Imaging the source region of Cascadia tremor and intermediate-depth earthquakes

The subduction of hydrated oceanic crust releases volatiles that weaken the plate boundary interface, trigger earthquakes, and regulate transient phenomena such as episodic tremor and slip (ETS). It is not clear how dehydration can separately induce earthquakes within the subducting plate and ETS, partly because few data exist on their relationship to subduction zone structures. We present results of a seismic experiment in the Washington Cascades, United States, that images a region producing both earthquake types. Migration of scattered teleseismic waves provides images of low-velocity subducting crust at depths < 40-45 km with sharp boundaries above and below it. The sharp upper boundary indicates a layer of weak sediment or an overpressured fault zone that terminates abruptly downdip at 40-45 km depth. Regular earthquakes are at the top of the mantle within the downgoing plate everywhere the plate is < 95 km deep, but ETS only exists where the sharp upper boundary occurs. The ETS location supports models of slow slip that require near-lithostatic fluid pressure, whereas regular earthquakes nucleate closer to the origin of metamorphic dehydration. Very low shear stresses on the plate boundary may limit seismicity to ETS and similar phenomena.