Uncertainty in fault plane solutions from moment tensor inversion due to uncertainty in event location

Author(s):  
Jing Du ◽  
Norm Warpinski
2020 ◽  
pp. 1691-1704
Author(s):  
Hasanain Jasim Mohammed ◽  
Ali M. Al-Rahim

     The study area is encompassed by the 33.59-34.93°N latitudes and 45.44-46.39°E longitudes and divided into four groups with respect to earthquake event locations. We determined fault plane solutions, moment magnitudes, focal depths, and trend of slip with the direction of the moment stress axes (P, N, and T) for 102 earthquakes. These earthquakes had a local magnitude in the range between 4.0 and 6.4 for the time period from January 2018 to the end of August 2019, with focal depths ranged between 6 and 17 km. Waveform moment tensor inversion technique was used to analyze the database constructed from seismic stations on local and neighboring country networks (Iraq, Iran, and Turkey). We separated the studied events into four regional subsets (circles). The types of the obtained fault plane solutions are predominantly thrust fault and strike-slip, with the focal depths ranging from 8 to 21 km.      A new scaling relation between local magnitude (Ml) and the estimated moment magnitude (Mw) has been developed utilizing a linear regression. Good match results obtained in the present research good match with both seismic trends concluded from earthquake locations and mapped faults. Generally, direction shows NW–SE striking focal planes corresponding with the tectonic framework of the Arabian–Eurasian continental collision zone. The anticlockwise rotation of the Arabian plate that appears accountable for strike-slip displacements on fault surfaces.


Geophysics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. WC65-WC75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Du ◽  
Norm R. Warpinski

Although microseismic monitoring of hydraulic fractures has primarily been concerned with the dimensions, complexity, and growth of fractures or fracture systems, there is an ever-increasing desire to extract more information about the hydraulic-fracturing and/or natural fractures from microseismic data. Source mechanism analysis, which is concerned with deducing details of the failure process from the microseismic waveform data, is, therefore, attracting more attention. However, most of the studies focus more on the moment-tensor inversion than on extracting fault-plane solutions (FPSs) from inverted moment tensors. The FPSs can be extracted from the inverted moment-tensor, but there remains a question regarding how errors associated with the inversion of the moment-tensor affect the accuracy of the FPSs. We examine the uncertainties of FPS, given the uncertainties of the amplitude data, by looking into the uncertainty propagation from amplitude data into the moment-tensor and then into the resultant FPS. The uncertainty propagation method will be demonstrated using two synthetic examples.


EKSPLORIUM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Priyobudi Priyobudi ◽  
Mohamad Ramdhan

ABSTRAK. Keberadaan sesar aktif dengan pola sesar naik di daerah Plampang berhasil diungkap dari sebaran hiposenter terelokasi, hasil inversi momen tensor, dan pemodelan perubahan tegangan Coulomb. Studi ini juga berhasil mengungkap sumber gempa pada sesar aktif tersebut dengan kedalaman relatif dangkal yang bisa menjadi ancaman di Pulau Sumbawa jika magnitudo maksimumnya rilis di masa yang akan datang. Hasil relokasi hiposenter menunjukkan sebaran episenter berarah barat daya–timur laut. Hal ini didukung juga oleh hasil inversi momen tensor yang menunjukkan bidang sesar berarah barat daya–timur laut (N2240E) dengan dip cukup curam (490). Penampang seismisitas vertikal pada arah dip menunjukkan adanya pola sesar naik yang semakin landai seiring bertambahnya kedalaman. Bidang sesar yang landai menunjukkan struktur decollement pada kedalaman 10–15 km dan berangsur menjadi curam sebagai struktur splay fault pada kedalaman 0–10 km. Hal tersebut konsisten dengan hasil inversi momen tensor yang menunjukkan mekanisme pergerakan sesar naik terjadi pada kedalaman 7 km. Pemodelan perubahan tegangan Coulomb menunjukkan adanya penambahan stress di luar area bidang sesar sehingga memicu terjadinya aftershocks. Sebaran gempa susulan menunjukkan adanya bidang sesar hipotetik dengan panjang 19 km dan lebar 12 km. Sesar sebesar ini berpotensi membangkitkan gempa dengan kekuatan Mw 6,4. Gempa Sumbawa 13 Juni 2020 dengan magnitudo M 5,3 disebabkan oleh sebagian kecil aktivitas dari bidang sesar tersebut.ABSTRACT. The existence of an active fault with a reverse fault mechanism in the Plampang area is successfully delineated from the distribution of the relocated hypocenter, the moment tensor inversion, and the Coulomb stress changes. This study also reveals the source of the earthquake in the active fault with a relatively shallow depth which can be a threat on Sumbawa Island if the maximum magnitude is released in the future. Seismicity from hypocenter relocation shows the distribution of the epicenter with a southwest–northeast direction. It is also supported by the moment tensor inversion result which shows the fault plane trending southwest–northeast (N2240E) with a steep dip (490). The vertical section of seismicity in the dip direction shows that the slope of the plane has a lower angle with increasing depth. The lower angle of a fault plane shows a decollement structure at a depth of 10–15 km and gradually becomes steep as a splay fault structure at a depth of 0–10 km. It is consistent with the result of moment tensor inversion which shows the mechanism of a reverse fault that occurred at a depth of 7 km. The Coulomb stress changes show the stress increasing outside the fault plane area, which triggers aftershocks. The distribution of aftershocks shows a hypothetical fault plane of 19 km long and 12 km wide. A fault of this size has the potential to generate an earthquake with a magnitude maximum of Mw 6.4. The Sumbawa earthquake on June 13, 2020, having M 5.3 was caused by a small part of the activity from the fault.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 505-512
Author(s):  
Christopher Willacy ◽  
Jan-Willem Blokland ◽  
Ewoud van Dedem

Permanent reservoir monitoring is important for cases of induced seismicity in which there may be a risk to people or to the environment. In such cases, accurately locating microearthquakes and assessing their hazard level can help keep production at safe levels. The process can benefit greatly from the use of automation. With the shift toward full-waveform microearthquake location algorithms and workflows, greater accuracy and information can be retrieved compared to that offered by traditional traveltime estimation techniques, but the complexity of these workflows and run-time costs can be higher. Results are presented from an automatic elastic event location and moment tensor inversion workflow that has been highly parallelized on clustered computer hardware. Run times that previously took up to several days to complete using a manually intensive execution of the workflow now can be achieved in approximately 1 hour. Some 180 events recorded at the Groningen gas field and ranging in magnitude from 0.1 to 3.4 MW (ML) have been located and analyzed with the automatic workflow. The results indicate equivalent location accuracy when compared to the manually intensive workflow execution. However, larger errors are noted in the depth positions of some events and in the range and nature of the focal mechanism, as derived from moment tensor inversion. High grading of the manual and automatic results has been performed and used to study the geomechanical behavior of the microearthquakes in the Groningen region, which exhibit mainly dip-slip, double-couple motion, in areas of previous production activity.


2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Saraò ◽  
Laura Peruzza

<p>We investigate the seismicity occurred in the Po area, in the period July 2011-June 1012, by means of moment tensor and we use our set of revised focal mechanisms - computed for M&gt; 3.7 earthquakes - to evaluate Coulomb elastic stress changes in order to detect potential intermediate-distance faults interaction, and the main features of this complex structural system.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea Craiu ◽  
Marius Craiu ◽  
Mariu Mihai ◽  
Elena Manea ◽  
Alexandru Marmureanu

&lt;p&gt;The Vrancea zone is an unique area with both crustal and intermediate-depth seismic activity and constitutes one of the most active seismic area in Europe.&amp;#160; An intense and persistent seismicity is generated between 60 and 180 km depth, within a relic slab sinking nearly vertical in the Earth&amp;#8217;s mantle due to the increasing of the stress state within this volume. At intermediate-depths, large magnitude events are frequent, i.e. four earthquakes with moment magnitudes (Mw) &gt;7 occurred in the last century. An unique slab geometry, likely preserved until the present, causes stress localization due to the slab bending and subsequent stress release resulting in large mantle earthquakes in the region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this study, we evaluate the current stress field along the Vrancea subcrustal region by computing the fault plane solutions of 422 seismic events since January 2005. The continuous development of the National Seismic Network allows us to constrain the fault plane solutions and subsequently to evaluate the current stress field.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The main style of faulting for Vrancea subcrustal events presents a predominant reverse one, with two main earthquakes categories: the first one with the nodal planes oriented NE-SW parallel with the Carpathian Arc and the second one with the nodal planes oriented NW-SE perpendicular on the Carpathian Arc. The main axis of the moment tensor may indicate a predominant compressional stress field (Tpl&gt;45&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;/sup&gt; Ppl&lt;45&lt;sup&gt;0&lt;/sup&gt;). Another characteristic of&amp;#160; the Vrancea subcrustal zone is the tendency of the extension axis T to be almost vertical and the compression axis P being almost horizontal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results of stress inversion indicate a dominant reverse faulting style, with an average stress regime index of 2.9. Other tectonic regimes were observed in the present dataset as normal and strike-slip but they are retrieved for a restrained number of events.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The stress patterns obtained from formal stress inversion of focal mechanism solutions reveal many features of the current stress field that were not captured by large-scale numerical models.&lt;/p&gt;


1991 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuyuan Liu ◽  
Robert. B. Herrmarnn ◽  
Jiakang Xie ◽  
E. Cranswick

Abstract Waveforms of the direct P-, SV- and SH-waves of five 1983 Goodnow, New York, aftershocks (mb = 1.4–3.1), locally recorded at four hard-rock sites (epicentral distances=1.9–8.0 km) with GEOS systems, were studied to obtain their focal mechanism solutions by waveform fit using both systematic search and moment tensor inversion. Both synthetic and observed data were low-pass filtered at 10 Hz to reduce sensitivity to shallow earth structure. It was discovered that only the first cycle of P-wave and S-wave appear to have pure direct body wave characteristics. The strong P- and S-coda have no stable polarization. The five aftershocks have similar locations, identical P-first motions, but varying direct S-waveforms. A layered velocity model with a P-wave velocity of 4.4 km/s in the surface layer was derived. Fault plane solutions of four events indicate reverse faulting mechanisms that have a near horizontal P-axis with a strike of ENE. This is similar to the fault plane solution of the mainshock (October 7, 1983, mb = 5.1) and the composite focal mechanism of the aftershocks. Four aftershocks occurred on the fault planes with the strike NW-N and dip of 52°–64° toward NE-E. The fifth event studied has significant strike-slip motion with the P axis is also nearly horizontal and oriented NE. The results of systematic search technique agree well with those of moment tensor inversion. The first motion directions, pulse widths, amplitudes, amplitude ratios and arrival times of the direct P-, SV- and SH-phases of the synthetic seismograms are consistent with those of the observed seismograms. The results of the research demonstrated that the S-wave amplitude can provide important constraints on the focal mechanism.


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