Two large shocks near Ridgecrest in California show how earthquakes destroy the Earth’s crust

In July 2019, a series of earthquakes, including two major earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 on the Richter scale, struck near Ridgecrest, California, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. For locals, it was a violent interruption of the Fourth of July holiday. For seismologists, it was a rare opportunity to study how earthquakes damage the Earth’s crust.

The earthquake zone–which belongs to a network of faults called California’s Eastern Shear Zone–is sparsely populated and arid, with not much in the way of vegetation or buildings to hide the surface. But it’s also well covered in remote and satellite imagery and is accessible to geologists who could be at the site long before evidence of crustal damage is gone.

Alba Rodriguez Padilla, a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis, was among the scientists studying the site, along with Professor Mike Oskin, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Christopher Milner, Caltech, and Andreas Bleich of Harvard University. They mapped surface ruptures from LIDAR data and aerial images collected through previous studies, and compared rupture maps to other data sets to explore the distribution of rock damage from earthquakes. Their findings are published today (February 24, 2022) in the journal Nature Geoscience.

This USGS animation shows the earthquake sequence that began a few hours before the sequence and continues through July 8. M6.4 and its minions are shown as a light blue star with dark blue circles, and M7.1 and its minions are shown as a tulip star with red circles. Credit: USGS

“Not only do we have dehydration that helps here, but improvements in imaging technology and resolution, combined with large spatial data footprint collection, that make Ridgecrest’s coverage groundbreaking,” said Rodriguez Padilla.

inelastic deformation

The rocks surrounding the fault have experienced “inelastic deformation,” meaning that they are deformed and fractured rather than returning to their original shape. The deformation at its peak was within 100 meters of the fault, with extensive, low-intensity damage up to 20 kilometers (16 miles).

This deformation leaves the rocks around the fault less solid than before, causing the crust to soften. This softening dissipates energy from future earthquakes, increases permeability and concentrates deformation.

Rodriguez Padilla said the study provides a better understanding of how damage from earthquakes accumulates and may influence future events.

Reference: “Extensive rock damage buildup from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes” February 24, 2022, Nature Geoscience.DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00888-w

The study was funded by the Southern California Seismic Center, supported by the NSF and the US Geological Survey. Rodriguez Padilla was partially supported by a NASA fellowship.

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