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Coseismic Temperature Proxies and their Applications to Understanding Earthquake Rupture and Seismic Hazard

Description: 

During an earthquake, frictional resistance along a fault can lead to the generation of high temperatures. The temperature rise that occurs provides clues into an earthquake’s size and rupture dynamics as temperature is dependent on various earthquake properties like displacement and frictional energy. Numerous thermal proxies have been developed to evaluate coseismic temperature rise including but not limited to biomarkers, pseudotachylyte, vitrinite reflection, and calcite decomposition.

Here, we present results of work integrating these proxies and what they can teach us about earthquakes with a particular focus on biomarkers, which are organic molecules present in some rocks that are progressively altered with increasing temperature and duration of heating. These proxies provide a means of constraining the displacement during an earthquake along bedrock faults where traditional paleoseismic techniques cannot be applied. They also enable quantification of the frictional energy dissipated during slip and therefore, insight into the earthquake energy budget. We also present recent and ongoing work on faults in California and New Zealand, which couples biomarker thermal maturity with K/Ar dating to assess when these faults last experienced the high temperatures associated with earthquake slip, and hence when they were last active.

Session: Learning Across Geological, Geophysical & Model-Derived Observations to Constrain Earthquake Behavior - I

Type: Oral

Date: 5/1/2024

Presentation Time: 09:00 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Genevieve

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Authors