Using Fault-Zone Trapped Waves from Teleseismic Earthquakes to Document Deep Structure of the Calico Fault in Mojave Desert

Abstract:

Fault-zone trapped waves (FZTWs) are observed at a square seismic array consisting of 40 intermediate-period stations deployed adjacent to the Calico Fault (CF) in Mojave Desert, California for teleseismic earthquakes and used to characterize the deep structure of fault damage zone. In the previous study, traveltimes inverse, FZTWs generated by explosions and local earthquakes, and InSAR observations have been used to document the seismic velocity structure of the CF zone, within which velocities are reduced to ~40% in the center of a 1.5-km-wide compliant zone along the fault strike and extending to 5-6 km depth at the array site [Cochran, et al., 2009]. In order to better address the deep portion of the CF beyond the depth coverage of local earthquakes, we use FZTWs recorded at this array atop the CF for teleseismic earthquakes which have great promise for providing unprecedented constrains of the depth extension of fault-zone damage structure because the FZTWs arise from teleseismic waves incident at the fault bottom at deep level. We examined the data from 72 M≥6 teleseismic earthquakes recorded at the Calico array, and identified significant FZTWs with much larger amplitudes and longer wavetrains starting ~5-s after the first-arrivals at stations located within the compliant zone along the CF strike than those registered at farther stations for teleseismic earthquakes occurring at great depths with less surface wave affect. We interpret observed FZTWs being formed by S-waves converted from P waves at the Moho (~30-km depth) and entering the bottom of the CF. The FZTWs from teleseismic earthquakes show consistent longer wavetrains (~12-s) than those (3-8-s) recorded at same stations for local earthquakes at shallow depths, indicating that the CF low-velocity compliant zone likely extends throughout much of the seismogenic zone as a result of the portion of energy expended during rupture in historical earthquakes to drive cracking and yielding of rock and development of fault systems. We simulate observed FZTWs for teleseismic events as plane waves coming from the Moho and incident at the bottom of the CF in terms of a waveguide model combined with the fault damage structure at shallow depth obtained in the previous study to achieve a better constraint on the depth extension of the low-velocity damage zones along the CF.