Preprints
Search for earthquake (564 results)
Large Earthquakes: a Way of Formation and Prediction
Published: 2025-12-26
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure
It is believed that the accumulation of small fractures (small earthquakes) in the crust is one of many ways for the formation of large fractures (large earthquakes). In such cases, the temporal variations in the accumulation number of small earthquakes can be used to predict future seismic activity in the region. To do so, a structural system of the crust is constructed using the logarithmic [...]
Gutenberg-Richter-type earthquake size distributions: maximum likelihood estimation, unbiased estimation, and Bayesian forecasting
Published: 2025-12-18
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology
Characterizing earthquake size distributions using the Gutenberg-Richter (GR) law is ubiquitous in seismology. According to the GR law, earthquake magnitudes follow an exponential distribution, with a rate parameter commonly represented by the b-value. For many applications, including seismic hazard and risk assessment, estimating the b-value is therefore a common procedure. However, the [...]
Towards Entire Wavefield Inversion in Highly Scattering Volcanic Environments using Fourier Neural Operators
Published: 2025-12-12
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Seismic imaging in volcanic environments is highly challenging due to significant scattering of seismic waves on multiple spatial scales. When these wavefields are recorded on the surface by seismic arrays, seismograms generally contain information-rich codas in addition to ballistic first arrivals. Later reflected and refracted arrivals are often completely masked by the scattered coda waves. [...]
Tandem: An Open-Source High-Performance Computing Volumetric Software to Model Sequences of Earthquakes and Aseismic Slip Across Complex Fault Systems
Published: 2025-12-11
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology
Simulating sequences of earthquakes and aseismic slip (SEAS) on realistic fault systems provides a physical framework to understand the evolution of the seismic cycle, but remains computationally expensive. Volumetric approaches offer the physical flexibility to handle complex geometries and heterogeneous off-fault media but may incur prohibitively high computational costs when applied to the [...]
Multi-Planar Hierarchy in Pan-American Seismic Fractality: A Bayesian Resolution to the Projection Paradox
Published: 2025-12-10
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
Earthquake catalogs worldwide exhibit an enduring paradox: seismicity appears confined to planar faults (correlation dimension D2≈ 2.0), yet operates within volumetric lithospheric deformation. We resolve this paradox through Bayesian fractal analysis of 50,010 earthquakes across seven Pan-American tectonic regimes (2010–2025), revealing that apparent planarity reflects instrumental projection [...]
The role of the Hikurangi subduction interface in enabling Kaikōura-like earthquakes: Insights from synthetic earthquake catalogues
Published: 2025-12-09
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Tectonics and Structure
A well-known problem in seismic hazard is the short duration of the historical record relative to the time between large earthquakes. This short record means that not all possible earthquakes have been observed, and that the statistics of earthquake recurrence intervals and magnitudes are poorly constrained. These issues are particularly acute for earthquakes involving multiple faults, such as [...]
Subduction-driven mantle flow beneath and around the Philippine Sea Plate from seismic anisotropy
Published: 2025-12-08
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Shear-wave splitting illuminates mantle flow and subduction zone dynamics but is typically inferred near stations or earthquakes, limiting studies in sparsely instrumented regions away from earthquakes. Where stations or earthquakes are present, fast splitting directions are often parallel to the nearest trench, which has yet to be fully understood and reconciled with geodynamic flow predictions. [...]
Dynamics, interactions and delays of the 2019 Ridgecrest rupture sequence
Published: 2025-12-08
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The observational difficulties and the complexity of earthquake physics have rendered seismic hazard assessment largely empirical. Despite increasingly high-quality geodetic, seismic and field observations, data-driven earthquake imaging yields stark differences and physics-based models explaining all observed dynamic complexities are elusive. Here we present data-assimilated three-dimensional [...]
ShallowLandslider: a physics-based component for predicting regional distributions of coseismic landslides
Published: 2025-12-06
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology
Earthquakes can trigger thousands of shallow landslides across mountainous terrain, reshaping landscapes and posing severe hazards. Predicting their spatial distribution remains challenging because most existing models are empirical, event-specific, and lack physical interpretability. We introduce ShallowLandslider, a physics-based component within the open-source Landlab framework for regional [...]
Foreshock Behaviors and Mainshock Rupture Properties Associated with the 2025 Mw 8.8 Kamchatka Earthquake Sequence
Published: 2025-11-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The July 29 2025 Mw 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake ruptured the plate interface off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula along the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone. Following the mainshock, tsunamis were recorded in multiple countries along the Pacific Ocean boundary and its islands, along with the eruption of several volcanoes in Kamchatka. The mainshock was preceded by a strong foreshock sequence [...]
Retrospective Detection of Seismic Precursors Using Multi-Scale Energy Curvature
Published: 2025-11-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Energy curvature controls catastrophic failure in seismic systems. We show this through a self-normalizing logarithmic functional Fω = ω(t)² · log(1 + |ω(t)| / median(|ω|)), where ω is the second derivative of seismic energy release. When F stays bounded, the system remains stable. When F diverges, rupture becomes more probable. Our precursor detection method combines spectral analysis using [...]
Extremely Shallow Semi-Repeating Tremor Caused by Water Hammers in a Sewer Pipe in Social Circle, Georgia
Published: 2025-11-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Repeating earthquakes are mostly generated by small asperities that are loaded by continuous creep surrounding them, and their recurrence times are inversely proportional to the loading rates. However, sometimes anthropogenic activities can also produce repeated seismic shakings with shorter recurrence intervals, and their source mechanisms can vary. Here we investigated semi-repeating ground [...]
The slip distributions of the 1952 and 2025 Kamchatka earthquakes from tsunami waveforms recorded around the Pacific Ocean
Published: 2025-11-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The July 2025 Kamchatka earthquake (Mw 8.8) generated Pacific-wide tsunamis. Inversion of 40 DART bottom pressure records around the Pacific Ocean revealed a large (~ 9 m) slip at 200 – 400 km southwest of the epicenter, closely matching the USGS finite fault model based on teleseismic data. In this region, a similarly large megathrust earthquake (M ~ 9) occurred in 1952. The tsunami waveforms [...]
Temperature insensitive viscous deformation limits megathrust seismogenesis
Published: 2025-11-14
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
Three models have been proposed to explain the downdip limit of the subduction seismogenic zone. The first is a temperature-controlled transition in rate-and-state frictional properties between 350–510°C, which inhibits earthquake nucleation. The second places the limit at the frictional and viscous failure envelope intersection. The third combines thermal and lithological controls, where 'warm' [...]
Rheological control on earthquake source kinematics and dynamics at the Hengill geothermal field
Published: 2025-11-06
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We analyze seismic source parameters of the induced earthquakes at the Hengill (Iceland) between 2018 and 202 to investigate rupture processes in a complex volcanic–geothermal setting. Our analysis reveals a source scaling relation that deviates from the commonly assumed M0 ∝ fc^-3. By combining stress tensor orientation, lithostatic and hydrostatic pressure, and frictional strength estimates, we [...]