Evidence for faulting and fluid-driven earthquake processes from seismic attenuation variations beneath metropolitan Los Angeles

Seismicity in the Los Angeles metropolitan area has been primarily attributed to the regional stress loading. Below the urban areas, earthquake sequences have occurred over time showing migration off the faults and providing evidence that secondary processes may be involved in their evolution. Combining high-frequency seismic attenuation with other geophysical observations is a powerful tool for understanding which Earth properties distinguish regions with ongoing seismicity. We develop the first high-resolution 3D seismic attenuation models across the region east of downtown Los Angeles using 5,600 three-component seismograms from local earthquakes recorded by a dense seismic array. We present frequency-dependent peak delay and coda-attenuation tomography as proxies for seismic scattering and absorption, respectively. The scattering models show high sensitivity to the seismicity along some of the major faults, such as the Cucamonga fault and the San Jacinto fault zone, while a channel of low scattering in the basement extends from near the San Andreas fault westward. In the vicinity of the Fontana seismic sequence, high absorption, low scattering, and seismicity migration across a fault network suggest fluid-driven processes. Our attenuation and fault network imaging characterize near-fault zones and rock-fluid properties beneath the study area for future improvements in seismic hazard evaluation.

Incremental Dynamic Analysis Considering Main Aftershock of Structures Based on the Correlation of Maximum and Residual Inter-Story Drift Ratios

Aftershocks often occur after strong earthquakes and aggravate structural damage. Commonly, the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) considering the main aftershocks only used a single index such as the maximum or the residual inter-story drift ratio. However, results of IDA using different indices may suggest that a structure has collapsed but is still repairable, which is not realistic. Given these shortcomings, this paper proposes selecting two indices in the IDA method based on the correlation between the maximum and the residual inter-story drift ratio, considering the main aftershocks. The influence of the double-indices model on the structural vulnerability analysis was discussed by establishing a commercial building in SAP2000 software, and single-index and double-index IDA were carried out, respectively. The joint distribution probability of the two indices under fixed seismic intensity was also calculated. The difference between the single-index and double-index IDA results was compared considering both the main shock and the main aftershock. The results showed that the effect of aftershocks would improve the correlation coefficient between the maximum and the residual inter-story drift ratio, and the building model has a higher probability of overrun after considering the correlation of the two indices. This paper provides a new method for IDA and vulnerability analysis using multiple indices.

Aftershock analysis of the 2015 Gorkha-Dolakha (Central Nepal) earthquake doublet

On 25 April 2015, a large earthquake with moment-magnitude (M_w) 7.8 occurred at Gorkha (latitude 28.23° N and longitude 84.73° E) in Central Nepal. Just 17 days later, another large earthquake of M_w 7.3 occurred at Dolakha (latitude 27.80° N and longitude 86.06° E), about 140 km away from the previous epicenter. In this study, we deal with the aftershocks of these two earthquakes that occurred in the region (27°–28.5°N, 84°–87°E) spanning the period from 25 April 2015 to 28 May 2016 to find the spatiotemporal distribution patterns, the size distribution (b-value), and the aftershock decay rate (p-value) of this sequence. Aftershock epicenters of the 2015 Gorkha-Dolakha earthquake doublet are distributed over an area approximately 170 km in length and 70 km in width and largely confined in a depth range from 5 to 25 km. The spatial distribution of epicenters and known geological structures in this study reveals that aftershocks are limited on the east by the surface trace of the Everest lineament and on the south side by the surface trace of the segment of the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT). The estimated b-and p-values of this seismic sequence are 0.93 ± 0.03 and 0.79 ± 0.24, respectively. This b-value is higher than the b-value estimated by the previous studies, while the p-value corresponds in general with the p-value obtained by recent study in the region.

Tectonic contraction across Los Angeles after removal of groundwater pumping effects

After the 1987 Whittier Narrows and 1994 Northridge earthquakes revealed that blind thrust faults represent a significant threat to metropolitan Los Angeles, a network of 250 continuously recording global positioning system (GPS) stations was deployed to monitor displacements associated with deep slip on both blind and surface faults. Here we augment this GPS data with interferometric synthetic aperture radar imagery to take into account the deformation associated with groundwater pumping and strike-slip faulting. After removing these non-tectonic signals, we are left with 4.4 mm yr-1 of uniaxial contraction across the Los Angeles basin, oriented N 36 degrees E (perpendicular to the major strike-slip faults in the area). This indicates that the contraction is primarily accommodated on thrust faults rather than on the northeast-trending strike-slip faults. We have found that widespread groundwater and oil pumping obscures and in some cases mimics the tectonic signals expected from the blind thrust faults. In the 40-km-long Santa Ana basin, groundwater withdrawal and re-injection produces 12 mm yr-1 of long-term subsidence, accompanied by an unprecedented seasonal oscillation of 55 mm in the vertical direction and 7 mm horizontally.

Evidence for large earthquakes in metropolitan los angeles

The Sierra Madre fault, along the southern flank of the San Gabriel Mountains in the Los Angeles region, has failed in magnitude 7.2 to 7.6 events at least twice in the past 15,000 years. Restoration of slip on the fault indicated a minimum of about 4.0 meters of slip from the most recent earthquake and suggests a total cumulative slip of about 10.5 meters for the past two prehistoric earthquakes. Large surface displacements and strong ground motions resulting from greater than magnitude 7 earthquakes within the Los Angeles region are not yet considered in most seismic hazard and risk assessments.