Earthquake Stress Triggers, Stress Shadows, and Seismic Hazard

Ruth A. Harris

Published November 10, 2000, SCEC Contribution #834

Many aspects of earthquake mechanics remain an enigma at the beginning of the twenty-first century. One potential bright spot is the realization that simple calculations of stress changes may explain some earthquake interactions, just as previous and ongoing studies of stress changes have begun to explain human-induced seismicity. This paper, which is an update of Harris, reviews many published works and presents a compilation of quantitative earthquake-interaction studies from a stress change perspective. This synthesis supplies some clues about certain aspects of earthquake mechanics. It also demonstrates that much work remains to be done before we have a complete story of how earthquakes work.

Key Words
United States, focal mechanism, geologic hazards, magnitude, stress, viscoelasticity, Landers earthquake 1992, California,seismicity, San Andreas Fault, active faults, earthquakes, induced earthquakes, faults

Citation
Harris, R. A. (2000). Earthquake Stress Triggers, Stress Shadows, and Seismic Hazard. Current Science, 79(9), 1215-1225.