Preprints
Search for earthquake (550 results)
Were the Newdigate Earthquakes, Southern England, of 2018-2019 triggered by oil extraction?
Published: 2024-08-31
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The ability to attribute earthquakes to specific causes is challenging. The 2018-2019 earthquake swarm in Newdigate, Surrey, Southern England, coincides with local oil extraction at Horse Hill. Nevertheless, it remains debated whether these earthquakes were triggered by oil extraction or whether they were coincidental. Due to the onset of seismic activity before major oil extraction and the lack [...]
Physical Mechanisms of Earthquake Nucleation and Foreshocks: Cascade Triggering, Aseismic Slip, or Fluid Flows?
Published: 2024-08-30
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Earthquakes are caused by the rapid rupture of their seismogenic faults. Whether large or small, there is inevitably a certain nucleation process involved before the dynamic rupture. At the same time, although not very common, significant foreshock activity has been observed before some large earthquakes. Understanding the nucleation process and foreshocks of earthquakes, especially large [...]
Towards a widely applicable earthquake detection algorithm for fibreoptic and hybrid fibreoptic-seismometer networks
Published: 2024-08-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is a promising technology for providing dense (metre-scale) sampling of the seismic wavefield. However, harnessing this potential for earthquake detection with accurate phase picking and associated localisation remains challenging. Single-channel algorithms are limited by individual channel noise, while machine learning and semblance methods are typically [...]
Rupture Dynamics and Near-Fault Ground Motion of the Mw7.8 Kahramanmaraş, Turkey earthquake of February 6, 2023
Published: 2024-08-28
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We studied the dynamic rupture propagation of the February 6th, 2023 (Mw7.8, 01:17 UTC) Pazarcık (Kahramanmaraş), Turkey, earthquake by incorporating the non-planar fault structure, the regional stress field, and a data-driven friction parameterization into numerical simulations. To explain the rupture extent of 200 km and the average speed, a regional non-uniform load is necessary and was [...]
Localized west-dipping seismic structure defines the Elgin-Lugoff Swarm Sequence in South Carolina
Published: 2024-08-28
Subjects: Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
An unusual earthquake swarm began in December 2021 between the towns of Elgin and Lugoff in South Carolina, United States. This area is characterized by historically low seismicity, but by April 2024 it has experienced 97 small earthquakes listed in the United States Geological Survey (USGS) catalog, presenting a unique opportunity to investigate the dynamics of earthquake swarms in stable [...]
Frictional Properties of Simulated Fault Gouges subject to Normal Stress Oscillation and Implications for Induced Seismicity
Published: 2024-08-25
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Risk Analysis
Under critical conditions where experimental fault slip exhibits self-sustained oscillation, effects of normal stress oscillation (NSO) on fault strength and stability remain poorly understood, as do potential effects of NSO on natural and induced seismicity. In this study, we employed double direct shear testing to investigate the frictional behavior of a synthetic, slightly velocity-weakening [...]
The Origin of Forearc Depressions
Published: 2024-08-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Sedimentology, Tectonics and Structure
Forearc depressions form over continental subduction zones with young, slowly subducting slabs and thick trench fills. They are bound seaward by a coast range and landward by a volcanic arc such that subsidence in forearc depressions occurs between orogens and in areas characterized by plate convergence. We propose a model for forearc depression formation based on geophysical and seismic data [...]
Complex and confined laboratory ruptures explain scaling of the critical slip distance for earthquake faulting
Published: 2024-08-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Tectonics and Structure
Earthquake sequences in nature are complex, exhibiting a range of magnitudes and slip behaviors. In contrast, earthquake-like instabilities generated on frictional faults in the laboratory and in continuum numerical models are usually quasi-periodic with a smaller range of magnitudes and durations. The discrepancy, especially apparent for cm-sized samples used in lab friction experiments, has [...]
Partial ruptures governed by the complex interplay between geodetic slip deficit, rigidity, and pore fluid pressure in 3D Cascadia dynamic rupture simulations
Published: 2024-08-15
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology
Physics-based simulations are crucial to assessing the seismic hazard in the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ), requiring assumptions about fault stress and material properties. Geodetic slip deficit models (SDMs) may inform the initial stresses governing megathrust earthquake dynamics. We present a unified workflow linking SDMs to 3D dynamic rupture simulations, and 22 rupture scenarios to unravel [...]
Denoising Daily Displacement GNSS-Time series using Deep Neural Networks In a Near Real-Time Framing: a Single-Station Method
Published: 2024-08-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Recent ground observations from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) displacement time series have provided compelling evidence that the motion of tectonic plates is ubiquitously non-steady-state. In some cases, these anomalous transient motions have been identified as potential precursors occurring months, days, or hours before large-magnitude earthquakes. However, effectively detecting [...]
The first seismo-volcanological observatory on Montserrat
Published: 2024-07-27
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The first seismo-volcanological observatory in the anglophone Caribbean was established on Montserrat in 1936, in response to a volcano-seismic crisis that began in in 1933. Staff at Montserrat’s agricultural office began routinely observing earthquake shocks in 1934. In 1936, following a scientific expedition dispatched by the Royal Society, an observatory was established at the Grove Botanical [...]
Towards automatic delineation of landslide source and runout
Published: 2024-07-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Mathematics
Mapping landslide-depleted source areas is pivotal for refining predictive models and volume estimations, yet these critical regions are often conflated with the landslide runouts, leading to sub-optimal assessments. The source areas are typically the regions where the actual failure occurs, providing crucial information on the initiation mechanisms and the nature of landslide propagation. [...]
Ground Motion Characteristics of Subshear and Supershear Ruptures in the Presence of Sediment Layers
Published: 2024-07-19
Subjects: Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We investigate the impact of sediment layers on ground motion characteristics during subshear and supershear rupture growth. Our findings suggest that sediment layers may lead to local supershear propagation, affecting ground motion, especially in the fault parallel (FP) direction. In contrast to homogeneous material models, we find that in the presence of sediment layers, a larger fault normal [...]
Rupture directivity from energy envelope deconvolution: theory and application to 69 Ridgecrest M 3.5–5.5 earthquakes
Published: 2024-07-13
Subjects: Geophysics and Seismology
Earthquake rupture directivity impacts ground motions and provides important insights on fault zone properties and earthquake physics. However, measuring directivity of small earthquakes is challenging due to their compact rupture sizes and complex path and site effects at high frequencies. Here, we develop a new approach that deconvolves energy envelopes of the S-coda waves to remove path and [...]
Quantifying relationships between fault parameters and rupture characteristics associated with thrust and reverse fault earthquakes.
Published: 2024-07-12
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Risk Analysis, Tectonics and Structure
We investigate the influence of earthquake source characteristics and geological site parameters on fault scarp morphologies for thrust and reverse fault earthquakes using geomechanical models. We performed a total of 3,434 distinct element method (DEM) model experiments to evaluate the impact of the sediment depth, density, homogeneous and heterogeneous sediment strengths, fault dip, and the [...]