Frequency-dependent moment release of very low frequency earthquakes in the Cascadia subduction zone

Abstract:

Episodic tremor and slip (ETS) has been observed in Cascadia subduction zone at two different time scales: tremor at a high-frequency range of 2-8 Hz and slow slip events at a geodetic time-scale of days-months. The intermediate time scale is needed to understand the source spectrum of slow earthquakes. Ghosh et al. (2014, IRIS abs) recently reported the presence of very low frequency earthquakes (VLFEs) in Cascadia. In southwest Japan, VLFEs are usually observed at a period range around 20-50 s, and coincide with tremors (e.g., Ito et al. 2007). In this study, we analyzed VLFEs in and around the Olympic Peninsula to confirm their presence and estimate their moment release. We first detected VLFE events by using broadband seismograms with a band-pass filter of 20-50 s. The preliminary result shows that there are at least 16 VLFE events with moment magnitudes of 3.2-3.7 during the M6.8 2010 ETS. The focal mechanisms are consistent with the thrust earthquakes at the subducting plate interface. To detect signals of VLFEs below noise level, we further stacked long-period waveforms at the peak timings of tremor amplitudes for tremors within a 10-15 km radius by using tremor catalogs in 2006-2010, and estimated the focal mechanisms for each tremor source region as done in southwest Japan (Takeo et al. 2010 GRL). As a result, VLFEs could be detected for almost the entire tremor source region at a period range of 20-50 s with average moment magnitudes in each 5-min tremor window of 2.4-2.8. Although the region is limited, we could also detect VLFEs at a period range of 50-100 s with average moment magnitudes of 3.0-3.2. The moment release at 50-100 s is 4-8 times larger than that at 20-50 s, roughly consistent with an omega-squared spectral model. Further study including tremor, slow slip events and characteristic activities, such as rapid tremor reversal and tremor streaks, will reveal the source spectrum of slow earthquakes in a broader time scale from 0.1 s to days.