In-situ Vp/Vs ratio reveals fault-zone material variation at the
westernmost Gofar transform fault, East Pacific Rise
Abstract
Ocean transform faults often generate characteristic earthquakes that
repeatedly rupture the same fault patches. The westernmost Gofar
transform fault quasi-periodically hosts ~M6 earthquakes
every ~5 years, and microseismicity suggests that the
fault is segmented into five distinct zones, including a rupture barrier
zone that may have modulated the rupture of adjacent M6 earthquakes.
However, the relationship between the systematic slip behavior of the
Gofar fault and the fault material properties is still poorly known.
Specifically, the role of pore fluids in regulating the slip of the
Gofar fault is unclear. Here, we develop a new method using differential
arrival times between nearby earthquakes to estimate the in-situ Vp/Vs
ratio of the fault-zone materials. We apply this technique to the
dataset collected by an ocean-bottom-seismometer network deployed around
the Gofar fault in 2008, which recorded abundant microearthquakes, and
find a moderate Vp/Vs ratio of 1.75–1.80 in the rupture barrier zone
and a low Vp/Vs ratio of 1.61–1.69 in the down-dip edge of the 2008 M6
rupture zone. This lateral variation in Vp/Vs ratio may be caused by
both pore fluids and chemical alteration. We also find a 5–10%
increase in Vp/Vs ratio in the barrier zone during the nine months
before the mainshock. This increase may have been caused by fluid
migrations or slip transients in the barrier zone.