Similar scaling laws for earthquakes and Cascadia slow-slip events

Abstract

Faults can slip not only episodically during earthquakes but also during transient aseismic slip events, often called slow-slip events. Previous studies based on observations compiled from various tectonic settings have suggested that the moment of slow-slip events is proportional to their duration, instead of following the duration-cubed scaling found for earthquakes. This finding has spurred efforts to unravel the cause of the difference in scaling. Thanks to a new catalogue of slow-slip events on the Cascadia megathrust based on the inversion of surface deformation measurements between 2007 and 2017, we find that a cubic moment–duration scaling law is more likely. Like regular earthquakes, slow-slip events also have a moment that is proportional to A^(3/2), where A is the rupture area, and obey the Gutenberg–Richter relationship between frequency and magnitude. Finally, these slow-slip events show pulse-like ruptures similar to seismic ruptures. The scaling properties of slow-slip events are thus strikingly similar to those of regular earthquakes, suggesting that they are governed by similar dynamic properties.