Australia's neotectonic faulting record: faults, earthquakes and seismic hazard  

Authors / CoAuthors

Clark, D.J. | McPherson, A.A.

Abstract

Long-term temporal and spatial patterns in large earthquake occurrence can be deduced from the Australian landscape record and used to inform contemporary earthquake hazard science. Seismicity source parameters such as fault slip-rates, large earthquake recurrence times and maximum magnitude vary across the continent, and can be interpreted within a framework of large-scale neotectonic domains defined on the basis of geology and crustal setting. While the suite of neotectonic fault behaviours may vary across Australia, as implied by the neotectonic domains model, one individual fault characteristic appears to be common to most Australian intraplate faults studied active periods comprising a finite number of events are separated by much longer periods of quiescence. Studies elsewhere in the world identify similar episodic behaviour on faults with low slip rates and suggest that the time between successive clusters of events (deformation phases) is highly variable but significantly longer than the times between successive earthquakes within an active phase. Furthermore, there is some indication that the temporal clustering behaviour emerging from single fault studies may be symptomatic of a larger picture of the more or less continuous tectonic activity from the late Miocene to Recent being punctuated by pulses of activity in specific, actively deforming regions. At present the underlying tectonic processes driving the observed variability in Australian seismicity are poorly understood. Questions remain as to whether stress accumulation and/or strain release is predictable, and at what scale. In this talk, we will outline some of the key challenges facing earthquake hazard scientists in Australia, and how these are being addressed.

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nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

89958

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• External PublicationAbstract

( Theme )

• geohazards

( Theme )

• earthquakes

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Tectonics

• Published_Internal

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2016-01-01T00:00:00

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all of continental australia 110.0 155.0 -45.0 -10.0