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Title: Imaging Stress and Faulting Complexity Through Earthquake Waveform Similarity

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
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While the rupture processes of nearby earthquakes are often highly similar, characterizing the differences can provide insight into the complexity of the stress field and fault network in which the earthquakes occur. Here we perform a comprehensive analysis of earthquake waveform similarity to characterize rupture processes in the vicinity of Ridgecrest, California. We quantify how similar each earthquake is to neighboring events through cross correlation of full waveforms. The July 2019 Ridgecrest mainshocks impose a step reduction in earthquake similarity, which suggests variability in the residual stress field and activated fault structures on length scales of hundreds of meters or less. Interestingly, among these aftershocks, we observe coherent spatial variations of earthquake similarity along the mainshock rupture trace, and document antisimilar aftershock pairs with waveforms that are nearly identical but with reversed polarity. These observations provide new, high-resolution constraints on stress transfer and faulting complexity throughout the Ridgecrest earthquake sequence.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1604008
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1592202
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--19-30627
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 47; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
earth sciences
earthquake similarity
waveform cross correlation
crustal stress
fault structure
slip mechanism