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What Drives the Variability in Earthquake Sequence Productivity in California and Nevada?

Description: 

It is widely recognized that earthquake sequences exhibit substantial variability in productivity, but the physical mechanisms underlying this observation remain poorly understood. In this work we focus on resolving systematic variations in the productivity of crustal earthquake sequences in California and Nevada, the two most seismically active states in the western US. We apply a well-tested nearest-neighbor algorithm to automatically extract earthquake sequence statistics from a unified 40-year compilation of regional earthquake catalogs that is complete to ~M2.5. We then compare earthquake sequence productivity to geophysical parameters that may influence earthquake triggering processes, including heat flow, temperature at seismogenic depth, complexity of quaternary faulting, geodetic strain rates, depth to crystalline basement, and faulting style. We observe coherent spatial variations in earthquake sequence productivity, with higher values in the Walker Lane of eastern California and Nevada than along the present-day plate boundary fault system in western California. The results illuminate significant correlations between productivity and heat flow, temperature, and faulting that contribute to the understanding and ability to forecast crustal earthquake sequences in the area.

Session: New Insights into the Development, Testing and Communication of Seismicity Forecasts - I

Type: Oral

Date: 5/2/2024

Presentation Time: 05:00 PM (local time)

Presenting Author: Daniel

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Authors