The Eastern California Shear Zone:

A Natural Laboratory for Fault Studies

Elizabeth S. Cochran
UC Riverside

SCEC USE-IT
July 6, 2009
Driving Force
Behind
Earthquakes:

Plate Tectonics
Evolution of California’s Plate
Boundary
California’s Plates
San Andreas: What kind of fault?
San Andreas Big Bend
Zoom on California Plate Boundary
Tectonic Regimes
 Eastern California Shear Zone

• Total of 10 – 12 mm per year of right lateral

shear

• Takes up about 25% of the total plate motion

between the Pacific and North American Plates

• May be the future ‘San Andreas’ creating a

straighter plate boundary

• Problem – doesn’t continue to the North (at

least not obviously)
Faults in SouthernEastern
California
California
Shear Zone

SCEC CFM Project

 Interacting Faults?

 Joshua Tree
 M 6.1 June 26, 1992
 Landers
 M 7.3 June 27, 1992
 Big Bear
 M 6.5 June 27, 1992

 Hector Mine
 M 7.1 Oct., 1999
 Stressing San Andreas?

Red = Increased Stress Lin, WHOI

Blue = Decreased Stress
 Faults Taking Turns?
Evidence from Paleoseismology

Dolan et al. 2007

Dolan et al. 2007
Dolan et al. 2007
 How Might Faults Interact?
• Static Stress?
– Stress caused by shifting the ground a
certain amount
– Dies off quickly away from the fault

• Dynamic Stress?
– Stress caused by seismic waves passing
– Smaller than static stress close to a fault,
more important far away

Where do we look for evidence?

 Imaging Fault Interactions

• Seismology - waves that travel

through the ground generated by either
earthquakes or explosions

• InSAR - waves that travel through the

air generated by man-made sources on
a satellite (i.e. RADAR)
1. Study the Evolution of Fault Structure

Calico Fault

1999 Hector Mine

Earthquake

1992 Landers
Earthquake
 Seismology- Waves in the Earth

Waves moving
outward from We put out sensors to
earthquake source measure the type of
waves and how long it
takes for seismic wave
to travel from the source
to our stations.

Earthquake
Seismology- Waves in the Earth
 Bring Out the Seismic Array!

Step 1: Dig Holes

We install seismic
stations near faults to
record waves from
earthquakes and
explosions and measure
how fast they travel
Bring Out the Seismic Array!
Step 2: Install Seismometers

Solar Panel

Recorder

Sensor
(buried)
GPS
 Bring Out the Seismic Array!

Seismometers are
installed in a line or grid
across a fault
 Controlled Source: Explosions

Explosions are
detonated to better
determine the shallow
fault zone.
Controlled Source: Explosions
 Passive Source: Earthquakes

• Recorded 100s of
earthquakes during
the 6 month
deployment.

• The waves can be

used to image the
fault – in this case
the Calico fault in
the Eastern
California Shear
Zone
 Can We ‘See’ the
Fault?
• We measure how long it
takes for wave to travel
from the explosion or
earthquake to our stations
• Waves should take the
same amount of time to
travel a certain distance
unless the rock properties
are different.

• It takes longer for

waves to travel
Distance (km)

through the fault!

Distance (km)
 Modeling a Fault
1. Create a model with lower seismic wave
speeds in the fault.
2. Send waves through the model
3. Compare the model times to the real times
4. Adjust the model if needed

Red = Higher velocity

Blue = Lower velocity
 Seismic Travel Times Confirm:
Calico Fault Is Wide
• Calico Fault is 1.5 km wide!
• Velocities are 45% lower in the fault!

Red = Higher velocity

Actual Data
Blue = Lower velocity
Model Times
 Another Way to Use the Seismic
Data
• Waves get trapped in the low velocities around
the fault

• Observe higher amplitude (strength) closer to

the main slip plane
 Modeling the Trapped Waves
The Results:
• The seismic waves
travel slower and
have higher
amplitudes near
the fault!
• 1.5 km wide fault
zone
• Velocities are lower
even deep in the
fault!
 An Old Very Damaged Fault
• The Calico Fault:
– 1.5 km wide
– 40% lower velocities in the fault
– Fault has not broken in 100s to 1000s of
years, so damage is long-lived!
 Fault Zone Evolution
Examined the rupture zones of the Landers
and Hector Mine earthquakes for several
years by repeatedly deploying seismic
arrays.

Wanted to know:
• What happens to the fault damage zone
in the months to years following a large
earthquake?
 Fault Zone Evolution: Healing of Hector
Mine
2000 Blue 2001 Red

On-Fault

Off-Fault
Velocity recovery with time after
Landers
 Fault Interaction!

•Landers fault zone heals in

the years following the
mainshock

•But, the fault zone is re-

damaged by the dynamic
shaking from the Hector Mine
earthquake (50 km away)

[Li et al., JGR, 2003; Vidale and Li, Nature, 2003]

 2. Using Satellite Images to Study
Fault Interaction

Can we ‘see’ fault interaction some

other way?

Let’s look at InSAR data collected in the Eastern California

Shear Zone
 What is InSAR?
Interferometric
Synthetic
Aperture
Radar

• Measure displacement of the ground,

remotely
• High resolution (<100 m)
• Large areas (>100 km)
• Operating since 1991, applied to
over 40 eqs
 How It Works: InSAR

Transmit a radar wave (wavelength is in the

microwave-band) and measure amplitude and
phase of returns

Amplitude (strength) is a function of the

roughness of the ground

Phase (delay) is a function of distance

from satellite to ground
 How It Works: InSAR

Path difference results in phase

shift
780 km

We know the positions of the

5.6

satellites really well, so we can

cm

calculate this path difference

(phase)!
 How It Works: InSAR

Pass 1 Pass 2
 How It Works: InSAR

Pass 1: pre-earthquake Pass 2: post-earthquake

phase shift due to

ground motion
 Image A - 12 August 1999

Interferogram =
Phase A - Phase B

Remove phase from 
topography
satellite positions
earth curvature
Image B - 16 September 1999
 (-20) 567 mm range decrease

(-10) 283 mm range decrease

(-2) 57 mm range decrease

(-1) 28 mm range decrease

(0) 0 mm range change

Example: 17 August 1999, Izmit earthquake (Turkey)

 What are the benefits of InSAR?
Fine spatial resolution, dense observation set,
so…
• Can resolve how much slip has occurred on a fault

• Sensitive to fault geometry and fault properties

• Possibility of seeing some unusual slip events

• We can use InSAR interferograms from the 1992 Mw7.3

Landers and 1999 Mw7.1 Hector Mine earthquakes to
learn something about the Calico fault!
 Co-Seismic Interferogram:
1999 M 7.1 Hector Mine Earthquake
Apply a Filter

What happens if we filter out

certain phases of the
interferogram?

Can we see anything

interesting?

Fialko et al., 2002

What Does This Tell Us About Faults?

Depth Undamaged Undamaged

Rock Fault Rock
 What Does This Tell Us About Faults?

Undamaged Undamaged
Rock Fault Rock

Strained by
Hector Mine
earthquake
 InSAR Data: A Surprising Picture

• High-passed co-seismic
InSAR images from the
Hector Mine and Landers
earthquakes show
deformation on nearby
faults, including the
Calico Fault!
• Faults are deformed by
the stress from the
Hector Mine earthquake!
 1. What Does it All Mean?
• During an earthquake energy goes into:
– Slipping the two sides of a fault past each other
– Radiating seismic waves
– Cracking rock around a fault - damage zone

Crack in Hawaiian Fault Zone

Hector Mine
 2. What Does It All Mean?
• Faults are likely to be
more responsive to small
stress changes because all
of the strain (deformation)
is localized on the fault.
 The End!

Thanks for listening!

Are there any questions?