Complex Fault Geometry of the 2020 MWW6.5 Monte Cristo Range, Nevada Earthquake Sequence

TL;DR

This study analyzes the complex fault network and seismicity of the 2020 M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake in Nevada, revealing intricate fault interactions and slip behaviors through detailed seismic data analysis.

Contribution

It provides a detailed, high-resolution mapping of fault structures and seismic mechanisms associated with the earthquake, highlighting complex fault interactions not previously documented.

Findings

Revealed a complex fault network crossing the mainshock rupture.

Identified multiple fault mechanisms including left-lateral, right-lateral, and normal.

Showed the eastern section had fewer aftershocks but more moment release.

Abstract

On 15 May 2020 an MWW 6.5 earthquake occurred beneath the Monte Cristo Range in the Mina Deflection region of western Nevada. Rapid deployment of eight temporary seismic stations enables detailed analysis of its productive and slowly decaying aftershock sequence (p=0.8) which included ~18,000 autodetected events in 3.5 months. Double-difference, waveform-based relative relocation of 16,714 earthquakes reveals a complex network of faults, many of which cross the inferred 35-km long east-northeast-striking, left-lateral mainshock rupture. Seismicity aligns with left-lateral, right-lateral, and normal mechanism moment tensors of 128 of the largest earthquakes. The mainshock occurred near the middle of the aftershock zone at the intersection of two distinct zones of seismicity. In the western section, numerous subparallel, shallow, north-northeast-striking faults form a broad flower-structure-like fault mesh that coalesces at depth into a near-vertical, left-lateral fault. We infer the near-vertical fault to be a region of significant slip in the mainshock and an eastward extension of the left-lateral Candelaria fault. Near the mainshock hypocenter, seismicity occurs on a northeast-striking, west-dipping structure which extends north from the Eastern Columbus Salt Marsh normal fault. Together, these two intersecting structures bound the Columbus Salt Marsh tectonic basin. East of this intersection and the mainshock hypocenter, seismicity occurs in a narrow, near-vertical, east-northeast-striking fault zone through to its eastern terminus. At the eastern end, the aftershock zone broadens and extends northwest towards the southern extension of the northwest-striking, right-lateral Petrified Springs fault system. The eastern section hosts significantly fewer aftershocks than the western section, but has more moment release.