redistribution of dynamic stress during coseismic ruptures evidence for fault interaction and earthquake triggering we investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of dynamic stress outside a rupturing extended fault the dynamic stress variations caused by a coseismic rupture in a half space are computed by using the discrete wavenumber and reflectivity methods after a transient phase the stress time history evolves to the final static stress value we compare the static stress changes resulting from this model with those computed from a static dislocation model we have applied this method to study the interactions between the first two normal faults which ruptured during the 1980 ms 6 9 irpinia earthquake these two subevents are separated in time by nearly 20 s while the third and last subevent occurred 40 s after the rupture onset we compute the dynamic stress changes caused by the rupture of the first subevent our modeling results show that the dynamic stress peak on the second subevent fault plane is reached between 7 s and 8 s after the rupture initiation on the main fault on the average the static stress level on the second subevent 20 s fault plane is reached nearly after 14 s the dynamic rupture did not jump from a rupturing segment to the adjacent one immediately but the triggering of the 20 s subevent is delayed by roughly 10 s with respect to the instant of occurrence of the dynamic stress peak induced by the 0 s event the dynamic stress pulse propagates along the strike direction of the second subevent fault plane at an average velocity of nearly 3 4 km s the delayed triggering of the second subevent can be interpreted in terms of the frictional properties of the faults in particular rate and state dependent frictional law can explain a delayed instability after a sudden change in stress using the estimated values of the subevent triggering delay and the shear stress change we attempt to constrain the parameter a on the 20 s fault the values here inferred agree well with those resulting from previous studies

accelerated pacific plate subduction following interplate thrust earthquakes at the japan trench interplate thrust earthquakes are usually followed by afterslips and they let the fore arc move slowly trenchward however we do not know if the subducting oceanic plate is accelerated landward after such earthquakes the westward velocity of global positioning system gps stations in ne japan show gradient decreasing from east to west reflecting the e w contractional strain built up by the inter plate coupling here we show that such coupling significantly enhanced 1 5 times after the 2003 tokachi oki earthquake mw 8 0 hokkaido in the segments adjacent to the ruptured fault the coupling seems to be further enhanced 3 times after the 2011 tohoku oki earthquake mw 9 0 it is unlikely that interplate friction suddenly increased over such a large region and relatively strong pre 2003 coupling there would not allow such enhancements even if full coupling is attained hence they are attributable to the temporary acceleration of the pacific plate subduction we propose a simple 2 dimensional model in which down dip acceleration of the slab let the force balance rapidly recover promoted by a thin low viscosity layer on the slab surface the accelerated subduction would account for temporary activations of regional interplate seismicity after megathrust earthquakes

the 2006 2007 kuril islands great earthquake sequence the southwestern half of a 500 km long seismic gap in the central kuril island arc subduction zone experienced two great earthquakes with extensive preshock and aftershock sequences in late 2006 to early 2007 the nature of seismic coupling in the gap had been uncertain due to the limited historical record of prior large events and the presence of distinctive upper plate trench and outer rise structures relative to adjacent regions along the arc that have experienced repeated great interplate earthquakes in the last few centuries the intraplate region seaward of the seismic gap had several shallow compressional events during the preceding decades notably an m s 7 2 event on 16 march 1963 leading to speculation that the interplate fault was seismically coupled this issue was partly resolved by failure of the shallow portion of the interplate megathrust in an m w 8 3 thrust event on 15 november 2006 this event ruptured 250 km along the seismic gap just northeast of the great 1963 kuril island m w 8 5 earthquake rupture zone within minutes of the thrust event intense earthquake activity commenced beneath the outer wall of the trench seaward of the interplate rupture with the larger events having normal faulting mechanisms an unusual double band of interplate and intraplate aftershocks developed on 13 january 2007 an m w 8 1 extensional earthquake ruptured within the pacific plate beneath the seaward edge of the kuril trench this event is the third largest normal faulting earthquake seaward of a subduction zone on record and its rupture zone extended to at least 33 km depth and paralleled most of the length of the 2006 rupture the 13 january 2007 event produced stronger shaking in japan than the larger thrust event as a consequence of higher short period energy radiation from the source the great event aftershock sequences were dominated by the expected faulting geometries thrust faulting for the 2006 rupture zone and normal faulting for the 2007 rupture zone a large intraplate compressional event occurred on 15 january 2009 m w 7 4 near 45 km depth below the rupture zone of the 2007 event and in the vicinity of the 16 march 1963 compressional event the fault geometry rupture process and slip distributions of the two great events are estimated using very broadband teleseismic body and surface wave observations the occurrence of the thrust event in the shallowest portion of the interplate fault in a region with a paucity of large thrust events at greater depths suggests that the event removed most of the slip deficit on this portion of the interplate fault this great earthquake doublet demonstrates the heightened seismic hazard posed by induced intraplate faulting following large interplate thrust events future seismic failure of the remainder of the seismic gap appears viable with the northeastern region that has also experienced compressional activity seaward of the megathrust warranting particular attention

driving mechanism of tectonic activity in the northern apennines quantitative insights from numerical modeling 1 it is shown by numerical modeling that the recent deformation pattern observed in the northern apennines mainly characterized by progressive eastward migration and bowing of the belt thrusting activity along its external front and tensional tectonics in the internal area can be reproduced at a first approximation by applying a belt parallel se nw compression to the chain which is simulated as a structural system characterized by a high mechanical strength and decoupled from the surrounding zones the above compressional regime obtained by imposing kinematic boundary conditions to the model causes the outward escape of crustal wedges from the chain in particular the northeastward displacement of the romagna marche umbria units and the counterclockwise rotation and northwestward displacement of the ligurian units this kinematics produces compressional to transcompressional strain along the external front of the chain and tensional to transtensional strain in the internal area in line with the observed features that concern both strain style and orientation of principal strains evidence and arguments supporting the kinematic boundary conditions and the model parameterization adopted in modeling are discussed numerical experiments have also been carried out to evaluate the influence of major features of the model parameterization and boundary conditions we have adopted in modeling and to provide insights into the possible influence of strong decoupling earthquakes in the central apennines on tectonic and seismic activity in the northern apennines

seismic interaction and delayed triggering along the north anatolian fault 1 the deformation of northwestern turkey is the result of the encounter of the westward extrusion of the anatolian plate with the north south extension of the aegean domain while the north anatolian fault localizes the former type of deformation and has been the site of more large earthquakes 9 events of magnitude 7 than any other continental fault over the past 100 years the extension is diffuse and is characterized by spatial clusters of smaller earthquakes and near continuous activity we study the evolution of seismicity along the fault and in the clusters neighboring the fault before and after the two large earthquakes of 1999 we observe that the un ruptured section of the fault and the extension clusters respond very differently to the earthquakes while significant aftershock activity on the fault segments adjacent to the rupture only occurs at relatively short distance from the rupture 30 km the clusters can be activated at much larger distances 300 km remarkably their triggering is not immediate after the earthquake but is delayed in time their peak seismic activation may occur weeks or months after the earthquake this distant and delayed triggering which is consistent with recent gps observations may help resolve some of the previously unexplained characteristics of the 1939 1999 sequence of large earthquakes along the fault

coseismic and postseismic stress changes in a subducting plate possible stress interactions between large interplate thrust and intraplate normal faulting earthquakes 1 a large intraplate normal faulting earthquake mw 7 5 occurred in 1999 in the subducting cocos plate below the downdip edge of the ruptured thrust fault of the 1978 oaxaca mexico earthquake mw 7 8 this situation is similar to the previous case of the 1997 normal faulting event mw 7 1 that occurred beneath the rupture area of the 1985 michoacan mexico earthquake mw 8 1 we investigate the possibility of any stress interactions between the preceding 1978 thrust and the following 1999 normal faulting earthquakes for this purpose we estimate the temporal change of the stress state in the subducting cocos plate by calculating the slip distribution during the 1978 earthquake through teleseismic waveform inversion the dynamic rupture process and the resultant coseismic stress change together with the postseismic stress variations due to plate convergence and the viscoelastic relaxation process to do this we calculate the coseismic and postseismic changes of all stress components in a three dimensional space incorporating the subducting slab the overlying crust and uppermost mantle and the asthenosphere for the coseismic stress change we solve elastodynamic equations incorporating the kinematic fault slip as an observational constraint under appropriate boundary conditions to estimate postseismic stress accumulations due to plate convergence a virtual backward slip is imposed to lock the main thrust zone the effects of viscoelastic stress relaxations of the coseismic change and the back slip are also included the maximum coseismic increase in the shear stress and the coulomb failure stress below the downdip edge of the 1978 thrust fault is estimated to be in the range between 0 5 and 1 5 mpa and the 1999 normal faulting earthquake was found to take place in this zone of stress increase the postseismic variations during the 21 years after the 1978 event modify the magnitude and patterns of the coseismic stress change to some extent but are not large enough to overcome the coseismic change these results suggest that the coseismic stress increase due to the 1978 thrust earthquake may have enhanced the chance of occurrence of the 1999 normal faulting event in the subducting plate if this is the case one of the possible mechanisms could be static fatigue of rock materials around preexisting weak planes involved in the subducting plate and it is speculated that that one of these planes might have been reactivated and fractured because of stress corrosion cracking under the applied stress there for 21 years

seven years of postseismic deformation following the 1999 m 7 4 and m 7 2 izmit duzce turkey earthquake sequence 1 we report the results of nearly 7 years of postseismic deformation measurements using continuously recorded and survey mode gps observations for the 1999 izmit duzce earthquake sequence resolvable time dependent postseismic changes to the preearthquake interseismic velocity field extend at least as far as the continuous gps station in ankara 200 km southeast of the izmit rupture seven years after the earthquake sequence the relative postseismic velocity across the north anatolian fault naf reaches 10 12 mm a roughly 50 of the steady state interseismic rate with the highest postseismic velocities within 40 km of the coseismic ruptures we use a sequence of logarithmic time functions to fit gps site motions up to three logarithmic terms with decay constants of 1 150 and 3500 days are necessary to fit all the transient motion observed at the continuous gps stations the first term is required for the component of site motion parallel to the naf at near field sites strongly implicating rapid shallow afterslip the intermediate and longer term postseismic velocity components reflect more broadly distributed strain with a symmetric double couple pattern suggestive of either localized deep afterslip or viscoelastic relaxation of the upper mantle and or lower crust in two areas including the marmara sea this pattern is superimposed on north south extension centered on the naf we speculate that this extension may result from aseismic dip slip along coseismically weakened faults driven by the background tectonic stress

relating viscosities from postseismic relaxation to a realistic viscosity structure for the lithosphere summary models of geodetic observations of postseismic relaxation most often represent the lithosphere with only a few layers with constant viscosity this is surpr ising because rock mechanical experiments consistently demonstrate that we should expect a profound vertical gradient in lithospheric viscosities due to the geothermal gradient i n this thermal boundary layer we isolate the effect of lower crustal flow where the effect of visc osity gradients has the largest impact on surface deformation we therefore explore postseismic deformation in models with realistic vertical viscosity gradients and seek to illustrate th e differences between these models and those with idealized uniform viscosity layers by means of synthetic experiments with a semianalytical viscoelastic relaxation model we show how for a given earthquake the averaged viscosity value obtained for a thick viscoelastic layer is d ependent on both the layout of the geodetic network and on the observation time window

the pliocene pleistocene stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of the central sector of the western periadriatic basin of italy abstract the central portion of the western periadriatic basin is a foreland basins systems associated to the central apennine outer orogenic wedge that stretches along the marche and abruzzi regions of italy an area that has been studied since long time and where a plenty of surface and subsurface data are available the present study is aimed to review and synthetize these data add new surface and subsurface data in order to define a firm stratigraphic and tectonic framework that is base for the reconstruction of the pliocene pleistocene tectonic stratigraphic evolution of the central portion of the western periadriatic basin the study integrates field mapping published geological maps seismic lines well logs and an updated chronostratigraphic scheme six major nne ssw thrust stacks and eight unconformity bounded stratigraphic units have been defined then a ne sw oriented zone separates a northern from a southern sector which have differences in structural styles amount of shortening basins widths and thicknesses of stratigraphic units despite these differences the deformation timing the depositional history and the migration of basins system are common in both sectors and eight tectonic stratigraphic evolutionary stages have been reconstructed with sequential restoration of two representative cross sections the results highlight that the pliocene pleistocene stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of the central western periadriatic basin preserves the records of supra regional and global controls which drive thrust propagation orogen growth basins migration and basins sedimentary infill in particular the stratigraphy preserves global third order eustatic climatic changes that have a strict feed back and concomitance with tectonic pulses the latter are regulated 1 by cyclic growth of an orogenic wedge undergoing coeval erosion and sedimentation and 2 by eastward retreat of a westward subducting and flexing continental lithosphere

active stress from earthquake focal mechanisms along the padan adriatic side of the northern apennines italy with considerations on stress magnitudes and pore fluid pressures abstract the active tectonic regime along the outer northern apennines padan adriatic area is a matter of debate we analyse the active tectonic regime by systematically inverting earthquake focal mechanisms in terms of their driving stress field comparing two different stress inversion methods earthquakes within the area often deviate from andersonian conditions being characterized by reverse or transpressional slip on high angle faults even if the regime is almost purely thrust faulting e g reggio emilia 1996 and faenza 2000 earthquakes we analyse the stress conditions at faulting for the reggio emilia and faenza earthquakes in order to infer the stress magnitudes and the possible role of fluid pressures the stress analysis defines a consistent pattern of sub horizontal active deviatoric compression arranged nearly perpendicular to the eastern front of the padan adriatic fold and thrust system independent of the stress inversion method used the results are consistent with active compression operating within the padan adriatic belt the stress field is thrust faulting sub vertical 3 except for the cesena forli and ancona areas where a strike slip regime sub vertical or steeply plunging 2 operates the strike slip regimes are interpreted as being caused by the superposition of local tensional stresses due to oroclinal bending i e rotations of the belt about vertical axes on the regional compressional stress field kinematic complexities characterize the 1996 reggio emilia seismic sequence the distribution of these complexities is not random suggesting that they are due to local variations of the regional stress field within the unfaulted rocks surrounding the coseismic rupture the stress conditions at faulting for the reggio emilia 1996 and faenza 2000 earthquakes coupled with the observation that seismicity in the padan adriatic area often occurs in swarms suggest that high pore fluid pressures pf 70 of the lithostatic load operate within the compressed crust the estimated stress difference 1 3 is 460 560 mpa at 15 20 km depth

thermal diffusivity of upper mantle rocks influence of temperature pressure and the deformation fabric 1 thermal diffusivity measurements of seven naturally deformed upper mantle rocks were made as a function of pressure up to 1 gpa temperature up to 1250 k and the deformation fabric of the samples for each sample the strain induced crystal preferred orientations of olivine and pyroxenes were measured and petrophysical models based on the thermal diffusivity tensors of the olivine and enstatite crystals were used to evaluate the three dimensional distribution of the thermal diffusivity both model predictions and measurements show that the anisotropy of thermal diffusivity remains large at the rock scale 15 28 depending on the strength of the olivine crystallographic fabric the direction of maximum thermal diffusivity is parallel to the lineation flow direction and the minimum of thermal diffusivity is normal to the foliation plane flow plane this anisotropy is preserved at high temperature and pressure however measured thermal diffusivities are 20 30 lower than model predictions this discrepancy between measurements and model predictions cannot be explained by the presence of cracks in the samples because the closure of these void spaces evaluated through the high pressure experiments is found to have a negligible effect on measured thermal diffusivities thermal diffusivity for all samples displays a weak linear dependence on pressure of 10 gpa 1 thermal diffusivities observed in the high temperature experiments 1000 1250 k are compatible with a weak radiative contribution to the total heat diffusion

testing self organized criticality by induced seismicity we examine the hypothesis proposed in recent years by several authors that the crust is in a self organized critical soc state this hypothesis has been suggested on the basis of the observation of power law distributions such as the gutenberg richter law for earthquakes and the fault length distribution and of the fractal geometry of sets of earthquake epicenters and of fault patterns these self similar properties are shared by simplified models of the crust exhibiting a spontaneous organization toward a critical point characterized by similar scale invariant properties the term critical is here used in the sense of phase transitions such as the curie point in magnetism the usefulness of a hypothesis is measured by its predictive and explanatory power outside the range of observations that have helped defined it we thus explore how the soc concept can help in understanding the observed earthquake clustering on relatively narrow fault domains and the phenomenon of induced seismicity we review the major reported cases of induced seismicity in various parts of the world and find that both pore pressure changes p and mass transfers m leading to incremental deviatoric stresses of 1 mpa are sufficient to trigger seismic instabilities in the uppermost crust with magnitude ranging up to 7 0 in otherwise historically aseismic areas once triggered stress variations of at least 1 order of magnitude less but still larger than the 0 01 mpa tidal stress are enough to sustain seismic activity we argue that these observations are in accord with the soc hypothesis as they show that a significant fraction of the crust is not far from instability and can thus be made unstable by minute perturbations this property is shared by simplified models of soc not all perturbations however trigger seismic activity this is also compatible with the soc hypothesis which embodies naturally the existence of large heterogeneities in the stress field the induced seismicity is found to obey generally the gutenberg richter law up to a magnitude cutoff which correlates well with the width of the local seismogenic bed ranging in size from that of mine pillars for mining induced seismicity to the thickness of brittle sedimentary beds in the vicinity of dams or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs in conclusion the properties of induced seismicity and their rationalization in terms of the soc concept provide further evidence that potential seismic hazards extend over a much larger area than that where earthquakes are frequent

absence of earthquake correlation with earth tides an indication of high preseismic fault stress rate because the rate of stress change from the earth tides exceeds that from tectonic stress accumulation tidal triggering of earthquakes would be expected if the final hours of loading of the fault were at the tectonic rate and if rupture began soon after the achievement of a critical stress level we analyze the tidal stresses and stress rates on the fault planes and at the times of 13 042 earthquakes which are so close to the san andreas and calaveras faults in california that we may take the fault plane to be known we find that the stresses and stress rates from earth tides at the times of earthquakes are distributed in the same way as tidal stresses and stress rates at random times while the rate of earthquakes when the tidal stress promotes failure is 2 higher than when the stress does not this difference in rate is not statistically significant this lack of tidal triggering implies that preseismic stress rates in the nucleation zones of earthquakes are at least 0 15 bar h just preceding seismic failure much above the long term tectonic stress rate of 10 4 bar h

viscoelastic relaxation and long lasting after slip following the 1997 umbria marche central italy earthquakes summary we combine global positioning system gps measurements with forward modelling of vis coelastic relaxation and after slip to study the post seismic deformation of the 1997 umbria marche central apennines moderate shallow earthquake sequence campaign gps mea surements spanning the time period 1999 2003 are depicting a clear post seismic deformation signal our results favour a normal faulting rupture model where most of the slip is located in the lower part of the seismogenic upper crust consistent with the rupture models obtained from the inversion of strong motion data the preferred rheological model obtained from viscoelastic relaxation modelling consists of an elastic upper crust underlain by a transition zone with a viscosity of 10 18 pa s while the rheology of deeper layers is not relevant for the observed time span shallow fault creep and after slip at the base of the seismogenic upper crust are the first order processes behind the observed post seismic deformation the deep after slip below the fault zone at about 8 km depth acting as a basal shear through localized time dependent deformation identifies a rheological discontinuity decoupling the seismogenic upper crust from the low viscosity transition zone

homogeneous vs heterogeneous subduction zone models coseismic and postseismic deformation a finite element model fem incorporating geologic properties characteristic of a subduction zone is compared with fems approximating homogeneous elastic half spaces hehs s to investigate the effect of heterogeneity on coseismic and postseismic deformation predictions for the 1995 colima jalisco m w 8 0 earthquake the fems are used to compute a coefficient matrix relating displacements at observation points due to unit dislocations of contact node pairs on the fault surface the green s function responses are used to solve the inverse problem of estimating dislocation distributions from coseismic gps displacements predictions from the fem with heterogeneous material properties loaded with either of the hehs dislocation distributions significantly overestimate coseismic displacements postseismic deformation predictions are also sensitive to the coseismic dislocation distribution which drives poroelastic and viscoelastic relaxation fem generated green s functions which allow for spatial variations in material properties are thus preferable to those that assume a simple hehs because the latter leads to dislocation distributions unsuitable for predicting the postseismic response

post seismic motion following the 1997 manyi tibet earthquake insar observations and modelling summary on november 8 1997 a mw 7 6 earthquake occurred in the manyi region of northern tibet near the western end of the kunlun fault over 7 m of left lateral slip occurred on a 200 kmlong fault here we use insar observations of post seismic surface deformation following the manyi earthquake to investigate possible causal mechanisms time series of deformation are constructed from 26 interferograms covering the entire length of the fault for nearly 4 yr after the earthquake three different modelling approaches are used to try and understand the observed variations in surface displacement first order poroelastic models predict displacement fields which do not match those observed modelling of viscoelastic stress relaxation in a half space with standard linear solid rheology beneath an elastic lid provides a reasonable fit to the observations and demonstrates that two relaxation times are needed to characterize the post seismic transient the best fitting viscosity is 4 10 18 pa s and the fully relaxed shear modulus is 32 per cent of the purely elastic value a model with a maxwell viscoelastic halfspace underlying the lid cannot explain the observations at later times larger viscosities are required than at earlier times this increase in effective viscosity with time may be consistent with stress relaxation occurring in a power law rheology the time series are also inverted for distributed afterslip on an extension of the coseismic rupture along strike correlation of coseismic and post seismic slip maxima suggests that afterslip is a plausible mechanism the maximum slip in the afterslip model is 0 72 m after 3 yr and the equivalent moment release is approximately 20 per cent of the coseismic moment this study shows that it is possible to rule out certain mechanisms as the dominant post seismic process but with the current insar data set it is difficult to distinguish between other plausible options

a physical model for strain accumulation in the san francisco bay region stress evolution since 1838 1 understanding of the behavior of plate boundary zones has progressed to the point where reasonably comprehensive physical models can predict their evolution the san andreas fault system in the san francisco bay region sfbr is dominated by a few major faults whose behavior over about one earthquake cycle is fairly well understood by combining the past history of large ruptures on sfbr faults with a recently proposed physical model of strain accumulation in the sfbr we derive the evolution of regional stress from 1838 until the present this effort depends on 1 an existing compilation of the source properties of historic and contemporary sfbr earthquakes based on documented shaking geodetic data and seismic data bakun 1999 and 2 a few key parameters of a simple regional viscoelastic coupling model constrained by recent gps data pollitz and nyst 2004 although uncertainties abound in the location magnitude and fault geometries of historic ruptures and the physical model relies on gross simplifications the resulting stress evolution model is sufficiently detailed to provide a useful window into the past stress history in the framework of coulomb failure stress we find that virtually all m 5 8 earthquakes prior to 1906 and m 5 5 earthquakes after 1906 are consistent with stress triggering from previous earthquakes these events systematically lie in zones of predicted stress concentration elevated 5 10 bars above the regional average the sfbr is predicted to have emerged from the 1906 shadow in about 1980 consistent with the acceleration in regional seismicity at that time the stress evolution model may be a reliable indicator of the most likely areas to experience m 5 5 shocks in the future index terms 1206 geodesy and gravity crustal movements interplate 8155 1236 geodesy and gravity rheology of the lithosphere and mantle 8160 1243 geodesy and gravity space geodetic surveys keywords crustal deformation plate boundary zones viscoelastic relaxation san francisco bay region

earthquake triggering by static and dynamic stress changes 1 in this study we aim to understand the effect of static and dynamic stress changes in promoting earthquake failures on secondary faults toward this goal we solve the equation of motion of a spring slider dynamic system including inertia and using rate and state dependent constitutive laws we separately investigate the dynamic response of this fault analog system to a sudden stress change represented either as a stress step or as a stress pulse which are used to model permanent static and transient dynamic stress perturbations the induced earthquake failure does not occur immediately at the application of the coseismic stress change but it is delayed in time we define this time interval as the triggering delay for a given stress perturbation we analyze the dependence of triggering delays on different system conditions and constitutive parameters our results clearly show that the effects of static and dynamic stress changes are quite different while a static stress change is able to advance as well as to delay an induced instability depending on its sign a dynamic stress pulse is only able to promote a nearly instantaneous failure provided its amplitude is positive and large enough with respect to the direct effect of friction in other words dynamic stress changes can only cause nearly instantaneous failures without any relevant triggering delay these results should be considered in interpreting the seismicity rate changes caused by large earthquakes at least as long as seismic events are interpreted as sliding instabilities obeying rate and state dependent friction laws

post seismic relaxation following the great 2004 sumatra andaman earthquake on a compressible self gravitating earth summary the mw 9 0 2004 december 26 sumatra andaman and mw 8 7 2005 march 28 nias earthquakes which collectively ruptured approximately 1800 km of the andaman and sunda subduction zones are expected to be followed by vigorous viscoelastic relaxation involving both the upper and lower mantle because of these large spatial dimensions it is desirable to fully account for gravitational coupling effects in the relaxation process we present a stable method of computing relaxation of a spherically stratified compressible and self gravitating viscoelastic earth following an impulsive moment release event the solution is cast in terms of a spherical harmonic expansion of viscoelastic normal modes for simple layered viscoelastic models which include a low viscosity oceanic asthenosphere we predict substantial post seismic effects over a region several 100s of km wide surrounding the eastern indian ocean we compare observed gps time series from ten regional sites mostly in thailand and indonesia beginning in 2004 december with synthetic time series that include the coseismic and post seismic effects of the 2004 december 26 and 2005 march 28 earthquakes a viscosity structure involving a biviscous burgers body rheology in the asthenosphere explains the pattern and amplitude of post seismic offsets remarkably well

viscosity of oceanic asthenosphere inferred from remote triggering of earthquakes a sequence of large interplate earthquakes from 1952 to 1965 along the aleutian arc and kurile kamchatka trench released accumulated stresses along nearly the entire northern portion of the pacific plate boundary the postseismic stress evolution across the northern pacific and arctic basins calculated from a viscoelastic coupling model with an asthenospheric viscosity of 5 x 10 17 pascal seconds is consistent with triggering of oceanic intraplate earthquakes temporal patterns in seismicity at remote plate boundaries and space based geodetic measurements of anomalous velocity over an area 7000 by 7000 kilometers square during the 30 year period after the sequence

geometry segmentation pattern and displacement variations along a major apennine thrust zone central italy abstract hundreds of kilometres long arc shaped continuous thrust faults commonly imply very large displacements by detachment dominated thrusting therefore their occurrence has a large impact on fold thrust belt structure one of the major thrust faults of the central northern apennines the umbria marche sabina thrust zone is traditionally believed to represent one such feature characterised by displacements of several tens of kilometres however detailed studies of this structure revealed that it is actually composed of a series of partially overlapping fault segments rather than consisting of a single continuous thrust cross section balancing and restoration carried out by the integration of surface geological data with available sub surface information points out relatively limited amounts of thrust displacement

pre existing cross structures and active fault segmentation in the northern central apennines italy abstract the multideformed axial zone of the apennines provides a great opportunity to explore the influence of pre existing cross structures inherited from pre quaternary tectonic phases on the segmentation of quaternary active seismogenic extensional faults detailed geological and structural data and their comparison with seismological data show that although the attitudes strike and dip of oblique pre existing faults are certainly an important factor in determining a segment boundary the size of the inherited oblique structures seems to be more crucial pre existing cross structures with lengths ranging from several kilometers to a few tens of kilometers show a twofold behavior they can act as segment barriers during the rupture of a single fault segment or they can be reactivated as transfer zones inducing the activation of two adjacent segments that belong to the same fault system regional basement crustal oblique pre existing cross structures with lengths ranging from several tens of kilometers to hundreds of kilometers commonly nne striking may act as persistent structural barriers that halt both fault segment and fault system propagation thus determining their terminations and maximum sizes in the northern central apennines the nne striking ancona anzio valnerina and ortona roccamonfina tectonic lineaments although having been repeatedly reactivated since the mesozoic represent the most important examples of these structures moreover probably due to their misorientation with respect to the present extensional stress field regional nne striking pre existing structures appear to be less likely to produce strong magnitude events no surface evidence for quaternary faulting has been found thus far and historical and instrumental seismicity shows only m m 7 event on the other hand is more likely to occur along the n nw s se trending normal fault systems lastly we propose a model that can explain the different sizes of fault segments and fault systems on the basis of their location with respect to the persistent structural barriers and their spacing in this view our results may contribute to a more reasonable assessment of the nature and size of future surface ruptures in the northern central apennines which are of critical importance to estimating seismic hazard

evolution of stress in southern california for the past 200 years from coseismic postseismic and interseismic stress changes summary the seismicity of southern california results from stresses that arise from the relative motion of the pacific and north american plates being accommodated along the san andreas fault saf system and the eastern california shear zone ecsz here we calculate how the stress field in southern california has evolved over the past two centuries due to interseismic loading as inferred from current gps observations of surface velocities from redistributions of static stress induced by large m w 6 5 earthquakes since the 1812 wrightwood quake and postseismic viscoelastic relaxation associated with these events that serves to transfer coseismic stresses from the deep warm lower crust and upper mantle to the overlying seismogenic upper crust we calculate coulomb stress changes on vertical strike slip faults striking parallel to the saf and at the hypocenters on the rupture planes of all m w 6 events over the past two centuries our results suggest that the 1857 m w 8 2 fort tejon earthquake by far the largest event to have occurred in the region over the past two centuries had a profound influence on the state of stress in southern california during the 19th century inducing significant stress increases to the north parkfield region and adjoining creeping saf and south southern saf and san jacinto fault and stress relief across the southern ecsz these stress changes were then greatly magnified by postseismic relaxation through the early part of the 20th century slow interseismic build up of stress further loads all major strike slip faults and works to reload the areas of the ecsz where stress was relieved by the 1857 quake our calculations suggest that only 56 of hypocenters were pushed closer to failure by preceding coseismic stress changes suggesting that the occurrence of large earthquakes is not strongly determined by coseismic coulomb stress changes this percentage rises to 70 when postseismic stress changes are also considered our calculations demonstrate the importance of postseismic viscoelastic relaxation in the redistribution of stress following large earthquakes we find however that postseismic processes associated with events more than about a decade old are near completion and thus do not significantly influence the regional velocity field presently observed in southern california

the 11 april 2012 east indian ocean earthquake triggered large aftershocks worldwide although strong remote aftershocks are exceedingly rare their rate increased fivefold during the six days following the 2012 east indian ocean earthquake perhaps as a result of the strike slip nature of the 2012 event or a build up of close to failure nucleation sites

present activity and seismogenic potential of a low angle normal fault system citta di castello italy constraints from surface geology seismic reflection data and seismicity abstract we present new constraints on an active low angle normal fault system in the citta di castello sansepolcro basin csb of the northern apennines of italy new field data from the geological survey of the carta geologica d italia carg project define the surface geometry of the normal fault system and lead to an interpretation of the crop 03 deep crust seismic reflection profile castiglion fiorentino urbania segment with particular attention paid to the geometry of the plio quaternary extensional structures surface and sub surface geological data are integrated with instrumental and historical seismicity in order to define the seismotectonics of the area low angle east dipping reflectors are the seismic expression of the well known altotiberina fault af a regional extensional detachment on which both east and west dipping high angle faults bounding the csb sole out the af breakaway zone is located 10 km west of the csb within the extensional allochthon synthetic east dipping planes prevail displacement along the af is 4 5 km which agrees with the cumulative offset due to its synthetic splays the evolution of the csb has mainly been controlled by the east dipping fault system at least since early pleistocene time this system is still active and responsible for the seismicity of the area a low level of seismic activity was recorded instrumentally within the csb but several damaging earthquakes have occurred in historical times the instrumental seismicity and the intensity data points of the largest historical earthquakes 5 events with maximum mcs intensity of ix to ix x allow us to propose two main seismogenic structures the monte santa maria tiberina mmax 5 9 and citta di castello mmax up to 6 5 normal faults both are synthetic splays of the af detachment dipping to the ne at moderate 45 50 to low 25 30 angles and cutting the upper crust up to the surface this study suggests that low angle normal faults at least with dips of 25 30 may be seismogenic

magnetism and magnetic mineralogy of ash flow tuffs from yucca mountain nevada the magnetic susceptibility and remanent magnetization of an ash flow sheet are profoundly influenced by cooling history after emplacement spatial variations in these properties therefore provide a potentially useful tool for geological studies maxima and minima in measured along profiles at yucca mountain nevada identify persistent magnetic marker horizons within vitric portions of the tiva canyon and underlying topopah spring members of the paintbrush tuff the correlatable variations of with vertical position in these units exist over the 8 km of strike examined the observed stratigraphic changes in magnetic properties reflect variations in amounts and mineralogy of fe ti oxide phenocrysts and the presence shape size and mineralogy of magnetic fe oxide microcrystals that precipitated at high temperature after emplacement of each sheet vitrophyre near the top of the topopah spring member has a distinctive maximum in due to titanomagnetite phenocrysts susceptibility in the lower portion of the overlying tiva canyon member reaches maximum values of about 1 3 10 2 si near the base of the member beneath the columnarly jointed vitrophyre due to the presence of abundant superparamagnetic cubic fe oxide these elongate microcrystals are several tens of nm long and are typically deformed and tapered up section in the tiva canyon member the susceptibility decreases going to a minimum within the columnar vitrophyre at this stratigraphic level the precipitated fe oxides are larger and carry intense nrm of up to 30 a m is only 3 10 3 the whisker like microcrystals of fe oxide which typically nucleated on what appears to be chain silicate grew as needles up to 25 m in length the size variations of the precipitated fe oxides which were established using transmission electron microscopy tem and petrographic observation are consistent both with variations in magnetic susceptibility measured at the outcrop and with variations in the intensity of remanent magnetization several interpretations of the shape anisotropy of the precipitated feoxide are possible including growth by a dislocation mechanism additionally the observed elongation of precipitated microcrystals is consistent with theoretical predictions for growth in a uniaxial stress field susceptibility variations as established at the outcrop as well as in the borehole offer a potentially useful tool for stratigraphic correlation of ash flow sheets

three dimensional viscoelastic finite element model for postseismic deformation of the great 1960 chile earthquake 2 5 10 19 pa s for the continental upper mantle the model well explains the gps observations numerical tests suggest that the continental mantle viscosity value is reasonably well constrained the model shows the prolonged postseismic seaward motion of the inland area to be a unique feature of earthquakes with very long rupture along strike and large coseismic fault slip for short rupture and small coseismic slip the motion will stop very quickly after the earthquake explaining why this phenomenon is not more commonly observed with an oceanic mantle viscosity of 10 20 pa s the model also provides an explanation for tide gauge constrained postseismic uplift 200 km from the trench that had previously been explained using a model of prolonged afterslip of a deep segment of the chile subduction fault index terms 1236 geodesy and gravity rheology of the lithosphere and mantle 8160 1242 geodesy and gravity seismic deformations 7205 3230 mathematical geophysics numerical solutions 7209 seismology earthquake dynamics and mechanics 7260 seismology theory and modeling keywords postseismic deformation viscoelastic stress relaxation gps finite element modeling chile subduction zone upper mantle viscosity

late pliocene quaternary evolution of outermost hinterland basins of the northern apennines italy and their relevance to active tectonics abstract we examine the tectonic evolution and structural characteristics of the quaternary intermontane mugello casentino and sansepolcro basins in the northern apennines fold and thrust belt these basins have been classically interpreted to have developed under an extensional regime and to mark the extension compression transition the results of our study have instead allowed framing the formation of these basins into a compressive setting tied to the activity of backthrust faults at their northeastern margin syndepositional activity of these structures is manifested by consistent architecture of sediments and outcrop scale deformation after this phase the mugello and sansepolcro basins experienced a phase of normal faulting extending from the middle pleistocene until present basin evolution can be thus basically framed into a two phase history with extensional tectonics superposed onto compressional structures analysis of morphologic features has revealed the occurrence of fresh fault scarps and interaction of faulting with drainage systems which have been interpreted as evidence for potential ongoing activity of normal faults extensional tectonics is also manifested by recent seismicity and likely caused the strong historical earthquakes affecting the mugello and sansepolcro basins qualitative comparison of surface information with depth converted seismic data suggests the basins to represent discrete subsiding areas within the seismic belt extending along the axial zone of the apennines the inferred chronology of deformation and the timing of activity of normal faults have an obvious impact on the elaboration of seismic hazard models

evidence of power law flow in the mojave desert mantle studies of the earth s response to large earthquakes can be viewed as large rock deformation experiments in which sudden stress changes induce viscous flow in the lower crust and upper mantle that lead to observable postseismic surface deformation laboratory experiments suggest that viscous flow of deforming hot lithospheric rocks is characterized by a power law in which strain rate is proportional to stress raised to a power n refs 2 3 most geodynamic models of flow in the lower crust and upper mantle however resort to newtonian linear stress strain rate relations here we show that a power law model of viscous flow in the mantle with n 3 5 successfully explains the spatial and temporal evolution of transient surface deformation following the 1992 landers and 1999 hector mine earthquakes in southern california a power law rheology implies that viscosity varies spatially with stress causing localization of strain and varies temporally as stress evolves rendering newtonian models untenable our findings are consistent with laboratory derived flow law parameters for hot and wet olivine the most abundant mineral in the upper mantle and support the contention that at least beneath the mojave desert the upper mantle is weaker than the lower crust

riding the right wavelet quantifying scale transitions in fractured rocks the mechanics of brittle failure is a well described multi scale process that involves a rapid transition from distributed microcracks to localisation along a single macroscopic rupture plane however considerable uncertainty exists regarding both the length scale at which this transition occurs and the underlying causes that prompt this shift from a distributed to a localised assemblage of cracks or fractures for the first time we used an image analysis tool developed to investigate orientation changes at different scales in images of fracture patterns in faulted materials based on a two dimensional continuous wavelet analysis we detected the abrupt change in the fracture pattern from distributed tensile microcracks to localised shear failure in a fracture network produced by triaxial deformation of a sandstone core plug the presented method will contribute to our ability of unravelling the physical processes at the base of catastrophic rock failure including the nucleation of earthquakes landslides and volcanic eruptions

asthenospheric viscosity and stress diffusion a mechanism to explain correlated earthquakes and surface deformations in ne japan summary a significant correlation is found in both space and time between the intraplate land and interplate sea thrust zone only earthquakes in tohoku ne japan that has persisted since the times of reliably reported events in ad 1600 the correlation peaks at a land lead of about 36 yr with an average correlation distance of 200km with the implication of an average strain migration rate of 5 6 km yr 1 the correlation is highly significant 99 per cent both from formal statistics and from tests of random shuffles of the data additional analysis of the data as a point process confirms the results of the correlation analysis the sharpness of the correlation peak when compared to the individual times of occurrence of the land and sea events suggests a trigger mechanism to explain the correlation the general model ofsubduction rupture rebound is extended to include additional features the buckling of the land plate from the force of the subducting slab and the viscoelastic coupling of the plate to the underlying asthenosphere a buckle produces a high stress region in the continental plate where earthquakes are more prone to occur thus producing the spatial correlation in the data this may also explain the preferred location on land for the smaller modern day seismic events in ne japan the viscoelastic coupling controls the interaction between the land and sea events resulting in the temporal correlation in the data because of viscosity the model equations are diffuse like with strain pulses as solutions thus from the inferred strain migration rate it is possible to estimate asthenospheric viscosity 7 1018pa s using this model a large land shock generates a strain pulse that affects the locked fault at the thrust zone several decades later as the continental plate tends to pull away from the subducting slab the frictional force arising from the overburden pressure is reduced thus unlocking the fault and triggering a sea earthquake the viscoelastic model is also used to explain surface deformations measured by triangulation surveys in japan in 1904 and 1964 horizontal displacements which we believe are surface manifestations of the strain pulse from the large 1896 riku u land shock m 7 5 in ne japan are fit well by the model and provide a viscosity estimate 13 1018 pa s

effects of uplift and tilting in the central northern apennines italy abstract the morphotectonics of the central northern apennines reflect the effects of pliocene pleistocene regional uplift and tectonics high uplift rates and extensional tectonics prevailed in the axial sector while lesser uplifting eastward tilting and gravity sliding affected the periadriatic belt the axial sector has a chocolate slab pattern of blocks with intermontane depressions bounded by normal faults and characterized by differential vertical movements the periadriatic belt is a ne dipping monocline broken by transverse faults into separate blocks with different evolutionary development the evolution of the axial sector can be correlated with that of the periadriatic sector because the unconformities in the marine succession of the periadriatic basin are linked to pulses of uplift in the axial chain the amounts of coarse grained sediments in intermontane depressions and in the periadriatic belt are correlated with the erosion processes affecting the axial sector this morphostructural pattern may be connected with the formation of a long wavelength bulge associated with mantle upwelling

stress evolution before and after the 2008 wenchuan china earthquake abstract we examine the distribution of coulomb stress before and following the m 7 9 wenchuan earthquake and model the time dependent components of the stress field into the future our modelling shows that the combined coseismic plus postseismic viscoelastic stress change due to the preceding large events m 6 7 at the hypocentral area of the wenchuan earthquake is negative which may have led to a delay on its occurrence between 16 and 95 yr depending on the rake of the rupture on the other hand coseismic stress modelling of the wenchuan earthquake shows strong interaction particularly with the faults close to its sw and ne ends such interactions have previously been shown to trigger further large earthquakes in addition redistribution of stresses due to continuing postseismic deformation will potentially increase the stress levels not only on these faults but also on the distant faults such as the xianshuihe kunlun and tazang faults postseismic viscoelastic stress load on these distant faults over the next 22 yr since the earthquake could be up to 2 5 times larger than that of the coseismic stress increase alone this would potentially advance these faults in their seismic cycle and thereby encourage future earthquakes resulting in clustering of large earthquakes in the region this behaviour however strongly depends on the stage that these faults are in their seismic cycle which is not known currently given the high density of population in the area with several cities chengdu guangyuan and hanzhong of more than 1 million inhabitants our results indicate a need for detailed paleoseismic studies to help elucidate the state of the stressed faults

post seismic relaxation and earthquake triggering in the southern adriatic region summary an attempt at quantifying post seismic relaxation triggered by decoupling earthquakes along the eastern thrusting border of the adriatic plate southern dinarides is carried out by finite element modelling with a model constituted by an elastic lithosphere riding on a viscous asthenosphere in particular it is investigated the possibility that the above phenomenon is responsible for the fact that in the last two centuries most major earthquakes in the southern dinarides ms 6 have been followed within a few years by intense mainly tensional earthquakes in southern italy i e the zone lying on the opposite margin of the adriatic plate this analysis has been applied to the last example of the supposed seismic interrelation i e the triggering 1979 april 15 montenegro event ms 6 7 and the presumably induced 1980 november 23 irpinia earthquake in the southern apennines ms 6 9 results indicate that the strain induced in the southern apennines by the triggering event has significant amplitude since it largely exceeds the effect of earth tides and the principal stress axes are consistent with those of southern apenninic earthquakes the order of magnitude of the time delay between the montenegro and irpinia events 1 6 yr could be explained by assuming that earthquake triggering is most probable when the highest values of the induced strain rate reach the southern apennines in particular this interpretation predicts the observed time delay when a model diffusivity of 400 m2 s 1 is assumed the constraints that this diffusivity value may pose on the structural and rheological features of the crust upper mantle system in the study area are discussed it is shown that the effects of the montenegro event on the present velocity field are comparable to though systematically lower than the velocities suggested by geodetic observations in the italian region this suggests that geodynamic interpretations of geodetic data given without taking into account possible transient effects on the kinematic pattern as those related to post seismic relaxation may be incorrect experiments carried out by tentatively simulating the presence of subducted lithosphere along the western margin of the adriatic plate as a lateral variation of diffusivity have shown that this structural feature may emphasize e w tensional strains in the southern apennines

coupling of tectonic loading and earthquake fault slips at subduction zones because of the viscoelastic behaviour of the earth accumulation of elastic strain energy by tectonic loading and release of such energy by earthquake fault slips at subduction zones may take place on different spatial scales if the lithospheric plate is acted upon by distant tectonic forces strain accumulation must occur in a broad region however an earthquake releases strain only in a region comparable to the size of the rupture area a two dimensional finite element model of a subduction zone with viscoelastic rheology has been used to investigate the coupling of tectonic loading and earthquake fault slips a fault lock and unlock technique is employed so that the amount of fault slip in an earthquake is not prescribed but determined by the accumulated stress the amount of earthquake fault slip as a fraction of the total relative plate motion depends on the relative sizes of the earthquake rupture area and the region of tectonic strain accumulation as well as the rheology of the rock material the larger the region of strain accumulation is compared to the earthquake rupture the smaller is the earthquake fault slip the reason for the limited earthquake fault slip is that the elastic shear stress in the asthenosphere induced by the earthquake resists the elastic rebound of the overlying plate since rapid permanent plate shortening is not observed at subduction zones there must be either strain release over a large region or strain accumulation over a small region over earthquake cycles the former can be achieved only by significant aseismic fault slip between large subduction earthquakes the most likely mechanism for the latter is the accumulation of elastic strain around isolated locked asperities of the fault which requires significant aseismic fault slip between asperities

spherical earth finite element model of short term postseismic deformation following the 2004 sumatra earthquake 1 decadal scale postseismic deformation of subduction earthquakes has been widely modeled using a maxwell viscoelastic earth with a mantle wedge viscosity of about 1019 pa s short term postseismic deformation within a few years after the earthquake remains a more challenging problem because of the predominance of afterslip of the megathrust and the potentially more complex mantle rheology questions include the necessity of invoking the transient rheology and the relative importance of contributions from afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation in this work we address these questions by developing a spherical earth viscoelastic finite element model for the short term postseismic deformation following the magnitude 9 2 sumatra earthquake of 2004 the model consists of elastic overriding and subducting plates and a viscoelastic mantle of bi viscous burgers rheology with the continental mantle mantle wedge being less viscous than the oceanic mantle by a factor of ten primary observational constraints for the short term postseismic deformation include 1 year net displacements of nine near field gps sites and 3 year time series from three far field sites several hundred kilometers from the 2004 rupture zone model results indicate that the afterslip of the fault must be at work within the first few years after the earthquake the observed deformation is best explained with a model that includes both the afterslip and transient rheology in the preferred model the transient and steady state viscosities of the mantle wedge are 5 1017 pa s and 1019 pa s respectively

the gubbio normal fault central italy geometry displacement distribution and tectonic evolution abstract normal faults within orogenic belts can be pre syn or post orogenic features we studied the gubbio normal fault central italy which is an example of a pre orogenic fault reactivated in a post orogenic stage the gubbio fault is a 22 km long fault bordering a quaternary basin and part of an active faults system in the umbria marche region central italy the interpretation of a set of seismic profiles enables us to reconstruct the fault geometry in detail and to measure displacement and throw distributions along the fault strike seismic data indicate that the gubbio fault represents an example of multiple reactivation at least a portion of the fault was active in the miocene and only a part of the total displacement was achieved in the quaternary the reconstruction of the fault geometry at depth shows that the fault is characterised by listric geometry the fault is also characterised by a bend along strike and structure contours show that this geometry is maintained at depth as the fault is commonly addressed as presently active the maximum fault dimensions are correlated to the maximum expected earthquake and the presence of the fault bend is discussed as a possible barrier to seismic ruptures propagation