Anthropogenically-Induced Superficial Seismic Activity Modulated By Slow-Slip Events in Guerrero, Mexico

Abstract:

We use the data of the MASE seismic experiment operated during 2.5 years in Guerrero, Mexico to create a large catalog of seismic multiplets. This catalog is dominated by families of Low-Frequency Earthquakes (LFE) occurring in vicinity of the main subduction interface. In addition to more than one thousand LFE families, we detected nine repeating seismic event families that are located in the upper crust and are anthropogenically induced (AI) by mining blasts. Analysis of the recurrence of these AI events in time shows that their activity significantly increases during the strong Slow-Slip Event (SSE) in 2006. Modeled static stress perturbations induced by the SSE at the surface are ~5 kPa that is on the same order of magnitude as dynamic stress perturbations observed to trigger other low stress drop phenomena, such as tectonic tremor. We propose therefore that strong SSEs in Guerrero impose an extensional regime throughout the continental crust, modifying the stress field near the surface and increasing AI activity. This modulation of the recurrence of the crustal seismic events by the SSE-induced stress might be related to another recent observation: the SSE-induced reduction of seismic velocities linked to nonlinear elastic effects caused by opening of cracks (Rivet et al., 2011, 2014).