Cascading and pulse-like ruptures during the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes in the Eastern California Shear Zone
Kejie Chen, Jean‐Philippe Avouac, Saif Aati, Chris Milliner, Fu Zheng, Chuang Shi
Abstract
Abstract On July 4 2019, a M w 6.5 earthquake, followed 34 h later by a M w 7.1 event, struck Searles Valley, California. These events are part of a long-lived cluster of historical earthquakes along the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ) which started in 1872 and are associated with temporarily elevated strain rates. We find that the M w 6.5 event initiated on a right-lateral NW striking fault and then ruptured a left-lateral fault to the surface. This event triggered right-lateral slip during the M w 7.1 earthquake. It started as a bilateral, crack-like rupture on a segment brought closer to failure by the M w 6.5 event. The rupture evolved to pulse-like as it propagated at a relatively slow velocity (2 km/s) along a segment that was unloaded by the M w 6.5 event. It stopped abruptly at the Coso volcanic area and at the Garlock Fault and brought some neighbouring faults closer to failure.