Months-long crustal deformation driven by aseismic slips and pore
pressure transients triggered by local and regional earthquakes
Abstract
Strong strain and pore pressure changes are observed after three Mw 4.5+
local and one Mw 7.2 regional earthquakes during 2010‒2017 in borehole
strainmeters near Anza, California. The strain change emerges
immediately after the earthquakes and lasts 40‒100 days with amplitudes
up to 1e−7, larger than the coseismic strain offsets. The pore pressure
exhibits change immediately after the earthquakes at some boreholes and
with a delay of 4‒10 days at the others. A joint analysis of the
observed postseismic strain and pore pressure change suggests that the
postseismic strains could be explained by combined effects of
poroelastic deformation due to earthquake-induced pore pressure change
and elastic deformation due to an earthquake-triggered aseismic slip on
a nearby fault. Our study indicates that, in addition to possible
aseismic fault slips triggered by an earthquake, pore pressure changes
after the earthquake could be even more important in producing
postseismic deformation.