Call for Models—A Test Case for the Source Inversion Validation: The 2014 ML 5.5 Orkney, South Africa, Earthquake

Pamela A. Moyer, Margaret S. Boettcher, William L. Ellsworth, Hiroshi Ogasawara, Artur Cichowicz, Denver Birch, & Gerhard van Aswegen

Published July 14, 2017, SCEC Contribution #7299

We propose a test case for the Source Inversion Validation (SIV) community and other interested seismologists using high-quality waveforms of the ML 5.5 Orkney, South Africa earthquake. This rupture initiated ~5.4 km below the surface and terminated several hundred meters below the deepest levels of a gold mine. The Orkney earthquake and its aftershock sequence were well-recorded by a dense network of surface and in-mine seismometers. In-situ stress measurements and fault core through the rupture surface are anticipated to be available as part of the recently funded International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) project to drill from within the mine into the Orkney earthquake rupture zone through a project titled “Drilling into Seismogenic Zones of M2.0-M5.5 Earthquakes in South African gold mines” (DSeis). The remarkable quality and range of geophysical data available for the ML 5.5 Orkney earthquake makes this event an ideal test case for the SIV community using actual seismic data to determine the spatial and temporal evolution of earthquake rupture.

Key Words
Source inversion validation, kinematic modeling, earthquake source process

Citation
Moyer, P. A., Boettcher, M. S., Ellsworth, W. L., Ogasawara, H., Cichowicz, A., Birch, D., & van Aswegen, G. (2017). Call for Models—A Test Case for the Source Inversion Validation: The 2014 ML 5.5 Orkney, South Africa, Earthquake. Seismological Research Letters, 88(5), 1333. doi: doi:10.1785/0220160218.