Improved approach for stress drop estimation and its application to an induced earthquake sequence in Oklahoma

Abstract

SUMMARY We calculate source parameters for fluid-injection induced earthquakes near Guthrie, Oklahoma, guided by synthetic tests to quantify uncertainties. The average stress drop during an earthquake is a parameter fundamental to ground motion prediction and earthquake source physics, but it has proved hard to measure accurately. This has limited our understanding of earthquake rupture, as well as the spatio-temporal variations of fault strength. We use synthetic tests based on a joint spectral-fitting method to define the resolution limit of the corner frequency as a function of the maximum frequency of usable signal, for both individual spectra and the average from multiple stations. Synthetic tests based on stacking analysis find that an improved stacking approach can recover the true input stress drop if the corner frequencies are within the resolution limit defined by joint spectral-fitting. We apply the improved approach to the Guthrie sequence, using different wave types and signal-to-noise criteria to understand the stability of the calculated stress drop values. The results suggest no systematic scaling relationship of stress drop for M ≤ 3.1 earthquakes, but larger events (M ≥ 3.5) tend to have higher average stress drops. Some robust spatio-temporal variations can be linked to the triggering processes and indicate possible stress heterogeneity within the fault zone. Tight clustering of low stress drop events at the beginning stage of the sequence suggests that pore pressure influences earthquake source processes. Events at shallow depth have lower stress drop compared to deeper events. The largest earthquake occurred within a cluster of high stress drop events, likely rupturing a strong asperity.