Abstract We analyze nearest‐neighbor proximities of earthquakes in California based on the joint distribution (T,R) of rescaled timeTand rescaled distanceRbetween pairs of earthquakes (Zaliapin & Ben‐Zion, 2013a,https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrb.50179), using seismic catalogs from several regions and several catalogs for the San Jacinto Fault Zone (SJFZ). The study aims to identify informative modes in nearest‐neighbor diagrams beyond the general background and clustered modes, and to assess seismic catalogs derived by different methods. The results show that earthquake clusters with large and small‐to‐medium mainshocks have approximately diagonal and horizontal (T,R) distributions of the clustered mode, respectively, reflecting different triggering distances of mainshocks. Earthquakes in the creeping section of San Andreas Fault have a distinct “repeaters mode” characterized by very large rescaled timesTand very small rescaled distancesR, due to nearly identical locations of repeating events. Induced seismicity in the Geysers and Coso geothermal fields follow mostly the background mode, but with larger rescaled timesTand smaller rescaled distancesRcompared to tectonic background seismicity. We also document differences in (T,R) distributions of catalogs constructed by different techniques (analyst‐picks, template‐matching and deep‐learning) for the SJFZ, and detect a mode with very largeRand smallTin the template‐matching and deep‐learning based catalogs. This mode may reflect dynamic triggering by passing waves and/or catalog artifacts.
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Improved Observations of Deep Earthquake Ruptures Using Machine Learning
Abstract Elevated seismic noise for moderate‐size earthquakes recorded at teleseismic distances has limited our ability to see their complexity. We develop a machine‐learning‐based algorithm to separate noise and earthquake signals that overlap in frequency. The multi‐task encoder‐decoder model is built around a kernel pre‐trained on local (e.g., short distances) earthquake data (Yin et al., 2022,https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac290) and is modified by continued learning with high‐quality teleseismic data. We denoise teleseismic P waves of deep Mw5.0+ earthquakes and use the clean P waves to estimate source characteristics with reduced uncertainties of these understudied earthquakes. We find a scaling of moment and duration to beM0 ≃ τ4, and a resulting strong scaling of stress drop and radiated energy with magnitude ( and ). The median radiation efficiency is 5%, a low value compared to crustal earthquakes. Overall, we show that deep earthquakes have weak rupture directivity and few subevents, suggesting a simple model of a circular crack with radial rupture propagation is appropriate. When accounting for their respective scaling with earthquake size, we find no systematic depth variations of duration, stress drop, or radiated energy within the 100–700 km depth range. Our study supports the findings of Poli and Prieto (2016,https://doi.org/10.1002/2016jb013521) with a doubled amount of earthquakes investigated and with earthquakes of lower magnitudes.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2124722
- PAR ID:
- 10481204
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
- Volume:
- 128
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2169-9313
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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