Non-linear elasticity, earthquake triggerring and seasonal hydrological forcing along the Irpinia fault, Southern Italy

Non-linear elasticity, earthquake triggerring and seasonal hydrological forcing along the Irpinia fault, Southern Italy | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Non-linear elasticity, earthquake triggerring and seasonal hydrological forcing along the Irpinia fault, Southern Italy Stefania Tarantino, Piero Poli, Nicola D'Agostino, Maurizio Vassallo, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4042694/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Nov, 2024 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Pump-probe experiments investigate the strain sensitivity of crustal elastic properties, showing nonlinear variations during the strain cycle. In the laboratory, pre-seismic reductions in seismic velocity indicate that asperity contacts within the fault zone begin to fail before macroscopic frictional sliding. The recognition of such effects in natural seismic-cycles has been challenging. By exploiting seasonal hydrological strains, we used a quasi-static natural pump-probe experiment to investigate the nonlinear response of crustal rocks and its role in seismic failure along the tectonically-active Irpinia Fault System (Southern Italy). By comparing 14-years-long series of spring discharge, strain, seismic velocity variations and earthquakes rate, we find that seismicity peaks during maximum hydrological forcing and minimum seismic velocity. Seasonal strains of ~10 -6 are required for both earthquakes triggering and significant nonlinearity effects arising from modulus reduction. We suggest that, for faults in a critical state, cyclical softening may lead to failure and seasonal seismicity. Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences/Geophysics Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences/Seismology Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterial.docx Supplementary Material animationFRAMES6.gif Continuos strain evolution Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Nov, 2024 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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