Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Published Online October 21, 2004
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1103961

Reports

Submitted on August 11, 2004
Accepted on October 7, 2004

Earth Tides Can Trigger Shallow Thrust Fault Earthquakes

Elizabeth S. Cochran 1*, John E. Vidale 1, Sachiko Tanaka 2

1 Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
2 Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan; Present address: National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305, Japan.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Elizabeth S. Cochran , E-mail: cochran{at}moho.ess.ucla.edu

We show a correlation between the occurrence of shallow, thrust earthquakes and the occurrence of the strongest tides. The rate of earthquakes varies from the background rate by a factor of three with the tidal stress. The highest correlation is found when we assume a coefficient of friction of µ = 0.4 for the crust, although we see good correlation for µ between 0.2 and 0.6. Our results quantify the effect of applied stress on earthquake triggering, a key factor in understanding earthquake nucleation and cascades whereby one earthquake triggers others.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Apparent Weekly and Daily Earthquake Periodicities in the Western United States.
A. H. Atef, K. H. Liu, and S. S. Gao (2009)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 99, 2273-2279
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dynamic Triggering by Strong-Motion P and S Waves: Evidence from the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, Earthquake.
A. D. Fischer, C. G. Sammis, Y. Chen, and T.-L. Teng (2008)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 98, 580-592
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Tidal Modulation of Nonvolcanic Tremor.
J. L. Rubinstein, M. La Rocca, J. E. Vidale, K. C. Creager, and A. G. Wech (2008)
Science 319, 186-189
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Pole-Tide Modulation of Slow Slip Events at Circum-Pacific Subduction Zones.
Z.-K. Shen, Q. Wang, R. Burgmann, Y. Wan, and J. Ning (2005)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 95, 2009-2015
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)