4D Imaging of Oceanic Transform Fault Material Properties Variations During the Earthquake Cycle

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Many large and damaging earthquakes occur in highly populated areas, such as Indonesia, Japan, Chile and California. For that reason, forecasting earthquakes, and predicting their effects is a long-sought goal of earthquake seismology. Achieving those goals requires improved understanding of the faults and fault processes that lead to large earthquakes. That understanding is impaired by the extreme complexity of most fault and fault systems. Though they do not occur in populated areas, oceanic transform faults are comparatively simple natural laboratories, where some fundamental processes have been observed. Transform faults on the East Pacific Rise (EPR) offer a unique opportunity to study how spatial and temporal variation of fault zone properties control earthquake rupture because the largest earthquakes on these faults occur at regular intervals, and related variations of the properties in the fault zone have been observed. This project has three objectives that will advance out understanding of fault mechanics. One is to determine which spatial variations of material properties control the occurrence of the largest earthquakes. The second is to understand how fault zone properties change with time over the earthquake cycle, and the third is to understand how variations of the material properties are related to earthquake seismicity.The broader impacts of this project include support for two young post doctoral researchers; the primary broader impact is that, while it is not directly focused on seismic hazard estimates, may be expected to lead to a better understanding of earthquake processes, with accordingly high potential societal benfits.