Many areas of the Earth's crust deform by distributed extensional faulting and complex fault interactions are often observed. Geodetic data generally indicate a simpler picture of continuum deformation over decades but relating this behaviour to earthquake occurrence over centuries, given numerous potentially active faults, remains a global problem in hazard assessment. We address this challeng...

We estimate the critical slip-weakening distance on earthquake faults by using a new approach, which is independent of the estimate of fracture energy or radiated seismic energy. The approach is to find a physically based relation between the breakdown time of shear stress Tb, the time of peak slip-velocity Tpv, and the slip-weakening distance Dc, from the time histories of shear stress, slip, ...

T he Bight Basin is a major frontier basin of Jurassic–Cretaceous age, which is currently undergoing renewed exploration interest. Although only limited data is available for understanding the petroleum systems in the basin, several observations indicate that poor fault seal integrity may represent a key exploration risk. The presence of a paleo-oil column in the Jerboa-1 well, interpreted gas ...

The North Tabriz Fault is seismologically an active fault with current right lateral strike-slip movements. Restricted mafic to intermediate Late Cretaceous igneous rocks are exposed along the North Tabriz Fault. Whole rock samples and clinopyroxene phenocrysts geochemistry were studied in order to characterize the petrogenesis of these mafic rocks and their possible relation to an oceanic crus...

Variations in diurnal tidal stress due to Europa’s eccentric orbit have been considered as the driver of strike-slip motion along pre-existing faults, but obliquity and physical libration have not been taken into account. The first objective of this work is to examine the effects of obliquity on the predicted global pattern of fault slip directions based on a tidal-tectonic formation model. Our...

Inversions of InSAR ground deformation in the Delaware Basin have revealed an aseismic slip on semi-optimally oriented normal faults located close to disposal wells. The slip, occurring over 3–5 years, extends approximately 1 km down-dip, 10 along strike, and reaches 25 cm. We develop calibrate 2D pseudo-3D coupled pore pressure diffusion rate-state models with velocity-strengthening friction t...

The Honey Lake fault is a major strike-slip fault in northeastern California that accommodates northwest-directed right-lateral shear in the northern Walker Lane. We reexamine the fault’s paleoseismic history and slip rate by evaluating a natural stream bank exposure of the fault and offset terrace riser. Structural and stratigraphic relations within the modern stream cut, radiocarbon ages, and...

[1] While it is agreed that the great Sumatra earthquake of December 26, 2004 was among the largest earthquakes of the past century, there has been disagreement on how large it was, which part of the fault ruptured, and how the rupture took place. We present a centroid-moment-tensor (CMT) analysis of the earthquake in which multiple point sources are used in the inversion to mimic a propagating...

Alborz Mountains is a region of active deformation within Arabia-Eurasia collision zone. The study fault system in western Alborz comprises abundant evidence of active faulting accompanied by occurrence of historical earthquakes. Active tectonics of Manjil-Rudbar fault zone whose movement caused destructive 1990 Manjil-Rudbar earthquake was concentrated in this article through geomorphic and st...

We use SPOT image pairs to determine horizontal offsets associated with the Mw 7.9 November 2002 Denali earthquake in the vicinity of Slate Creek, AK. Field measurements and aerial photographs are used to further characterize the geometry of the surface rupture. Aerial photographs show that shear localization occurs where the rupture trace is linear, and distributed off-fault deformation is com...