Scaling and spatial complementarity of tectonic earthquake swarms

• Published in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
• Main Authors: Passarelli, Luigi, Rivalta, Eleonora, Jónsson, Sigurjón, Hensch, Martin, Metzger, Sabrina, Jakobsdóttir, Steinunn S., Maccaferri, Francesco, Corbi, Fabio, Dahm, Torsten
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: aseismic/seismic source mechanisms for TES; efficient tectonic strain release by TES; moment; duration and migration velocity scalings of TES; ridge transform fault earthquake; Tectonic Earthquake Swarms (TES); triggering mechanisms of TES; Geophysic; Geochemistry and Petrology; Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous); Space and Planetary Science; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11590/330656; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.10.052; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0012821X/321-322

Tectonic earthquake swarms (TES) often coincide with aseismic slip and sometimes precede damaging earthquakes. In spite of recent progress in understanding the significance and properties of TES at plate boundaries, their mechanics and scaling are still largely uncertain. Here we evaluate several TES that occurred during the past 20 years on a transform plate boundary in North Iceland. We show that the swarms complement each other spatially with later swarms discouraged from fault segments activated by earlier swarms, which suggests efficient strain release and aseismic slip. The fault area illuminated by earthquakes during swarms may be more representative of the total moment release than the cumulative moment of the swarm earthquakes. We use these findings and other published results from a variety of tectonic settings to discuss general scaling properties for TES. The results indicate that the importance of TES in releasing tectonic strain at plate boundaries may have been underestimated.