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Changes in Groundwater Level Possibly Encourage Shallow Earthquakes in Central Australia: The 2016 Petermann Ranges Earthquake
Author(s) -
Wang Shuai,
Xu Wenbin,
Xu Caijun,
Yin Zhi,
Bürgmann Roland,
Liu Lin,
Jiang Guoyan
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl080510
Subject(s) - geology , intraplate earthquake , seismology , induced seismicity , interferometric synthetic aperture radar , crust , slip (aerodynamics) , thrust fault , fault (geology) , tectonics , synthetic aperture radar , geophysics , physics , remote sensing , thermodynamics
The mechanisms of unusual shallow intraplate earthquakes that occasionally occur in stable cratons remain poorly understood. Here we analyze coseismic and postseismic displacement fields associated with the 2016 Petermann Ranges earthquake in central Australia using interferometric synthetic aperture radar data. The earthquake ruptured a previously unmapped fault and was dominated by thrust slip motion of up to 95 cm within the top 3 km of the crust. Postseismic deformation analysis suggests that a combination of poroelastic rebound and afterslip are responsible for the observed signals. The inferred afterslip overlapping spatially with the coseismic rupture highlights that the postseismic slip is coupled with the pore fluid flow around the fault zones. Analysis of historic groundwater‐level changes suggests that shallow seismicity around the Petermann Ranges may have been triggered by environmental stress perturbations due to the fluctuations of groundwater level; however, it is not easy to document statistical significance of this correlation.