Characterizing directivity in small (M 2.4-5) aftershocks of the Ridgecrest sequence

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
By: , and 

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Abstract

Directivity, or the focusing of energy along the direction of an earthquake rupture, is a common property of earthquakes of all sizes and can cause increased hazard due to azimuthally dependent ground‐motion amplification. For small earthquakes, the effects of directivity are generally less pronounced due to reduced rupture size, yet the directivity in small events can bias source property estimates and provide important insights into general regional faulting patterns. However, due to observational limitations, directivity is usually only measured and modeled for large events. As such, many studies of small earthquakes either ignore directivity altogether or assume a constant rupture direction for all events in a cluster. In our study, we apply a refined directivity fitting method constrained with two separate methods of source deconvolution to the dataset of aftershocks of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes, which contain a large number of well‐recorded small‐to‐mid sized earthquakes occurring in close proximity to each other. The revealed directivity of 100+ small (M 2.4–5) earthquakes is highly heterogeneous and primarily oblique to and away from the main fault strike, suggesting a complex postseismic stress redistribution. In addition, the energy focusing effect of directivity appears to bias the selection of high‐quality data from stations in the direction of rupture, leading to average stress‐drop increases of 50% if directivity is not accounted for.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Characterizing directivity in small (M 2.4-5) aftershocks of the Ridgecrest sequence
Series title Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
DOI 10.1785/0120240146
Volume 115
Issue 3
Publication Date December 10, 2024
Year Published 2025
Language English
Publisher Seismological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Earthquake Science Center
Description 12 p.
First page 1177
Last page 1188
Country United States
State California
Other Geospatial Ridgecrest sequence
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