IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v400y1999i6743d10.1038_22739.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rigidity variations with depth along interplate megathrust faults in subduction zones

Author

Listed:
  • Susan L. Bilek

    (University of California)

  • Thorne Lay

    (University of California)

Abstract

The world's largest earthquakes occur along the contact between subducting and overriding tectonic plates in subduction zones1. Rock and sediment properties near this plate interface exert important controls on the frictional behaviour of faults and earthquake rupture dynamics2. An important material property to define along the plate interface is the rigidity (the resistance to shear deformation). Rigidity affects the degree of earthquake shaking generated by a given fault displacement through its influences on seismic wave speed and earthquake rupture velocity. Here we present an investigation of the relationship between the duration of earthquake rupture and source depth, which yields estimates of rigidity variation along plate interfaces in six subduction zones in the circum-Pacific region. If stress drop is assumed constant, rigidity appears to increase with depth in each seismogenic zone by a factor of ∼5 between depths of 5 and 20 km. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that ‘tsunami’ earthquakes (characterized by large slip for a given seismic moment and slow rupture velocity) occur in regions of low rigidity at shallow depths3,4,5. These rigidity trends should provide an important constraint for future fault-zone and earthquake-modelling efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan L. Bilek & Thorne Lay, 1999. "Rigidity variations with depth along interplate megathrust faults in subduction zones," Nature, Nature, vol. 400(6743), pages 443-446, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:400:y:1999:i:6743:d:10.1038_22739
    DOI: 10.1038/22739
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/22739
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/22739?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nikos Kalligeris & Luis Montoya & Aykut Ayca & Patrick Lynett, 2017. "An approach for estimating the largest probable tsunami from far-field subduction zone earthquakes," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 89(1), pages 233-253, October.
    2. G. Gopinath & F. Løvholt & G. Kaiser & C. Harbitz & K. Srinivasa Raju & M. Ramalingam & Bhoop Singh, 2014. "Impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami along the Tamil Nadu coastline: field survey review and numerical simulations," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 72(2), pages 743-769, June.
    3. Yo Fukutani & Suppasri Anawat & Fumihiko Imamura, 2016. "Uncertainty in tsunami wave heights and arrival times caused by the rupture velocity in the strike direction of large earthquakes," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 80(3), pages 1749-1782, February.
    4. Yo Fukutani & Suppasri Anawat & Fumihiko Imamura, 2016. "Uncertainty in tsunami wave heights and arrival times caused by the rupture velocity in the strike direction of large earthquakes," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 80(3), pages 1749-1782, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:400:y:1999:i:6743:d:10.1038_22739. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.