Frequency-Magnitude Characteristics Down to Magnitude -4.4 for Induced Seismicity Recorded at Mponeng Gold Mine, South Africa

Kwiatek, Grzegorz; Plenkers, Katrin; Nakatani, Masao; Yabe, Yasuo; Dresen, Georg; JAGUARS-Group,

doi:10.1785/0120090277

Cited by 100 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Stressing rate dependence to frictional stability may help explain the radiation of tectonic tremor and certain characteristics of repeating earthquake sequences [Matsuzawa et al, 2012]. Similar rate-dependent mechanisms may help explain the existence of extremely small earthquakes recorded at the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth and in deep gold mines [Ellsworth et al, 2007;Kwiatek et al, 2010].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreshocks during the nucleation of stick‐slip instability

2013

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[1] We report on laboratory experiments which investigate interactions between aseismic slip, stress changes, and seismicity on a critically stressed fault during the nucleation of stick-slip instability. We monitor quasi-static and dynamic changes in local shear stress and fault slip with arrays of gages deployed along a simulated strike-slip fault (2 m long and 0.4 m deep) in a saw cut sample of Sierra White granite. With 14 piezoelectric sensors, we simultaneously monitor seismic signals produced during the nucleation phase and subsequent dynamic rupture. We observe localized aseismic fault slip in an approximately meter-sized zone in the center of the fault, while the ends of the fault remain locked. Clusters of high-frequency foreshocks (M w~À 6.5 to À5.0) can occur in this slowly slipping zone 5-50 ms prior to the initiation of dynamic rupture; their occurrence appears to be dependent on the rate at which local shear stress is applied to the fault. The meter-sized nucleation zone is generally consistent with theoretical estimates, but source radii of the foreshocks (2 to 70 mm) are 1 to 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the theoretical minimum length scale over which earthquake nucleation can occur. We propose that frictional stability and the transition between seismic and aseismic slip are modulated by local stressing rate and that fault sections, which would typically slip aseismically, may radiate seismic waves if they are rapidly stressed. Fault behavior of this type may provide physical insight into the mechanics of foreshocks, tremor, repeating earthquake sequences, and a minimum earthquake source dimension.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreshocks during the nucleation of stick‐slip instability

2013

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“…The deficit of the number of observed earthquakes with respect to the number of earthquakes anticipated from G-R relation for magnitudes below a certain value is explained by incompleteness of observation as no such a deficit was observed down to picoseismicity [Kwiatek et al, 2010[Kwiatek et al, , 2011. It is assumed that G-R relation is valid from the magnitude threshold of catalog completeness, and the magnitude probability distribution is presented as the left hand side truncated exponential distribution or the double-truncated exponential distribution in case when an existence of the upper physical limit of the magnitude range is assumed [e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Violations of Gutenberg–Richter Relation in Anthropogenic Seismicity

Urban

Lasocki

Blascheck

et al. 2015

Pure Appl. Geophys.

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Anthropogenic seismicity (AS) is the undesired dynamic rockmass response to technological processes. AS environments are shallow hence their heterogeneities have important impact on AS. Moreover, AS is controlled by complex and changeable technological factors. This complicated origin of AS explains why models used in tectonic seismicity may be not suitable for AS. We study here four cases of AS, testing statistically whether the magnitudes follow the Gutenberg-Richter relation or not. The considered cases include the data from Mponeng gold mine in South Africa, the data observed during stimulation of geothermal well Basel 1 in Switzerland, the data from Acu water reservoir region in Brazil and the data from Song Tranh 2 hydropower plant region in Vietnam. The cases differ in inducing technologies, in the duration of periods in which they were recorded, and in the ranges of magnitudes. In all four cases the observed frequency-magnitude distributions statistically significantly differ from the Gutenberg-Richter relation. Although in all cases the Gutenberg-Richter b-value changed in time, this factor turns out to be not responsible for the discovered deviations from the Gutenberg-Richter born exponential distribution model. Though the deviations from Gutenberg-Richter law are not big, they substantially diminish the accuracy of assessment of seismic hazard parameters. It is demonstrated that the use of non-parametric kernel estimators of magnitude distribution functions improves significantly the accuracy of hazard estimates and therefore these estimators are recommended to be used in probabilistic analyses of seismic hazard caused by AS.

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“…Nevertheless, in order to fill the whole plate interface the scaling relations would need to differ significantly which we think is unlikely given the self-similar behaviour of seismicity down to very small magnitudes (e.g. Kwiatek et al 2010).…”

Section: Representation Of Seismicity Using the Cumulative Seismic Slmentioning

confidence: 99%