Seismicity at the Castor gas reservoir driven by pore pressure diffusion and asperities loading

The 2013 seismic sequence at the Castor injection platform offshore Spain, including three earthquakes of magnitude 4.1, occurred during the initial filling of a planned Underground Gas Storage facility. The Castor sequence is one of the most important cases of induced seismicity in Europe and a rare example of seismicity induced by gas injection into a depleted oil field. Here we use advanced seismological techniques applied to an enhanced waveform dataset, to resolve the geometry of the faults, develop a greatly enlarged seismicity catalog and record details of the rupture kinematics. The sequence occurred by progressive fault failure and unlocking, with seismicity initially migrating away from the injection points, triggered by pore pressure diffusion, and then back again, breaking larger asperities loaded to higher stress and producing the largest earthquakes. Seismicity occurred almost exclusively on a secondary fault, located below the reservoir, dipping opposite from the reservoir bounding fault.

Rupture Kinematics of the 11 January 2021 Mw 6.7 Hovsgol, Mongolia, Earthquake and Implications in the Western Baikal Rift Zone

The Mongolia plateau is the farthest intracontinental region of the India–Eurasia collision and is a transition zone between north–south convergence to the south in the Tien Shan and northwest–southeast extension to the north in the Baikal rift. Mongolia has experienced four M 8 earthquakes since 1905, but due to limited observations, the mechanism of these strong earthquakes and regional tectonics are poorly understood. The 11 January 2021 Mw 6.7 Hovsgol, Mongolia, earthquake is the largest event that has occurred in the Hovsgol graben, which is noted for being the northernmost convergence region of the India–Eurasia collision and the youngest extension region of the Baikal rift. In this article, the coseismic displacements are retrieved by space geodesy for the first time in this region, providing good constraints for the deformation pattern. We use a finite-fault inversion of InSAR and teleseismic data, and a backprojection analysis to reveal the rupture kinematics of this event. The geometry of the Hovsgol fault is determined as east-dipping with a dip of 45°. The rupture process is characterized by a northwestward propagation with a moderate average rupture velocity of ∼2.0 km/s and a complex slip pattern composed of two major slip patches with dimensions of 40 km×20 km. The oblique slip, illustrated by predominate extension and significant dextral striking, confirms the right-lateral-striking faulting in the Hovsgol rift, which indicates that the eastwardly north–south convergence across the southwest segment of the Baikal rift has decreased.

Surface Rupture Kinematics and Coseismic Slip Distribution during the 2019 Mw7.1 Ridgecrest, California Earthquake Sequence Revealed by SAR and Optical Images

The 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake sequence ruptured along a complex fault system and triggered seismic and aseismic slips on intersecting faults. To characterize the surface rupture kinematics and fault slip distribution, we used optical images and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations to reconstruct the displacement caused by the earthquake sequence. We further calculated curl and divergence from the north-south and east-west components, to effectively identify the surface rupture traces. The results show that the major seismogenic fault had a length of ~55 km and strike of 320° and consisted of five secondary faults. On the basis of the determined multiple-fault geometries, we inverted the coseismic slip distributions by InSAR measurements, which indicates that the Mw7.1 mainshock was dominated by the right-lateral strike-slip (maximum strike-slip of ~5.8 m at the depth of ~7.5 km), with a small dip-slip component (peaking at ~1.8 m) on an east-dipping fault. The Mw6.4 foreshock was dominated by the left-lateral strike-slip on a north-dipping fault. These earthquakes triggered obvious aseismic creep along the Garlock fault (117.3° W–117.5° W). These results are consistent with the rupture process of the earthquake sequence, which featured a complicated cascading rupture rather than a single continuous rupture front propagating along multiple faults.

Rupture kinematics of 2020 January 24 Mw 6.7 Doğanyol-Sivrice, Turkey earthquake on the East Anatolian Fault Zone imaged by space geodesy

SUMMARY Here, we present the results of a kinematic slip model of the 2020 Mw 6.7 Doğanyol-Sivrice, Turkey Earthquake, the most important event in the last 50 yr on the East Anatolian Fault Zone. Our slip model is constrained by two Sentinel-1 interferograms and by 5 three-component high-rate GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) recordings close to the earthquake source. We find that most of the slip occurs predominantly in three regions, two of them at between 2 and 10 km depth and a deeper slip region extending down to 20 km depth. We also relocate the first two weeks of aftershocks and find a distribution of events that agrees with these slip features. The HR-GNSS recordings suggest a predominantly unilateral rupture with the effects of a directivity pulse clearly seen in the waveforms and in the measure peak ground velocities. The slip model supports rupture propagation from northeast to southwest at a relatively slow speed of 2.2 km s−1 and a total source duration of ∼20 s. In the absence of near-source seismic stations, space geodetic data provide the best constraint on the spatial distribution of slip and on its time evolution.

Characterization of Shallow Rupture Kinematics in Strong Ground Motion Simulations of Strike-Slip Earthquakes Constrained by Dynamic Rupture Modeling

<p>The objective of our study is the improvement of shallow rupture characterization in kinematic rupture models used in strong ground motion simulations. Based on geological investigations, earthquake stress drop, depth-variation of seismicity, as well as recorded near-fault ground motion, there is clear evidence for depth variation of frictional properties of crustal materials. The material ductility in the weak zone (upper 3-5 km of the crust) and the transition from ductile state to brittle state in the upper seismogenic zone, determine how the fracture energy is consumed by the earthquake rupture, and  how generated seismic energy is distributed in space and time.</p><p> </p><p>Using plausible stress models for crustal ruptures, we performed dynamic rupture simulations on vertical strike slip faults that break the free surface. We used a 3D staggered-grid finite-difference method (Pitarka and Dalguer, 2009) and regional 1D velocity model. The stress drop as a function of slip was modeled using a linear slip weakening frictional law that reflects the depth and lateral variations of frictional properties of crustal materials. Through dynamic rupture modeling we were able to extract kinematic rupture characteristics, such as changes in the shape of slip rate functions, rupture velocity, and peak slip  rate across the weak zone, and in the slip asperity areas. These results were then used to refine our existing rupture generating model (Graves and Pitarka, 2016) for crustal  earthquakes. The modifications to the rupture generator code include changes to the shape of slip-rate function at shallow depths, rise time variation with depth and stronger correlation with slip at shallow depths.</p><p> </p><p>The effects of the new characterization of shallow rupture kinematics on simulated ground motion was thoroughly investigated in broad-band (0-10Hz) simulations of the M7.1 2019 Ridgecrest California earthquake. The ground motion time histories were computed using the hybrid method of Graves and Pitarka (2010. In our simulations we considered several slip distributions, including two that were obtained by inverting recorded velocity and displacement ground motion, respectively.  Finally, through comparisons with recorded data, we analyzed the sensitivity of computed near-fault broad-band ground motion characteristics, including amplitude of ground motion velocity pulse, peak acceleration, and response spectra, to shallow slip characterization and location of strong motion generation areas for each rupture model. The proposed modifications to kinematic rupture models of crustal earthquakes provide improved simulation of broadband strong ground motion and seismic hazard assessment.</p><p><em>This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344</em></p>