Investigating the Potential of Multisequence Displacement Timeseries for
Fault Rheology Estimation
Abstract
Understanding the nature and behavior of the rocks in boundary zones
between tectonic plates is important to improve our understanding of
earthquake-associated hazard. Laboratory experiments can derive models
that explain material behavior on small scales and under controlled
conditions. These models can also be tested on observations of surface
motion near plate boundaries: Fitting surface displacements from
earthquakes (either shortterm offsets or longterm motion) yields
estimates of rock properties for each model. However, using only
observations from a single earthquake (from immediately after the quake
and/or the subsequent years), may not allows us to confidently
distinguish between models. In this study, we investigate the potential
of using the displacement timeseries from multiple earthquakes, as well
as the period between the quakes, to distinguish between proposed
models. We use methods that enable comparison between models and
parameters taking into account uncertainties, and perform our assessment
on an artificial dataset.