2013 Articles
Earthquake Surface Slip-Length Data is Fit by Constant Stress Drop and is Useful for Seismic Hazard Analysis
We present a new method to use directly observable surface-slip measurements in seismic hazard estimates.We present measures of scaling-relation fits to slip length data. These fits show sublinear scaling, a slowing in the rate of slip increase for the longest ruptures, so that L scaling—scaling with the length of the rupture—does not hold out to very large aspect ratio events. We find the best fitting for a constant stress drop model, followed next by a square root of length model. The constant stress-drop model, newly introduced here, provides a geometrical explanation for a long-standing puzzle of why slip only begins to saturate at large aspect ratios. The good fit of the constant stress-drop model to the slip-length data lends further support to the observations of constant stress-drop scaling across the whole range of magnitudes of earthquakes, from small to great earthquakes. The good fit of the constant stress-drop model is also reflected by the low variability about the mean, with an average of less than a factor-of-2 variability in stress drop about the mean observed. Converting magnitude-area scaling into implied slip-length scaling, we determine qualitative consistency in the functional forms, but a quantitative difference of, on average, about 30 percent more slip estimated from magnitude area compared with slip length.
Subjects
Files
- Shaw13.pdf application/pdf 461 KB Download File
Also Published In
- Title
- Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1785/0120110258
More About This Work
- Academic Units
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
- Seismology, Geology, and Tectonophysics
- Published Here
- May 17, 2013