scholarly journals Anatomy of strike-slip fault tsunami genesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (19) ◽  
pp. e2025632118
Author(s):  
Ahmed Elbanna ◽  
Mohamed Abdelmeguid ◽  
Xiao Ma ◽  
Faisal Amlani ◽  
Harsha S. Bhat ◽  
...  

Tsunami generation from earthquake-induced seafloor deformations has long been recognized as a major hazard to coastal areas. Strike-slip faulting has generally been considered insufficient for triggering large tsunamis, except through the generation of submarine landslides. Herein, we demonstrate that ground motions due to strike-slip earthquakes can contribute to the generation of large tsunamis (>1 m), under rather generic conditions. To this end, we developed a computational framework that integrates models for earthquake rupture dynamics with models of tsunami generation and propagation. The three-dimensional time-dependent vertical and horizontal ground motions from spontaneous dynamic rupture models are used to drive boundary motions in the tsunami model. Our results suggest that supershear ruptures propagating along strike-slip faults, traversing narrow and shallow bays, are prime candidates for tsunami generation. We show that dynamic focusing and the large horizontal displacements, characteristic of strike-slip earthquakes on long faults, are critical drivers for the tsunami hazard. These findings point to intrinsic mechanisms for sizable tsunami generation by strike-slip faulting, which do not require complex seismic sources, landslides, or complicated bathymetry. Furthermore, our model identifies three distinct phases in the tsunamic motion, an instantaneous dynamic phase, a lagging coseismic phase, and a postseismic phase, each of which may affect coastal areas differently. We conclude that near-source tsunami hazards and risk from strike-slip faulting need to be re-evaluated.

Geology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 838-842
Author(s):  
Jesse Kearse ◽  
Yoshihiro Kaneko ◽  
Tim Little ◽  
Russ Van Dissen

Abstract Slip-parallel grooves (striations) on fault surfaces are considered a robust indicator of fault slip direction, yet their potential for recording aspects of earthquake rupture dynamics has received little attention. During the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake (South Island, New Zealand), >10 m of dextral strike-slip on the steeply dipping Kekerengu fault exhumed >200 m2 of fresh fault exposure (free faces) where it crossed bedrock canyons. Inscribed upon these surfaces, we observed individual striae up to 6 m long, all of which had formed during the earthquake. These were typically curved. Using simulations of spontaneous dynamic rupture on a vertical strike-slip fault, we reproduce the curved morphology of striae on the Kekerengu fault. Assuming strike-slip pre-stress, our models demonstrate that vertical tractions induced by slip in the so-called cohesive zone result in transient changes in slip direction. We show that slip-path convexity is sensitive to the direction of rupture propagation. To match the convexity of striae formed in 2016 requires the rupture to have propagated in a northeast direction, a prediction that matches the known rupture direction of the Kaikōura earthquake. Our study highlights the potential for fault striae to record aspects of rupture dynamics, including the rupture direction of paleo strike-slip earthquakes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2397-2414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Song ◽  
T.M. Alves ◽  
K.O. Omosanya ◽  
T.C. Hales ◽  
Tao Ze

Abstract Submarine landslides have affected the mid-Norwegian margin since the Last Glacial Maximum. However, the role of tectonic movements, and most especially fault reactivation, in generating landslides offshore Norway is largely unconstrained. This study uses high-quality three-dimensional seismic and borehole data to understand how landslide development is controlled by faults propagating within the uplifted south Modgunn arch. Variance and structural maps above the south Modgunn arch show that: (1) local scarps of recurrent landslides were formed close to the largest faults, and mainly above strike-slip faults; (2) distinct periods of fault generation were associated with tectonic events, such as the breakup of the northeast Atlantic Ocean, and those events forming the south Modgunn arch; and (3) important fluid-flow features coincide with faults and sill intrusions. In total, 177 faults were analyzed to demonstrate that fault throw values vary from 10 ms to 115 ms two-way traveltime (8 m to 92 m). We propose that the long-term activity of faults in the study area has contributed to fluid migration, weakened post-breakup strata, and controlled the development of submarine slope instability. In particular, strike-slip faults coincide with the locations of several Quaternary landslide scars near the modern seafloor. Similar processes to those documented in Norway may explain the onset of large-scale landslides on other continental margins.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian C. Lozos ◽  
David Douglas Oglesby ◽  
Gareth Funning

Author(s):  
Roey Shimony ◽  
Zohar Gvirtzman ◽  
Michael Tsesarsky

ABSTRACT The Dead Sea Transform (DST) dominates the seismicity of Israel and neighboring countries. Whereas the instrumental catalog of Israel (1986–2017) contains mainly M<5 events, the preinstrumental catalog lists 14 M 7 or stronger events on the DST, during the past two millennia. Global Positioning System measurements show that the slip deficit in northern Israel today is equivalent to M>7 earthquake. This situation highlights the possibility that a strong earthquake may strike north Israel in the near future, raising the importance of ground-motion prediction. Deep and narrow strike-slip basins accompany the DST. Here, we study ground motions produced by intrabasin seismic sources, to understand the basin effect on regional ground motions. We model seismic-wave propagation in 3D, focusing on scenarios of Mw 6 earthquakes, rupturing different active branches of the DST. The geological model includes the major structures in northern Israel: the strike-slip basins along the DST, the sedimentary basins accompanying the Carmel fault zone, and the densely populated and industrialized Zevulun Valley (Haifa Bay area). We show that regional ground motions are determined by source–path coupling effects in the strike-slip basins, before waves propagate into the surrounding areas. In particular, ground motions are determined by the location of the rupture nucleation within the basin, the near-rupture lithology, and the basin’s local structure. When the rupture is located in the crystalline basement or along material bridges connecting opposite sides of the fault, ground motions behave predictably, decaying due to geometrical spreading and locally amplified atop sedimentary basins. By contrast, if rupture nucleates or propagates into shallow sedimentary units of the DST strike-slip basins, ground motions are amplified within, before propagating outside. Repeated reflections from the basin walls result in a “resonant chamber” effect, leading to stronger regional ground motions with prolonged durations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 1250025 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIAN LI ◽  
LI HONGNAN ◽  
LIU GUOHUAN

The effect of multi-component multi-support excitations on the response of power transmission tower-line system is analyzed in this paper, using three-dimensional finite element time-stepping analysis of a transmission tower-line system based on an actual project. Multi-component multi-support earthquake input waves are generated based on the Code for Design of Seismic of Electrical Installations. Geometric non-linearity was considered in the analysis. An extensive parametric study was conducted to investigate the behavior of the transmission tower-line system under multi-component multi-support seismic excitations. The parameters include single-component multi-support ground motions, multi-component multi-support ground motions, the correlations among the three-component of multi-component multi-support ground motions, the spatial correlation of multi-component multi-support ground motions, the incident angle of multi-component multi-support seismic waves, the ratio of the peak values of the three-component of multi-component multi-support ground motions, and site condition with apparent wave velocity of multi-component multi-support ground motions.


1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Takada ◽  
K. Tanabe

This paper presents a three-dimensional quasi-static analysis of continuous or jointed pipelines. Transfer Matrix Method was applied to the analysis providing for nonlinear behaviors of joints and soil frictions. An improved computer program ERAUL-II (Earthquake Response Analysis of Underground Lifelines-II) was developed for numerical computations. First, numerical response analyses were carried out for three-dimensional pipe systems with steel or cast iron pipe materials subject to large ground deformations or seismic ground motions. Analytical results show that torsional properties of pipes are also important factors for seismic behavior, which cannot be known by two-dimensional analyses. Second, experimental test data of three-dimensional steel pipe systems were simulated by using the ERAUL-II program. Simulated results agree well with the experimental values.


2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Spudich ◽  
Brian S. J. Chiou

We present correction factors that may be applied to the ground motion prediction relations of Abrahamson and Silva, Boore and Atkinson, Campbell and Bozorgnia, and Chiou and Youngs (all in this volume) to model the azimuthally varying distribution of the GMRotI50 component of ground motion (commonly called “directivity”) around earthquakes. Our correction factors may be used for planar or nonplanar faults having any dip or slip rake (faulting mechanism). Our correction factors predict directivity-induced variations of spectral acceleration that are roughly half of the strike-slip variations predicted by Somerville et. al. (1997), and use of our factors reduces record-to-record sigma by about 2–20% at 5 sec or greater period.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 459-494
Author(s):  
L. Giambiagi ◽  
S. Spagnotto ◽  
S. M. Moreiras ◽  
G. Gómez ◽  
E. Stahlschmidt ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Cacheuta sub-basin of the Triassic Cuyo Basin is an example of rift basin inversion contemporaneous to the advance of the Andean thrust front, during the Plio-Quaternary. This basin is one of the most important sedimentary basins in a much larger Triassic NNW-trending depositional system along the southwestern margin of the Pangea supercontinent. The amount and structural style of inversion is provided in this paper by three-dimensional insights into the relationship between inversion of rift-related structures and spatial variations in late Cenozoic stress fields. The Plio-Quaternary stress field exhibits important N–S variations in the foreland area of the Southern Central Andes, between 33 and 34° S, with a southward gradually change from pure compression with σ1 and σ2 being horizontal, to a strike-slip type stress field with σ2 being vertical. We present a 3-D approach for studying the tectonic inversion of the sub-basin master fault associated with strike-slip/reverse to strike-slip faulting stress regimes. We suggest that the inversion of Triassic extensional structures, striking NNW to WNW, occurred during the Plio–Pleistocene in those areas with strike-slip/reverse to strike-slip faulting stress regime, while in the reverse faulting stress regime domain, they remain fossilized. Our example demonstrates the impact of the stress regime on the reactivation pattern along the faults.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valère Lambert ◽  
Nadia Lapusta

Abstract. Substantial insight into earthquake source processes has resulted from considering frictional ruptures analogous to cohesive-zone shear cracks from fracture mechanics. This analogy holds for slip-weakening representations of fault friction that encapsulate the resistance to rupture propagation in the form of breakdown energy, analogous to fracture energy, prescribed in advance as if it were a material property of the fault interface. Here, we use numerical models of earthquake sequences with enhanced weakening due to thermal pressurization of pore fluids to show how accounting for thermo-hydro-mechanical processes during dynamic shear ruptures makes breakdown energy rupture-dependent. We find that local breakdown energy is neither a constant material property nor uniquely defined by the amount of slip attained during rupture, but depends on how that slip is achieved through the history of slip rate and dynamic stress changes during the rupture process. As a consequence, the frictional breakdown energy of the same location along the fault can vary significantly in different earthquake ruptures that pass through. These results suggest the need for re-examining the assumption of pre-determined frictional breakdown energy common in dynamic rupture modeling and for better understanding of the factors that control rupture dynamics in the presence of thermo-hydro-mechanical processes.


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