The U.S. Geological Survey’s Rapid Seismic Array Deployment for the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

Elizabeth S. Cochran, Emily Wolin, Dan McNamara, Alan Yong, David Wilson, Marcos Alvarez, Nicholas van der Elst, Adria McClain, & Jamison Steidl

Published January 15, 2020, SCEC Contribution #10117

Rapid seismic deployments following large earthquakes capture ephemeral near‐field recordings of aftershocks and ambient noise that can provide valuable data for seismological studies. The U.S. Geological Survey installed 19 temporary seismic stations following the 4 July 2019 Mw 6.4 and 6 July 2019 (UTC) Mw 7.1 earthquakes near the city of Ridgecrest, California. The stations record the aftershock sequence beginning two days after the mainshock and are expected to remain in the field through approximately January 2020. The deployment augments the permanent seismic network in the area to improve azimuthal coverage and provide additional near‐field observations. This article summarizes the motivation and goals of the deployment; details of station installation, instrumentation, and configurations; and initial data quality and observations from the network. We expect these data to be useful for a range of studies including detailing near‐field variability in strong ground motions, determining stress drops and rupture directivity of small events, imaging the fault zone, documenting the evolution of crustal properties within and outside of the fault zone, and others.

Citation
Cochran, E. S., Wolin, E., McNamara, D., Yong, A., Wilson, D., Alvarez, M., van der Elst, N., McClain, A., & Steidl, J. (2020). The U.S. Geological Survey’s Rapid Seismic Array Deployment for the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence. Seismological Research Letters, 91(4), 1952-1960. doi: 10.1785/0220190296.