Abstract
Earthquake triggering is the process by which stress changes associated
with an earthquake can induce or retard seismic activity in the surrounding
region or trigger other earthquakes at great distances. Calculations
of static Coulomb stress changes associated with earthquake slip
have proven to be a powerful tool in explaining many seismic observations,
including aftershock distributions, earthquake sequences, and the
quiescence of broad, normally active regions following large earthquakes.
Delayed earthquake triggering, which can range from seconds to decades,
can be explained by a variety of time-dependent stress transfer mechanisms,
such as viscous relaxation, poroelastic rebound, or afterslip, or
by reductions in fault friction, such as predicted by rate and state
constitutive relations. Rapid remote triggering of earthquakes at
great distances (from several fault lengths to 1000s of km) is best
explained by the passage of transient (dynamic) seismic waves, which
either immediately induce Coulomb-type failure or initiate a secondary
mechanism that induces delayed triggering. The passage of seismic
waves may also play a significant role in the triggering of near-field
earthquakes.
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