A rapid seismic deployment to capture aftershock sequence of 2019 Mw 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake

Abhijit Ghosh, Manuel M. Mendoza, Shankho Niyogi, Kuntal Chaudhuri, Baoning Wu, & Andrew Birkey

Published August 15, 2019, SCEC Contribution #9874, 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #256

A Mw 6.4 earthquake strikes near Ridgecrest on July 4th, 2019. Next day, a Mw 7.1 occurs within a few miles. A prolific aftershock sequence follows, which is still continuing. They have caused damage to infrastructure and structures in nearby cities Ridgecrest, and Trona. Aftershocks delineate two near vertical faults perpendicular to each other. We rushed to the area and installed 25 seismic stations surrounding the aftershock region. The first station was installed in less than 24 hours of the Mw 7.1. The stations are strategically located to optimally augment the existing seismic network, in coordination with the effort of the United States Geological Survey and the Southern California Earthquake Center. This temporary network consists of a mixture of strong motion, short period and broadband seismic stations. Our temporary seismic network, combined with permanent stations and other temporary networks, will provide a close look at the evolution of stress along the set of faults producing two large events, and on nearby faults with heightened seismicity following the Ridgecrest mainshock.

Citation
Ghosh, A., Mendoza, M. M., Niyogi, S., Chaudhuri, K., Wu, B., & Birkey, A. (2019, 08). A rapid seismic deployment to capture aftershock sequence of 2019 Mw 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake. Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Ridgecrest Earthquakes