Earthquake Recurrence Intervals on the San Andreas Fault

Abstract

Research Article| October 01, 1970 Earthquake Recurrence Intervals on the San Andreas Fault ROBERT E WALLACE ROBERT E WALLACE U.S. Geological Survey, National Center for Earthquake Research, Menlo Park, California 94025 Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar GSA Bulletin (1970) 81 (10): 2875–2890. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1970)81[2875:ERIOTS]2.0.CO;2 Article history received: 20 Mar 1970 rev-recd: 09 Jun 1970 first online: 02 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation ROBERT E WALLACE; Earthquake Recurrence Intervals on the San Andreas Fault. GSA Bulletin 1970;; 81 (10): 2875–2890. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1970)81[2875:ERIOTS]2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract Possible recurrence intervals between earthquakes of different magnitude that may be generated along the San Andreas fault are derived by relating long-term offset rates since mid-Tertiary time, displacements, and lengths of breaks recorded for historic earthquakes, and tectonic creep rates.The recurrence interval for earthquakes of different magnitude at a given point on the fault is believed to follow the relation: where: Rxrecurrence interval at a point on the fault, Ddisplacement accompanying an earthquake of given magnitude (related empirically to Richter magnitude), Slong-term strain rate (from offset of geologic units), Ctectonic creep rate.The recurrence interval for earthquakes of different magnitudes for the total length of the fault is then derived by weighting equation (1) according to the number of break lengths in the total length as follows: where: Rtrecurrence interval for entire fault, Llength of break (related empirically to Richter magnitude), Lttotal length of fault.Tectonic creep is believed to be related to Richter magnitude, for example, small for segments of the fault characterized by earthquakes of large magnitude, and large for segments characterized by small earthquakes; and equations (1) and (2) can be weighted according to this relationship. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.