[1] Earthquake nucleation and early seismic propagation are studied in a two-dimensional strike-slip fault model with depth-variable properties. The fault is governed by the Dieterich-Ruina rate and state friction law. We use an efficient and rigorous numerical procedure for elastodynamic analysis of earthquake sequences on slowly loaded faults developed by Lapusta et al. [2000]. We find that f...

[1] The Longitudinal Valley fault is a key element in the active tectonics of Taiwan. It is the principal structure accommodating convergence across one of the two active sutures of the Taiwan orogeny. To understand more precisely its role in the suturing process, we analyzed fluvial terraces along the Hsiukuluan River, which cuts across the Coastal Range in eastern Taiwan in the fault’s hangin...

Neogene extension in the Death Valley region, SE California, has produced a variety of sedimentary basins. Diachronous movements on an array of strike-slip and normal fault systems have resulted in the uplift and preservation of older basins in modern ranges. One of the best exposed of these is the Nova basin on the western flank of the Panamint Mountains. The Nova basin includes over 2000 m of...

S U M M A R Y The arrival pattern (AP) method and teleseismic data have been used to relocate aftershocks following three major (M w >= 7.8) interplate earthquakes that occurred in eastern Papua New Guinea in 2000 November. The first event was an M w = 8.0 strike-slip earthquake that ruptured the Weitin fault over a length of ∼100 km. No aftershocks were located in the upper 15 km, suggesting t...

[1] The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, Mw = 7.6, broke a major thrust fault along the western foothills of the Central Range of Taiwan. We have measured the horizontal coseismic displacement field by correlating optical satellite images acquired before and after the earthquake. These data reveal the fault trace and a clockwise rotation of surface displacements toward the north with much larger displa...

[1] To explore aftershock-triggering mechanisms for the 2003 Big Bear, California earthquake sequence, we determined differential travel-times and applied the double-difference technique to relocate these events, which formed three clusters. The main cluster coincides with the 3 km long northwest striking sub-vertical mainshock fault. The other two sub-vertical clusters, located at opposite end...

[1] To explore aftershock-triggering mechanisms for the 2003 Big Bear, California earthquake sequence, we determined differential travel-times and applied the double-difference technique to relocate these events, which formed three clusters. The main cluster coincides with the 3 km long northwest striking sub-vertical mainshock fault. The other two sub-vertical clusters, located at opposite end...

[1] A sequence of large strike-slip earthquakes occurred west of Sunda Trench beneath the Wharton Basin. First reports indicate that the main shock was extremely complex, involving three to four subevents (Mw> 8) with a maze of aftershocks. We investigate slip models of the two largest earthquakes by joint inversion of regional and teleseismic waveform data. Using the Mw7.2 foreshock, we develo...

The long-standing conflict between the predictions of elastic dislocation models and the observation that average coseismic slip increases with rupture length is resolved with application of a simple displacement-depth function and the assumption that the base of the seismogenic zone does not result from the onset of viscous relaxation but rather a transition to stable sliding in a medium that ...