3D fault architecture controls the dynamism of earthquake swarms

Abstract

Seismic swarms show the structure Faults responsible for earthquakes are idealized into two dimensions, despite fault zones being complicated, three-dimensional structures. Ross et al. used machine learning to find 22,000 seismic events near Cahuilla, California, during a seismic swarm. They used the locations and sizes of these events to show how the complex structure of the fault interacted with natural fluid injections from below. The authors' methods highlight the complexities of one fault and suggest a way to characterize other faults around the world. Science , this issue p. 1357