extensional areas during periods Q1 and Q2. In the Q3,the change of stress orientation and enhancement of tectonic movement made faults of varied trends link each other,and continued to be active till present day,producing active fault zones in this region. Usually major earthquakes occur at some special locations on these active fault zones. During these events,in the epicenter areas experience intensive deformation characterized by large-amplitude rise and fall of neighboring sections,generation of horst-graben systems and dammed rivers. The studies on palaeoearthquakes suggest that major shocks of close magnitudes often repeated for several times at a same place. By comparison of the Chi-Chi,Taiwan event in 1999 and Yuza,Yunnan event in 1955,including contours of accelerations and intensities,destruction of buildings,and in contrast to the Xigeda formation in southwestern China,a sandwich model is established to account for the mechanism of deformation caused by major earthquakes. This model consists of three layers,i. e. the two walls of a fault and the ruptured zone intercalated between them. This ruptured zone is just the loci where stress is built up and released,and serves as a channel for seismic waves.     

郯庐断裂带演化动力学——多力源多时期分段作用模式

提出了郯庐断裂带的演化动力学--多力源多时期分段作用模式.早-中侏罗世,扬子与华北地块碰撞后的持续会聚力、古太平洋板块的挤压力(安第斯型)联合作用于郯庐断裂带,产生了左旋压扭活动.晚侏罗世,西太平洋型的古太平洋板块挤压力作用机制率先作用于中国大陆边缘的北部地区,并一直持续到古近纪.其在郯庐断裂带中、北段诱发出上地幔上涌力,使其产生了右旋拉张活动;郯庐断裂带南段直至晚白垩世才受到这种机制作用.晚新生代以来,西太平洋俯冲带后退,上地幔上涌力作用已退到边缘海地区,郯庐断裂带全段受到边缘海地区上地幔上涌力诱发的次级挤压作用力,形成了右旋挤压活动.     

Fault lubrication during earthquakes

The determination of rock friction at seismic slip rates (about 1?m?s(-1)) is of paramount importance in earthquake mechanics, as fault friction controls the stress drop, the mechanical work and the frictional heat generated during slip. Given the difficulty in determining friction by seismological methods, elucidating constraints are derived from experimental studies. Here we review a large set of published and unpublished experiments (～300) performed in rotary shear apparatus at slip rates of 0.1-2.6?m?s(-1). The experiments indicate a significant decrease in friction (of up to one order of magnitude), which we term fault lubrication, both for cohesive (silicate-built, quartz-built and carbonate-built) rocks and non-cohesive rocks (clay-rich, anhydrite, gypsum and dolomite gouges) typical of crustal seismogenic sources. The available mechanical work and the associated temperature rise in the slipping zone trigger a number of physicochemical processes (gelification, decarbonation and dehydration reactions, melting and so on) whose products are responsible for fault lubrication. The similarity between (1) experimental and natural fault products and (2) mechanical work measures resulting from these laboratory experiments and seismological estimates suggests that it is reasonable to extrapolate experimental data to conditions typical of earthquake nucleation depths (7-15?km). It seems that faults are lubricated during earthquakes, irrespective of the fault rock composition and of the specific weakening mechanism involved.     

The M S7.1 Yushu earthquake surface rupture and large historical earthquakes on the Garzê-Yushu Fault

As revealed by field investigations, the co-seismic surface rupture zone of the 2010 M_S7.1 Yushu earthquake, Qinghai is a char-acteristic sinistral strike-slip feature consisting of three distinct sinistral primary ruptures, with an overall strike of 310°–320° and a total length of 31 km. In addition, an approximately 2-km-long en-echelon tensile fissure zone was found east of Longbao Town; if this site is taken as the north end of the rupture zone, then the rupture had a total length of ~51 km. The surface rupture zone is composed of a series of fissures arranged in an en-echelon or alternating relationship between compressive bulges and tensile fissures, with a measured maximum horizontal displacement of 1.8 m. The surface rupture zone extends along the mapped Garzê-Yushu Fault, which implicates it as the seismogenic fault for this earthquake. Historically, a few earthquakes with a magnitude of about 7 have occurred along the fault, and additionally traces of paleoearthquakes are evident that characterize the short-period recurrence interval of large earthquakes here. Similar to the seismogenic process of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the Yushu earthquake is also due to the stress accumulation and release on the block boundaries resulting from the eastward expansion of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, in contrast with the Wenchuan earthquake, the Yushu earthquake had a sinistral strike-slip mechanism resulting from the uneven eastward extrusion of the Baryan Har and Sichuan-Yunnan fault blocks.     

Earthquake slip on oceanic transform faults

Oceanic transform faults are one of the main types of plate boundary, but the manner in which they slip remains poorly understood. Early studies suggested that relatively slow earthquake rupture might be common; moreover, it has been reported that very slow slip precedes some oceanic transform earthquakes, including the 1994 Romanche earthquake. The presence of such detectable precursors would have obvious implications for earthquake prediction. Here we model broadband seismograms of body waves to obtain well-resolved depths and rupture mechanisms for 14 earthquakes on the Romanche and Chain transform faults in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. We found that earthquakes on the longer Romanche transform are systematically deeper than those on the neighbouring Chain transform. These depths indicate that the maximum depth of brittle failure is at a temperature of approximately 600 degrees C in oceanic lithosphere. We find that the body waves from the Romanche 1994 earthquake can be well modelled with relatively deep slip on a single fault, and we use the mechanism and depth of this earthquake to recalculate its source spectrum. The previously reported slow precursor can be explained as an artefact of uncertainties in the assumed model parameters.     

Plate-boundary deformation associated with the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake

The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 26 December 2004 is the first giant earthquake (moment magnitude M(w) > 9.0) to have occurred since the advent of modern space-based geodesy and broadband seismology. It therefore provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the characteristics of one of these enormous and rare events. Here we report estimates of the ground displacement associated with this event, using near-field Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys in northwestern Sumatra combined with in situ and remote observations of the vertical motion of coral reefs. These data show that the earthquake was generated by rupture of the Sunda subduction megathrust over a distance of >1,500 kilometres and a width of <150 kilometres. Megathrust slip exceeded 20 metres offshore northern Sumatra, mostly at depths shallower than 30 kilometres. Comparison of the geodetically and seismically inferred slip distribution indicates that approximately 30 per cent additional fault slip accrued in the 1.5 months following the 500-second-long seismic rupture. Both seismic and aseismic slip before our re-occupation of GPS sites occurred on the shallow portion of the megathrust, where the large Aceh tsunami originated. Slip tapers off abruptly along strike beneath Simeulue Island at the southeastern edge of the rupture, where the earthquake nucleated and where an M(w) = 7.2 earthquake occurred in late 2002. This edge also abuts the northern limit of slip in the 28 March 2005 M(w) = 8.7 Nias-Simeulue earthquake.     

Seismology: speed and size of the Sumatra earthquake

Our seismological results reveal that Indonesia's devastating Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004 was 2.5 times larger than initial reports suggested--second only to the 1960 Chilean earthquake in recorded magnitude. They indicate that it slowly released its energy by slip along a 1,200-km fault, generating a long rupture that contributed to the subsequent tsunami. Now that the entire rupture zone has slipped, the strain accumulated from the subduction of the Indian plate beneath the Burma microplate has been released, and there is no immediate danger of a similar tsunami being generated on this part of the plate boundary, although large earthquakes on segments to the south still present a threat.     

甘孜-理塘断裂带构造演化与金矿的关系

论述了川西甘孜—理塘断裂带构造演化与金矿床成矿作用的关系,总结了区内金矿化的特征和金矿床类型。研究表明,甘孜—理塘断裂带是由韧性剪切带、逆冲断裂带、断陷盆地带、推覆构造带、脆性破碎带和平移走滑带相互叠加、改造而形成的复杂断裂带。其演化历史主要经历了晚三叠世卡尼期－诺利早期的洋壳俯冲、晚三叠世诺利晚期－瑞替期弧－陆碰撞、侏罗－白垩纪陆内会聚和喜马拉雅期断陷、推覆和平移剪切构造发育演化阶段。区内金矿化、金矿床（点）和金矿体的形成和分布,明显受断裂带的控制。金矿的成矿作用与该断裂带构造发展演化密切相关。     

BKP双旋转体系与朝鲜半岛地震活动安全岛效应

朝鲜半岛位于中国东北和日本西南部的地震频发区之间,但在历史资料或仪器记录中,过去百年内没有发生过灾难性的地震。为了说明这一问题,引入了阿穆尔板块(BKP),通过对板块周缘地震进行震源机制解的分析,给定了一个科学合理的边界带,结合GPS相对位移测量,结果显示,BKP内部以郯庐断裂带为界,北部作逆时针旋转,南部朝鲜半岛作顺时针旋转的"双旋转"运动。BKP在旋转过程中,通过郯庐断裂带卸载了大部分的旋转应力。根据古登堡-里克特经验公式计算,在1900~2014年间,沿BKP边界的地震带释放总能量是朝鲜半岛地震的(M≥3.0)10~6倍,说明朝鲜半岛处于一个稳定的"安全岛"状态。通过研究,初探了阿穆尔板块边界的划定和板块边缘及内部构造运动的问题,且从多方面阐明了朝鲜半岛免于灾难性地震的原因。     

“311”东北日本M9.0大地震可预测性特征探索

 大地震不是任何地方都能发生的,大地震也不是任何时间都能发生的,大地震有其特定的时空结构。前期工作表明,条环交会、差异活动以及深震与“天外来客”事件等是制约发震时空窗口的主要因素。2011年3月11日发生在日本海沟俯冲带的M9.0大地震,其震前地震活动全面、清晰地展现出了其可预测性特征：(1) 1925年开始出现的板间地震长期平静区;(2) 2003年开始出现的位于平静区中部,起始于深震的海沟垂向地震活动条带;(3) 2009年3月(海沟垂向地震活动条带形成后)开始出现的广义前震发震地方时的非随机显著聚集特征;(4) 2011年3月9日(主震前2天)发生在平静区内的前震。主震发生在平静区边缘,海沟垂向地震活动条带与日本海沟板间地震带的交会处的地震活动差异性较大的地方,其断层面与海沟垂向地震活动条带内另外两个板间地震(2005-08-16地震和前震)的断层面共面。主震发生于广义前震发震地方时非随机聚集时段的中位时辰。日本大地震的可预测性特征逐一印证了我们的前期研究。