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Abstract Following large earthquakes, viscoelastic stress relaxation may contribute to postseismic deformation observed at Earth's surface. Mechanical representations of viscoelastic deformation require a constitutive relationship for the lower crust/upper mantle material where stresses are diffused and, for non‐linear rheologies, knowledge of absolute stress level. Here, we describe a kinematic approach to representing geodetically observed postseismic motions that does not require an assumed viscoelastic rheology. The core idea is to use observed surface motions to constrain time‐dependent displacement boundary conditions applied at the base of the elastic upper crust by viscoelastic motions in the lower crust/upper mantle, approximating these displacements as slip on a set of dislocation elements. Using three‐dimensional forward models of viscoelastically modulated postseismic deformation in a thrust fault setting, we show how this approach can accurately represent surface motions and recover predicted displacements at the base of the elastic layer. Applied to the 1999 Chi‐Chi (Taiwan) earthquake, this kinematic approach can reproduce geodetically observed displacements and estimates of the partitioning between correlated postseismic deformation mechanisms. Specifically, we simultaneously estimate afterslip on the earthquake source fault that is similar to previous estimates, along with slip on dislocations at the base of the elastic layer that mimic predictions from viscous stress dissipation models in which viscosity is inferred to vary three‐dimensionally. A use case for the dislocation approach to modeling viscoelastic deformation is the estimation of spatiotemporally variable fault slip processes, including across sequential interseismic phases of the earthquake cycle, without assuming a lower crust/upper mantle rheology.
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Lithology and Fault‐Related Stress Variations Along the TCDP Boreholes: The Stress State Before and After the 1999 Chi‐Chi Earthquake
Abstract Understanding the stress state before and after an earthquake is essential to study how stress on faults evolves during the seismic cycle. This study integrates wellbore failure analysis, laboratory experiments, and edge dislocation model to study the stress state before and after the Chi‐Chi earthquake. The post‐earthquake in‐situ stress state observed along boreholes of the Taiwan Chelungpu‐fault Drilling Project (TCDP) is heterogeneous due to lithological variations. Along the borehole, we observe that drilling‐induced tensile fractures are only present in sandstones, whereas breakouts are mostly present in silt‐rich rocks. Laboratory experiments on TCDP cores also show that tensile and compressive strength are weaker in sandstones than in silt‐rich rocks. These observations imply that both maximum and minimum horizontal principal stresses are higher in silt‐rich intervals. Extended leak‐off tests in the TCDP borehole also show lower minimum horizontal stress in sand‐rich intervals, consistent with the above observations. We combine these observations to estimate a profile of stress magnitudes along the well which explains the variability of stress states found in previous studies. The stress heterogeneity we observed underlines the importance of acknowledging the spatial scale that the stress data represent. We then use an edge dislocation model constrained by GPS surface displacements obtained during Chi‐Chi earthquake to calculate the coseismic stress changes. Our inferred pre‐earthquake stress magnitudes, obtained by subtracting the coseismic stress change from the post‐earthquake stress, suggest subcritical stress state before the earthquake despite the large displacements observed during the Chi‐Chi earthquake in the region where TCDP encountered the fault.
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- PAR ID:
- 10367732
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
- Volume:
- 127
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2169-9313
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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