Revisiting the Timpson Induced Earthquake Sequence: A System of Two Parallel Faults

Abstract:

The 17 May 2012 M4.8 Timpson earthquake is the largest known earthquake in eastern Texas. It is thought to have been induced by wastewater injection from two nearby, high-volume wells. Its cataloged aftershocks form a NW-SE trend, which unlike other induced earthquakes sequences, is unfavorably oriented for failure in the local stress field. To understand this, we enriched the catalog using PhaseNet, a deep-learning-based picker followed by double-difference relocation with cross-correlation-based differential traveltimes. We clustered the aftershocks based on waveform similarity. Most of the seismicity falls into two-clusters, which define a detailed fault structure of two parallel subfaults that are more favorably oriented than the overall trend. We inferred from waveform similarity that the sequence initiated on the northern subfault with a M3.9 foreshock and M4.8 mainshock, then extended to the southern subfault with a M4.1 aftershock, and was finally reactivated on the northern subfault with two more M4 events.