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Seismological Indicators of Geologically Inferred Fault Maturity
  • Huiyun Guo,
  • Thorne Lay,
  • Emily E Brodsky
Huiyun Guo
University of California Santa Cruz

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Thorne Lay
University of California Santa Cruz
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Emily E Brodsky
University of California, Santa Cruz
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Abstract

Variations in fault maturity have intermittently been invoked to explain variations in some seismological observations for large earthquakes. However, the lack of a unified geological definition of fault maturity makes quantitative assessment of its importance difficult. We evaluate the degree of empirical correlation between field measurements indicative of fault zone maturity and remotely measured seismological source parameters of 34 large shallow strike-slip events. Metrics based on fault segmentation, such as number of primary rupture segments and surface rupture azimuth, correlate best with seismic source attributes and the correlations with cumulative fault slip are somewhat weaker. Average rupture velocity shows the strongest correlation with metrics of maturity, followed by relative aftershock productivity. Mature faults have relatively lower aftershock productivity and higher rupture velocity. A more complex relation is found with moment-scaled radiated energy. There appears to be distinct behavior of very immature events with no prior mapped fault and < 1 km cumulative slip, which radiate modest seismic energy, while moderately mature faults have events with higher moment-scaled radiated energy and very mature faults with increasing cumulative slip tend to have events with reducing moment-scaled radiated energy. We also explore qualitative and composite assessments of maturity and arrive at similar trends. This empirical approach establishes that there are relationships between remote seismological observations and fault system maturity that can help to understand variations in seismic hazard among different fault environments and to assess the relative maturity of blind fault systems for which direct observations of maturity are very limited.