Focal mechanism determination and identification of the fault plane of earthquakes using only one or two near-source seismic recordings

1999 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 1558-1574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Delouis ◽  
Denis Legrand

Abstract A waveform inversion scheme was developed in order to explore the resolving power of one or two seismic recordings at short epicentral distance for the determination of focal mechanisms and the identification of the fault plane of earthquakes. Two key features are used to constrain the fault parameters with a reduced number of stations: (1) a simple finite-dimension source model and (2) the modeling of the complete displacement field, including the near-field waves. The identification of the fault plane should be possible, even with a single station, as soon as the seismograms produced by the two nodal planes of a same focal mechanism are significantly different, which is the general case when waveforms are controlled by source finiteness. Seven parameters, including the strike, dip, rake, and dislocation, are explored with a grid search, and the minima of the misfit error between the observed and calculated seismograms are mapped. With such an approach, it is possible to conclude about the uniqueness or nonuniqueness of the solutions. The method is tested with three earthquakes of moderate to large size for which the fault plane is well established and for which strong-motion records are available at maximum distances of a few tens of kilometers. Test events are the 1994 Northridge (Mw = 6.7, California), the 1996 Copala (Mw = 7.3, Mexico), and the 1996 Pinotepa Nacional (Mw = 5.4, Mexico) earthquakes. In the case of inversions with two stations, we find a unique solution, or a group of similar solutions, with a good estimation of the focal mechanism and the proper selection of the fault plane. Our results also show that in some cases a single station may be enough to recover the fault parameters. The inversion scheme presented here may be systematically applied to future earthquakes, especially to those recorded by few stations. It should be particularly useful in the case of blind faults for which the fault plane may not be identified with the help of other data.

1987 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 1127-1146
Author(s):  
Giuseppe De Natale ◽  
Raul Madariaga ◽  
Roberto Scarpa ◽  
Aldo Zollo

Abstract Time and frequency domain analyses are applied to strong motion data recorded in Friuli, Italy, during 1976 to 1977. An inversion procedure to estimate spectral parameters (low frequency level, corner frequency, and high frequency decay) has been applied to displacement spectra using a simple earthquake source model with a single corner frequency. The data were digitized accelerograms from ENEA-ENEL portable and permanent networks. Instrument-corrected SH waves were selected from a set of 138 three-component, hand-digitized records and 28 automatically digitized records. Thirty-eight events with stations having 8 to 32 km epicentral distance were studied. Different stress drop estimates were performed showing high values (200 to 300 bars, on the average) with seismic moments ranging from 2.8 × 1022 to 8.0 × 1024 dyne-cm. The observation of systematic higher values of Brune stress drop (obtained from corner frequencies) with respect to other time and frequency domain estimates of stress release, and the evidence on time series of multiple rupture episodes suggest that the observed corner frequencies are most probably related to subevent ruptures rather than the overall fault size. Seven events recorded at more than one station show a good correlation between rms, Brune, and dynamic stress drops, and a constant scaling of this parameter as a function of the seismic moment. When single station events are also considered, a slight moment dependence of these three stress drop estimates is observed differently. This may be explained by an inadequacy of the ω−2 high-frequency decay of the source model or by high-frequency attenuation due to propagation effects. The high-frequency cutoff of acceleration spectra indicates the presence of an Fmax in the range of 5 to 14 Hz, except for the stations where local site effects produce spectral peaks.


1969 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 865-908
Author(s):  
N. A. Haskell

abstract Displacement, particle velocity, and acceleration wave forms in the near field of a propagating fault have been computed by numerical integration of the Green's function integrals for an infinite medium. The displacement discontinuity (dislocation) on the fault plane is assumed to have the form of a unilaterally propagating finite ramp function in time. The calculated wave forms in the vicinity of the fault plane are quite similar to those observed at the strong motion station nearest the fault plane at the Parkfield earthquake. The comparison suggests that the propagating ramp time function is roughly representative of the main features of the dislocation motion on the fault plane, but that the actual motion has somewhat more high frequency complexity. Calculated amplitudes indicate that the average final dislocation on the fault at the Parkfield earthquake was more than an order of magnitude greater than the offsets observed on the visible surface trace. Computer generated wave form plots are presented for a variety of locations with respect to the fault plane and for two different assumptions on the relation between fault length and ramp function duration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisahiko Kubo ◽  
Asako Iwaki ◽  
Wataru Suzuki ◽  
Shin Aoi ◽  
Haruko Sekiguchi

Abstract In this study, we investigate the source rupture process of the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake in Japan (MJMA 6.7) and how the ground motion can be reproduced using available source and velocity models. First, we conduct a multiple-time-window kinematic waveform inversion using strong-motion waveforms, which indicates that a large-slip area located at a depth of 25–30 km in the up-dip direction from the hypocenter was caused by a rupture propagating upward 6–12 s after its initiation. Moreover, the high-seismicity area of aftershocks did not overlap with the large-slip area. Subsequently, using the obtained source model and a three-dimensional velocity structure model, we conduct a forward long-period (< 0.5 Hz) ground-motion simulation. The simulation was able to reproduce the overall ground-motion characteristics in the sedimentary layers of the Ishikari Lowland.


Author(s):  
S. Sangeetha ◽  
S.T.G. Raghukanth

The article aims at developing a stochastic model which simulates spatial distribution of slip on the fault plane. This is achieved by analysing a large dataset of 303 finite-fault rupture models from 152 past earthquakes with varying fault mechanisms and in the magnitude range of 4.11-9.12. New scaling relations to predict the seismic source parameters such as fault length, fault width, rupture area, mean and standard deviation of slip have been derived for distinct fault mechanisms. The developed methodology models the spatial variability of slip as a two-dimensional von Karman power spectral density function (PSD) and correlation lengths are estimated. The proposed stochastic slip model is validated by comparing the simulated near-field ground response with the recorded data available for the 20th September 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, Taiwan.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hijrah Saputra ◽  
Wahyudi Wahyudi ◽  
Iman Suardi ◽  
Wiwit Suryanto

Abstract This research was examines the focal mechanism associated with the mainshock and three aftershocks of the magnitude 6.3 Yogyakarta earthquake on May 27, 2006. This study, therefore, aims to provide a cleareranswer on the source mechanism of the earthquake, which has been debated. Data were obtained from the mainshock and aftershock sources, on June 8, 9, and 16, 2006. The mainshock and three aftershocks were used to conduct waveform inversion by calculating the Green's functions through the extended reflectivity method of the near-field and the far-field signal component. The mainshock's focal mechanism has a strike, dip, and range angle of 243.40o, 77.50o, and -28.30o, respectively.Furthermore, the mainshock is not a pure strike-slip as previously hypothesized. The focal mechanism for the aftershock earthquake source on Mw 4.4, obtained on June 8, had a strike, dip, rake, and variance of 192.20o, 29.70o, -48.30o and 0.22, respectively. This aftershock had a different segment from the mainshock event and those obtained on the 9 and 16 of June with the same type of faulting as the mainshock with variance values of 0.195 and 0.243. These results showed that the mainshock of May 27, 2006, activated the aftershock on June 8, with a different type of fault.


1977 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Israel ◽  
Moshe Vered

abstract Near-field seismograms due to finite faulting in a half-space were calculated. An attempt is made to evaluate near-field fault parameters by using two criteria: (1) agreement of observed and theoretical pulse width; and (2) agreement of observed and calculated amplitude ratios of the horizontal components of motion. Using this method we have investigated possible fault parameters of an earthquake along the San Andreas fault (source depth 12.5 km), recorded at two stations (epicentral distance 2.3, 5.5 km). It is found that computed seismograms are strongly dependent on the point in which a unilateral fracture begins. Assuming different initial failure points within the uncertainty region of the hypocentral location may effect fault parameter solutions. Thus, fault parameters obtained in this study should not be viewed as unique. However, we have shown, that for an assumed point and dynamics model, it is possible to determine rupture direction and source parameters. The seismic moment found in this study is weakly dependent on the dynamics model assumed.


Author(s):  
Hernando Tavera ◽  
Bertrand Delouis ◽  
Arturo Mercado ◽  
David Portugal

Abstract The Loreto earthquake of 26 May 2019 occurred below the extreme northeast part of Peru at a depth of 140 km within the subducting Nazca plate at a distance of 700 km from the trench Peru–Chile. The orientation of the seismic source was obtained from waveform inversion in the near field using velocity and strong-motion data. The rupture occurred in normal faulting corresponding to a tensional process with T axis oriented in east–west direction similar to the direction of convergence between the Nazca and South America plates. The analysis of the strong-motion data shows that the levels of ground shaking are very heterogeneous with values greater than 50 Gal up to distances of 300 km; the maximum recorded acceleration of 122 Gal at a distance of 100 km from the epicenter. The Loreto earthquake is classified as a large extensional event in the descending Nazca slab in the transition from flat-slab geometry to greater dip.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Gong ◽  
Yan Jing ◽  
Haibing Li

&lt;p&gt;Strain caused by earthquakes give rise to many earthquake-related hydrological changes. Mechanisms responsible for them are different from place to place, depending on whether the trigger is the static strain or dynamic strain. Theoretic calculation indicates that the great difference in dependence on epicentral distance is robust enough to discriminate them, however, few studies based on direct strain measurements have tested this hypothesis. The 2016 M6.2 Hutubi Earthquake is a reverse event occurred in the northern Chinese Tien Shan, and the coseismic strain responses have been recorded by nine 4-component RZB borehole strainmeters at the distance from near field to far field. The nearest four stations have recorded resolvable static strain responses, and all stations have perfectly recorded the dynamic strain waves. Our result shows that the difference in the dependence on distance is truly reliable to differentiate static strains from dynamic strains, the static strain is of the same magnitude with the dynamic strain in the near field, and as the distance increase to intermediate and far field, the static strain are a few magnitude smaller. Yet the ratio between them is a complex index relating to the rupturing process itself, the tectonic background, and the seismic wave radiation pattern. Furthermore, the calibrated static strain were also used to relocate the fault plane through a grid-search method, and the result shows that the seismogenic fault is surprisingly a high-angle backthrust fault. The determined fault parameters are 279&amp;#176;/70&amp;#176;/87&amp;#176;, which are also consistent with the aftershock distribution. It indicates that the high-angle backthrust in the Chinese Tien Shan are capable of breaking individually. Considering the high vertical displacement, and their abundance inside the Tien Shan orogenic belt, the high-angle backthrust faults may had also played a significant role in building the modern ultra-high relief in Tien Shan.&lt;/p&gt;


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