摘要
The July 2019 M_(W)6.4 Ridgecrest,California earthquake and its distinct foreshocks were well recorded by local and regional stations,providing a great opportunity to characterize its foreshocks and investigate the nucleation mechanisms of the mainshock.In this study,we utilized the match-and-locate(M&L)method to build a high-precision foreshock catalog for this M_(W)6.4 earthquake.Compared with the sequential location methods(matched-filter+cross-correlation-based hypoDD),our new catalog contains more events with higher location accuracy.The M_(W)6.4 mainshock was preceded by 40 foreshocks within~2 h(on July 4,2019 from 15:35:29 to 17:32:52,UTC).Their spatiotemporal distribution revealed a complex seismogenic structure consisting of multiple fault strands,which were connected as a throughgoing fault by later foreshocks and eventually accommodated the 2019 M_(W)6.4 mainshock.To better understand the nucleation mechanism,we determined the rupture dimension of the largest M_(L)4.0 foreshock by calculating its initial rupture and centroid points using the M&L method.By estimating Coulomb stress change we suggested that the majority of foreshocks following the M_(L)4.0 event and M_(W)6.4 mainshock occurred within regions of increasing Coulomb stress,indicating that they were triggered by stress transfer.The nucleation process before the M_(L)4.0 event remains unclear due to the insufficient sampling rate of waveforms and small magnitude of events.Thus,our study demonstrates that the M&L method has superior detection and location ability,showing potential for studies that require high-precision location(e.g.,earthquake nucleation).
基金
This work was co-supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.U1939203 and 41874063)
China Earthquake Science Experiment project,China Earthquake Administration(No.2019CSES0113)
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China(2-9-2019-172)
Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant(RGPIN-2019-04297)
the Ocean Frontier Institute International Postdoctoral Program.
