INVESTIGATION OF FAULTING PROCESSES OF TWO M5 EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCES IN OKLAHOMA

Pennington, Colin

INVESTIGATION OF FAULTING PROCESSES OF TWO M5 EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCES IN OKLAHOMA

dc.contributor.advisor	Chen, Xiaowei
dc.contributor.author	Pennington, Colin
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Nakata, Norimitsu
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Carpenter, Brett
dc.date.accessioned	2017-05-11T19:54:18Z
dc.date.available	2017-05-11T19:54:18Z
dc.date.issued	2017-05
dc.date.manuscript	2017-05-11
dc.description.abstract	I investigate the stress interaction inside different earthquake clusters to better understand the factors that might drive and control seismicity. I examine a catalog of 6226 events that have been relocated using the GrowClust method. The relocated earthquakes show that the Prague earthquake sequence occurred on a number of anastomosing faults, I also find that the fault propagates up into the Arbuckle formation and shows a pattern that mimics observed structure in the Hunton formation. I then examine the stress drop of the Prague earthquake sequence and find a median stress drop of 2.21 MPa, with low stress drop occurring in the shallow region of 1.8 to 3 km, as well as higher overall stress drops located on the fault activated by the aftershock. I then examine the Pawnee cluster, specifically within the Watchorn, Labette, and Sooner Lake fault systems and the effect of precursory activities on the September 3, 2016 M5.8 Pawnee earthquake. I obtain fault plane solutions for earthquakes with sufficient azimuthal coverage using the HASH algorithm, and then performed Coulomb stress analysis on both seismogenic faults and individual nodal planes. Our results found that the three M≥3.0 foreshocks exerted a cumulative Coulomb stress change increase of 68 to 198 kPa at the mainshock hypocenter and promoted failure for most aftershocks within 2 km of the mainshock. The Coulomb stress change of 500 kPa exerted by the mainshock also promoted failure for most aftershocks within the conjugate fault system. The combined results of these studies suggest that earthquake interaction should be fully considered in hazard assessment for induced seismicity.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/11244/50794
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Coulomb Stress Change	en_US
dc.subject	Stress Drop	en_US
dc.subject	2016 Pawnee, OK Earthquake	en_US
dc.subject	2011 Prague, OK Earthquake	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Master of Science	en_US
dc.title	INVESTIGATION OF FAULTING PROCESSES OF TWO M5 EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCES IN OKLAHOMA	en_US
ou.group	Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy::Conoco Phillips School of Geology and Geophysics	en_US