Earthquakes have been observed to affect hydrological systems in a variety of ways--water well levels can change dramatically, streams can become fuller and spring discharges can increase at the time of earthquakes. Distant earthquakes may even increase the permeability in faults. Most of these hydrological observations can be explained by some form of permeability increase. Here we use the response of water well levels to solid Earth tides to measure permeability over a 20-year period. At the time of each of seven earthquakes in Southern California, we observe transient changes of up to 24 degrees in the phase of the water level response to the dilatational volumetric strain of the semidiurnal tidal components of wells at the Piñon Flat Observatory in Southern California. After the earthquakes, the phase gradually returns to the background value at a rate of less than 0.1 degrees per day. We use a model of axisymmetric flow driven by an imposed head oscillation through a single, laterally extensive, confined, homogeneous and isotropic aquifer to relate the phase response to aquifer properties. We interpret the changes in phase response as due to changes in permeability. At the time of the earthquakes, the permeability at the site increases by a factor as high as three. The permeability increase depends roughly linearly on the amplitude of seismic-wave peak ground velocity in the range of 0.21-2.1 cm s(-1). Such permeability increases are of interest to hydrologists and oil reservoir engineers as they affect fluid flow and might determine long-term evolution of hydrological and oil-bearing systems. They may also be interesting to seismologists, as the resulting pore pressure changes can affect earthquakes by changing normal stresses on faults.

Abstract.We use Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data to derive continuous maps for three orthogonal components of the co-seismic surface displacement field due to the 1999 M•o 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake in southern California. Vertical and horizontal displacements are both predominantly antisymmetric with respect to the fault plane, consistent with predictions of linear elastic models of deformation for a strike-slip fault. Some deviations from symmetry apparent in the surface displacement data may result from complexity in the fault geometry.

Fig. S1. Observed and modeled LOS displacements from (A) descending orbit, and (B) ascending orbit across the Pinto Mountain fault (profile BB ′ ). Models assume faultnormal extension of 0.6 MPa, and a factor of 2 reduction in the shear modulus within the fault zone (G ′ = 16.5 GPa) compared to the host rocks (G = 33 GPa). Red dots correspond to a model of a fault zone that is unlimited with depth, and blue dots correspond to a model of a fault zone that terminates at depth of 2 km. Data from the ascending orbit are noisy due to temporal decorrelation of the radar images.

The western United States has been experiencing severe drought since 2013. The solid earth response to the accompanying loss of surface and near-surface water mass should be a broad region of uplift. We use seasonally adjusted time series from continuously operating global positioning system stations to measure this uplift, which we invert to estimate mass loss. The median uplift is 5 millimeters (mm), with values up to 15 mm in California's mountains. The associated pattern of mass loss, ranging up to 50 centimeters (cm) of water equivalent, is consistent with observed decreases in precipitation and streamflow. We estimate the total deficit to be ~240 gigatons, equivalent to a 10-cm layer of water over the entire region, or the annual mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The loading of the Earth by the ocean tides produces several kinds of signals which can be measured by geodetic technique. In order to compute these most accurately, a combination of global and local models of the ocean tides may be needed. The program NLOADF convolves the Green functions for loading with ocean tide models using a station-centered grid with fixed dimensions, making it easy to combine different ocean models without overlap in the convolution. The program computes all the quantities of interest (gravity, displacement, tilt, and strain) and includes the case where measurements are made beneath the surface of the ocean.

The power spectra of many geophysical phenomena are well approximated by a power‐law dependence on frequency or wavenumber. I derive a simple expression for the root‐mean square variability of a process with such a spectrum over an interval of time or space. The resulting expression yields the power‐law time dependence characteristic of fractal processes, but can be generalized to give the temporal variability for more general spectral behaviors. The method is applied to spectra of crustal strain (to show what size of strain events can be detected over periods of months to seconds) and of sea level (to show the difficulty of extracting long‐term rates from short records).

Rupture of the Sunda megathrust on 26 December 2004 produced broad regions of uplift and subsidence. We define the pivot line separating these regions as a first step in defining the lateral extent and the downdip limit of rupture during that great Mw ≈ 9.2 earthquake. In the region of the Andaman and Nicobar islands we rely exclusively on the interpretation of satellite imagery and a tidal model. At the southern limit of the great rupture we rely principally on field measurements of emerged coral microatolls. Uplift extends from the middle of Simeulue Island, Sumatra, at ∼2.5°N, to Preparis Island, Myanmar (Burma), at ∼14.9°N. Thus the rupture is ∼1600 km long. The distance from the pivot line to the trench varies appreciably. The northern and western Andaman Islands rose, whereas the southern and eastern portion of the islands subsided. The Nicobar Islands and the west coast of Aceh province, Sumatra, subsided. Tilt at the southern end of the rupture is steep; the distance from 1.5 m of uplift to the pivot line is just 60 km. Our method of using satellite imagery to recognize changes in elevation relative to sea surface height and of using a tidal model to place quantitative bounds on coseismic uplift or subsidence is a novel approach that can be adapted to other forms of remote sensing and can be applied to other subduction zones in tropical regions.

We estimate the velocity field in central and southern Calitbrnia using Global Positioning System (GPS) observations from 1986 to 1902 and very long baseline interferometry (VLB!) observations from 1984 to 1991. Our core network includes 12 GPS sites spaced approximately 50 km apart, mostly in the western Transverse Ranges and the coastal Borderlands. The precision and accuracy of the relative horizontal velocities estimated for these core stations are adequately described by a 05% confidence ellipse with a semiminor axis of approximately 2 mm/yr oriented roughly north-south, and a semimajor axis of approximately 3 mm/yr oriented east-west. For other stations, occupied fewer than 5 times, or occupied during experiments with poor tracking geometries, the uncertainty is larger. These uncertainties are calibrated by analyzing the scatter in three types of comparisons: (1) multiple measurements of relative position ("repeatability"), (2) independent velocity estimates from separate analyses of the GPS and VLBi data, and (3) rates of change in baseline length estimated t¾om the joint GPS+VLB! solution and from a comparison of GPS with trilateration. The dominant tectonic signature in the velocity field is shear deformation associated with the San Andreas and Garlock faults, which we model as resulting from slip below a given locking depth. Removing the effects of this simple model l¾om the observed velocity field reveals residual deformation that is not attributable to the San Andreas fault. Baselines spanning the eastern Santa Barbara Channel, the Ventura basin, the Los Angeles basin, and the Santa Maria Fold and Thrust Belt are shortening at rates of up to 5 _.+ I, 5 _.+ I, 5 _.+ 1, and 2 _.+ I mm/yr, respectively. North of Ihe Big Bend, some compression normal to the trace of the San Andreas fault can be resolved on both sides of the fault. The rates of rotation about vertical axes in the residual geodetic velocity field differ by up to a factor of 2 from those inferred from paleomagnctic declinations. Our estimates indicate that the "San Andreas discrepancy" can be resolved to within the 3 mm/yr uncertainties by accounting for deformation in California between Vandenberg (near Point Conception) and the westernmost Basin and Range. Strain accumulation of I-2 mm/yr on structures offshore of Vandenberg is also allowed by the uncertainties. South of the Transverse Ranges, the deformation budget must include 5 mm/yr between the ofl•horc islands and the mainland. INTRODU(q'!ONDetermining the velocity field in the vicinity of the Pacific-North America plate boundary in central and southern Calitbrnia (Figure 1) is a long-standing problem in tectonics. While most of the motion between these plates occurs on the San Andreas fault, the deformation extends for a substantial distance on either side of this structure. Such off-fault deformation is evident in geologic structures, seismicity, paleomagnetic declinations, and geodetic networks. Measuring that deformation with space geodesy is the primary objective of this study, w...