ALBERT

Description: We revisit the problem of coseismic rupture of the 2008 M w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. Precise determination of the fault structure and slip distribution provides critical information about the mechanical behaviour of the fault system and earthquake rupture. We use all the geodetic data available, craft a more realistic Earth structure and fault model compared to previous studies, and employ a nonlinear inversion scheme to optimally solve for the fault geometry and slip distribution. Compared to a homogeneous elastic half-space model and laterally uniform layered models, adopting separate layered elastic structure models on both sides of the Beichuan fault significantly improved data fitting. Our results reveal that: (1) The Beichuan fault is listric in shape, with near surface fault dip angles increasing from ~36° at the southwest end to ~83° at the northeast end of the rupture. (2) The fault rupture style changes from predominantly thrust at the southwest end to dextral at the northeast end of the fault rupture. (3) Fault slip peaks near the surface for most parts of the fault, with ~8.4 m thrust and ~5 m dextral slip near Hongkou and ~6 m thrust and ~8.4 m dextral slip near Beichuan, respectively. (4) The peak slips are located around fault geometric complexities, suggesting that earthquake style and rupture propagation were determined by fault zone geometric barriers. Such barriers exist primarily along restraining left stepping discontinuities of the dextral-compressional fault system. (5) The seismic moment released on the fault above 20 km depth is 8.2 x 10 21  N m, corresponding to an M w 7.9 event. The seismic moments released on the local slip concentrations are equivalent to events of M w 7.5 at Yingxiu-Hongkou, M w 7.3 at Beichuan-Pingtong, M w 7.2 near Qingping, M w 7.1 near Qingchuan, and M w 6.7 near Nanba, respectively. (6) The fault geometry and kinematics are consistent with a model in which crustal deformation at the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau is decoupled by differential motion across a decollement in the mid crust, above which deformation is dominated by brittle reverse faulting and below which deformation occurs by viscous horizontal shortening and vertical thickening.

Description: The EarthScope USArray provides an opportunity to obtain detailed images of the continental upper mantle at an unprecedented scale. The majority of mantle models derived from USArray data to date contain spatial variations in seismic-wave speed; however, in many cases these data sets do not by themselves allow a non-unique interpretation. Joint interpretation of seismic attenuation and velocity models can improve upon the interpretations based only on velocity and provide important constraints on the temperature, composition, melt content, and volatile content of the mantle. The surface wave amplitudes that constrain upper-mantle attenuation are sensitive to factors in addition to attenuation, including the earthquake source excitation, focusing and defocusing by elastic structure, and local site amplification. Because of the difficulty of isolating attenuation from these other factors, little is known about the attenuation structure of the North American upper mantle. In this study, Rayleigh wave traveltime and amplitude in the period range 25–100 s are measured using an interstation cross-correlation technique, which takes advantage of waveform similarity at nearby stations. Several estimates of Rayleigh wave attenuation and site amplification are generated at each period, using different approaches to separate the effects of attenuation and local site amplification on amplitude. It is assumed that focusing and defocusing effects can be described by the Laplacian of the traveltime field. All approaches identify the same large-scale patterns in attenuation, including areas where the attenuation values are likely contaminated by unmodelled focusing and defocusing effects. Regionally averaged attenuation maps are constructed after removal of the contaminated attenuation values, and the variations in intrinsic shear attenuation that are suggested by these Rayleigh wave attenuation maps are explored.