acceleration source spectra anticipated for large earthquakes in northeastern north america a set of 16 large intraplate earthquakes are considered on the basis of their tectonic settings compressive focal mechanisms and shallow focal depths as possible analogs for large earthquakes that may be anticipated to occur in northeastern north america the earthquakes range in seismic moment from 5 1023 to 3 1026 dyne cm and include the mainshocks and largest aftershocks of the 1982 miramichi canada the 1985 to 1988 nahanni canada and the 1988 tennant creek australia earthquake sequences the teleseismic recordings of these earthquakes are spectrally analyzed by correcting the logarithmically averaged acceleration spectra for the frequency dependent effects of attenuation and interference of the depth and direct phases the resulting acceleration source spectra are generally flat at high frequencies the mainshock spectra exhibit intermediate spectral falloffs that is u where 1 over frequencies that characteristically extend from 0 1 to 0 5 hz in contrast the largest aftershocks of the three sequences named above exhibit 2 spectral shapes the high frequency source spectral levels increase with seismic moment approximately as ru m 1 3 the 1988 saguenay canada earthquake which occurred significantly deeper than the other earthquakes exhibits an anomalous spectral shape combining the teleseismic data with strong motion recordings indicates that the intermediate spectral falloff for this earthquake extends from 0 2 to 3 hz the spectral amplitude at 3 hz is a factor of 3 higher than the amplitude anticipated for an earthquake of this size from the other 15 earthquakes

waveform modeling of strong motion data for the saguenay earthquake of 25 november 1988 abstract the magnitude 6 0 saguenay earthquake of 25 november 1988 in quebec canada was one of the largest recorded in eastern north america ena during the past 50 years and it has provided important high quality data for estimation of earthquake hazard in ena ground motions for the event recorded by both eastern canadian telemetered and strong motion networks were anomalously large and unexpectedly rich in high frequency energy as compared with most other events having the same m b or moment magnitudes displacement waveforms derived from the eastern canadian strong motion acceleration data have been modeled in detail in an attempt to explain these anomalies the modeling has provided strong evidence that the surface on which the faulting occurred is relatively long and narrow with its long axis nearly horizontal and situated immediately above an internal crustal discontinuity that lies at a depth of about 30 km the faulting process was essentially antiplane and unilateral with the crack starting at the northwest end of the long axis and propagating in the negative strike direction towards the southeast and slip durations at individual points on the fault were short of the order of 0 2 sec compared with the time taken for the crack to propagate from its starting point to the far end of the fault about 2 5 sec in the model the inferred short slip durations are consistent with the inferred fault geometry and both are consistent with normal static and dynamic stress drops i e within a factor of 2 of 100 bars the narrow elongate fault geometry and associated short slip durations are responsible for the enhanced high frequency radiation as compared with normal events having the same seismic moment release the associated spectra differ greatly from that of the brune spectral model with the former having at least two corner frequencies whereas the latter has only one the unilateral fault propagation resulted in a strong azimuthal variation of waveform characteristics with the largest amplitudes and shortest durations concentrated towards the south and southeast and the smallest amplitudes and longest durations in the opposite directions as the majority of strong motion instruments and closer ectn stations were located within the former azimuthal range the anomalous high frequency content and large observed amplitudes are accentuated by the station distribution with respect to the directivity characteristics of the source another significant factor likely to have contributed to the observed peak amplitudes at least in some instances is an indicated superposition of direct waves from the source with reflections from the inferred mid crustal discontinuity elongate source geometry and associated effects such as those described above may not be uncommon for large thrust intraplate earthquakes and may have significant design implications for critical structures such as nuclear power plants

motion induced stresses in pack ice we consider motion induced stresses in pack ice through the analyses of a variety of observations collected during the sea ice mechanics initiative study conducted in the beaufort sea during 1993 motion induced components of in situ stress from stress gauge data are compared to stresses calculated as residuals based on a force balance argument using observed wind current and ice motion data there is reasonable qualitative and quantitative agreement between the observed and calculated motion induced stresses in the north south direction if the residual stress is assumed to be distributed over a horizontal distance of 10 m to obtain a general agreement with the magnitudes of the observed and calculated stresses in the east west direction the residual stress must be considered to be distributed over a horizontal distance of 50 m there are three significant stress events determined by the force balance calculations but only the one event in the north south direction has a strong corresponding signal in the stress gauge data there is very little indication of the two events in the east west direction in the gauge data numerical simulations of the distribution of motion induced stresses within a floe show that significant variations in the character of the stresses can occur over short horizontal distances throughout the floe hence a seeming lack of a clear correspondence between the observed and calculated stress may be due to our inability to properly recognize the modified signature of the event at the specific locations of the stress gauges the results suggest that to effectively develop an understanding of the role that point stress measurements can play in developing our understanding of the process of ice deformation it may be necessary to couple the stress measurements with models of the patterns of motion induced stresses within a floe finally we consider the relationship between the residual stress and the differential motion of the ice pack as seen by a cluster of drifters on various floes the three main stress events seen in the residual stresses all occurred during periods of convergence of the floes however we have tested various relationships between stress and strain and they indicate that there should have been additional stress events as a result of other periods of substantial convergences of the ice pack this suggests the possibility that the residual stresses were not locally generated

modeling of source rupture characteristics for the saguenay earthquake of november 1988 the magnitude mb 6 0 saguenay earthquake of 25 november 1988 in quebec canada was one of the largest to have occurred in eastern north america during the past half century recorded high frequency ground motions exceeded anticipated values for an event of its size by a factor of 10 on both the regional network and strong motion instruments two proposed explanations for the discrepancy are 1 that the source was a rare high stress drop event and 2 that it was an asymmetrical fractional stress drop rupture involving only normal effective stresses in this article detailed fault slip models are derived to fit characteristics of strong motion displacement velocity and acceleration data the results establish that the effective rupture stress was normal less than 100 bars that the fault rupture was highly asymmetrical with respect to the point of rupture initiation and that the average slip time for points within the rupture area approx 0 2 sec was considerably less than that associated with the standard brune 1970 source spectral model the rupture area developed in a number of episodes each widening or lengthening the previously ruptured area which may explain the short average slip time the results indicate that the widely used assumption in hazard analyses that earthquake spectra are adequately represented by the standard brune 1970 complete stress drop model may be seriously unreliable for prediction of strong ground motion in eastern north america

inversion for slip distribution using teleseismic p waveforms north palm springs borah peak and michoacan earthquakes we have inverted the teleseismic p waveforms recorded by stations of the global digital seismograph network for the 8 july 1986 north palm springs california the 28 october 1983 borah peak idaho and the 19 september 1985 michoacan mexico earthquakes to recover the distribution of slip on each of the faults using a point by point inversion method with smoothing and positivity constraints in the inversion procedure a fault plane with fixed strike and dip is placed in the region of the earthquake hypocenter and divided into a large number of subfaults rupture is assumed to propagate at a constant velocity away from the hypocenter and synthetic ground motions for pure strike slip and dip slip dislocations are calculated at the teleseismic stations for each subfault the observed seismograms are then inverted to obtain the distribution of strike slip and dip slip displacement for the earthquake results of the inversion indicate that the global digital seismograph network data are useful for deriving fault dislocation models for moderate to large events however a wide range of frequencies which includes periods shorter than those within the passband of the long period global digital seismograph network instruments is necessary to infer the distribution of slip on the earthquake fault although the long period waveforms define the size dimensions and seismic moment of the earthquake data at shorter periods provide additional constraints on the variation of slip on the fault dislocation models obtained for all three earthquakes are consistent with a heterogeneous rupture process where failure is controlled largely by the size and location of high strength asperity regions

on two characteristic frequencies of acceleration spectra patch corner frequency and fmax abstract we examine two issues related to the radiation of tectonic earthquake sources i the complexity of the shape of observed source spectra and ii the effect of recording site characteristics on the cut off frequency f max of acceleration spectra beyond which spectral amplitudes diminish sharply we compute the far field spectra of the 1979 imperial valley and the 1984 morgan hill earthquakes from the slip functions that were inferred from detailed inversion studies of strong motion and teleseismic data of these two california strike slip events these spectra along with data from the 1983 central japan sea earthquake sequence main shock and aftershocks demonstrate the existence of the so called patch corner frequency which is related to the scale length of heterogeneities of the fault plane such a frequency is a distinct feature of the source spectrum of the specific barrier model of papageorgiou and aki by analyzing accelerograms of the san fernando earthquake of 1971 we found that f max determined from records at soil stations is nearly the same as that determined from records at hard rock stations

re evaluation of the roseau tuff eruptive sequence and other ignimbrites in dominica lesser antilles the island of dominica hosts several ignimbrites including the roseau tuff thought to represent the largest eruption in the caribbean in the past 200 000 years the volcanic stratigraphy of the island is poorly understood due to limited outcrops and a paucity of geochemical and geochronological data the discovery of a new fully accessible exposure of three ignimbrites intercalated with paleosols provides an opportunity to re evaluate the current stratigraphic framework of ignimbrite forming eruptions on the island whole rock analyses of pumice clasts from dominica ignimbrites are andesitic 61 66 sio2 and in most cases are geochemically indistinguishable ignimbrites in the north of the island have less evolved glass compositions 73 75 sio2 and more mafic orthopyroxene compositions en 56 than their southern counterparts 75 78 sio2 en 56 pumice clasts from ignimbrites in southern dominica have indistinguishable groundmass glass and mineral chemistry making correlation of these deposits difficult new u th he eruption ages for the southern ignimbrites indicate that at least six separate explosive eruptions occurred between 24 and 61 ka the non unique geochemistry of these deposits together with the new u th he ages suggests that the large volume inferred for the roseau tuff eruption may actually be a composite of six smaller geochemically homogeneous eruptions

magnitude frequency relation for small earthquakes a clue to the origin of ƒmax of large earthquakes in order to test the hyothesis that the max of large earthquakes is due to the source effect and is causally related to the corner frequency of small earthquakes when it becomes constant below magnitude about 3 we constructed the frequency magnitude relation for earthquakes with magnitude range from 1 3 to 4 recorded at a borehole seismograph station operated by the university of southern california at baldwin hills in the middle of the newport inglewood fault a procedure was developed for an accurate estimation of moment magnitude from the measurement of coda amplitude as a function of lapse time the cumulative number of earthquakes per unit time period and area was estimated by finding the detection limit for ts p for each magnitude we found a clear depature of the observed log frequency magnitude relation for m 3 the observed frequency of earthquakes with m 0 5 is almost 10 times less than that expected from the extrapolation of empirical relation for earthquakes with magnitudes larger than 3 we conclude that the observed frequency magnitude relation departs from self similarity for earthquakes with magnitude smaller than about 3 this departure coincides with the widely observed departure of the moment corner frequency relation from self similarity these observations are consistent with the interpretation of max of large earthquakes in terms of the slip weakening instability model in which the critical slip may be a few tenths of a meter to a few meters and the cohesive zone size may be a few hundred meters to a few kilometers

linearized inversion for fault rupture behavior application to the 1984 morgan hill california earthquake we present a technique to infer the rupture history of an earthquake from near source records of ground motion unlike most previous studies each point on the fault is assumed to slip only once when the rupture front passes with a spatially variable slip intensity in this parameterization the data are linearly related to slip intensity but nonlinearly related to rupture time we perform a linearized inversion for slip intensity and rupture time by iteratively perturbing an assumed starting model the inverse problem for the model perturbation is solved using a tomographic back projection technique smoothing and inequality constraints are applied to ensure that the resulting solution is stable and feasible asymptotic ray theory is used to calculate theoretical seismograms and partial derivatives with respect to model parameters in test cases with noisy synthetic data sets we found that it is possible to distinguish between rupture models having variable slip amplitude and models having variable rupture velocity provided the station coverage is adequate we apply the technique to recordings of the april 24 1984 morgan hill earthquake the results indicate that slip amplitude on the fault plane was extremely variable and that the rupture front did not propagate uniformly away from the hypocenter in particular rupture was delayed on a 12 km2 section of the fault approximately 14 km to the southeast of the hypocenter the rupture front surrounded the region which subsequently failed with a component of rupture propagation back toward the hypocenter similar behavior has been observed in dynamic rupture models with stress or strength inhomogeneities this segment of the fault ruptured with a large slip amplitude releasing 12 of the total seismic moment from 4 of the total area of the aftershock zone the surface trace of this section of the fault is characterized by a complex left step that could act to increase the normal stress acting across the fault however the distribution of aftershocks suggests that the fault at depth is simpler and that it may bend to the right in either case our rupture model suggests that this segment of the fault represents an asperity which initially resisted rupture but eventually ruptured massively we estimate the shear fracture energy for this earthquake to be 2 106 j m2

source spectra for the 1988 saguenay quebec earthquakes abstract source spectra are obtained for the 1988 saguenay quebec earthquake m n 6 5 its foreshock m n 4 8 and largest aftershock m n 4 1 using recordings from analog and digital seismographs on rock sites at epicentral distances from 40 to 700 km the source spectra of the foreshock and the aftershock are well matched by a single corner frequency 2 model with seismic moments of 2 2 10 22 and 2 2 10 21 dyne cm respectively and a stress parameter of 65 bars for both events by contrast the spectrum of the mainshock differs dramatically from this simple shape a stress parameter of 500 bars is required to match the observed high frequency amplitudes using the seismic moment determined from teleseismic observations as a constraint this single corner frequency model however overestimates amplitudes at frequencies near 1 hz by a factor of about 2 the relative radiation of short and long period energy for the mainshock is inconsistent with that from other intraplate earthquakes the fore and aftershocks appear typical in this regard the extraction of source spectra from the regional data required a careful examination of attenuation azimuthal variations were observed with the attenuation being most severe to the southeast normal to the st lawrence valley and the dominant structural grain of the region the st lawrence river coincides in part with the boundary between the grenville and appalachian tectonic provinces and the difference in attenuation may be related to the difference in tectonic province the distribution of data however makes it difficult to obtain good estimates of the attenuation in each province lumping the data from both provinces and the three earthquakes together results in an anelastic attenuation factor given by q 755 f 0 5 for frequencies f from 0 6 to 18 hz using data at distances r beyond 100 km from the sources and assuming 1 r geometrical spreading this attenuation is similar to that obtained in a number of other studies in the general area three component recordings were available at a few stations and from these the following frequency dependent ratio of horizontal to vertical motion was obtained hiv 1 14 0 118 f 0 00638 f 2 for frequencies from 0 2 to 15 hz different methods of correcting observations for attenuation in order to derive source spectra were examined source spectra derived by simple regression analyses of observed data assuming a uniform medium are very similar to those based on a more complicated synthetic seismogram correction which accounts for wave propagation in a layered earth

earthquake source spectra in eastern north america source spectra for earthquakes of 3 m 7 in eastern north america ena are determined from regional seismograph recordings strong motion records teleseismic data and modified mercalli intensity data the inclusion of mmi data is made possible by the finding that the felt area of an earthquake is an accurate measure of its high frequency spectral level at the source current ground motion relations for ena are based on a brune source model with a stress parameter of 100 bars this model is a poor fit to ena source spectra for events of m 4 at high frequencies 5 to 10 hz observed spectral amplitudes are more nearly matched by a brune stress parameter of 200 bars intermediate frequency amplitudes near 1 hz are matched by a stress parameter of approximately 50 bars an empirical two corner source model is proposed to describe ena source spectra for events of 4 m 7

stochastic prediction of ground motion and spectral response parameters at hard rock sites in eastern north america empirical predictions of ground motions from large eastern north american earthquakes are hampered by a lack of data for such events for this reason most prediction techniques have been based at least in part on data from the seismically active and well instrumented western north america concentrating on the prediction of response spectra on hard rock sites we have used a relatively new theoretical technique that does not require western data to make ground motion predictions for eastern north america this method often referred to as the stochastic model has its origins in the work of hanks and mcguire who treat high frequency motions as filtered random gaussian noise for which the filter parameters are determined by a seismological model of both the source and the wave propagation the model has been successfully applied to the predictions of ground motions in the western united states and to short period magnitudes from large to great earthquakes worldwide for our application the essential parameters of the model are estimated by using existing data from small to moderate eastern north american earthquakes a crucial part of the model is the relation between seismic moment and corner frequency the relation proposed in 1983 by nuttli for mid plate earthquakes leads to predictions of ground motions that are lower than available data by a factor of about 4 on the other hand a constant stress parameter of 100 bars gives model predictions in good accord with the data to aid in applications the ground motion predictions are given in the form of regression equations for earthquakes of magnitude 4 5 to 7 5 at distances within 100 km of the source the explanatory variables are hypocentral distance and moment magnitude m because predictions are often required in terms of m g rather than m we have used the theoretical model to establish a relation between the two magnitudes the predicted relation agrees with the sparse data available although the large uncertainties in the observed magnitudes for the larger events as well as the sensitivity of the theoretical magnitude to the attenuation model make it difficult to discriminate between various source scaling models

evidence for and implications of self healing pulses of slip in earthquake rupture dislocation time histories of models derived from waveforms of seven earthquakes are discussed in each model dislocation rise times the duration of slip for a given point on the fault are found to be short compared to the overall duration of the earthquake 10 however in many crack like numerical models of dynamic rupture the slip duration at a given point is comparable to the overall duration of the rupture i e slip at a given point continues until information is received that the rupture has stopped propagating alternative explanations for the discrepancy between the short slip durations used to model waveforms and the long slip durations inferred from dynamic crack models are 1 the dislocation models are unable to resolve the relatively slow parts of earthquake slip and have seriously underestimated the dislocations for these earthquakes 2 earthquakes are composed of a sequence of small dimension short duration events that are separated by locked regions barriers 3 rupture occurs in a narrow self healing pulse of slip that travels along the fault surface evidence is discussed that suggests that slip durations are indeed short and that the self healing slip pulse model is the most appropriate explanation a qualitative model is presented that produces self healing slip pulses the key feature of the model is the assumption that friction on the fault surface is inversely related to the local slip velocity the model has the following features high static strength of materials kilobar range low static stress drops in the range of tens of bars and relatively low frictional stress during slip less than several hundreds of bars it is suggested that the reason that the average dislocation scales with fault length is because large amplitude slip pulses are difficult to stop and hence tend to propagate large distances this model may explain why seismicity and ambient stress are low along fault segments that have experienced large earthquakes it also qualitatively explains why the recurrence time for large earthquakes may be irregular

the rupture mechanism of the coyote lake earthquake of 6 august 1979 inferred from near field data the coyote lake earthquake ml 5 7 occurred within the dense network of seismic instruments of central california and was recorded by numerous accelerograph stations two of these stations located within the fault zone itself provide particularly remarkable records of the rupture process we use these data obtained in the immediate vicinity of the fault and the broadband seismograms recorded at berkeley about 100 km away from the epicenter to infer the velocity of propagation of the rupture the extent of the fractured area the rupture front geometry and other characteristics of the fracture mechanism in order to extract this information from the data we model the earthquake as a propagating dislocation starting at the hypocenter and spreading radially we compute the resulting ground motion at the receiver sites using the discrete wavenumber representation of green s functions bouchon 1981 the results yield a rupture velocity of 2 6 km sec a fault length of about 14 km and a fault slip of 15 to 20 cm they also show that the fault extends to shallower depth than indicated by the aftershocks the most important result is the finding that slip at any given location on the fault takes place in a very short time span and that simple uniform dislocation models give a good description of the rupture process

the 1971 san fernando earthquake a double event evidence is presented which suggest that the 1971 san fernando earthquake may have been a double event that occurred on two separate subparallel thrust faults it is postulated that the initial event took place at depth on the sierra madre fault zone which runs along the base of the san gabriel mountains rupture is postulated to have occurred from a depth of about 15 km to a depth of about 3 km a second event is thought to have initiated about 4 sec later on another steeply dipping thrust fault which is located about 4 km south of the sierra madre fault zone the surface trace of this fault coincides with the san fernando fault zone which was the principal fault associated with surface rupture it is postulated that rupture propagated from a depth of 8 km to the free surface the moments of the first and second events are approximately 0 7 10 26 dyne cm and 1 0 10 26 dyne cm respectively this model is found to explain the combined data sets of strong ground motions teleseismic p and s waveforms and static offsets better than previous models which consist of either a single fault plane or a plane having a dip angle which shallows with decreasing depth nevertheless many features of the observed motions remain unexplained and considerable uncertainty still exists regarding the faulting history of the san fernando earthquake

an investigation into earthquake ground motion characteristics in eastern north america abstract a random vibration model of the hanks mcguire type is used to predict peak ground motions at rock sites in eastern north america the assumed geometric decay and distance dependent duration approximate the propagation of direct body waves at short distances and lg waves at regional distances the model predicts peak acceleration and velocities as well as response spectra and magnitude for a given seismic moment and corner frequency to predict ground motions for a given lg magnitude m lg the model is first used to calculate the seismic moment corresponding to that magnitude assuming a source scaling law then knowing the moment and corner frequency the model is used to calculate peak ground motions available data from strong motion recordings and from the ectn and lrsm networks modified to estimate horizontal ground motions on rock where appropriate are used to verify the model9s assumption and predictions modified mercalli intensity data are also used ground motions predicted by the model with a stress drop of 50 to 200 bars agree with the ground motion data but the m lg values computed by the model for given seismic moments do not agree with nuttli9s 1983 moment versus m lg data for large earthquakes resolution of the latter disagreement awaits the collection of instrumental data from large events in eastern north america

polarization and coherence of 5 to 30 hz seismic wave fields at a hard rock site and their relevance to velocity heterogeneities in the crust abstract except for its very onset the p wave of earthquakes and chemical explosions observed at two narrow aperture arrays on hard rock sites in the adirondack mountains have a nearly random polarization the amount of energy on the vertical radial and transverse components is about equal over the frequency range 5 to 30 hz for the entire seismogram the spatial coherence of the seismograms is approximately exp cf x where c is in the range 0 4 to 0 7 km 1 hz 1 f is frequency and x is the distance between array elements vertical radial and transverse components were quite coherent over the aperture of the array indicating that the transverse motion of the compressional wave is a property of relatively large 10 6 m 3 volumes of rock and not just an anomaly caused by a malfunctioning instrument poor instrument rock coupling or out crop scale effects the spatial coherence is approximately independent of component epicentral azimuth and range and whether p or s wave coda is being considered at least for propagation distances between 5 and 170 km these results imply a strongly and three dimensionally heterogeneous crust with near receiver scattering in the uppermost crust controlling the coherence properties of the waves

a study of the source parameters of some large earthquakes of northeastern north america waveforms of body and surface waves for six moderately large north eastern north american earthquakes are analyzed for source information the earthquakes studied are the 1925 charlevoix quebec earthquake ms 6 4 the 1935 timiskaming quebec earthquake ms 6 0 the 1939 charlevoix quebec earthquake mb 5 4 the 1940 ossipee new hampshire earthquakes ml 5 3 and 5 1 and the 1944 cornwall ontario massena new york earthquake m 5 1 the focal depths for all of the earthquakes for which determinations could be made 1925 1935 1939 and december 20 1940 were about 8 to 10 km the waveforms of the 1925 1935 1939 and 1940 events are consistent with thrust mechanisms although there is some ambiguity in the strike direction for each of the events the favored focal mechanism for the 1925 and 1939 events had northeast southwest nodal planes for the 1935 event the available data suggest that the earthquake occurred on a northwest southeast oriented fault plane the strike of the nodal planes for the december 20 1940 event is quite uncertain but a north south orientation is preferred no body waves that could be modeled were collected for the december 24 1940 or 1944 events the stress drops for the events scatter widely but are comparable to those from other intraplate earthquakes there is a difference in source complexity from event to event with the december 20 1940 event having had one simple source while the 1935 shock had three separate energy releases the source time functions found for the 1935 1939 and december 20 1940 earthquakes from the short period teleseismic body waves resemble those for some shocks from california the focal mechanisms found here suggest that the minimum principal deviatoric stress is vertical and that the horizontal principal deviatoric stresses both compressional are controlled primarily by plate driving forces

the near source ground motion of the 6 august 1979 coyote lake california earthquake a finite fault striking n24 w and extending to a depth of 10 km is proposed to explain the strong ground motion data for the 6 august 1979 coyote lake california earthquake m l 5 9 our source model suggests that right lateral faulting initiated at a depth of 8 km and ruptured toward the south with a velocity of 2 8 km sec this unilateral rupture can explain the large displacement recorded south of the epicenter however the waveform coherency across an array south and southwest of the epicenter suggests that the rupture length is less than 6 km the maximum dislocation is about 120 cm in a small area near the hypocenter and the total moment is estimated to be 3 5 10 24 dyne cm an abrupt stopping phase which corresponds to a deceleration of right lateral motion can explain the high peak acceleration recorded at array station 6 the stress drop in the hypocentral area is about 140 bars the average stress drop over the entire rupture surface is 30 bars the preferred finite source model can predict the p n1 waveforms and the beginning features in the teleseismic seismograms no clear arrivals can be observed in the near source data for the possible second and third smaller events suggested by nabelek personal communication

comparison of source scaling relations of eastern and western north american earthquakes source scaling relations have been obtained for earthquakes in eastern north america and other continental interiors and compared with a relation obtained for earthquakes in western north america the scaling relation for eastern north american earthquakes was constructed from measurements of seismic moment and source duration obtained by the waveform modeling of seismic body waves the events used include nine events of m blg magnitude 4 7 to 5 8 that occurred after 1960 and four earlier events with magnitudes between 5 5 and 6 6 the scaling relation for events in other continental interiors was used for comparative purposes and to provide constraints for large magnitudes detailed analysis of the uncertainties in the scaling relations has allowed the resolution of two important issues concerning the source scaling of earthquakes in eastern north america first the source characteristics of earthquakes in eastern north america and other continental interiors are consistent with constant stress drop scaling and are inconsistent with nonconstant scaling models such as that of nuttli 1983 second the stress drops of earthquakes in eastern north america and other continental interiors are not significantly different from those of earthquakes in western north america and have median values of approximately 100 bars the source parameters of earthquakes in eastern north america are consistent with a single constant stress drop scaling relation whereas the source parameters of earthquakes in western north america are much more variable and show significant departures from an average scaling relation in which stress drop decreases slightly with seismic moment

slip distribution of the 19 september 1985 michoacan mexico earthquake near source and teleseismic constraints we simultaneously invert the strong motion velocity records and the long and intermediate period teleseismic p waveforms of the 19 september 1985 michoacan mexico earthquake to recover the distribution of slip on the fault using a point by point constrained and stabilized least squares inversion method a fault plane with strike fixed at 300 and dip fixed at 14 is placed in the region of the earthquake hypocenter and divided into 120 subfaults rupture is assumed to propagate at a velocity of 2 6 km sec away from the hypocenter synthetic near source ground motions and teleseismic p waveforms for pure strike slip and dipslip dislocations are calculated for each subfault the observed data are then inverted to obtain the amount of strike slip and dip slip displacement required of each subfault we also invert the data sets using a time window procedure where the subfaults are allowed to slip up to three times this approach relaxes the constraint of fixed subfault rupture time imposed by a constant rupture velocity inversion of the strong motion data alone yields a slip model similar to the solution previously obtained using only teleseismic waveforms this result supports the use of teleseismic waveform data for the derivation of fault dislocation models in the absence of strong motion recordings our simultaneous inversion of both data sets suggests that rupture during the michoacan earthquake was controlled largely by the failure of three major asperities located along the length and down the dip of a 150 km segment of the cocos north america plate boundary the solution contains three major source regions including an 80 km by 55 km source near the hypocenter with a peak slip of 6 5 meters two additional sources are present on the southeast portion of the fault about 70 km away from the hypocenter one of these sources with a peak slip of 5 meters covers a 45 km by 60 km area and extends downdip from a depth of about 10 km to 24 km the third source region is somewhat smaller 30 km by 60 km area 3 1 meters peak slip and extends further downdip at depths between 27 km and 39 km aftershock activity following the earthquake was associated mainly with the two shallow sources these two sources are separated by the aftershock zone of the 1981 playa azul earthquake

the seismic radiation from composite models of faulting abstract the failure of an asperity i e the dynamic rupture of a small fault area with finite stress drop surrounded by a broken or weak fault area which has no stress drop but which slips after the asperity fails is proposed as a model for the rupture process of a subevent in a composite earthquake the rupture area of the composite earthquake surrounding the subevent is modeled by the weak fault area surrounding the asperity in the subevent model the resulting seismic moment of the subevent is proportional to the stress drop and the rupture area of the subevent as well as the radius of the composite earthaquake by setting the stress drops of the asperity models equal to the dynamic stress drops of the subevents the composite earthquake can be modeled as the sum of a set of subevents which cover the rupture area of the composite earthquake the scaling of the high and low frequency radiation from composite earthquakes composed of asperities is commensurate with generally observed spectral scaling laws in contrast to composite earthquakes composed of cracks or smaller earthquakes a simple filtering strategy is proposed for filtering the waveforms radiated by cracks to approximate the waveforms radiated by asperities the p and s waves radiated by an m l 5 2 earthquake which occurred on 9 may 1983 at coalinga california are simulated using the p and s waves radiated by an m l 3 6 aftershock the aftershock waveforms are first filtered to approximate the radiation from asperities with the appropriate rupture areas and then the waveforms of 12 asperity subevents are summed together to simulate the waveforms and spectra of the composite earthquake

inversion of strong ground motion and teleseismic waveform data for the fault rupture history of the 1979 imperial valley california earthquake a least squares point by point inversion of strong ground motion and teleseismic body waves is used to infer the fault rupture history of the 1979 imperial valley california earthquake the imperial fault is represented by a plane embedded in a half space where the elastic properties vary with depth the inversion yields both the spatial and temporal variations in dislocation on the fault plane for both right lateral strike slip and normal dip slip components of motion inversions are run for different fault dips and for both constant and variable rupture velocity models effects of different data sets are also investigated inversions are compared which use the strong ground motions alone the teleseismic body waves alone and simultaneously the strong ground motion and teleseismic records the inversions are stabilized by adding both smoothing and positivity constraints the moment is estimated to be 5 0 10 25 dyne cm and the fault dip 90 5 dislocation in the hypocentral region south of the united states mexican border is relatively small and almost dies out near the border dislocation then increases sharply north of the border to a maximum of about 2 m under interstate 8 dipslip motion is minor compared to strike slip motion and is concentrated in the sediments the best fitting constant rupture velocity is 80 per cent of the local shear wave velocity however there is a suggestion that the rupture front accelerated from the hypocenter northward the 1979 imperial valley earthquake can be characterized as a magnitude 5 earthquake at the hypocenter which then grew into or triggered a magnitude 6 earthquake north of the border

rupture history of the 1984 morgan hill california earthquake from the inversion of strong motion records near source strong motion velocity records and teleseismic short period p waveforms are modeled to obtain the spatial and temporal distribution of slip for the 1984 morgan hill earthquake both forward modeling and constrained least squares inversion techniques are used to interpret the strong motion velocity waveforms in the frequency range of approximately 0 2 to 2 0 hz these data support a nearly unilateral rupture to the southeast with a rupture propagation velocity of nine tenths of the local s wave velocity the majority of the slip occurs over a fault length of 25 km and to a first approximation can be interpreted as two main source regions each with an extent of about 5 km with their centers separated by about 12 km however each of the sources has detailed structure of its own and a simple two point source model is not an accurate representation of the morgan hill earthquake the second source occurs about 4 5 sec after the first and is approximately 3 times larger the maximum dislocation on the fault plane is about 1 m the total moment of the earthquake is estimated to be 2 1 10 25 dyne cm the morgan hill earthquake offers convincing evidence for very inhomogeneous slip and stress distributions on shallow strike slip faults

the 25 november 1988 saguenay quebec earthquake source parameters and the attenuation of strong ground motion the saguenay earthquake of 25 november 1988 occurred close to the southern margin of the saguenay graben in southern quebec it was caused by almost purely dip slip faulting centered at a depth of 26 km with a p axis oriented northeast southwest this faulting mechanism is similar to those of the larger historical earthquakes in eastern north america but the focal depth is substantially greater than all but one of these events the seismic moment estimated from regional pni waves and teleseismic long period body waves is 5 10 24 dyne cm corresponding to a moment magnitude of 5 8 the source duration of the earthquake is estimated to be 1 8 sec corresponding to a stress drop of 160 bars which is not significantly higher than the average stress drop of 120 bars estimated from previous large earthquakes in eastern north america in order to simultaneously match the recorded ground motion amplitudes of strong motion acceleration strong motion velocity and teleseismic short period and long period body waves it is necessary to use a source function having a complex shape that implies the presence of asperities and larger local stress drops the large set of strong motion recordings of the saguenay earthquake has been used to validate a procedure for estimating strong ground motion attenuation based on a simple wave propagation model the most important feature of the recorded strong motions is that their peak amplitudes do not decay significantly with distance inside 120 km but then decay abruptly beyond 120 km profiles of recorded accelerograms with absolute times indicate that at distances beyond 64 km the peak ground motions are due to strong postcritical reflections from velocity gradients in the lower crust the principal shear wave arrivals and the variation of their peak amplitudes with distance were reproduced in synthetic seismograms generated using a regional crustal structure model the critical distances for the postcritical reflections were short because of the deep focal depth of the event causing the elevation of ground motion amplitudes out to 120 km similar studies of earthquakes in other regions of eastern north america indicate that the strength of the postcritical reflections and the distance ranges over which they are dominant are controlled by the focal depth and crustal structure regional variations in crustal structure thus give rise to predictable regional variations in strong ground motion attenuation

three dimensional finite difference simulation of fault dynamics rectangular faults with fixed rupture velocity we analyze three dimensional finite difference solutions for a simple shear crack model of faulting to determine the effects of fault length and width on the earthquake slip function the fault model is dynamic with only rupture velocity fault dimensions and dynamic stress drop prescribed the numerical solutions are accurate for frequencies up to 5 hz and are combined with asymptotic results for shear cracks in order to characterize the slip function at higher frequencies near the hypocenter the slip velocity exhibits a square root singularity whose intensity increases with hypocentral distance at distances greater than the fault width w growth of the velocity intensity ceases and the slip function becomes nearly invariant with distance along the fault length closed form expressions are developed for the dependence of static slip s slip rise time tr and slip velocity intensity v on fault geometry along the center line of a long narrow fault at hypocentral distances exceeding w these expressions reduce to s w tr 0 5 w vr and v w 2 vr where is the dynamic stress drop the shear modulus and vr the rupture velocity the numerical results imply that uniform dislocation kinematic earthquake models in which slip is represented by a ramp time function will underpredict high frequency ground motion relative to low frequency ground motion a further implication of the numerical solutions is that the nature of inelastic processes at the advancing edge of a long fault will depend on fault width but will be independent of rupture length