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Common dependence on stress for the two fundamental laws of statistical seismology

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Abstract

Two of the long-standing relationships of statistical seismology are power laws: the Gutenberg–Richter relation1 describing the earthquake frequency–magnitude distribution, and the Omori–Utsu law2 characterizing the temporal decay of aftershock rate following a main shock. Recently, the effect of stress on the slope (the b value) of the earthquake frequency–magnitude distribution was determined3 by investigations of the faulting-style dependence of the b value. In a similar manner, we study here aftershock sequences according to the faulting style of their main shocks. We show that the time delay before the onset of the power-law aftershock decay rate (the c value) is on average shorter for thrust main shocks than for normal fault earthquakes, taking intermediate values for strike-slip events. These similar dependences on the faulting style indicate that both of the fundamental power laws are governed by the state of stress. Focal mechanisms are known for only 2 per cent of aftershocks. Therefore, c and b values are independent estimates and can be used as new tools to infer the stress field, which remains difficult to measure directly.

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Figure 1: Influence of faulting style on the time delay before the onset of the power-law aftershock decay rate in southern California.
Figure 2: Influence of faulting style on the time delay before the onset of the power-law aftershock decay rate in Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (UMR 7154, CNRS, Univ. P7), 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France ,

    Clément Narteau, Svetlana Byrdina & Peter Shebalin

  2. Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, UMR 5559, CNRS, Université de Savoie, IRD, 73376 Le Bourget-du-Lac Cedex, France ,

    Svetlana Byrdina

  3. International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, 84/32 Profsouznaya, Moscow 117997, Russia ,

    Peter Shebalin

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA,

    Danijel Schorlemmer

Authors
  1. Clément Narteau
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  2. Svetlana Byrdina
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  3. Peter Shebalin
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  4. Danijel Schorlemmer
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Correspondence to Clément Narteau.

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Narteau, C., Byrdina, S., Shebalin, P. et al. Common dependence on stress for the two fundamental laws of statistical seismology . Nature 462, 642–645 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08553

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