Remote triggering of fault-strength changes on the San Andreas fault at Parkfield

Taka’aki Taira (), Paul G. Silver, Fenglin Niu and Robert M. Nadeau
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Taka’aki Taira: Carnegie Institution of Washington, District of Columbia 20015, USA
Paul G. Silver: Carnegie Institution of Washington, District of Columbia 20015, USA
Fenglin Niu: Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
Robert M. Nadeau: Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Nature, 2009, vol. 461, issue 7264, 636-639

Abstract: Earthquakes find fault A 20-year seismological record of from the Parkfield area of the San Andreas fault has been used to identify two occasions when long-term changes in fault strength seem to have been induced remotely by large seismic events — the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman and the 1992 Landers earthquakes. In both cases, two changes occurred that are consistent with variations in fault strength: variation in the properties of seismic scatterers with time (reflecting stress-induced migration of fluids) and systematic variation in the characteristics of repeating-earthquake sequences. These findings suggest that the largest earthquakes have a global influence on the strength of the Earth's fault systems. In support of that hypothesis, an unusually large number of M ≥ 8 earthquakes occurred in the three years following the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08395

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