[CEUS-earthquake-hazards] Another research article on earthquakes in stable continental regions

[Williams, Robert]

I should have included this one in my previous email--I didn't know that it
was available online. The final journal-formatted version of this article
is not yet available.

​*A New Paradigm for Large Earthquakes in Stable Continental Plate
Interiors, <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL070815/full> *
Authors: E. Calais, T. Camelbeeck, S. Stein, M. Liu, T. J. Craig, Geophys.
Res. Letters,
Accepted manuscript online: 15 September 2016, DOI: 10.1002/2016GL070815​

​Excerpt from their abstract *(text in parentheses added by R.
Williams*): *"Here
we argue that SCR (**Stable Continental Region**) earthquakes (**like those
in the New Madrid, Wabash Valley, and Charleston, South Carolina, seismic
zones**) are better explained by transient perturbations of local stress or
fault strength that release elastic energy from a pre-stressed
lithosphere *(crust
and upper mantle)*. As a result, SCR earthquakes can occur in regions with
no previous seismicity and no surface evidence for strain accumulation
*(surface
deformation)*. They need not repeat, since the tectonic loading rate is
close to zero. Therefore, concepts of recurrence time or fault slip rate do
not apply. As a consequence, seismic hazard in SCRs is likely more
spatially distributed than indicated by paleoearthquakes, current
seismicity, or geodetic strain rates."*


-- 
Robert Williams
Central & Eastern U.S. Coordinator
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
1711 Illinois St
Golden, CO 80401
303-273-8636
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