← Back to Sessions

Understanding the Rupture Process of the Mw 7.6 2022 Michoacán Earthquake With Distributed Acoustic Sensing

Description: 

Mexico City, the most populated city in the Americas, undergoes significant seismic hazards. Yet, the city is sparsely instrumented compared to other populated and seismically active regions. Therefore, we installed a DAS interrogator in Mexico City in the summer of 2022 to collect one year of data for observational studies in the region. On Sep. 19, 2022, a Mw 7.6 earthquake occurred in Michoacán, approximately 450 km away from the city. The DAS system provides us with a high-quality, ultra-dense, and unique dataset that can be used to study the rupture process of the earthquake, which is essential to refine our understanding of regional fault systems and potential seismic hazards.

We apply a recently developed higher-frequency back-projection method to obtain a novel 3-D earthquake rupturing image and test the limit of DAS for earthquake source characterization. We integrate DAS recordings with data from regional and global seismic stations to investigate the rupture process of the Michoacán earthquake at different spatial scales at a frequency range of 0.2-1 Hz. With preliminary analysis, we successfully identify and locate two subevents in a 3D rupturing space, and we further validate the outcomes with conventional seismometers. These results demonstrate the great potential of enhancing rupture imaging by integrating DAS arrays in earthquake source studies.

Session: Advancing Seismology with Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing - II

Type: Oral

Date: 5/3/2024

Presentation Time: 11:15 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Yaolin

Student Presenter: Yes

Invited Presentation: 

Authors