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Surface Rupture Effects on Earthquake Moment-Area Scaling Relations

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A Correction to this article was published on 11 December 2017

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Abstract

Empirical earthquake scaling relations play a central role in fundamental studies of earthquake physics and in current practice of earthquake hazard assessment, and are being refined by advances in earthquake source analysis. A scaling relation between seismic moment (M 0) and rupture area (A) currently in use for ground motion prediction in Japan features a transition regime of the form M 0–A 2, between the well-recognized small (self-similar) and very large (W-model) earthquake regimes, which has counter-intuitive attributes and uncertain theoretical underpinnings. Here, we investigate the mechanical origin of this transition regime via earthquake cycle simulations, analytical dislocation models and numerical crack models on strike-slip faults. We find that, even if stress drop is assumed constant, the properties of the transition regime are controlled by surface rupture effects, comprising an effective rupture elongation along-dip due to a mirror effect and systematic changes of the shape factor relating slip to stress drop. Based on this physical insight, we propose a simplified formula to account for these effects in M 0–A scaling relations for strike-slip earthquakes.

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  • 11 December 2017

    The Eq. (10) in the article was displayed incorrectly. The correct version of Eq. (10) should be as follows:

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Acknowledgements

This study was based on the 2015 research project ‘Improvement for uncertainty of strong ground motion prediction’ by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Yingdi Luo & Jean-Paul Ampuero

  2. Geo-Research Institute (GRI), Osaka, Japan

    Ken Miyakoshi

  3. Aichi Institute of Technology (AIT), Toyota, Japan

    Kojiro Irikura

Authors
  1. Yingdi Luo
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  2. Jean-Paul Ampuero
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  3. Ken Miyakoshi
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  4. Kojiro Irikura
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yingdi Luo.

Additional information

A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-017-1725-5.

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Luo, Y., Ampuero, JP., Miyakoshi, K. et al. Surface Rupture Effects on Earthquake Moment-Area Scaling Relations. Pure Appl. Geophys. 174, 3331–3342 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-017-1467-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-017-1467-4

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