Fault interactions enhance high-frequency earthquake radiation

Shanna Chu, Victor C. Tsai, Daniel T. Trugman, & Greg Hirth

Published August 16, 2021, SCEC Contribution #11597, 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #238 (PDF)

Fault complexity has been linked to high-frequency earthquake radiation, although the underlying physical mechanisms are not well understood. Fault complexity is commonly modeled with rough single faults; however, real-world faults are additionally complex, existing within networks of other faults. We introduce two new ways of defining fault complexity using mapped fault traces, characterizing fault networks in terms of their degree of alignment and density. We find that both misalignment and density, at length scales of ~10 km, correlate with enhanced high-frequency seismic radiation across Southern California, with misalignment showing a stronger correlation. This robust correlation suggests that high-frequency radiation may arise in part from fault-fault interactions within networks of misaligned faults. Fault-fault interactions may therefore have important consequences for earthquake rupture dynamics, energetics and earthquake hazards. Our study provides a vantage point for future work to explore the effects of these interactions.

Key Words
fault complexity, high frequency radiation

Citation
Chu, S., Tsai, V. C., Trugman, D. T., & Hirth, G. (2021, 08). Fault interactions enhance high-frequency earthquake radiation. Poster Presentation at 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Seismology