Tidal triggering of earthquakes suggests poroelastic behavior on the San Andreas Fault

Delorey, Andrew A.; van der Elst, Nicholas J.; Johnson, Paul Allan

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2016.12.014

Title: Tidal triggering of earthquakes suggests poroelastic behavior on the San Andreas Fault

Journal Article · Wed Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Earth and Planetary Science Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2016.12.014· OSTI ID:1341854

^[1]; van der Elst, Nicholas J. ^[2];

^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
U.S. Geological Survey, Pasadena, CA (United States)

Tidal triggering of earthquakes is hypothesized to provide quantitative information regarding the fault's stress state, poroelastic properties, and may be significant for our understanding of seismic hazard. To date, studies of regional or global earthquake catalogs have had only modest successes in identifying tidal triggering. We posit that the smallest events that may provide additional evidence of triggering go unidentified and thus we developed a technique to improve the identification of very small magnitude events. We identify events applying a method known as inter-station seismic coherence where we prioritize detection and discrimination over characterization. Here we show tidal triggering of earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. We find the complex interaction of semi-diurnal and fortnightly tidal periods exposes both stress threshold and critical state behavior. Lastly, our findings reveal earthquake nucleation processes and pore pressure conditions – properties of faults that are difficult to measure, yet extremely important for characterizing earthquake physics and seismic hazards.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1341854

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1413358

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-15-26081; TRN: US1701079

Journal Information:: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 460, Issue C; ISSN 0012-821X

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 24 works

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