Webinars - Detail

Slow earthquakes release significant amount of stress from major plate boundary faults worldwide. In addition, there is ample evidence that slow earthquakes interact with their regular counterparts and affect the overall fault dynamics. Yet, characterizing their tectonic behavior remains challenging due to the nature of deformation and complex seismic radiation, i.e. tremor. Beam backprojection technique images slow earthquakes in high resolution by detecting and locating seismic tremor using well-designed mini seismic arrays. I use this technique in Cascadia and Alaska subduction zone, and San Andreas Fault to show the evolution of slip during slow earthquakes as expressed by seismic tremor. Analyses of the intricate details of the spatiotemporal distribution of tremor and its migration patterns are providing new insights into the physics driving slow earthquakes and fault mechanics.