Systematic Observations of the Slip Pulse Properties of Large Earthquake Ruptures

• Published in: Geophysical research letters 2017-10, Vol.44 (19), p.9691-9698
• Main Authors: Melgar, Diego, Hayes, Gavin P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Crack propagation; Dynamics; Earthquakes; Faults; Geological faults; Geological hazards; Geophysics; Ground motion; hemiacetal spiro; Kinematics; oxindole; Properties; Properties (attributes); Pulse propagation; Rupture; Rupturing; Scaling; Seismic activity; Seismic hazard; Self healing materials; Self-similarity; Slip; tetrahydroquinoline
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1002/2017GL074916

In earthquake dynamics there are two end member models of rupture: propagating cracks and self‐healing pulses. These arise due to different properties of faults and have implications for seismic hazard; rupture mode controls near‐field strong ground motions. Past studies favor the pulse‐like mode of rupture; however, due to a variety of limitations, it has proven difficult to systematically establish their kinematic properties. Here we synthesize observations from a database of >150 rupture models of earthquakes spanning M7–M9 processed in a uniform manner and show the magnitude scaling properties of these slip pulses indicates self‐similarity. Further, we find that large and very large events are statistically distinguishable relatively early (at ~15 s) in the rupture process. This suggests that with dense regional geophysical networks strong ground motions from a large rupture can be identified before their onset across the source region. Key Points A catalog of large earthquake finite fault models favors rupture propagating as a self‐similar slip pulse We establish the moment scaling properties of kinematic slip pulse parameters such as rise time and pulse width Self‐similarity implies weak determinism, earthquakes are statistically different early on in the rupture; this has implications for early warning