Wl. Ellsworth et Gc. Beroza, OBSERVATION OF THE SEISMIC NUCLEATION PHASE IN THE RIDGECREST, CALIFORNIA, EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCE, Geophysical research letters, 25(3), 1998, pp. 401-404
Near-source observations of five M 3.8-5.2 earthquakes near Ridgecrest
, California are consistent with the presence of a seismic nucleation
phase. These earthquakes start abruptly, but then slow or stop before
rapidly growing again toward their maximum rate of moment release. Dec
onvolution of instrument and path effects by empirical Green's functio
ns demonstrates that the initial complexity at the start of the earthq
uake is a source effect. The rapid growth of the P-wave arrival at the
start of the seismic nucleation phase supports the conclusion of Mori
and Kanamori [1996] that these earthquakes begin without a magnitude-
scaled slow initial phase of the type observed by Iio [1992, 1995].