Three-Component Nodal Array Aftershock Deployments for the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

Rufus D. Catchings, Mark R. Goldman, Joanne Chan, Amir A. Allam, Jamison H. Steidl, Yehuda Ben-Zion, Coyn Criley, Zhenning Ma, Daniel Langermann, Adrian T. McEvilly, & Daniel D. Mongovin

Published August 5, 2019, SCEC Contribution #9333, 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #254

To better evaluate subsurface faulting, seismic wave propagation, instrument response of seismometers, Vp and Vs structure, and seismic energy transmission from the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake sequence onto the Garlock fault, collaborators from the USGS, the University of Utah, the University of California-Santa Barbara, and the University of Southern California deployed 463 three-component nodal seismographs (nodes) in the Ridgecrest, California region. We used 245 USGS, 162 IRIS-PASSCAL, and 56 Sandia National Laboratories nodes in three main configurations: (1) Ten 3- to 7-km-long, cross-fault (or cross-seismicity-trend) arrays (node spacing = 100 m), including seven arrays across the M6.4 and M7.1 surface ruptures (and seismicity trends) and three arrays across the Garlock fault. (2) A 50-km X 60-km grid around the major seismicity, with a node at each corner of each 10-km X 10-km block of the grid (with a few exceptions). (3) Three sites with co-located broadband and nodal (two types) seismometers for calibration and evaluation of instrument response. Five of the nodal arrays were deployed within 48 hours of the M7.1 earthquake, and the remaining nodes were deployed by July 14, 2019. As a result, some of the larger aftershocks were not recorded, but all nodes to recorded continuously for approximately 1 month, recording thousands of aftershocks. We will make this unusually large volume of data available to the scientific community to study aftershocks, crustal velocities, and fault structures associated with the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence.

Key Words
Ridgecrest Earthquake, Nodal Seismographs

Citation
Catchings, R. D., Goldman, M. R., Chan, J., Allam, A. A., Steidl, J. H., Ben-Zion, Y., Criley, C., Ma, Z., Langermann, D., McEvilly, A. T., & Mongovin, D. D. (2019, 08). Three-Component Nodal Array Aftershock Deployments for the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence. Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Ridgecrest Earthquakes