Based on analysis of data from a trans‐Mexico temporary broadband seismic network centered on Mexico City, we report that the subducting Cocos Plate beneath central Mexico is horizontal, and tectonically underplates the base of the crust for a distance of 250 km from the trench. It is decoupled from the crust by a very thin low viscosity zone. The plate plunges into the mantle near Mexico City but is truncated at a depth of 500 km, probably due to an E‐W propagating tear in the Cocos slab. Unlike the shallow slab subduction in Peru and Chile, there is active volcanism along the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) that lies much further inland than regions to either side where subduction dip is not horizontal. Geodynamical modeling indicates that a thin weak layer such as imaged by the seismic experiment can explain the flat subduction geometry.

Seismic mapping suggests that silent earthquakes may be related to an ultralow velocity layer on top of a subducting slab.

Nonvolcanic tremor (NVT) activity is revealed as episodes of higher spectral amplitude at 1–8 Hz in daily spectrograms from the continuous seismological records in Guerrero, Mexico. The analyzed data cover a period of 2001–2007 when in 2001–2002 a large slow slip event (SSE) had occurred in the Guerrero‐Oaxaca region, and then a new large SSE occurred in 2006. The tremor burst is dominated by S‐waves. More than 100 strong NVT bursts were recorded in the narrow band of ∼40 × 150 km2 to the south of Iguala City and parallel to the coastline. Depths of NVT hypocenters are mostly scattered in the continental crust between 5 and 40 km depth. Tremor activity is higher during the 2001–2002 and 2006 SSE compared with that for the “quiet” period of 2003–2005. While resistivity pattern in Guerrero does not correlate directly with the NVT distribution, gravity and magnetic anomaly modeling favors a hypothesis that the NVT is apparently related to the dehydration and serpentinization processes.

S U M M A R YReceiver functions (RFs) from teleseismic events recorded by the NARS-Baja array were used to map crustal thickness in the continental margins of the Gulf of California, a newly forming ocean basin. Although the upper crust is known to have split apart simultaneously along the entire length of the Gulf, little is known about the behaviour of the lower crust in this region. The RFs show clear P-to-S wave conversions from the Moho beneath the stations. The delay times between the direct P and P-to-S waves indicate thinner crust closer to the Gulf along the entire Baja California peninsula. The thinner crust is associated with the eastern Peninsular Ranges batholith (PRB). Crustal thickness is uncorrelated with topography in the PRB and the Moho is not flat, suggesting mantle compensation by a weaker than normal mantle based on seismological evidence. The approximately W-E shallowing in Moho depths is significant with extremes in crustal thickness of ∼21 and 37 km. Similar results have been obtained at the northern end of the Gulf by Lewis et al., who proposed a mechanism of lower crustal flow associated with rifting in the Gulf Extensional Province for thinning of the crust. Based on the amount of pre-Pliocene extension possible in the continental margins, if the lower crust did thin in concert with the upper crust, it is possible that the crust was thinned during the early stages of rifting before the opening of the ocean basin. In this case, we suggest that when breakup occurred, the lower crust in the margins of the Gulf was still behaving ductilely. Alternatively, the lower crust may have thinned after the Gulf opened. The implications of these mechanisms are discussed.

Abstract. We develop an extension to the method of Boatwright and Choy [1986] for determining the radiated seismic energy Es that accounts for factors that bias the estimate. We apply our technique to 204 events worldwide during the period 1992-1999 and find that the apparent stress is on average largest for strike-slip events (0.70 MPa), while for reverse and normal events it is significantly smaller (0.15 and 0.25 MPa, respectively). These results support the mechanism dependence of Es reported by Choy and Boatwright [ 1995], although we find that once likely sources of bias are accounted for, the mechanism dependence is not as strong as found previously. The source of the mechanism dependence is unclear, but one possibility is that it reflects a mechanism-dependent difference in the stress drop. This hypothesis is suggested by the scaling of slip with width in large strike-slip earthquakes and makes two predictions, which could be used to test it. The first is that the discrepancy should disappear for the very largest dip-slip earthquakes as the length of the fault greatly exceeds the downdip extent. The second is that the discrepancy ought to disappear for smaller earthquakes. The first can not yet be tested due to a lack of recent, very large dip-slip earthquakes. The second is supported by the lack of mechanism dependence to Es for smaller earthquakes. An alternative hypothesis is that the apparent mechanism dependence could result if faults are opaque during rupture, blocking seismic radiation across them [Brune, 1996]. This could cause radiated seismic energy to be trapped preferentially in the crust near the source volume for dipping faults. There remains, however, a large discrepancy between estimates of Es obtained from teleseismic versus regional data. This discrepancy indicates a problem with teleseismic and/or regional estimates of the seismic energy and must be resolved before a definite conclusion can be drawn.