Stress interactions and sliding characteristics of faults with random fractal waviness in a purely elastic medium differ both qualitatively and quantitatively from those of faults with planar surfaces. With nonplanar fault models, solutions for slip diverge as resolution of the fractal features increases, and the scaling of fault slip with fault rupture dimension becomes nonlinear. We show that...

[1] We investigate the rupture process of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake using extensive near-source observations, including three-component velocity waveforms at 36 strong motion stations and 119 GPS measurements. A three-plane fault geometry derived from our previous inversion using only static data [Ji et al., 2001] is applied. The slip amplitude, rake angle, rupture initiation time, a...

Amajor difficulty in inverting geodetic data for fault slip distribution is that measurement errors are mapped from the data space onto the solution space. The amplitude of this mapping is sensitive to the condition number of the inverse problem, i.e., the ratio between the largest and smallest singular value of the forward matrix. Thus, unless the problem is wellconditioned, slip inversions ca...

[1] The Chinese mainland features widespread active faults and intensive seismic activity; both can be described in terms of slip rates on these faults. Previous studies of fault slip rates in mainland China have focused on individual faults or fault segments, and large discrepancies exist among results derived from different methods. Here we derive a self‐consistent estimate of the slip rates ...

Slow earthquakes represent an important conundrum in earthquake physics. While regular earthquakes are catastrophic events with rupture velocities governed by elastic wave speed, the processes that underlie slow fault slip phenomena, including recent discoveries of tremor, slow-slip and low-frequency earthquakes, are less understood. Theoretical models and sparse laboratory observations have pr...

The importance of tectonics and fluid flow in controlling cold seep habitats has long been appreciated at convergent margins but remains poorly understood in strike-slip systems. Here we present geophysical, geochemical, and biological data from an activemethane seep offshore fromDelMar, California, in the inner California borderlands (ICB). The location of this seep appears controlled by local...

Three-dimensional analyses are reported of slip on a long vertical strike-slip fault between steadily driven elastic crustal blocks. A rateand state-dependent friction law governs motion on the fault; the law includes a characteristic slip distance L for evolution of surface state and slip weakening. Because temperature and normal stress vary with depth, frictional constitutive properties (velo...

S51B-05. Tullis, T. E., and D. L. Goldsby (2003b), Laboratory experiments on fault shear resistance relevant to coseismic earthquake slip, SCEC Annual Progress Report for 2003. Vosteen, H.-D., and R. Schellschmidt (2003), Influence of temperature on thermal conductivity, thermal capacity and thermal diffusivity for different types of rock, Phys. Chem. Earth, 28, 499–509. Wibberley, C. A. J. (20...

We modeled the source rupture process of the 20 September 1999 ChiChi, Taiwan, earthquake (Mw 7.6) using an integrated dataset of near-field strong ground motion and Global Positioning System observations. This large inland thrust earthquake produced a surface break more than 80 km long along the Chelungpu fault. The event triggered over 700 strong-motion instruments on the island of Taiwan. Th...

Current studies of fault interaction lack sufficiently long earthquake records and measurements of fault slip rates over multiple seismic cycles to fully investigate the effects of interseismic loading and coseismic stress changes on the surrounding fault network. We model elastic interactions between 97 faults from 30 earthquakes since 1349 A.D. in central Italy to investigate the relative imp...