Measuring earthquake source parameters in the Mendocino triple junction region using a dense OBS array: Implications for fault strength variations

Subduction zones produce earthquakes on a set of faults that operate under a wide variety of conditions resulting from considerable variations in depth, temperature, rock type, and fluid pressure. These variations likely lead to variation in the stress levels that drives particular earthquakes and that in turn effects the magnitude of seismic shaking they produce. In the Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ) region, intraplate faults within the mantle of the subducting plate fail regularly in energetic earthquakes while the adjacent thrust interface of the Cascadia subduction zone remains seismically quiet despite the likelihood that it operates at much lower levels of stress and strength. In 2012, as part of the Cascadia Initiative community experiment, an ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) array was deployed in the MTJ area, providing unusually dense data covering both the inter- and intra-plate earthquakes. Combining these data with onshore networks, we detect and relocate 1137 earthquakes with a three dimensional velocity model. We perform detailed spectral and time domain analysis to study variations in earthquake source properties between the different types of faults. We observe a wide variability of stress drops and systematic lateral and depth variations in the earthquake source spectra resulting from the different types of tectonic fault systems in this region: intraplate faults within the subducted oceanic mantle, the Mendocino transform plate boundary fault, and the thrust interface of the Cascadia subduction zone. Some of the depth variability of source spectra can be explained by the expected increase in rupture velocity with depth. However, the overall variation in stress drop estimates is consistent with the highest stress drop earthquakes occurring in the depth range predicted by strength envelopes. Moreover, the earthquakes in the vicinity of the thrust interface, likely including some within the subducted oceanic crust, show dearly lower stress drops and depletion of high-frequency radiation for their size compared to events in the oceanic mantle and along the transform fault at a given depth. Our results suggest that the variability in earthquake source spectra that can be expected in the Cascadia subduction zone is systematic and that the thrust interface operates at a lower stress level than the core of the subducted plate a few kilometers away. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.