Precursory changes in seismic velocity for the spectrum of earthquake failure modes.

ABSTRACT: Temporal changes in seismic velocity during the earthquake cycle have the potential to illuminate physical processes associated with fault weakening and connections between the range of fault slip behaviors including slow earthquakes, tremor and low frequency earthquakes1. Laboratory and theoretical studies predict changes in seismic velocity prior to earthquake failure2, however tectonic faults fail in a spectrum of modes and little is known about precursors for those modes3. Here we show that precursory changes of wave speed occur in laboratory faults for the complete spectrum of failure modes observed for tectonic faults. We systematically altered the stiffness of the loading system to reproduce the transition from slow to fast stick-slip and monitored ultrasonic wave speed during frict

SUBMITTER: Scuderi MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5010128 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature