TY - JOUR A1 - Heimann, Sebastian A1 - Gonzalez, Alvaro A1 - Wang, Rongjiang A1 - Cesca, Simone A1 - Dahm, Torsten T1 - Seismic characterization of the Chelyabinsk Meteor's terminal explosion JF - Seismological research letters Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1785/0220130042 SN - 0895-0695 VL - 84 IS - 6 SP - 1021 EP - 1025 PB - Seismological Society of America CY - Albany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cesca, Simone A1 - Grigoli, Francesco A1 - Heimann, Sebastian A1 - Gonzalez, Alvaro A1 - Buforn, Elisa A1 - Maghsoudi, Samira A1 - Blanch, Estefania A1 - Dahm, Torsten T1 - The 2013 September-October seismic sequence offshore Spain: a case of seismicity triggered by gas injection? JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - A spatially localized seismic sequence originated few tens of kilometres offshore the Mediterranean coast of Spain, close to the Ebro river delta, starting on 2013 September 5, and lasting at least until 2013 October. The sequence culminated in a maximal moment magnitude M-w 4.3 earthquake, on 2013 October 1. The most relevant seismogenic feature in the area is the Fosa de Amposta fault system, which includes different strands mapped at different distances to the coast, with a general NE-SW orientation, roughly parallel to the coastline. However, no significant known historical seismicity has involved this fault system in the past. The epicentral region is also located near the offshore platform of the Castor project, where gas is conducted through a pipeline from mainland and where it was recently injected in a depleted oil reservoir, at about 2 km depth. We analyse the temporal evolution of the seismic sequence and use full waveform techniques to derive absolute and relative locations, estimate depths and focal mechanisms for the largest events in the sequence (with magnitude mbLg larger than 3), and compare them to a previous event (2012 April 8, mbLg 3.3) taking place in the same region prior to the gas injection. Moment tensor inversion results show that the overall seismicity in this sequence is characterized by oblique mechanisms with a normal fault component, with a 30A degrees low-dip angle plane oriented NNE-SSW and a subvertical plane oriented NW-SE. The combined analysis of hypocentral location and focal mechanisms could indicate that the seismic sequence corresponds to rupture processes along shallow low-dip surfaces, which could have been triggered by the gas injection in the reservoir, and excludes the activation of the Amposta fault, as its known orientation is inconsistent with focal mechanism results. An alternative scenario includes the iterated triggering of a system of steep faults oriented NW-SE, which were identified by prior marine seismics investigations. KW - Earthquake dynamics KW - Earthquake source observations Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggu172 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 198 IS - 2 SP - 941 EP - 953 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cesca, Simone A1 - Grigoli, Francesco A1 - Heimann, Sebastian A1 - Dahm, Torsten A1 - Kriegerowski, Marius A1 - Sobiesiak, M. A1 - Tassara, C. A1 - Olcay, M. T1 - The M-w 8.1 2014 Iquique, Chile, seismic sequence: a tale of foreshocks and aftershocks JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - The 2014 April 1, M-w 8.1 Iquique (Chile) earthquake struck in the Northern Chile seismic gap. With a rupture length of less than 200 km, it left unbroken large segments of the former gap. Early studies were able to model the main rupture features but results are ambiguous with respect to the role of aseismic slip and left open questions on the remaining hazard at the Northern Chile gap. A striking observation of the 2014 earthquake has been its extensive preparation phase, with more than 1300 events with magnitude above M-L 3, occurring during the 15 months preceding the main shock. Increasing seismicity rates and observed peak magnitudes accompanied the last three weeks before the main shock. Thanks to the large data sets of regional recordings, we assess the precursor activity, compare foreshocks and aftershocks and model rupture preparation and rupture effects. To tackle inversion challenges for moderate events with an asymmetric network geometry, we use full waveforms techniques to locate events, map the seismicity rate and derive source parameters, obtaining moment tensors for more than 300 events (magnitudes M-w 4.0-8.1) in the period 2013 January 1-2014 April 30. This unique data set of fore- and aftershocks is investigated to distinguish rupture process models and models of strain and stress rotation during an earthquake. Results indicate that the spatial distributions of foreshocks delineated the shallower part of the rupture areas of the main shock and its largest aftershock, well matching the spatial extension of the aftershocks cloud. Most moment tensors correspond to almost pure double couple thrust mechanisms, consistent with the slab orientation. Whereas no significant differences are observed among thrust mechanisms in different areas, nor among thrust foreshocks and aftershocks, the early aftershock sequence is characterized by the presence of normal fault mechanisms, striking parallel to the trench but dipping westward. These events likely occurred in the shallow wedge structure close to the slab interface and are consequence of the increased extensional stress in this region after the largest events. The overall stress inversion result suggests a minor stress rotation after the main shock, but a significant release of the deviatoric stress. The temporal change in the distribution of focal mechanisms can also be explained in terms of the spatial heterogeneity of the stress field: under such interpretation, the potential of a large megathrust earthquake breaking a larger segment offshore Northern Chile remains high. KW - Earthquake source observations KW - South America Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggv544 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 204 SP - 1766 EP - 1780 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cesca, Simone A1 - Heimann, Sebastian A1 - Kriegerowski, Marius A1 - Saul, Joachim A1 - Dahm, Torsten T1 - Moment tensor inversion for nuclear explosions BT - what can we learn from the 6 January and 9 September 2016 Nuclear Tests, North Korea? JF - Seismological research letters N2 - Two nuclear explosions were carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea in January and September 2016. Epicenters were located close to those of the 2006, 2009, and 2013 previous explosions. We perform a seismological analysis of the 2016 events combining the analysis of full waveforms at regional distances and seismic array beams at teleseismic distances. We estimate the most relevant source parameters, such as source depth, moment release, and full moment tensor (MT). The best MT solution can be decomposed into an isotropic source, directly related with the explosion and an additional deviatoric term, likely due to near‐source interactions with topographic and/or underground facilities features. We additionally perform an accurate resolution test to assess source parameters uncertainties and trade‐offs. This analysis sheds light on source parameters inconsistencies among studies on previous shallow explosive sources. The resolution of the true MT is hindered by strong source parameters trade‐offs, so that a broad range of well‐fitting MT solutions can be found, spanning from a dominant positive isotropic term to a dominant negative vertical compensated linear vector dipole. The true mechanism can be discriminated by additionally modeling first‐motion polarities at seismic arrays at teleseismic distances. A comparative assessment of the 2016 explosion with earlier nuclear tests documents similar vertical waveforms but a significant increase of amplitude for the 2016 explosions, which proves that the 9 September 2016 was the largest nuclear explosion ever performed in North Korea with a magnitude Mw 4.9 and a shallow depth of less than 2 km, although there are no proofs of a fusion explosion. Modeling transversal component waveforms suggests variable size and orientation of the double‐couple components of the 2009, 2013, and 2016 sources. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1785/0220160139 SN - 0895-0695 SN - 1938-2057 VL - 88 IS - 2A SP - 300 EP - 310 PB - Seismological Society of America CY - Albany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Niemz, Peter A1 - Cesca, Simone A1 - Heimann, Sebastian A1 - Grigoli, Francesco A1 - von Specht, Sebastian A1 - Hammer, Conny A1 - Zang, Arno A1 - Dahm, Torsten T1 - Full-waveform-based characterization of acoustic emission activity in a mine-scale experiment BT - a comparison of conventional and advanced hydraulic fracturing schemes JF - Geophysical journal international / the Royal Astronomical Society, the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft and the European Geophysical Society N2 - Understanding fracturing processes and the hydromechanical relation to induced seismicity is a key question for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Commonly massive fluid injection, predominately causing hydroshearing, are used in large-scale EGS but also hydraulic fracturing approaches were discussed. To evaluate the applicability of hydraulic fracturing techniques in EGS, six in situ, multistage hydraulic fracturing experiments with three different injection schemes were performed under controlled conditions in crystalline rock at the Aspo Hard Rock Laboratory (Sweden). During the experiments the near-field ground motion was continuously recorded by 11 piezoelectric borehole sensors with a sampling rate of 1 MHz. The sensor network covered a volume of 30x30x30 m around a horizontal, 28-m-long injection borehole at a depth of 410 m. To extract and characterize massive, induced, high-frequency acoustic emission (AE) activity from continuous recordings, a semi-automated workflow was developed relying on full waveform based detection, classification and location procedures. The approach extended the AE catalogue from 196 triggered events in previous studies to more than 19600 located AEs. The enhanced catalogue, for the first time, allows a detailed analysis of induced seismicity during single hydraulic fracturing experiments, including the individual fracturing stages and the comparison between injection schemes. Beside the detailed study of the spatio-temporal patterns, event clusters and the growth of seismic clouds, we estimate relative magnitudes and b-values of AEs for conventional, cyclic progressive and dynamic pulse injection schemes, the latter two being fatigue hydraulic fracturing techniques. While the conventional fracturing leads to AE patterns clustered in planar regions, indicating the generation of a single main fracture plane, the cyclic progressive injection scheme results in a more diffuse, cloud-like AE distribution, indicating the activation of a more complex fracture network. For a given amount of hydraulic energy (pressure multiplied by injected volume) pumped into the system, the cyclic progressive scheme is characterized by a lower rate of seismicity, lower maximum magnitudes and significantly larger b-values, implying an increased number of small events relative to the large ones. To our knowledge, this is the first direct comparison of high resolution seismicity in a mine-scale experiment induced by different hydraulic fracturing schemes. KW - Fracture and flow KW - Spatial analysis KW - Statistical methods KW - Time-series analysis KW - Induced seismicity Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggaa127 SN - 0955-419X SN - 1365-246X VL - 222 IS - 1 SP - 189 EP - 206 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jamalreyhani, Mohammadreza A1 - Rezapour, Mehdi A1 - Cesca, Simone A1 - Dahm, Torsten A1 - Heimann, Sebastian A1 - Sudhaus, Henriette A1 - Isken, Marius Paul T1 - Insight into the 2017-2019 Lurestan arc seismic sequence (Zagros, Iran); complex earthquake interaction in the basement and sediments JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - Despite its high-seismogenic potential, the details of the seismogenic processes of Zagros Simply Folded Belt (SFB) remains debated. Three large earthquakes (M-w 7.3, 5.9 and 6.3) struck in the Lurestan arc of the Zagros SFB in 2017 and 2018. The sequence was recorded by seismic stations at regional, and teleseismic distances. Coseismic surface displacements, measured by Sentinel-1A/B satellites, provide additional data and a unique opportunity to study these earthquakes in detail. Here, we complement previous studies of the coseismic slip distribution of the 12 November 2017 M-w 7.3 Ezgeleh earthquake by a detailed analysis of its aftershocks, and we analysed the rupture process of the two interrelated earthquakes (25 August 2018 M-w 5.9 Tazehabad and the 25 November 2018 M-w 6.3 Sarpol-e Zahab earthquakes). We model the surface displacements obtained from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements and seismic records. We conduct non-linear probabilistic optimizations based on joint InSAR and seismic data to obtain finite-fault rupture of these earthquakes. The Lurestan arc earthquakes were followed by a sustained aftershock activity, with 133 aftershocks exceeding M-n 4.0 until 30 December 2019. We rely on the permanent seismic networks of Iran and Iraq to relocate similar to 700 M-n 3 + events and estimate moment tensor solutions for 85 aftershocks down to M-w 4.0. The 2017 Ezgeleh earthquake has been considered to activate a low-angle (similar to 17 degrees) dextral-thrust fault at the depth of 10-20 km. However, most of its aftershocks have shallow centroid depths (8-12 km). The joint interpretation of finite source models, moment tensor and hypocentral location indicate that the 2018 Tazehabad and Sarpol-e Zahab earthquakes ruptured different strike-slip structures, providing evidence for the activation of the sinistral and dextral strike-slip faults, respectively. The deformation in the Lurestan arc is seismically accommodated by a complex fault system involving both thrust and strike-slip faults. Knowledge about the deformation characteristics is important for the understanding of crustal shortening, faulting and hazard and risk assessment in this region. KW - Joint Inversion KW - Waveform inversion KW - Earthquake source observations KW - Seismicity and tectonics Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac057 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 230 IS - 1 SP - 114 EP - 130 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER -