Integrating geological and geophysical data to study the mechanics of multifault earthquakes with reference to the 1992 M 7.3 Landers, California earthquake
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Earthquakes that rupture multiple faults are larger than those predicted from individual fault lengths, making understanding such events critical to seismic hazard mitigation. This research explores stress transfer across extensional steps between nearby faults to address the influence of fault geometry on fault interactions. While mapped surface data often are restricted to the realm of the geologist, and subsurface data, such as aftershocks, often are restricted to the realm of the geophysicist, integration of these data in forward boundary element method models proves advantageous in constraining the 3D geometry of the multiple strike-slip faults that ruptured in the 1992 M 7.3 Landers, California earthquake. Further forward modeling reveals that this fault geometry influences inferences of fault interactions across an extensional step along the southern-central rupture. Estimates of potential step width made with planar faults indicate direct transfer of slip across the step, while conclusions from models incorporating non-planar fault geometries indicate that slip along a crossing fault located within the step is critical to slip transfer. In general, models incorporating planar approximations to more realistic non-planar fault geometries do not capture the behavior of non-planar faults and are more sensitive to changes in model parameters, including friction and the tectonic driving stress orientation. The tectonic driving stress orientation exerts the greatest influence over non-planar fault behavior, but is poorly constrained near Landers and in many regions around the world. A new approach to inverting earthquake data for the tectonic stress state that honors the mechanical relationships among this stress, fault slip, and the stress and displacement fields surrounding the faults following slip is presented and applied in the Landers region.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Madden, Elizabeth Hale |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. |
| Primary advisor | Pollard, David D |
| Thesis advisor | Pollard, David D |
| Thesis advisor | Beroza, Gregory C. (Gregory Christian) |
| Thesis advisor | Hilley, George E |
| Advisor | Beroza, Gregory C. (Gregory Christian) |
| Advisor | Hilley, George E |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Elizabeth Hale Madden. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2012 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Elizabeth Hale Madden
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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