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Stress Models of the Annual Hydrospheric, Atmospheric, Thermal, and Tidal Loading Cycles on California Faults: Perturbation of Background Stress and Changes in Seismicity

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014778· OSTI ID:1479354
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Bowling Green State Univ., Bowling Green, OH (United States)
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Stresses in the lithosphere arise from multiple natural loading sources that include both surface and body forces. The largest surface loads include near-surface water storage, snow and ice, atmosphere pressure, ocean loading, and temperature changes. The solid Earth also deforms from celestial body interactions and variations in Earth's rotation. We model the seasonal stress changes in California from 2006 through 2014 for seven different loading sources with annual periods to produce an aggregate stressing history for faults in the study area. Our modeling shows that the annual water loading, atmosphere, temperature, and Earth pole tides are the largest loading sources and should each be evaluated to fully describe seasonal stress changes. In California we find that the hydrological loads are the largest source of seasonal stresses. We explore the seasonal stresses with respect to the background principal stress orientation constrained with regional focal mechanisms and analyze the modulation of seismicity. Our results do not suggest a resolvable seasonal variation for the ambient stress orientation in the shallow crust. When projecting the seasonal stresses into the background stress orientation we find that the timing of microseismicity modestly increases from an ~8 kPa seasonal mean-normal-stress perturbation. The results suggest that faults in California are optimally oriented with the background stress field and respond to subsurface pressure changes, possibly due to processes we have not considered in this study. At any time a population of faults are near failure as evident from earthquakes triggered by these slight seasonal stress perturbations.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1479354
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 122; ISSN 2169-9313
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Strong Hydro‐Related Localized Long‐Period Crustal Deformation Observed in the Plate Boundary Observatory Borehole Strainmeters journal December 2018
Seasonal Variations in Crustal Seismicity in San‐in District, Southwest Japan journal March 2019
Snowmelt‐Triggered Earthquake Swarms at the Margin of Long Valley Caldera, California journal April 2019
Modulation of Seismic Attenuation at Parkfield, Before and After the 2004 M 6 Earthquake journal June 2019
Temporal changes of seismic velocities in the San Jacinto Fault zone associated with the 2016 Mw 5.2 Borrego Springs earthquake journal November 2019

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Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
earthquake modulation
seasonal loading cycles
seasonal stress changes