the 1981 microearthquake swarm near moodus connecticut from august through october 1981 an intense microearthquake swarm of over 500 events was detected near moodus connecticut the site of persistent small earthquake activity throughout the historical record the swarm consisted of 39 foreshocks which preceeded the magnitude 2 1 mainshock a normal pattern of aftershocks which immediately followed the main shock and later smaller bursts of microearthquakes associated with migrations of the event epicenters the shocks were all within 1 km of the earth s surface and located along a 5 km long segment of the salmon river earthquakes of magnitude less than 1 were felt and events as small as magnitude 0 were heard by people living near the epicenters

stress drop for three m 4 3 4 7 1992 1994 parkfield ca earthquakes in a previous paper fletcher and spudich 1998 we determined the slip distribution for the three m 4 3 to 4 7 parkfield events that occurred between oct 20 1992 and dec 20 1994 the rupture characteristics of these events are of particular interest because they are the largest events to occur at parkfield since the 1966 mainshock to further investigate the rupture process of these events we compute the static stress change or stress drop caused by the slip using a boundary integral method from quin and das 1989 adapted for the forward modeling case of computing stresses from a static slip distribution we find that the initial phase at or very near the hypocenter has the largest stress change in all cases this peak has a value of about 3 8 mpa for the oct 20 1992 event which also has the smallest magnitude of the three at 4 3 and about 45 mpa for the other nov 14 1993 and 60 mpa for the dec 20 1994 event the rest of the stress release is comparatively small and smooth for the nov 14 1993 event which is the deepest event and the most impulsive the pattern of stress release of the other two events oct 20 1992 and dec 20 1994 is more complex with a greater spatial extent the spatial distribution of stress is approximately similar to the spatial distribution of slip but with the larger initial peak in stress drop at the hypocenter

control of rupture by fault geometry during the 1966 parkfield earthquake a reanalysis of the available data for the 1966 parkfleld california earthquake mr 5 suggests that although the ground breakage and aftershocks extended about 40 km along the san andreas fault the initial dynamic rupture was only 20 to 25 km in length the foreshocks and the point of initiation of the main event locate at a small bend in the mapped trace of the fault detailed analysis of the p wave first motions from these events at the gold hill station 20 km southeast indicates that the bend in the fault extends to depth and apparently represents a physical discontinuity on the fault plane other evidence suggests that this discontinuity plays an important part in the recurrence of similar magnitude 5 to 6 earthquakes at parkfield analysis of the strong motion records suggests that the rupture stopped at another discontinuity in the fault plane an en echeion offset near gold hill that lies at the boundary on the san andreas fault between the zone of aseismic slip and the locked zone on which the great 1857 earthquake occurred foreshocks to the 1857 earthquake occurred in this area sieh 1978 and the epicenter of the main shock may have coincided with the offset zone if it did a detailed study of the geological and geophysical character of the region might be rewarding in terms of understanding how and why great earthquakes initiate where they do

stress field constraints on intraplate seismicity in eastern north america focal mechanisms of 32 north american midplate earthquakes mo 3 8 6 5 were evaluated to determine if slip is compatible with a broad scale regional stress field derived from plate driving forces and if so under what conditions stress regime pore pressure and frictional coefficient using independent information on in situ stress orientations from well bore breakout and hydraulic fracturing data and assuming that the regional principal stresses are in approximately horizontal and vertical planes 10o the constraint that the slip vector represents the direction of maximum resolved shear stress on the fault plane was used to calculate relative stress magnitudes defined by the parameterb s2 s3 s s3 from the fault stress geometry as long as the focal mechanism has a component of oblique slip i e the b axis does not coincide with the intermediate principal stress direction this calculation identifies which of the two nodal planes is a geometrically possible slip plane gephart 1985 slip in a majority of the earthquakes 25 of 32 was found to be geometrically compatible with reactivation of favorably oriented preexisting fault planes in response to the broad scale uniform regional stress field slip in five events was clearly inconsistent with the regional stress field and appears to require a localized stress anomaly to explain the seismicity significantly all five of these events occurred prior to 1970 when many regional networks were installed and their focal mechanisms are inconsistent with more recent solutions of nearby smaller events the frictional likelihood of the geometrically possible slip on the selected fault planes was evaluated in the context of conventional frictional faulting theory the ratio of shear to normal stress on the fault planes at hypocentral depth was calculated relative to an assumed regional stress field regional stress magnitudes were determined from 1 s s3 ratios based on the frictional strength of optimally oriented faults the basis for the linear brittle portion of lithospheric strength profiles 2 the computed relative stress magnitude b values and 3 a vertical principal stress assumed equal to the lithostat two end member possibilities were examined to explain the observed slip in these less than optimally oriented fault planes first the frictional coefficient was held constant on all faults hydrostatic pore pressure was assumed regionally and the fault zone pore pressure was determined since pore pressure is a measurable quantity with real limits in the crust p0 s3 this end member case was used to determine which of the geometrically possible slip planes were frictionally likely slip planes alternately pore pressure was fixed at hydrostatic everywhere and the required relative lowered frictional coefficient of the fault zone was computed slip in 23 of the 25 geometrically compatible earthquakes was determined to also be frictionally likely in response to an approximately horizontal and vertical regional stress field derived from plate driving forces whose magnitudes are constrained by the frictional strength of optimally oriented faults assuming hydrostatic pore pressure regionally the conditions for slip on these 23 relatively well oriented earthquake faults were determined relative to this regional crustal strength model and require only moderate increases in pore pressure between about 0 4 0 8 of lithostatic hydrostatic is about 0 37 of lithostatic or alternately moderate lowering 50 of the frictional coefficient on the faults which slipped superlithostatic pore pressures are not required focal mechanisms for the two other earthquakes with slip vectors geometrically consistent with the regional stress field however did require pore pressures far exceeding the least principal stress or extremely low coefficients of friction these events may reflect either local stress rotations undetected with current sampling or poorly constrained focal mechanisms the analysis also confirmed a roughly north to south contrast in stress regime between the central eastern united states and southeastern canada previously inferred from a contrast in focal mecha nisms between the two areas most central eastern united states earthquakes occur in response to a strike slip stress regime whereas the southeastern canadian events require a thrust faulting stress regime this contrast in stress regime with a constant maximum horizontal stress orientation determined by far field plate driving forces requires a systematic lateral variation in relative stress magnitudes superposition of stresses due to simple flexural models of glacial rebound stresses are of the correct sense to explain the observed lateral variation but maximum computed rebound related stress magnitude changes are quite small about 10 mpa and do not appear large enough to account for the stress regime change if commonly assumed stress magnitudes determined from frictional strength apply to the crust at seismogenic depths

block modeling with connected fault network geometries and a linear elastic coupling estimator in spherical coordinates geodetic observations of interseismic deformation provide constraints on the partitioning of fault slip across plate boundary zones the spatial distribution of both elastic and inelastic strain accumulation and the nature of the fault system evolution here we describe linear block theory which decomposes surface velocity fields into four components 1 plate rotations 2 elastic deformation from faults with kinematically consistent slip rates 3 elastic deformation from faults with spatially variable coupling and 4 homogeneous intrablock strain elastic deformation rates are computed for each fault segment in a homogeneous elastic half space using multiple optimal planar cartesian coordinate systems to minimize areal distortion and triangular dislocation elements to accurately represent complex fault system geometry block motions fault slip rates elastic coupling and internal block strain rates are determined simultaneously using a linear estimator with constraints from both geodetically determined velocity fields and geologic fault slip rate estimates we also introduce algorithms for efficiently implementing alternative fault network geometries to quantify parameter sensitivity to nonlinear perturbations in model geometry

the detection of low magnitude seismic events using array based waveform correlation summary it has long been accepted that occurrences of a known signal are most effectively detected by cross correlating the incoming data stream with a waveform template such matched signal detectors have received very little attention in the field of detection seismology because there are relatively few instances in which the form of an anticipated seismic signal is known a priori repeating events in highly confined geographical regions have been observed to produce very similar waveforms and good signals from events at a given site can be exploited to detect subsequent co located events at lower magnitudes than would be possible using traditional power detectors even greater improvement in signal detectability can be achieved using seismic arrays running correlation coefficients from single sensors can be stacked over an array or network to result in a network correlation coefficient displaying a significant array gain if two events are co located the time separating the corresponding patterns in the wave train as indicated by the cross correlation function is identical for all seismic stations and this property means that the correlation coefficient traces are coherent even when the waveforms are not we illustrate the power of array based waveform correlation using the 1997 august 16 kara sea event the weak event that occurred 4 hr after the main event was barely detected using an sta lta detector on the spits array but is readily detected by signal matching on a single channel the main event was also recorded by the far more distant norsar array but no conventional detection can be made for the second event a clear detection is however made when the correlation coefficient traces are beamformed over all sensors of the array we estimate the reduction in detection threshold of a test signal on a regional seismic array using waveform correlation by scaling down a master signal and immersing it into seismic noise we show that for this case waveform correlation using a single channel detects signals of approximately 0 7 orders of magnitude lower than is possible using an sta lta detector on the array beam waveform matching on the full array provides an additional improvement of approximately 0 4 magnitude units we describe a case study in which small seismic events at the barentsburg coal mine on spitsbergen were detected using the signals from a major rockburst as master waveforms many spurious triggers occurred in this study whereby short sections of signal exhibited coincidental similarity with unrelated incoming wave fronts we demonstrate how such false alarms can almost always be identified and screened out automatically by performing frequency wavenumber analysis upon the set of individual correlation coefficient traces

asperities and barriers on the seismogenic zone in north chile state of the art after the 2007 mw 7 7 tocopilla earthquake inferred by gps and insar data the mw 7 7 2007 november 14 earthquake had an epicentre located close to the city of tocopilla at the southern end of a known seismic gap in north chile through modelling of global positioning system gps and radar interferometry insar data we show that this event ruptured the deeper part of the seismogenic interface 30 50 km and did not reach the surface the earthquake initiated at the hypocentre and was arrested 150 km south beneath the mejillones peninsula an area already identified as an important structural barrier between two segments of the peru chile subduction zone our preferred models for the tocopilla main shock show slip concentrated in two main asperities consistent with previous inversions of seismological data slip appears to have propagated towards relatively shallow depths at its southern extremity under the mejillones peninsula our analysis of post seismic deformation suggests that small but still significant post seismic slip occurred within the first 10 d after the main shock and that it was mostly concentrated at the southern end of the rupture the post seismic deformation occurring in this period represents 12 19 per cent of the coseismic deformation of which 30 55 per cent has been released aseismically post seismic slip appears to concentrate within regions that exhibit low coseismic slip suggesting that the afterslip distribution during the first month of the post seismic interval complements the coseismic slip the 2007 tocopilla earthquake released only 2 5 per cent of the moment deficit accumulated on the interface during the past 130 yr and may be regarded as a possible precursor of a larger subduction earthquake rupturing partially or completely the 500 km long north chile seismic gap

evidence of nonlinear dynamics in the eastward shift of the nao 1 hilmer and jung 2000 have identified an eastward shift in the sea level pressure slp pattern associated with interannual variability of the north atlantic oscillation nao that took place around 1980 we investigate the nature of the eastward shift using a primitive equation dry atmospheric model driven by diabatic forcing diagnosed from observations the model results reveal the nonlinear dependence of the spatial pattern of the nao on the nao index the pattern being shifted to the east west for high low nao index general agreement is found between the model and observations we suggest that the eastward shift noted by hilmer and jung 2000 is a consequence of the trend towards higher nao index during the last several decades of the 20th century

on the role of the nao in the recent northeastern atlantic arctic warming 1 studies such as those by zhang et al 1998 and peterson et al 2003 suggest that the northeastern atlantic arctic warmed in the early 1990s and that regional sea level pressure slp variations and the nao may be responsible sea surface temperature changes in fram strait and the barents sea depend respectively on slp variations over the barents sea and norwegian sea since winter 1972 slp over the barents and norwegian seas has been unusually low during nao winters little pressure field change occurred during nao winters or around the denmark strait the normal location of the icelandic low simultaneously the nao mode became highly persistent on a month to month basis throughout the nao winters and ultimately throughout all seasons during a multiyear episode in which the arctic reached peak warming a similar nao persistence episode is shown to have occurred from 1920 1925 during another notable arctic warming event

propagation of slow slip leading up to the 2011 mw 9 0 tohoku oki earthquake many large earthquakes are preceded by one or more foreshocks but it is unclear how these foreshocks relate to the nucleation process of the mainshock on the basis of an earthquake catalog created using a waveform correlation technique we identified two distinct sequences of foreshocks migrating at rates of 2 to 10 kilometers per day along the trench axis toward the epicenter of the 2011 moment magnitude mw 9 0 tohoku oki earthquake in japan the time history of quasi static slip along the plate interface based on small repeating earthquakes that were part of the migrating seismicity suggests that two sequences involved slow slip transients propagating toward the initial rupture point the second sequence which involved large slip rates may have caused substantial stress loading prompting the unstable dynamic rupture of the mainshock

temporal changes in microseismicity and creep near parkfield california the 25 km long section of the san andreas fault near parkfield california ruptured in similar magnitude 6 earthquakes in 1881 1901 1922 1934 and 1966 on the basis of a number of lines of seismological evidence a section of the san andreas fault now termed the parkfield preparation zone has been identified as the locus of the next parkfield earthquake1 3 here we describe coincident changes in surface creep rates and deep seismicity near the parkfield preparation zone following the 2 may 1983 coalinga earthquake and suggest that both respond to the same stimuli these changes were concentrated near the point of initiation of the magnitude 6 characteristic parkfield earthquakes lending credence to the hypothesis that this section of the san andreas fault is characterized by a unique set of physical properties4 6 which make it ideal for earthquake prediction studies and which may also be useful for identifying hypocentral regions in other areas

interseismic coupling and asperity distribution along the kamchatka subduction zone 1 gps measurements of interseismic horizontal surface velocities reveal the degree of kinematic coupling of the plate boundary thrust along the kamchatka subduction zone from about 51 degrees to 57 degrees n latitude inversions for the distribution of aseismic slip rate along the similar to 15 degrees nw dipping underthrust suggest a nonslipping plate interface in southern kamchatka above similar to 50 km depth along the segment that ruptured in the m w 9 1952 earthquake north of similar to 53 degrees n the subduction interface experiences significant aseismic slip consistent with the lower seismic moment release in m 8 5 earthquakes along this portion of the subduction zone the gps velocities are consistent with a boundary element forward model in which historic earthquake rupture zones are represented as locked asperities surrounded by a zero shear stress subduction interface loaded by plate convergence models in which the complete rupture zones of historic earthquakes are considered locked greatly overpredict the degree of kinematic coupling reducing the area of the locked model asperities to the central 25 area of historic rupture zones fits the data well suggesting that large earthquakes involve small fully locked core asperities surrounded by conditionally stable portions of the plate interface areas of low aseismic slip rate appear to be roughly correlated with areas of low isostatic gravity anomalies over offshore forearc basins while less coupled portions of the kamchatka subduction zone coincide with high gravity anomalies offshore of two peninsulas possibly related to the subduction of the emperor meji seamount chain and the kruzenstern fracture zone

repeating seismicity in the shallow crust modulated by transient stress perturbations abstract recent studies have reported seismic phenomena that are modulated by small stress perturbations 10 kpa revealing their critically stressed nature such observations have been principally limited to plate interfaces with their occurrence linked to high fluid pore pressure in this study we report observations of nine repeating seismic sources in the shallow crust in guerrero mexico that emit events at rates comparable to other seismic phenomena in low stress environments testing their susceptibility to small stress perturbations we find that all nine sources appear to be modulated by mining activity tides and a large slow slip event mw 7 5 our results suggest that the fault conditions necessary for low effective stress seismicity can occur away from plate interfaces

characteristics on fault coupling along the solomon megathrust based on gps observations from 2011 to 2014 the solomon megathrust along the western solomon arc generated two megathrust earthquakes in the past decade mw 8 1 in 2007 and mw 7 1 in 2010 to investigate the interseismic deformation and inferred coupling on the megathrust we deployed the first continuous gps network in the western solomon islands our 2011 2014 gps data and the back slip inversion model show coupling ratio as high as 73 along the southeastern 2007 rupture segment but only 10 on average along the segment of 2010 event based on the spatial distribution of coseismic slip aftershock clusters derived coupling pattern and paleo geodetic records we discovered the former as a semi permanent asperity and the latter as a potential megathrust barrier we propose that a characteristic earthquake of magnitude not less than mw 8 will recur in an interval of 100 or more years by either single or doublet earthquake

seismicity and geometry of a 110 km long blind thrust fault 1 the 1985 kettleman hills california earthquake the august 4 1985 kettleman hills earthquake was the third in a sequence of moderate shocks to occur beneath the northern half of a 110 km long fold chain bounding the eastern california coast ranges the 1982 mw 5 4 new idria 1983 mw 6 5 coalinga and 1985 mw 6 1 kettleman hills events define a southward progression of seismic activity beneath the fold we use teleseismic waveforms geodetic modeling hypocenters relocated in a three dimensional velocity model and subsurface structural data to investigate the kettleman hills earthquake the main shock results from motion on a shallowly dipping thrust fault buried at 10 km depth aftershocks and coseismic fault slip extend 20 km along the fold axis nearly the full extent of the kettleman hills north dome anticline aftershocks occur primarily several kilometers in front of the fault tip and in the core of the anticline the main shock and several foreshocks occurred at a 2 km right step in the quaternary fold axis which also corresponds to the southern end of the 1983 coalinga and northern end of the 1985 kettleman hills aftershock zones from this we infer that the step in the fold is caused by an offset or tear in the underlying fault the scalar seismic moment is 1 6 1018 n m consistent with the geodetic deformation and the duration of rupture is 16 s 3 4 times greater than for the average earthquake with this scalar moment the slow rate of moment release provides an explanation for the low level of ground shaking and low local magnitude reported for the event the peak of the geodetic uplift is located 5 km perpendicular to the quaternary fold axis we argue that the fault is propagating northeast into the undeformed san joaquin valley sediments and that the overlying fold is growing at about 0 5 mm yr

effects of layered crust on the coseismic slip inversion and related cff variations hints from the 2012 emilia romagna earthquake abstract the 2012 emilia romagna italy seismic sequence has been extensively studied given the occurrence of two mainshocks both temporally and spatially close to each other the recent literature accounts for several fault models obtained with different inversion methods and different datasets several authors investigated the possibility that the second event was triggered by the first mainshock with elusive results in this work we consider all the available insar and gps datasets and two planar fault geometries which are based on both seismological and geological constraints we account for a layered elastic half space hosting the dislocation and compare the slip distribution resulting from the inversion and the related changes in coulomb failure function cff obtained with both a homogeneous and layered half space finally we focus on the interaction between the two main events discriminating the contributions of coseismic and early postseismic slip of the mainshock on the generation of the second event and discuss the spatio temporal distribution of the seismic sequence when accounting for both insar and gps geodetic data we are able to reproduce a detailed coseismic slip distribution for the two mainshocks that is in accordance with the overall aftershock seismicity distribution furthermore we see that an elastic medium with depth dependent rigidity better accounts for the lack of the shallow seismicity amplifying with respect to the homogeneous case the mechanical interaction of the two mainshocks

detection of a locked zone at depth on the parkfield california segment of the san andreas fault the parkfield california segment of the san andreas fault is transitional in character between the creeping segment of the fault to the northwest and the locked carrizo plain segment to the southeast the rate of shallow fault slip decreases from 25 30 mm yr northwest of the epicenter of the 1966 parkfield earthquake to zero at the southeastern end of the 1966 rupture zone data from a network of trilateration lines spanning the san andreas fault near parkfield and extending to the pacific coast near san luis obispo shed light on the rate of fault slip at depth since the 1966 earthquake in this study average rates of line length change and shallow fault slip were inverted to determine the slip rate at depth on the parkfield fault segment the fault is taken to be a vertical surface with unknown distribution of strike slip displacement in an elastic half space a striking result of the inversions is that all solutions providing acceptable fits to the data exhibit a locked zone essentially coincident with the rupture surface of the 1966 parkfield earthquake the data require that the locked zone extend nearly as far north as the 1966 epicenter however the vertical extent of the locked zone is not well resolved over much of the parkfield segment the fault is slipping faster at the earth s surface than it is at seismogenic depths in order to fit the trilateration measurements it is necessary to include a component of contraction normal to the trend of the san andreas the inversion results suggest a spatially uniform normal strain of 0 06 strain yr the orientation of the contraction is compatible with geologic and seismic evidence of active folding and reverse faulting in the region the magnitude of the contraction is consistent with convergence rates inferred from global plate motion models

source parameters for the 1952 kern county earthquake california a joint inversion of leveling and triangulation observations coseismic leveling and triangulation observations are used to determine the faulting geometry and slip distribution of the july 21 1952 mw 7 3 kern county earthquake on the white wolf fault a singular value decomposition inversion is used to assess the ability of the geodetic network to resolve slip along a multisegment fault and shows that the network is sufficient to resolve slip along the surface rupture to a depth of 10 km below 10 km the network can only resolve dip slip near the fault ends the preferred source model is a two segment right stepping fault with a strike of 51 and a dip of 75 sw the epicentral patch has deep 6 27 km left lateral oblique slip while the northeastern patch has shallow 1 12 5 km reverse slip there is nearly uniform reverse slip epicentral 1 6 m northeast 1 9 m with 3 6 m of left lateral strike slip limited to the epicentral patch the seismic moment is m0 9 2 0 5 1019 n m mw 7 2 the signal to noise ratio of the leveling and triangulation data is reduced by 96 and 49 respectively the slip distribution from the preferred model matches regional geomorphic features and may provide a driving mechanism for regional shortening across the comanche thrust and structural continuity with the scodie seismic lineament to the northeast

bedding plane slip in initial stages of fault related folding abstract frictional slip along bedding planes contributes to fault related folding of layered rocks we use numerical experiments to investigate the deformation of frictional bedding planes near dipping faults under layerparallel contraction and extension within the numerical experiments contraction boundary conditions produce asymmetric anticlines and extension produces asymmetric synclines the fold shape may be used to infer dip of the underlying fault in situations where the fault may not be observable additionally sense of slip along bedding planes may indicate proximity to the fault tip under uniform remote tectonic strain fault slip induces deformation in both the hangingwall and the footwall at depths as shallow as 1 km there is no significant difference between fold amplitudes in the hangingwall and the footwall this result is contrary to many kinematic models currently in use kinematic models of fault related folds commonly include the development of flat ramp and flat ramp flat fault geometries which may be attributed to initial ramp thrusting and later flat development our mechanical models show that fault flats may be produced from fault ramps due to slip along frictional bedding planes near the thrust fault tips our numerical experiments also evaluate joint initiation joints perpendicular to bedding are promoted in extensional environments we compare the results of the mechanical model to kinematic models of fault propagation folds and conclude that mechanical models offer important insights to better understand the folding process

strain accumulation in southern california 1973 1980 frequent surveys of seven trilateration networks in southern california over the interval 1973 1980 suggest that a regional increment in strain may have occurred in 1978 1979 prior to 1978 and after late 1979 the strain accumulation has been predominantly a uniaxial north south compression this secular trend was interrupted sometime in 1978 1979 by an increment in both north south and east west extension in five of the seven networks the onset of this change appears to have occurred first in the networks farthest south the changes occurred without any unusual seismicity within the networks but the overall seismicity in southern california was unusually low prior to and has been unusually high since the occurrence the average principal strain rates for the seven networks in the 1973 1980 interval are 0 17 mu strain yr north south contraction and 0 08 mu strain yr east west extension although the observed increment in strain could be related to unidentifed systematic error in the measuring system a careful review of the measurements and comparison with three other measuring systems reveal no appreciable cumulative systematic error

frictional constraints on crustal faulting we consider how variations in fault frictional properties affect the phenomenology of earthquake faulting in particular we propose that lateral variations in fault friction produce the marked heterogeneity of slip observed in large earthquakes we model these variations using a rate and state dependent friction law where we differentiate velocity weakening behavior into two fields the strong seismic field is very velocity weakening and the weak seismic field is slightly velocity weakening similarly we differentiate velocity strengthening behavior into two fields the compliant field is slightly velocity strengthening and the viscous field is very velocity strengthening the strong seismic field comprises the seismic slip concentrations or asperities the two intermediate fields weak seismic and compliant have frictional velocity dependences that are close to velocity neutral these fields modulate both the tectonic loading and the dynamic rupture process during the interseismic period the weak seismic and compliant regions slip aseismically while the strong seismic regions remain locked evolving into stress concentrations that fail only in main shocks the weak seismic areas exhibit most of the interseismic activity and aftershocks but can also creep seismically this mixed frictional behavior can be obtained from a sufficiently heterogeneous distribution of the critical slip distance the model also provides a mechanism for rupture arrest dynamic rupture fronts decelerate as they penetrate into unloaded complaint or weak seismic areas producing broad areas of accelerated afterslip aftershocks occur on both the weak seismic and compliant areas around a fault but most of the stress is diffused through aseismic slip rapid afterslip on these peripheral areas can also produce aftershocks within the main shock rupture area by reloading weak fault areas that slipped in the main shock and then healed we test this frictional model by comparing the seismicity and the coseismic slip for the 1966 parkfield 1979 coyote lake and 1984 morgan hill earthquakes the interevent seismicity and aftershocks appear to occur on fault areas outside the regions of significant slip these regions are interpreted as either weak seismic or compliant depending on whether or not they manifest interevent seismicity

fram strait ice export during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reconstructed from a multiyear sea ice index from southwestern greenland abstract historical observations of multiyear ice called storis in the southwest greenland waters exist from the period 1820 2000 obtained from ship logbooks and ice charts it is argued that this ice originates in the arctic ocean and has traveled via the fram strait southward along the greenland coast in the east greenland current and around the southern tip of greenland therefore it is hypothesized that these observations can be used as proxies for reconstructing the fram strait ice export on an annual basis an index describing the storis extent is extracted from the observations and a linear statistical model formulated relating this index to the fram strait ice export the model is calibrated using ice export values from a hindcast study with a coupled ocean ice model over the period 1949 98 subsequently the model is used to reconstruct the fram strait annual ice export in the period 1820 2000 the model has significant skill calculated on independent data based on this reconstruction

the determination of displacement fields from geodetic data along a strike slip fault observations of angles or distances between stations of a geodetic network are commonly used to infer information about the movement of the surface of the earth the absence of any observations external to the network leads to an ambiguous displacement field existing techniques for eliminating this ambiguity are all unsatisfactory in some respect the best technique an inner coordinate solution is not appropriate for networks located in a strike slip fault environment the inner coordinate solution zeros the rotation of all stations about their center of mass along a strike slip fault like the san andreas however motion normal to the fault is less likely than motion parallel to the fault the solution presented here an outer coordinate solution finds the rotation of the network that minimizes the components of displacement normal to the fault since motion along a strike slip fault is generally expected to be parallel to the fault the displacements obtained with the outer coordinate solution are more reasonable than those obtained with other techniques examination of a trilateration network near san francisco bay demonstrates the large effect that the choice of adjustment technique can have on the inferred relative motion of the two sides of the fault the inner coordinate solution gave a rate of about 1 mm yr whereas the preferred outer coordinate solution rate was 36 mm yr

forecast model for moderate earthquakes near parkfield california earthquake instability models have possible application to earthquake forecasting because the models simulate both preseismic and coseismic changes of fault slip and ground deformation in the forecast procedure proposed here repeated measurements of preseismic fault slip and ground deformation constrain the values of model parameters the early part of the model simulation corresponds to the available field data and the subsequent part constitutes an estimate of future faulting and ground deformation in particular the time location and size of unstable faulting are estimates of the pending earthquake parameters the forecast accuracy depends on the model realism and parameter resolution the forecast procedure is applied to fault creep and trilateration data measured near parkfield california where at least five magnitude 5 5 to 6 earthquakes have occurred regularly since 1881 the last in 1966 the quasi static model consists of a flat vertical plane embedded in an elastic half space spacially variable fault slip of strike slip sense is driven by an increasing regional shear stress but is impeded by a relatively strong patch of brittle strain softening fault the field data are consistent with these approximate values of patch parameters radius of 3 km patch center 5 km deep and 8 km southeast of the 1966 epicenter and maximum brittle strength of 26 bars fluctuations in the available field data prevent estimating the earthquake time with any more precision than use of the 21 8 year recurrence interval however the model may later give a more precise estimate of the earthquake time if the fault slip rate near the inferred patch increases before the earthquake as predicted by the model

mechanical models of trishear like folds previous workers have formulated velocity descriptions of the trishear kinematic model of fault propagation folds which are inherently non unique we present two complete mechanical models of fault related folding and assess the validity of the assumptions used in the assignment of velocities in the trishear description and to eliminate the untenable situation of an infinite number of possible solutions for velocity fields the mechanical model of forced folding forced fold based on viscous folding theory is used to derive the velocity fields in an anisotropic sedimentary cover overlying faulted and displaced rigid basement blocks the solution of displacements around a stress free fault in an elastic body is used to model fault arrest folds that form around a fault imbedded in a deformed medium the results indicate that the velocity fields assumed in the trishear model more closely resemble the velocities derived in the mechanical forced fold model than the mechanical model of fault arrest folding the forced fold model produces a triangular region of concentrated deformation similar to the trishear region assumed in the kinematic models while the deformation produced by the fault arrest model is not concentrated within a triangular zone

earthquake potential along the northern hayward fault california the hayward fault slips in large earthquakes and by aseismic creep observed along its surface trace dislocation models of the surface deformation adjacent to the hayward fault measured with the global positioning system and interferometric synthetic aperture radar favor creep at 7 millimeters per year to the bottom of the seismogenic zone along a 20 kilometer long northern fault segment microearthquakes with the same waveform repeatedly occur at 4 to 10 kilometer depths and indicate deep creep at 5 to 7 millimeters per year the difference between current creep rates and the long term slip rate of 10 millimeters per year can be reconciled in a mechanical model of a freely slipping northern hayward fault adjacent to the locked 1868 earthquake rupture which broke the southern 40 to 50 kilometers of the fault the potential for a major independent earthquake of the northern hayward fault might be less than previously thought

preliminary determination of pacfic north america relative motion in the southern gulf of calfornia using the global positioning system global positioning system gps data from experiments conducted in 1985 and 1989 in the southern gulf of california mexico allow a determination of relative motion between the pacific and north american plates the data indicate motion of cabo san lucas on the pacific plate relative to north america at a rate of 47 7 mrn yr and azimuth of 57 6 west of north 1 errors equivalent within uncertainties to the nuvel 1 global plate motion model

recurrence models and parkfield california earthquakes main shocks of the earthquake sequences that occurred on the parkfield section of the san andreas fault in central california in 1922 1934 and 1966 are characterized by southeast rupture expansion over the same 20 to 30 km long section of the fault whereas the seismic moments for the 1922 and 1934 events are identical to within a precision of 10 the seismic moment for 1966 is 20 greater than for the earlier events to within a precision of 20 the parkfield area seismicity in general seems well described by a recurring moderate size characteristic earthquake repeating the same epicenter magnitude seismic moment rupture area and southeast direction of rupture expansion an unexplained 10 year advance of the 1934 event is the only discrepancy in the hypothesis that the parkfield earthquakes in 1857 1881 1901 1922 1934 and 1966 represent a strictly periodic process assuming the strictly periodic model and the absence since 1966 of the perturbations hypothesized for the 1922 to 1934 period the next characteristic parkfield earthquake should occur between 1983 and 1993

spatial and temporal distribution of deformation at the front of the andean orogenic wedge in southern bolivia new observations from an active orogenic wedge help link the seismotectonic behavior of individual faults to wedge deformation rates and patterns over multiple timescales we provide the first detailed constraints on the distribution and timing of deformation at the front of the andean orogenic wedge in southern bolivia where a recent study suggests that great mw 8 earthquakes could rupture the master fault underlying the wedge we use stratigraphic relationships across fault related folds and elastic dislocation modeling of seismic reflection horizons to obtain probabilistic estimates of wedge front fault ages and slip rates our analyses reveal that at least half of the previously determined gps based wedge loading and quaternary whole wedge shortening rates are absorbed across a 20 40 km wide wedge front zone consisting of 1 4 en echelon and partially to fully overlapping faults and folds associated with blind thrust faults the difference between our slip rates and the geodetic geologic observations combined with evidence for activity across internal wedge structures supports the notion that nonsteady state mass balance conditions coupled with elevated erosional efficiency result in distributed wedge deformation the orogenic wedge in southern bolivia behaves in a similar fashion to the taiwanese and himalayan ranges slip accumulates at downdip locations along the master fault and is released incrementally by earthquakes that rupture the wedge front fault zone the faults and folds comprising this zone pose a major source of seismic hazard accumulating slip is also released in the wedge interior and older internal wedge faults must be considered in any future assessment of regional earthquake risk

a balanced cross section of the 1994 northridge earthquake southern california the northridge earthquake of 17 january 19941 was the latest in a series of very damaging thrust fault generated earthquakes to strike california following the san fernando2 1971 coalinga3 1983 and whittier narrows4 5 1987 events like the last two of these the northridge event occurred along a fault that did not reach the surface and which had not been detected by traditional seismic hazard methods6 7 balanced cross sections8 9 which flatten and remove the crustal deformation can be used to identify and quantify the seismic hazard posed by thrust faults here we present a balanced cross section through the northridge portion of the transverse ranges fold and thrust belt10 which shows that the earthquake occurred on what we call the pico thrust a cross section of this sort constructed before the earthquake would have revealed the fault although it would not have predicted the earthquake cross sectional modelling of the pico thrust yields an average slip rate of 1 4 1 7 mm yr 1 and a recurrence interval of northridge sized mw 6 7 earthquakes every 1 500 1 800 years we show that the pico thrust is the back thrust to the 170 km elysian park thrust3 4 which underlies some of the most densely urbanized portions of the los angeles basin

fracture initiation development and reactivation in folded sedimentary rocks at raplee ridge ut abstract fractures at raplee ridge a 14 km long monoclinal fold of pennsylvanian sedimentary rock in southeast utah are examined to determine their sequential development and to explain the mechanical relationships among the three primary fracture sets and the fold folding is attributed to slip on an unexposed thrust fault of laramide age fracture orientations were measured at 98 sites and fracture patterns were mapped at 8 sites on two sandstone and two limestone units of the rico formation revealing at least four stages of fracture formation stages 1 and 2 occurred pre folding and are defined respectively by e w trending fracture set i and n s trending fracture set ii set i fractures are characterized by a unimodal distribution of attitudes an intermediately developed outcrop pattern and continuous linear traces on bedding surfaces set ii fractures have a greater dispersion of orientations and are poorly to intermediately developed abutting relationships confirm that set i fractures are older than set ii stage 3 occurred during folding when nw se trending set iii fractures initiated both from isolated flaws and as wing cracks due to right lateral shearing along reactivated set i fractures set iii fractures increase in density as the fore limb dip increases from 10 to 30 later stages of deformation are characterized by the formation of fracture subsets iv and v structurally associated with fore limb dips greater than 30 fracture sets i and ii are found throughout the surrounding monument upwarp and are attributed to that structure whereas set iii is attributed to local stresses induced by monoclinal folding and or thrust faulting

viscoelastic earthquake cycle models with deep stress driven creep along the san andreas fault system 1 we develop a two dimensional boundary element earthquake cycle model including deep interseismic creep on vertical strike slip faults in an elastic lithosphere coupled to a viscoelastic asthenosphere uniform slip on the upper part of the fault is prescribed periodically to represent great strike slip earthquakes below the coseismic rupture the fault creeps in response to lithospheric shear stresses within a narrow linear viscous fault zone the model is applied to the gps contemporary velocity field across the carrizo plain and northern san francisco bay segments of the san andreas fault as well as triangulation measurements of postseismic strain following the 1906 san francisco earthquake previous analysis of these data using conventional viscoelastic coupling models without stress driven creep segall 2002 shows that it is necessary to invoke different lithosphere asthenosphere rheology in northern and southern california in order to explain the data we show that with deep stress driven interseismic creep on the san andreas fault the data can be explained with the same rheology for northern and southern california we estimate elastic thickness in the range 44 100 km 95 confidence level fault zone viscosity per unit width of 0 5 8 2 1017 pa s m and asthenosphere relaxation time of 24 622 years 0 1 2 9 1020 pa s for northern and southern california we estimate a slip rate of 21 27 mm yr and recurrence time of 188 315 years for the northern san francisco bay san andreas fault and slip rate of 32 42 mm yr with recurrence time of 247 536 years for the carrizo plain

slip deficit on the san andreas fault at parkfield california as revealed by inversion of geodetic data a network of geodetic lines spanning the san andreas fault near the rupture zone of the 1966 parkfield california earthquake magnitude m 6 has been repeatedly surveyed since 1959 in the study reported here the average rates of line length change since 1966 were inverted to determine the distribution of interseismic slip rate on the fault these results indicate that the parkfield rupture surface has not slipped significantly since 1966 comparison of the geodetically determined seismic moment of the 1966 earthquake with the interseismic slip deficit rate suggests that the strain released by the latest shock will most likely be restored between 1984 and 1989 although this may not occur until 1995 these results lend independent support to the earlier forecast of an m 6 earthquake near parkfield within 5 years of 1988

deep low frequency earthquakes in tectonic tremor along the alaska aleutian subduction zone 1 we characterize and locate tremor not associated with volcanoes along the alaska aleutian subduction zone using continuous seismic data recorded by the alaska volcano observatory and the alaska earthquake information center from 2005 to present visual inspection of waveform spectra and time series reveal dozens of 10 to 20 min bursts of tremor along the length of the alaska aleutian subduction zone we use autocorrelation to demonstrate that these tremor signals are composed of hundreds of repeating low frequency earthquakes lfes the tremor activity we characterize is localized in four segments from east to west kodiak island shumagin gap unalaska and andreanof islands although the geometry age thermal structure frictional and other relevant properties of the alaska aleutian subduction zone are poorly known these characteristics are likely to differ systematically from east to west locations near kodiak island are the most reliable because station coverage is more complete lfe hypocenters in this region are located on the plate interface near the down dip limit of the 1964 mw 9 2 alaska earthquake rupture area lfe hypocenters in the remaining areas along the arc are also located down dip of the most recent mw 8 megathrust earthquakes although these locations are less well constrained our results support the hypothesis that tremor activity marks the down dip rupture limit for great megathrust earthquakes in this subduction zone lastly there is no correlation between the presence of tremor and particular aspects of over riding or subducting plate geology or coupling it appears that lfes are a fundamental characteristic of the alaska aleutian subduction zone

earthquake source parameters and state of stress for the northeastern united states and southeastern canada from analysis of regional seismograms we examine 16 moderate size earthquakes that have occurred since 1990 in the northeastern united states and southeastern canada source parameters such as focal mechanism focal depth and seismic moment are determined using a regional waveform inversion technique in which the best fitting double couple mechanism is obtained through a grid search over strike dip and rake angles most of the 16 events and 10 previous ones with well determined focal mechanisms show horizontal compression with near horizontal p axes striking northeasterly which is consistent with the maximum horizontal stress orientation for midplate north america four shocks along the st lawrence river however have p axes trending southeast 100 130 which is not compatible with the regional stress field and requires a local stress perturbation close to the st lawrence river we examine several generating mechanisms for this localized stress variation including that a rift pillow structure may exist in the lower crust below the st lawrence river all of the 11 shocks in the united states occurred at shallow depths from 2 to 8 km the 15 canadian events are systematically deeper with foci between 5 and 28 km this geographic variation in focal depth is well correlated with the difference in surface heat flow values between the older grenville and younger appalachian provinces in the study area we also examine apparent discrepancies between m w and m b lg magnitude for 17 events five earthquakes of very similar m w show variations in m b lg as large as 0 6 which implies that for seismic events with similar seismic moment in the study area high frequency seismic radiation behavior differs considerably manuscript received 23 october 2002

long term fault creep observations in central california the u s geological survey usgs has been monitoring aseismic fault slip in central california for more than 10 years as part of an earthquake prediction experiment since 1968 the usgs creep network has grown from one creep meter at the cienega winery south of hollister to a 44 station network that stretches from hayward east of san francisco bay to palmdale in southern california in general the long term slip pattern is most variable on sections of the faults where several magnitude 4 and larger earthquakes occurred during the recording period e g calaveras fault near hollister and san andreas fault between san juan bautista and bear valley these fault sections are the most difficult to characterize with a single long term slip rate in contrast sections of the faults that are seismically relatively quiet e g san andreas fault between bear valley and parkfield produce the steadiest creep records and are easiest to fit with a single long term slip rate appendix is available with entire article on microfiche order from the american geophysical union 2000 florida avenue n w washington d c 20009 document j82 004 1 00 payment must accompany order

variability of fram strait ice flux and north atlantic oscillation we estimate the winter sea ice export through the fram strait using ice motion from satellite passive microwave data sea ice motion october may is obtained by tracking the displacement of common features in sequential 85 and 37 ghz brightness temperature fields the average winter area flux over the 18 year record 1978 1996 is 670 000 km2 7 of the area of the arctic ocean the winter area flux ranges from a minimum of 450 000 km2 in 1984 to a maximum of 906 000 km2 in 1995 the daily monthly and interannual variabilities of the ice area flux are high there is an upward trend in the ice area flux over the 18 year record the average winter volume flux over the winters of october 1990 through may 1995 is 1745 km3 ranging from a low of 1375 km3 in the 1990 flux to a high of 2791 km3 in 1994 the sea level pressure gradient across the fram strait explains more than 80 of the variance in the ice flux over the 18 year record we use the coefficients from the regression of the time series of area flux versus pressure gradient across the fram strait and ice thickness data to estimate the summer area and volume flux the average 12 month area flux and volume flux are 919 000 km2 and 2366 km3 we find a significant correlation r 0 86 between the area flux and positive phases of the north atlantic oscillation nao index over the months of december march correlation between our 5 years of volume flux estimates and the nao index gives r 0 56 during the high nao years a more intense icelandic low increases the gradient in the sea level pressure by almost 1 mbar across the fram strait thus increasing the atmospheric forcing on ice transport correlation is reduced during the negative nao years because of decreased dominance of this large scale atmospheric pattern on the sea level pressure gradient across the fram strait

low frequency earthquakes below southern vancouver island 1 the nature and distribution of low frequency earthquakes lfes in subduction zones provide insight into plate boundary deformation downdip of the locked seismogenic zone we employ network autocorrelation detection to identify lfe families beneath southern vancouver island and environs an initial suite of 5775 lfes detected in 2004 and 2005 at a select set of 7 stations is grouped into 140 families using waveform cluster analysis these families are used as templates within an iterative network cross correlation scheme to detect lfes across different tremor episodes incorporate new stations and improve lfe template signal to noise ratio as in southwest japan representative lfe locations define a relatively tight dipping surface several km above the locus of intraslab seismicity within a prominent dipping low velocity zone lvz lfe polarizations for near vertical source receiver geometries possess a remarkably uniform dipolar signature indicative of point source double couple excitation focal mechanisms determined fromp wave first motions are characterized by a combination of strike slip and thrust faulting we suggest that lfes and regular intraslab seismicity occur in distinct structural and stress regimes the lvz inferred to represent weak overpressured porous and mylonitized metabasalts of oceanic crustal layer 2 separates lfes manifesting deformation within a plate boundary shear zone from intraslab earthquakes generated by tensional stresses and dehydration embrittlement within a more competent lower oceanic crustal layer 3 and underlying mantle

evidence for a recent change in the link between the north atlantic oscillation and arctic sea ice export evidence for a recent change in the link between the north atlantic oscillation nao and arctic sea ice export through fram strait during wintertime djfm is presented from the analysis of simulated arctic sea ice and observations for the period 1958 1997 whereas no correlation between the two time series is found from 1958 to 1977 r 0 1 the correlation increased significantly thereafter r 0 7 1978 1997 the increased coherency between the nao and arctic sea ice export through fram strait during the last two decades resulted from anomalous meridional wind components near fram strait which were associated with the more easterly position of the nao s centers of interannual variability compared to 1958 1977

response of sea ice to the arctic oscillation abstract data collected by the international arctic buoy programme from 1979 to 1998 are analyzed to obtain statistics of sea level pressure slp and sea ice motion sim the annual and seasonal mean fields agree with those obtained in previous studies of arctic climatology the data show a 3 hpa decrease in decadal mean slp over the central arctic ocean between 1979 88 and 1989 98 this decrease in slp drives a cyclonic trend in sim which resembles the structure of the arctic oscillation ao regression maps of sim during the wintertime january march ao index show 1 an increase in ice advection away from the coast of the east siberian and laptev seas which should have the effect of producing more new thin ice in the coastal flaw leads 2 a decrease in ice advection from the western arctic into the eastern arctic and 3 a slight increase in ice advection out of the arctic through fram strait taken together these changes suggest that at least part of the thinning of sea ice recently observed ov

the co seismic slip distribution of the landers earthquake we derived a model for the co seismic slip distribution on the faults which ruptured during the landers earthquake sequence of 28 june 1992 the model is based on the inversion of surface geodetic measurements primarily vector displacements measured using the global positioning system gps the inversion procedure assumes that the slip distribution is to some extent smooth and purely right lateral strike slip for a given fault geometry a family of so lutions of varying smoothness can be generated we choose the optimal model from this family based on cross validation which measures the predictive power of the data and the trade off of misfit and roughness solutions which give roughly equal weight to misfit and smoothness are preferred and have certain features in common 1 there are two main patches of slip on the johnson valley fault and on the homestead valley emerson and camp rock faults 2 virtually all slip is in the upper 10 to 12 km and 3 the model reproduces the general features of the geologically measured sur face displacements without prior constraints on the surface slip in all models regardless of smoothing very little slip is required on the fault that represents the big bear event and the total moment of the landers event is 9 1019 n m the nearly simultaneous rupture of multiple distinct faults suggests that much of the crust in this region must have been close to failure prior to the earthquake

an interpretation of episodic slip on the calaveras fault near hollister california data from a precision multi wavelength distance measuring mwdm instrument located near hollister california have been analyzed in terms of strike slip faulting in the region covered by the network four episodes of deformation that are readily identifiable in the mwdm data for the year following september 1975 can be modeled as slip on the calaveras fault creepmeter data tend to support this interpretation since the creep events and the observed episodes of deformation appear to be correlated in a temporal sense lower bounds on the moment for each episode of slip can be determined from the mwdm data by the technique of linear programing the results indicate that aseismic slip is the dominant mechanism for strain release since the combined moment of 1 16 1024 dyn cm for the four episodes far exceeds the moment of all of the earthquakes that occurred during the year creepmeter data and geologic evidence that are taken in conjunction with the lower bound of the moment indicate that the depth of aseismic slip for some of the episodes of fault slip could extend to below the greatest depth of earthquake hypocenters for this region of central california

fold geometry at sheep mountain anticline wyoming constructed using airborne laser swath mapping data outcrop scale geologic mapping and numerical interpolation 1 constraints available at the earth s surface on the geometry of geologic folds often are discontinuous consisting of scattered bedding surface outcrops representing the position and orientation of different stratigraphic surfaces for this reason characterization of fold geometry from surface data by methods such as sequential balanced cross sections remains a subjective and interpretive process we present a new method for modeling the geometry of kilometer scale folds using dense precise topographic data available from airborne laser swath mapping alsm outcrop scale geologic mapping and a reproducible numerical interpolation method that is free of subjectivity geologic mapping at sheep mountain anticline wyoming enables the association of hundreds of thousands of alsm data points with 14 weathering resistant bedding surfaces from seven different stratigraphic units ranging in age from mississippian to cretaceous these data supplemented by several hundred strike and dip measurements constraining local orientation of folded strata are projected to the stratigraphic position of a single surface and used as constraint for a smoothed minimum curvature spline interpolation to generate a continuous representation of fold geometry both strengths and weaknesses of the new method are discussed in the context of comparison between the new surface model and an existing model constructed by traditional methods

interactions between the landers and hector mine california earthquakes from space geodesy boundary element modeling and time dependent friction the m w 7 1 hector mine earthquake happened 7 years after the 1992 m w 7 3 landers earthquake within a system of right lateral strike slip faults comprising the eastern california shear zone because estimates of recurrence intervals of m 7 earthquakes on these faults range anywhere from 1500 to 50 000 years the close temporal spacing of these two earthquakes suggests that there is some interaction between the two current models of simple coulomb static stress interactions between the earthquake ruptures do not predict an obvious cause and effect relationship the interaction between the computed normal and right lateral shear stress reductions induced by the landers earthquake at the hector mine hypocenter is unclear we use a combination of space geodesy boundary element modeling and computer modeling of time dependent fault friction to investigate the interaction between the two earthquakes we compare stress changes on the hector mine rupture plane induced by the landers earthquake with the detailed slip distribution inferred using a combination of gps and insar data the slip distributions of both earthquakes are also used to infer the magnitude of the shear stress drop on each earthquake rupture and the orientation of the remote background stress consistent with these two recent events for each earthquake the azimuth of the remote maximum compressive stress was approximately 17 6 and the magnitude of the shear stress drop was 8 1 mpa on the landers rupture and 10 2 mpa on the hector mine rupture using a simple spring and slider model as a proxy for the rate and state frictional response of the hector mine faults to landers earthquake imposed stress steps we find that while a decrease in normal stress at the hector mine hypocenter would by itself have caused the hector mine earthquake to nucleate immediately the simultaneous decrease in shear stress may have caused a delay in the peak shear loading consideration of an acceptable range of rate and state friction parameters secular strain rates and crustal stiffnesses leads us to conclude that this delay could have been 0 to 40 years

inverting for slip on three dimensional fault surfaces using angular dislocations the increasing quality of geodetic data synthetic aperture radar interferometry insar dense global positioning system gps arrays now available to geophysicists and geologists are not fully exploited in slip inversion procedures most common methods of inversion use rectangular dislocation segments to model fault ruptures and therefore oversimplify fault geometries these geometric simplifications can lead to inconsistencies when inverting for slip on earthquake faults and they preclude a more complete understanding of the role of fault geometry in the earthquake process we have developed a new three dimensional slip inversion method based on the analytical solution for an angular dislocation in a linear elastic homogeneous isotropic half space the approach uses the boundary element code poly3d that employs a set of planar triangular elements of constant displacement discontinuity to model fault surfaces the use of triangulated surfaces as discontinuities permits one to construct fault models that better approximate curved three dimensional surfaces bounded by curved tiplines shapes that commonly are imaged by three dimensional reflection seismic data and inferred from relocated aftershock data we demonstrate the method s ability to model three dimensional rupture geometries by inverting for slip associated with the 1999 hector mine earthquake the resulting model avoids displacement anomalies associated with the overlapping rectangular dislocations used in previous models improving the fit to the geodetic data by 32 and honors the observed surface ruptures thereby allowing more direct comparisons between geologic and geodetic data on slip distributions online material hector mine input files and file format description

why blind thrust faults do not propagate to the earth s surface numerical modeling of coseismic deformation associated with thrust related anticlines high fault tip stress concentrations are associated with coseismic slip on blind thrust faults and suggest that these structures should readily propagate to the earth s surface seismic profiles of blind thrust related earthquakes reveal diffuse zones of aftershocks surrounding the fault tip which are attributed to inelastic deformation such as flexural slip or extensional fracturing the complex interaction between blind thrust faults and secondary structures may control the evolution of blind thrust systems the influence of bedding plane slip on fault propagation is simulated with numerical models using the boundary element method we use two parameters to estimate the tendency for thrust fault propagation 1 the mode ii stress intensity factor and 2 the maximum coulomb stress near the fault tip calculations from both analyses suggest that shallow thrust faults may exhibit an increased tendency to propagate as a result of interaction with the earth s surface and slip along bedding planes above the fault tip and a decreased tendency to propagate due to slip along bedding planes at or below the fault tip our results demonstrate that the magnitude and style of inelastic deformation in active fault systems control fault propagation

the growth of geological structures by repeated earthquakes 1 conceptual framework in many places earthquakes with similar characteristics have been shown to recur if this is common then relatively small deformations associated with individual earthquake cycles should accumulate over time to create geological structures following this paradigm we show that existing models developed to describe leveling line changes associated with the seismic cycle can be adapted to explain geological features associated with a fault in these models an elastic layer containing the fault overlies a viscous half space with a different density fault motion associated with an earthquake results in immediate deformation followed by a long period of readjustment as stresses relax in the viscous layer and isostatic equilibrium is restored deformation is also caused as a result of the loading and unloading due to sediment deposition and erosion in this paper the parameters that control the growth of dip slip structures are identified we find that the flexural rigidity of the crust or the apparent elastic thickness provides the main control of the width of a structure the loading due to erosion and deposition of sediment determines the ratio of uplift to subsidence between the two sides of the fault the flexure due to sediment load is much more important in this respect than whether the fault is normal or reverse in character we find that in general real structures are associated with apparent elastic thicknesses of 4 km or less and thus with very low flexural rigidities

mg ca ratios in coralline algae record northwest atlantic temperature variations and north atlantic oscillation relationships climate variability in the north atlantic has been linked in part to the north atlantic oscillation nao the nao influences marine ecosystems in the northwestern atlantic and transport variability of the cold labrador current understanding historic patterns of nao variability requires long term and high resolution climate records that are not available from instrumental data here we present the first century scale proxy record of sea surface temperature sst variability from the newfoundland shelf a region from which other annual resolution shallow marine proxies are unavailable the 116 year record was obtained from three sites along the eastern newfoundland shelf using laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry determined mg ca ratios in the crustose coralline alga clathromorphum compactum the alga is characterized by a high mg calcite skeleton exhibiting annual growth increments and a century scale lifespan results indicate positive correlations between interannual variations in mg ca ratios and both station based and gridded instrumental sst in addition the record shows high spatial correlations to sst across the newfoundland shelf and the gulf of st lawrence before 1950 the mg ca proxy record reveals significant departures from gridded temperature records while the newfoundland shelf is generally considered a region of negative correlations to the nao the algal time series as well as a recent modeling study suggest a variable negative relationship with the nao which is strongest after 1960 and before the mid 1930s

deformation near the junction of the creeping and locked segments of the san andreas fault cholame valley california 1970 1980 we have constructed a simple dislocation model of the san andreas fault near cholame california that reproduces the observed deformation of nearby geodetic networks as well as the transition from quasi continuous slip fault creep to a no slip locked condition on the surface trace the model is specified by the slip rates imposed on the fault surface slip on the surface trace is given by the observed fault creep rates and slip at depths greater than 12 6 km is taken to 30 mm yr along the entire length of the fault i e beneath creeping and locked sections alike slip at intermediate depths is assigned by a rather arbitrary extrapolation of the surface creep values this postulated distribution of slip on the fault is tested by using it in a dislocation model to predict the deformation in two geodetic networks a trilateration network 20 km aperture and a 20 km long level line the calculated deformation of the trilateration network agrees with the observed deformation within the observational error agreement between the predicted and observed elevation changes along the level line was satisfactory in the sense that the predicted values were below the level of detection and the observed changes were not significant

locking depths estimated from geodesy and seismology along the san andreas fault system implications for seismic moment release 1 the depth of the seismogenic zone is a critical parameter for earthquake hazard models independent observations from seismology and geodesy can provide insight into the depths of faulting but these depths do not always agree here we inspect variations in fault depths of 12 segments of the southern san andreas fault system derived from over 1000 gps velocities and 66 000 relocated earthquake hypocenters geodetically determined locking depths range from 6 to 22 km while seismogenic thicknesses are largely limited to depths of 11 20km theseseismogenicdepthsbestmatchthegeodeticlockingdepthswhenestimated at the 95 cutoff depth in seismicity and most fault segment depths agree to within 2 km however the imperial coyote creek and borrego segments have significant discrepancies in these cases the geodetically inferred locking depths are much shallower than the seismogenic depths we also examine variations in seismic moment accumulation rate per unit fault length as suggested by seismicity and geodesy and find that both approaches yield high rates 1 5 1 8 1 0 13 nm yr km along the mojave and carrizo segments and low rates 0 2 10 13 nm yr km along several san jacinto segments the largest difference in seismic moment between models is calculated for the imperial segment where the moment rate from seismic depths is a factor of 2 5 larger than that from geodetic depths such variability has important implications for the accuracy to which future major earthquake magnitudes can be estimated

mapping the rheology of the central chile subduction zone with aftershocks the postseismic deformation following a large mw 7 earthquake is expressed both seismically and aseismically recent studies have appealed to a model that suggests that the aseismic slip on the plate interface following the mainshock can be the driving factor in aftershock sequences reproducing both the geodetic afterslip and seismic aftershocks observables of postseismic deformation exploiting this model we demonstrate how a dense catalog of aftershocks following the 2015 mw 8 3 illapel earthquake in central chile can constrain the frictional and rheological properties of the creeping regions of the subduction interface we first expand the aftershock catalog via a 19 month continuous matched filter search and highlight the log time expansion of seismicity following the mainshock suggestive of afterslip as the main driver of aftershock activity we then show how the time history of aftershocks can constrain the temporal evolution of afterslip finally we use our dense aftershock catalog to estimate the rate and state frictional parameter a b as a function of depth and demonstrate that this low value is compatible either with a nearly velocity neutral rheology a b of the rate strengthening regions of the megathrust that host afterslip or an elevated pore fluid pressure low effective normal stress along the plate interface our results present the first snapshot of rheology in depth together with the evolution of the tectonic stressing rate along a plate boundary the framework described here can be generalized to any tectonic context and provides a novel way to constrain the frictional properties and loading conditions of active faults

subsidence derived volumetric strain models for mapping extensional fissures and constraining rock mechanical properties in the san joaquin valley california large scale subsidence due to aquifer overdraft is an ongoing hazard in the san joaquin valley subsidence continues to cause damage to infrastructure and increases the risk of extensional fissures here we use insar derived vertical land motion vlm to model the volumetric strain rate due to groundwater storage change during the 2007 2010 drought in the san joaquin valley central valley california we then use this volumetric strain rate model to calculate surface tensile stress in order to predict regions that are at the highest risk for hazardous tensile surface fissures we find a maximum volumetric strain rate of 232 microstrain yr at a depth of 0 to 200 m in tulare and kings county california the highest risk of tensile fissure development occurs at the periphery of the largest subsiding zones particularly in tulare county and merced county finally we assume that subsidence is likely due to aquifer pressure change which is calculated using groundwater level changes observed at 300 wells during this drought we combine pressure data from selected wells with our volumetric strain maps to estimate the quasi static bulk modulus k a poroelastic parameter applicable when pressure change within the aquifer is inducing volumetric strain this parameter is reflective of a slow deformation process and is one to two orders of magnitude lower than typical values for the bulk modulus found using seismic velocity data the results of this study highlight the importance of large scale high resolution vlm measurements in evaluating aquifer system dynamics hazards associated with overdraft and in estimating important poroelastic parameters

elucidating the geometry of the active shanchiao fault in the taipei metropolis northern taiwan and the reactivation relationship with preexisting orogen structures the shanchiao fault is an active normal fault with documented paleoearthquakes in the taipei metropolis taiwan while posing direct seismic threat on the multimillion population its crustal scale fault plane configuration has not been constrained this study presents the first attempt to resolve the fault plane dip changes of the shanchiao fault within the upper crust by forward modeling late quaternary deformation tectonic subsidence over the last 23 ka is estimated from vertical displacements of a rapidly formed alluvial fan horizon deformed into a dramatic rollover monocline a 2 d profile across the shanchiao fault is chosen for elastic half space dislocation modeling and the results suggest that the fault is listric in the shallow crust with an abrupt change from subvertical ramp 85 75 to near horizontal flat 10 15 at 3 4 km depth consistent with an origin from the inversion of an orogen related thrust detachment given the presence of rift related fabrics in the underthrust chinese continental margin basement beneath the taiwanese orogenic wedge listric ramp flat ramp models with a second deeper bend to 60 dip are also tested reasonable fits with the geological observations are produced when the lower ramp is located at greater than 8 km depth which correlates with the hypocentral location of a moderate earthquake in 2004 joint reactivation of preexisting thrust and rift faults by the shanchiao fault is therefore plausible with implications for seismic hazard in the taipei area

multi model representation of the north atlantic oscillation in the 20th and 21st centuries 1 ten coupled ocean atmosphere general circulation models cgcm are used to reproduce nao mean sea level pressure and 2 meter air temperature fields highly correlated to the north atlantic oscillation index naoi during a control period from 1961 1990 three enhanced co2 perturbation scenarios are compared to the control for 2070 2099 using pattern correlations and normalized root mean square errors between perturbation and control periods it is found that models can successfully reproduce observed nao sea level pressure and temperature anomaly fields model control slp anomaly fields however more closely resemble the arctic oscillation than the expected nao slp distribution due to an expansion of the north atlantic low pressure area analysis for the period 2070 2099 under the 3 enhanced co2 scenarios shows intensification of the naoi due to co2 forcing but with a weaker temporal trend relative to the control period

geodetic measurements near parkfield california 1959 1984 trilateration measurements have been made by various agencies since 1959 near parkfield california in the transition zone between the central creeping section and the southern locked section of the san andreas fault within the transition zone there are several creep meters and alignment arrays four small aperture trilateration networks and a broad trilateration network extending 70 km southwest from the san andreas fault to the pacific coast line length changes observed after the 1966 ml 5 6 parkfield earthquake indicate a geodetic moment of 4 5 1 0 1025 dyn cm the data are consistent with either 91 8 cm slip on a rupture zone which is 30 km long and extends from 3 to 8 km below the surface or 59 5 cm on a 30 km long zone 2 10 km deep this moment estimate includes some postseismic slip and is a factor of 2 4 greater than the moment determined from seismic surface waves the post 1966 data set is well suited to discriminate between the effects of surface and deep slip surface slip rates determined by creep meters alinement arrays and small aperture trilateration networks decrease from 29 mm yr at slack canyon to zero south of highway 46 a gradient of roughly 0 48 0 01 mm yr km deformation of a subset of the trilateration network between cholame and san luis obispo is consistent with shallow slip of 2 9 1 2 mm yr from the surface to a depth of 16 km and 33 4 5 5 mm yr below 16 km the trilateration data alone do not uniquely constrain both the transition depth from shallow to deep slip and the deep slip rate a transition depth near 16 km is preferred because it provides the best fit to the data and because the predicted slip rate is consistent with independent estimates of the total slip rate across the san andreas fault this simple two dimensional model neglects along strike variations in the deformation the data show no evidence for significant strike slip deformation across faults between the san andreas and the pacific coast

using systematically characterized low frequency earthquakes as a fault probe in guerrero mexico studies of low frequency earthquakes lfes have focused on detecting events within previously identified tectonic tremor however the principal lfe detection tools of matched filter searches are intrinsically incapable of detecting events that have not already been characterized previously as a template event in this study we therefore focus on generating the largest number possible of lfe templates by uniformly applying a recently developed lfe template detection method to a 2 5 yearlong data set in guerrero mexico using each of the detected templates in a matched filter search we then form event families that each represents a single source we finally develop simple empirical statistics to select the event families that represent lfes our resulting catalog contains 1120 unique lfe sources and a total of 1 849 486 detected lfes over the 2 5 yearlong data set the locations of the lfe sources are then divided into subcatalogs based on their distance from the subduction trench considering each lfe as a small unit of slip along the subduction interface we observe discrete episodes of lfe activity in the region associated with large slow slip events this is in direct contrast to the near continuous activity observed 35 km farther downdip within the previously identified lfe tremor sweet spot

inferring fault characteristics using fold geometry constrained by airborne laser swath mapping at raplee ridge utah 1 we used airborne laser swath mapping alsm data to define the geometry of strata in raplee ridge in southeastern utah that were likely deformed by slip on an underlying fault the fold geometry was used to infer the fault geometry and loading responsible for the folding using the boundary element model poly3d monte carlo markov chain mcmc methods created probability density functions pdfs that reveal the most likely fault geometry and loading conditions and their uncertainties despite the restrictive assumptions of poly3d in which body deformations occur from slip on displacement discontinuities in a homogeneous linear elastic half space the strata deflections are matched remarkably well and the resulting inferences of fault geometry and stress field appear reasonable we propose that similar methods may be used with models that include more complicated rheologies and heterogeneous and anisotropic material properties to estimate fault geometries and loading conditions where only deflection of strata record these parameters

time dependent triggered afterslip following the 1989 loma prieta earthquake we employ a modified version of the network inversion filter to investigate time dependent slip following the 1989 loma prieta earthquake previous analysis of global positioning system gps and leveling data suggests afterslip on the loma prieta rupture as well as aseismic slip on a thrust fault northeast of the san andreas fault which we identify with the foothills thrust belt we analyzed 173 daily gps solution files at 62 stations collected from 1989 8 to 1998 3 a total of 1 134 three dimensional relative baseline determinations the observed position changes are assumed to result from secular deformation random benchmark motions and temporally varying fault slip the data reveal temporal variations in slip rate but poorly resolve spatial variations in fault slip the amount of temporal smoothing is estimated by maximum likelihood conditional on this estimate reverse slip on the foothills thrust decays from 45 12 mm yr immediately after the earthquake to zero by 1992 reverse slip on the loma prieta rupture surface decays from 57 11 mm yr to zero by 1994 right lateral slip on the loma prieta rupture surface decays monotonically from 30 10 mm yr to zero by 1994 these results suggest that 1 triggered afterslip can occur off the main rupture zone on adjacent faults 2 shallow afterslip dominated the postseismic deformation for the 8 years following the earthquake and 3 postseismic slip on the foothills thrust may account for a significant portion of its total slip budget

anomalous shear strain at parkfield during 1993 94 three borehole tensor strainmeters btsm installed near parkfield and separated by more than 5km have established a good baseline of data spanning the past eight years a significant change in the accumulation rate of shear strain 0 5 and 1 0 microstrain per year at two of the sites commencing approximately in mid 1993 and continuing to 1995 is evident in these data some supporting evidence for a change in the strain rate at that time is seen in dilatometer data geodetic measurements fault zone properties and microearthquake locations there was also an increase in medium level seismic activity m 4 7 on 10 20 92 m 3 9 on 10 26 92 m 3 5 on 3 13 93 m 4 4 on 4 3 93 m 4 8 on 11 14 93 in the middle mountain area while a rainfall induced strain may have caused the observed strain anomaly we propose a more likely explanation is that aseismic slip at depth on a section of the fault south of middle mountain produced the observed strain anomaly this anomaly is unique in the current data set

structural geometry of raplee ridge monocline and thrust fault imaged using inverse boundary element modeling and alsm data abstract we model the raplee ridge monocline in southwest utah where airborne laser swath mapping alsm topographic data define the geometry of exposed marker layers within this fold the spatial extent of five surfaces were mapped using the alsm data elevations were extracted from the topography and points on these surfaces were used to infer the underlying fault geometry and remote strain conditions first we compare elevations extracted from the alsm data to the publicly available national elevation dataset 10 m dem digital elevation model ned 10 and 30 m dem ned 30 while the spatial resolution of the ned datasets was too coarse to locate the surfaces accurately the elevations extracted at points spaced 50 m apart from each mapped surface yield similar values to the alsm data next we used a boundary element model bem to infer the geometry of the underlying fault and the remote strain tensor that is most consistent with the deformation recorded by strata exposed within the fold using a bayesian sampling method we assess the uncertainties within and covariation between the fault geometric parameters and remote strain tensor inferred using the model we apply these methods to the raplee ridge monocline and find that the resolution and precision of the alsm data are unnecessary for inferring the fault geometry and remote strain tensor using our approach however the alsm data were necessary for the mapping of the spatial distribution of surface outcrops our models considered two scenarios one in which fault geometry and remote strains were inferred using a single deformed stratum and another in which all mapped strata were used in the inversion modeled elevations match those observed to within a root mean squared error of 16 18 m and show little bias with position along the fold both single and multilayer inversions image a fault that is broadly constrained to be 4 5 14 km in down dip height 13 30 km in along strike width with a tip line 2 0 9 5 km below the surface at the time of deformation poisson s ratio was not well resolved by the inversion the idealized elastic model is oversimplified when considering the complicated layered nature of this fold however it provides a good fit to the observations thus comparable surface displacements may be produced with a variety of rheological models so independent constraints on factors such as the fault geometry may be required to ascertain the appropriate rheology of the fold

bayesian inference of plastosphere viscosities near the kunlun fault northern tibet 1 flow of the mid crust in the tibetan plateau may strongly influence the patterns of deformation and topography within this area this flow requires the lower crust to have low viscosity and so quantifying this viscosity may be used to test the idea of channel flow an application of bayesian methods to geologic and geodetic data from north central tibet yields lower crustal viscosities assumed newtonian of 1 1019 pa s and 2 1021 pa s 95 bounds the lower bound is larger than the value of 1016 1018 pa s required by models of flow of the lower crust of tibet unless the entire lower crust participates in channel flow

the 1958 2009 greenland ice sheet surface melt and the mid tropospheric atmospheric circulation in order to assess the impact of the mid tropospheric circulation over the greenland ice sheet gris on surface melt as simulated by the regional climate model mar an automatic circulation type classification ctc based on 500 hpa geopotential height from reanalyses is developed general circulation correlates significantly with the surface melt anomalies for the summers in the period 1958 2009 the record surface melt events observed during the summers of 2007 2009 are linked to the exceptional persistence of atmospheric circulations favouring warm air advection the ctc emphasizes that summer 500 hpa circulation patterns have changed since the beginning of the 2000s this process is partly responsible for the recent warming observed over the gris

constraints on the strength of the upper crust from stress inversion of fault slip data the coefficient of friction of small faults in the field are estimated here by stress inversion of fault slip data the small faults that were measured in israel and the grand canyon arizona are considered as representing natural friction experiments the stresses associated with the faulting are determined by a stress inversion method which incorporates the coulomb failure criterion reches 1987 the coefficients of friction determined for 27 fault clusters in limestone sandstone and basalt range from 0 0 to 1 3 with mean value of 0 58 0 37 these values are in general agreement with the friction of 0 6 0 85 determined from laboratory experiments the magnitudes of the calculated principal stresses are compared with in situ stress measurements in similar tectonic environments

the parkfield california earthquake prediction experiment five moderate magnitude 6 earthquakes with similar features have occurred on the parkfield section of the san andreas fault in central california since 1857 the next moderate parkfield earthquake is expected to occur before 1993 the parkfield prediction experiment is designed to monitor the details of the final stages of the earthquake preparation process observations and reports of seismicity and aseismic slip associated with the last moderate parkfield earthquake in 1966 constitute much of the basis of the design of the experiment

migration of early aftershocks following the 2004 parkfield earthquake a significant number of the early aftershocks following large shallow earthquakes are missing in existing earthquake catalogues an analysis of the waveforms of 3 647 relocated earthquakes along the parkfield section of the san andreas fault reveals 11 times more aftershocks within three days of the 2004 parkfield earthquake than listed in a standard catalogue large shallow earthquakes are immediately followed by numerous aftershocks a significant portion of these events is missing in existing earthquake catalogues mainly because seismicity after the mainshock can be masked by overlapping arrivals of waves from the mainshock and aftershocks1 2 3 4 however recovery of the missing early aftershocks is important for understanding the physical mechanisms of earthquake triggering2 3 4 and for tracking postseismic deformation around the rupture zone associated with the mainshock5 6 7 here we use the waveforms of 3 647 relocated earthquakes8 along the parkfield section of the san andreas fault as templates9 10 to detect missing aftershocks within three days of the 2004 magnitude 6 0 parkfield earthquake we identify 11 times more aftershocks than listed in the standard catalogue of the northern california seismic network we find that the newly detected aftershocks migrate in both along strike and down dip directions with logarithmic time since the mainshock consistent with numerical simulations of the expansion of aftershocks caused by propagating afterslip11 12 the cumulative number of early aftershocks increases linearly with postseismic deformation in the first two days supporting the view that aftershocks are driven primarily by afterslip13 14

gps measurement of postseismic deformation following the 1999 chi chi taiwan earthquake 1 in the 15 month period september 1999 to december 2000 after the 1999 chi chi taiwan earthquake mw 7 6 about 80 campaign surveyed gps stations in central taiwan were occupied up to seven times furthermore seven continuous gps stations were put into operation in the epicentral region mostly within three weeks after the main shock gps data from these near field stations and some pre existing far field stations were utilized to study the postseismic deformation following the chi chi earthquake the postseismic displacements of the gps stations were approximated by a combination of an exponential transient decay function with a relaxation time of 86 days and a postseismic linear rate change stations on the hanging wall displayed west northwesterly horizontal displacements of up to 252 mm and uplift as large as 229 mm postseismic displacements are much larger to the south near the epicenter of chi chi main shock than in the north where the maximum coseismic displacement occurred stations on the footwall show only small displacements the postseismic gps data were inverted to infer the deeper fault geometry and afterslip distribution based on a four segment fault model with its shallow part constrained by coseismic fault geometry deduced from gps and seismological studies the optimal model requires the lower fault segment to be a horizontal plane at a depth of 10 4 km consistent with a model based on gps data taken during the first three months after the main shock and other geological or geophysical studies the maximum afterslip 459 mm occurs in the hypocentral region and in the northern part of the decollement slip of about 430 mm also occurs in the southern part of the decollement the afterslip moment inferred from 15 months of gps data is 4 7 1019 n m approximately 2 3 times the seismic moment released by aftershocks this implies that a major part of the postseismic deformation is aseismic

a bayesian method for incorporating self similarity into earthquake slip inversions distributions of coseismic slip help illuminate many properties of earthquakes including fault geometry stress changes frictional properties and potential future hazard slip inversions take observations and calculate slip at depth but there are a number of commonly adopted assumptions such as minimizing the second spatial derivative of slip the laplacian that have little physical basis and potentially bias the result in light of growing evidence that fault slip shows fractal properties we suggest that this information should be incorporated into slip inversions as a form of regularization instead of laplacian smoothing we have developed a bayesian approach to efficiently solve for slip incorporating von karman regularization in synthetic tests our approach retrieves fractal slip better than laplacian regularization as expected but even performs comparably or better when the input slip is not fractal we apply this to the 2014 mw 6 0 napa valley earthquake on a two segment fault using interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar and global positioning system gps data we find the von karman and laplacian inversions give similar slip magnitude but in different locations and the von karman solution has much tighter confidence bounds on slip than the laplacian solution differences in earthquake slip due to the regularization technique could have important implications for the interpretation and modeling of stress changes on the causative and neighboring faults we therefore recommend that choice of regularization method should be routinely made explicit and justified and that von karman regularization is a better default than laplacian