what can earthquake focal mechanisms tell us about slab tear? maxwell rudolph, eh tan, jeniffer...
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What can earthquake focal mechanisms tell us about slab tear?
Maxwell Rudolph, Eh Tan, Jeniffer Masy, Iain Bailey, Rob PorrittFaculty Adviser: Alan Levander
MotivationWhich modes of slab tear appear to be actively occurring?
Can we map slab tears using earthquake moment tensors?
Proposed Work1) Compare summed earthquake focal mechanisms with stresses predicted from highly idealized numerical models around tears of different modes and with velocity anomalies in tomographic models
2) Attempt to understand kinematics and dynamics of ongoing tear near Venezuela in context of focal mechanisms and tomography from Levander group
Bezada et al. 2010. Hale et al. Tectonophysics 2009
South America CMTs
Compute average CMT orientation in local slab coordinate system
Red show T-axes, blue show P-axes
Background is MIT tomography evaluated at the slab contours
Iain Bailey’s work
South America CMTs Rotation of CMTs
CIDER has provided funding for several days of face-to-face collaboration for the whole group in Houston next month.