Seismicity, Stress State, and Style of Faulting of the Ridgecrest-Coso Region from the 1930s to 2019: Seismotectonics of an Evolving Plate Boundary Segment

Abstract

ABSTRACTDecadal scale variations in the seismicity rate in the Ridgecrest-Coso region, part of the Eastern California Shear Zone, included seismic quiescence from the 1930s to the early 1980s, followed by increased seismicity until the 2019 Mw 6.4 and 7.1 Ridgecrest sequence. This sequence exhibited complex rupture on almost orthogonal faults and triggered aftershocks over an area of ∼90  km long by ∼5–10  km wide, which is a fraction of the area of the previously seismically active Indian Wells Valley and Coso range region. During the last 40 yr, the seismicity has been predominantly the result of strike-slip motion, extending north from the Garlock fault, along the Little Lake and Airport Lake fault zones, and approaching the southernmost Owens Valley fault to the north. The Coso range forms an extensional stepover between these two strike-slip fault systems. This evolution of a plate boundary zone is driven by the northwestward motion of the Sierra Nevada, and crustal extension along the southwestern edge of the Basin and Range Province. Stress inversion of focal mechanisms shows that the postseismic stress state consists of almost horizontal σ1 and vertical σ2. The σ1 is spatially rotated across the Coso range stepover with σ1-trending ∼N17° E to the north, whereas, along the Mw 7.1 mainshock rupture, the trend is ∼N6° E. The friction angles as measured between fault strikes and the σ1 trends correspond to a frictional coefficient of 0.75, suggesting average fault strength. In comparison, the mature Garlock fault has a smaller frictional coefficient of 0.28, similar to weak faults like the San Andreas fault. Thus, it appears that the heterogeneously oriented and spatially distributed but strong Ridgecrest-Coso faults accommodate seismicity at seemingly random places and times within the region and are in the process of self-organizing to form a major throughgoing plate-boundary segment.