Despite the enormous efforts towards searching for precursors, no precursors have exhibited real predictive power with respect to an earthquake thus far. Seismogenic locked segments that can accumulate adequate strain energy to cause major earthquakes are very heterogeneous and less brittle; progressive failures of the locked segments with these properties can produce an interesting seismic phenomenon: a characteristic earthquake and a sequence of smaller subsequent earthquakes (pre-shocks) always arise prior to another characteristic earthquake within a well-defined seismic zone and its current seismic period. Applying a mechanical model and magnitude constraint conditions, we show that two adjacent characteristic earthquakes reliably occur at the volume-expansion and peak-stress points of a locked segment. Such a seismicity pattern has occurred in 62 seismic zones worldwide, suggesting that the pattern applies universally. Both the precursor pattern and the model quantifying it permit the prediction of certain characteristic earthquakes in a seismic zone.
A major part of the seismicity striking the Mediterranean area and other regions worldwide is hosted in carbonate rocks. Recent examples are the destructive earthquakes of L'Aquila Mw 6.1 2009 and Norcia Mw 6.5 2016 in Central Italy. Surprisingly, within this region, fast (\approx 3km/s) and destructive seismic ruptures coexist with slow (maximum 10 m/s) and non-destructive rupture phenomena. Despite of its relevance for seismic hazard studies, the transitions from fault creep to slow and fast seismic rupture propagation are still poorly constrained by seismological and laboratory observations…
We analyse the statistical pattern of seismicity before a 1-2 103 m3 chalk cliff collapse on the Normandie ocean shore, Western France. We show that a power law acceleration of seismicity rate and energy in both 40 Hz-1.5 kHz and 2 Hz-10kHz frequency range, is defined on 3 order of magnitude, within 2 hours from the collapse time. Simultaneously, the average size of the seismic events increases toward the time to failure. These in-situ results are derived from the only station located within one rupture length distance from the rock fall rupture plane. They mimic the "critical point" like beha…
A recently proposed method of constructing seismic networks from 'record breaking events' from the earthquake catalog of California (Phy. Rev. E, 77 6,066104, 2008) was successfull in establishing causal features to seismicity and arrive at estimates for rupture length and its scaling with magnitude. The results of our implementation of this procedure on the earthquake catalog of Japan establishes the robustness of the procedure. Additionally, we find that the temporal distributions are able to detect heterogeneties in the seismicity of the region.
Self-Arresting and Runaway Earthquakes:Nucleation, Propagation, Gutenberg-Richter law and Dragon-King Events
Institute of Risk Analysis, Prediction and Management (Risks-X), Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology(南方科技大学前沿交叉科学研究院风险分析与预测管理研究所);Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology(南方科技大学地球与空间科学系);School of Earth and Space Science and Technology, Wuhan University(武汉大学地球与空间科学技术学院)
The North Anatolian Fault experienced large earthquakes with 250-400 years recurrence time. In the Marmara Sea region, the 1999 (Mw = 7.4) and the 1912 (Mw = 7.4) earthquake ruptures bound the Central Marmara Sea fault segment. Using historical-instrumental seismicity catalogue and paleoseismic results (~2000-year database), the mapped fault segments, fault kinematic and GPS data, we compute the paleoseismic-seismic moment rate and geodetic moment rate. A clear discrepancy appears between the moment rates and implies a significant delay in the seismic slip along the fault in the Marmara Sea. T…
Several recent works point out that the crowd of small unobservable earthquakes (with magnitudes below the detection threshold $m_d$) may play a significant and perhaps dominant role in triggering future seismicity. Using the ETAS branching model of triggered seismicity, we apply the formalism of generating probability functions to investigate how the statistical properties of observable earthquakes differ from the statistics of all events. The ETAS (epidemic-type aftershock sequence) model assumes that each earthquake can trigger other earthquakes (``aftershocks''). An aftershock sequence res…
The 2016 Mw 7.0 Kumamoto Earthquake Sequence, Japan revisited: Insights from Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Seismicity Parameters
Farhangian University(法尔干大学);Ankara University(安卡拉大学);University of Beira Interior(贝拉内陆大学);Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (AORI), the University of Tokyo(东京大学大气海洋研究所)
The roughness of the subduction interface is thought to influence seismogenic behavior in subduction zones, but a detailed understanding of how such roughness affects the state of stress along the subduction megathrust is still debated. Here, we use seismotectonic analogue models to investigate the effect of subduction interface roughness on seismicity in subduction zones. We compared analogue earthquake source parameters and slip distributions for two roughness endmembers. Models characterized by a very rough interface have lower interface frictional strength and lower interseismic coupling t…
Seismotectonics and Slip Behavior of a Submarine Plate Boundary Fault from Seismicity Repeaters and Tomography using a high-resolution earthquake catalog from machine learning
Seismic quiescence and activation prior to the 2025 M8.8 Kamchatka, Russia earthquake
University of Shizuoka(静冈大学);Shizuoka University(静冈大学);Institute of Statistical Mathematics(统计数学研究所);Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology(日本海洋地球科学技术机构);University of California, Davis(加州大学戴维斯分校);Santa Fe Institute(圣塔菲研究所)
Statistical properties of the one-dimensional spring-block (Burridge-Knopoff) model of earthquakes obeying the rate and state dependent friction law are studied by extensive computer simulations. The quantities computed include the magnitude distribution, the rupture-length distribution, the mainshock recurrence-time distribution, the seismic time correlations before and after the mainshock, the mean slip amount, and the mean stress drop at the mainshock, etc. Events of the model can be classified into two distinct categories. One tends to be unilateral with its epicenter located at the rim of…
The theory about the brittle failures of multiple locked patches in a seismogenic fault system developed by us since 2010 is introduced in the present study. It is stated by the theory that the progressive failures of locked patch result in the occurrence of earthquakes due to fault movement, where the major earthquakes occurred at its volume expansion and peak strength points are referred to as characteristic ones. We analyze the seismogenic law of characteristic earthquakes in the Islamabad-Kathmandu seismic zone that extends along Himalayan seismic belt, and assess the seismicity trend of t…
Forest fire models may be interpreted as a simple model for earthquake occurrence by translating trees and fire into stressed segments of a fault and their rupture, respectively. Here we adopt a twodimensional forest-fire model in continuous time, and focus on the temporal changes of seismicity and the b-value. We find the b-value change and seismic quiescence prior to large earthquakes by stacking many sequences towards large earthquakes. As the magnitude-frequency relation in this model is directly related to the cluster-size distribution, decrease of the b-value can be explained in terms of…
Evaluating the performance of machine-learning-based phase pickers when applied to ocean bottom seismic data: Blanco oceanic transform fault as a case study