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Analysis and interpretation of earthquake-related groundwater response and ground deformation: a case study of May 2006 seismic sequence in the Mexicali Valley, Baja California, Mexico

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Abstract

Anomalous groundwater level and temperature changes are compared with ground deformation recorded before and after an earthquake of MW 5.4 and its foreshocks and aftershocks that occurred during 22–28 May 2006 in the Mexicali Valley, Baja California, Mexico. The coseismic groundwater level changes could be attributed to static volumetric strain changes caused by the mainshock, except for one well, where the groundwater level change may have been affected also by a triggered slip event at a nearby fault. Some of the coseismic temperature changes were attributed to increased convection and mixing of groundwater by seismic shaking. Modeling of groundwater level records allowed the estimation of hydraulic diffusivity. The observed ground tilt and groundwater level anomalies in the area close to the source fault before and after the mainshock and before the aftershocks occurrence are explainable by the dilatancy–diffusion theory, or possibly by assuming the occurrence of a slow slip events and/or fault permeability changes.

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Fig. 1

source fault plane is indicated by a yellow rectangle (upper edge in bold). The black crosses mark the location of sites where the surface faulting was observed by Lira (2006) and Suárez-Vidal et al. (2007). The magenta triangles indicate the location of the vertical crackmeters at the Morelia fault (FMcr) and the Saltillo fault (EScr). The green triangles indicate the tiltmeter location (RCT, CPT and EHT). Filled and empty cyan circles indicate wells showing coseismic water level rise and drop, respectively. Thick solid red lines are known surface traces of tectonic faults: Cerro Prieto fault (CPF), Imperial fault (IF), Saltillo fault (SF), Morelia fault (MF), and Guerrero fault (GF). Dotted red lines are proposed surface fault traces based on mapped fissure zones from González et al. (1998); Glowacka et al. (2010); Lira (2006) and Suárez-Vidal et al. (2007), and well data (as the case of HF = H fault) from Lippmann et al. (1984). Black thick line frames the limits of the Cerro Prieto geothermal field. The Google Earth image is used as background

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Acknowledgements

This research was sponsored in part by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), project number 45997-F, and CICESE internal funds. Authors appreciate the access to seismicity data from RESNOM. Our thanks to Francisco Farfán, Guillermo Diaz de Cossio, Luis Orozco y Oscar Gálvez for help during the fieldwork and to Miguel Angel Garcia Arthur and students Adriana Perez Martinez and Antonio Garcia Hernandez for help in data processing. The authors greatly acknowledge the editor, Dr. Chi-Yu King, and one anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments and suggestions which helped to improve the manuscript.

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  1. División de Ciencias de la Tierra, CICESE, Carretera Ensenada-Tijuana # 3918, Zona Playitas, C. P. 22860, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

    Olga Sarychikhina, Ewa Glowacka, Rogelio Vázquez González & Mario Fuentes Arreazola

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  1. Olga Sarychikhina
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Sarychikhina, O., Glowacka, E., Vázquez González, R. et al. Analysis and interpretation of earthquake-related groundwater response and ground deformation: a case study of May 2006 seismic sequence in the Mexicali Valley, Baja California, Mexico. Pure Appl. Geophys. 175, 2485–2502 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1925-7

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