Depth and thickness of tectonic tremor in the northeastern Olympic Peninsula

TL;DR

This study estimates the depth and thickness of tectonic tremor in the Olympic Peninsula using seismic lag times, revealing the tremor's proximity to the plate boundary and its distribution over a wider depth range than low-frequency earthquakes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate tremor depth and thickness using S minus P times from array recordings, providing new insights into tremor localization.

Findings

Tremor is located within 2-3 km of the plate boundary.

Tremor is distributed over a wider depth range than low-frequency earthquakes.

Tremor region thickness is constrained to a few kilometers.

Abstract

Tectonic tremor has been explained as a swarm of low-frequency earthquakes, which are located on a narrow fault at the plate boundary. However, due to the lack of clear impulsive phases in the tremor signal, it is difficult to determine the depth of the tremor source with great precision. The thickness of the tremor region is also not well constrained. The tremor may be located on a narrow fault as the low-frequency earthquakes appear to be, or distributed over a few kilometers wide low shear-wave velocity layer in the upper oceanic crust, which is thought to be a region with high pore-fluid pressure. Lag times of peaks in the cross-correlation of the horizontal and vertical components of tremor seismograms, recorded by small-aperture arrays in the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, are interpreted to be S minus P times. Tremor depths are estimated from these S minus P times using epicenters from a previous study using a multibeam backprojection method. The tremor is located close to the plate boundary in a region no more than 2-3 kilometers thick and is very close to the depths of low-frequency earthquakes. The tremor is distributed over a wider depth range than the low-frequency earthquakes. However, due to the uncertainty on the depth, it is difficult to conclude whether the source of the tremor is located at the top of the subducting oceanic crust, in the lower continental crust just above the plate boundary, or in a narrow zone at the plate boundary.