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Evidence for rainfall-triggered earthquake activity
Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
Fluids are known to be of major importance for the earthquake generation because pore pressure variations alter the strength of faults. Thus they can initiate earthquakes if the crust is close enough to its critical state. Based on the observations of the isolated seismicity below the densely monitored Mt. Hochstaufen, SE Germany, we are now able to demonstrate that the crust can be so close-to-failure that even tiny pressure variations associated with precipitation can trigger earthquakes in a few kilometer depth. We find that the recorded seismicity is highly correlated with the calculated spatiotemporal pore pressure changes due to diffusing rain water and in good agreement with the response of faults described by the rate-state friction law.
Received 21 July 2006; accepted 30 August 2006; published 5 October 2006.
Citation: (2006), Evidence for rainfall-triggered earthquake activity, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L19303, doi:10.1029/2006GL027642.
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