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Title: Aseismic Transform Fault Slip at the Mendocino Triple Junction From Characteristically Repeating Earthquakes

Abstract

We report that the Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ), at the northern terminus of the San Andreas Fault system, is an actively deforming plate boundary region with poorly constrained estimates of seismic coupling on most offshore fault surfaces. Characteristically repeating earthquakes provide spatial and temporal descriptions of aseismic creep at the MTJ, including on the oceanic transform Mendocino Fault Zone (MFZ) as it subducts beneath North America. Using a dataset of earthquakes from 2008 to 2017, we find that the easternmost segment of the MFZ displays creep during this period at about 65% of the long-term slip rate. We also find creep at slower rates on the shallower strike-slip interface between the Pacific plate and the North American accretionary wedge, as well as on a fault that accommodates Gorda subplate internal deformation. Finally, after a nearby M5.7 earthquake in 2015, we observe a possible decrease in aseismic slip on the near-shore MFZ that lasts from 2015 to at least early 2017.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
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  1. Berkeley Seismology Lab, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1479379
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Geophysical Research Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 45; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES

Citation Formats

Materna, Kathryn, Taira, Taka'aki, and Bürgmann, Roland. Aseismic Transform Fault Slip at the Mendocino Triple Junction From Characteristically Repeating Earthquakes. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1002/2017GL075899.
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Materna, Kathryn, Taira, Taka'aki, & Bürgmann, Roland. Aseismic Transform Fault Slip at the Mendocino Triple Junction From Characteristically Repeating Earthquakes. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075899
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Materna, Kathryn, Taira, Taka'aki, and Bürgmann, Roland. Tue . "Aseismic Transform Fault Slip at the Mendocino Triple Junction From Characteristically Repeating Earthquakes". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075899. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1479379.
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@article{osti_1479379,
title = {Aseismic Transform Fault Slip at the Mendocino Triple Junction From Characteristically Repeating Earthquakes},
author = {Materna, Kathryn and Taira, Taka'aki and Bürgmann, Roland},
abstractNote = {We report that the Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ), at the northern terminus of the San Andreas Fault system, is an actively deforming plate boundary region with poorly constrained estimates of seismic coupling on most offshore fault surfaces. Characteristically repeating earthquakes provide spatial and temporal descriptions of aseismic creep at the MTJ, including on the oceanic transform Mendocino Fault Zone (MFZ) as it subducts beneath North America. Using a dataset of earthquakes from 2008 to 2017, we find that the easternmost segment of the MFZ displays creep during this period at about 65% of the long-term slip rate. We also find creep at slower rates on the shallower strike-slip interface between the Pacific plate and the North American accretionary wedge, as well as on a fault that accommodates Gorda subplate internal deformation. Finally, after a nearby M5.7 earthquake in 2015, we observe a possible decrease in aseismic slip on the near-shore MFZ that lasts from 2015 to at least early 2017.},
doi = {10.1002/2017GL075899},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 2,
volume = 45,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jan 09 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Tue Jan 09 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075899
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Cited by: 17 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: (a) CREs at the MTJ, where the Mendocino Fault Zone (MFZ), Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), and San Andreas Fault (SAF) intersect. The 1984–2017 background seismicity from a double-difference relocated catalog (Waldhauser & Schaff, 2008) is shown in gray. Especially large previous seismic events are marked by their momentmore » tensors in map view (Table S1; Ekström et al., 2012), and by yellow stars on the cross sections. (b) Depth profile through the blue box in Figure 1a. Each sequence is color coded by inferred slip rate. CRE sequences with double-differenced locations are marked by circles; one sequence with only NCSN locations is shown as a square. The subduction interface model from Slab1.0 (Hayes et al., 2012; McCrory et al., 2012) is shown in magenta, with a dotted line to represent the approximate position of the Moho 7 km deeper than the interface. (c and d) Corresponding close-ups of the central region.« less
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    The Long Recurrence Intervals of Small Repeating Earthquakes May Be Due to the Slow Slip Rates of Small Fault Strands
    journal, November 2019

    • Williams, J. R.; Hawthorne, J. C.; Lengliné, O.
    • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 22
    • DOI: 10.1029/2019gl084778

    Detection of repeating earthquakes and their application in characterizing slow fault slip
    journal, May 2019

    Marine Transform Faults and Fracture Zones: A Joint Perspective Integrating Seismicity, Fluid Flow and Life
    journal, March 2019

    Marine transform faults and fracture zones: A joint perspective integrating seismicity, fluid flow and life
    text, January 2019

    Widespread Fault Creep in the Northern San Francisco Bay Area Revealed by Multistation Cluster Detection of Repeating Earthquakes
    journal, June 2019

    • Shakibay Senobari, Nader; Funning, Gareth J.
    • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 12
    • DOI: 10.1029/2019gl082766

    Crack models of repeating earthquakes predict observed moment-recurrence scaling
    text, January 2018

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