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Originally published in Science Express on 8 May 2003
Science 20 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5627, pp. 1942 - 1943
DOI: 10.1126/science.1084783
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Reports

Episodic Tremor and Slip on the Cascadia Subduction Zone: The Chatter of Silent Slip

Garry Rogers* and Herb Dragert

We found that repeated slow slip events observed on the deeper interface of the northern Cascadia subduction zone, which were at first thought to be silent, have unique nonearthquake seismic signatures. Tremorlike seismic signals were found to correlate temporally and spatially with slip events identified from crustal motion data spanning the past 6 years. During the period between slips, tremor activity is minor or nonexistent. We call this associated tremor and slip phenomenon episodic tremor and slip (ETS) and propose that ETS activity can be used as a real-time indicator of stress loading of the Cascadia megathrust earthquake zone.

Geological Survey of Canada, Pacific Geoscience Centre, 9860 West Saanich Road, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada V8L4B2.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rogers{at}pgc.nrcan.gc.ca

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