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Why large earthquakes do not nucleate at shallow depths

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Abstract

Although by definition tectonic earthquakes may nucleate anywhere within the seismogenic layer, in almost all cases those earthquakes that become large nucleate near the base of the seismogenic layer. Because frictional strength and stress-drop should increase with depth and in situ stress measurements suggest that the ambient stress increases with depth, we have examined spontaneous rupture models with gradients of both average stress-drop and average strength relative to ambient stress to determine whether this explains the observed phenomena. We report here that ruptures that are nucleated with in the low stress-drop (shallow) regions of the model are inhibited from propagating, but those that are nucleated within the high stress-drop regions can propagate over the entire fault plane.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, 10964, USA

    Shamita Das

  2. Department of Geological Sciences of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, 10964, USA

    C. H. Scholz

Authors
  1. Shamita Das
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  2. C. H. Scholz
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Das, S., Scholz, C. Why large earthquakes do not nucleate at shallow depths. Nature 305, 621–623 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/305621a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/305621a0

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