Detecting deep tectonic tremor in Taiwan using dense arrays

Abstract

Deep tectonic tremor has been observed in major subduction zones, strike-slip faults, inland faulting systems, and arc-continent collision environments around the Pacific Rim. However, detailed space-time evolution of its source locations remains enigmatic because of difficulties in detecting and locating tremor accurately. In 2011, we installed two dense, small-aperture seismic arrays aiming to detect ambient tremor source beneath southern Central Range in Taiwan. We recorded continuous waveforms for a total of 134 days, including tremor triggered by the great 2011 Mw9.0 Tohoku earthquake. We use the broadband frequency-wavenumber beamforming and the moving-window grid-search methods to compute array parameters for detecting seismic signals. The obtained array parameters closely match both relocated local earthquakes and triggered tremor bursts located by an envelope cross-correlations method, indicating the robustness of our array technique. We identify tremor signals with coherent waveforms and deep incidence angles and detect tremor for 44 days among the 134-day study period. The total duration is 1,481-minute, which is 3-6 times more than that detected by the envelope cross-correlations method. In some cases, we observe rapid tremor migration with a speed at the order of 40-50 km/hour that is similar to the speed of fast tremor migration along-dip on narrow streaks in Japan and Cascadia. Our results suggest that dense array techniques are capable of capturing detailed spatiotemporal evolutions of tremor behaviors in southern Taiwan.