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Streaks of microearthquakes along creeping faults

Nature volume 400, pages 635–641 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Crustal faults that produce most of their slip aseismically typically generate large numbers of small earthquakes. These events have generally been interpreted as coming from localized patches of the fault that undergo unstable (stick–slip) sliding, surrounded by larger regions of stable sliding (creep). In published catalogues the microearthquakes often appear to be distributed over large portions of the fault surface. By accurately locating large numbers of microearthquakes from faults of different orientations in California and Hawaii, we show here that instead the locations define highly concentrated streaks that are characteristically aligned in the direction of fault slip. The underlying cause of this structural organization of the fault surface remains to be determined.

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Figure 1: Map of the study area.
Figure 2: Vertical along-strike cross-sections showing the earthquakes examined in this study.
Figure 3: Vertical cross-sections of five multiplets, containing 75 to 85 events (a, c and d), 122 events (e), and 201 e.
Figure 4: Solution statistics for the 122-event multiplet of Fig. 3e.
Figure 5: Relocated multiplets from Kilauea volcano, showing bands of microearthquakes nearly parallel to the inferred slip direction.
Figure 6: Plot of the distance to the second earthquake as a function of the magnitude of the first, for each consecutive pair of relocated earthqua.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Abercrombie for discussions, F. Waldhauser, W. L. Ellsworth and A.Cole for a preprint of their Hayward fault relocations, and F. A. Dahlen, J. Lees and P. Shearer for comments. The figures were produced using the GMT software provided by P. Wessel and W.Smith. This work was supported by the US NSF and the US Geological Survey.

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Author notes

  1. Dominique Gillard

    Present address: Exxon Production Research, PO Box ST-2158, Houston, Texas, 77252, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544, USA

    Allan M. Rubin & Dominique Gillard

  2. Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, UMR CNRS, C5559 et Université de Savoie , Le Bourget-du-Lac, 73376, France

    Jean-Luc Got

Authors
  1. Allan M. Rubin
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Correspondence to Allan M. Rubin.

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Rubin, A., Gillard, D. & Got, JL. Streaks of microearthquakes along creeping faults. Nature 400, 635–641 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/23196

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