Seismotectonics

Seismotectonics studies the relationship between earthquakes, faults, and tectonic processes. It incorporates information from various disciplines including seismology, geodesy, and geology. The analysis of seismological data provides information on the geometry and the sense of motion of earthquake ruptures. The joint interpretation of many earthquakes allows conclusions on the tectonic stress regime, which is, in combination with information on fault orientations, fundamental for providing estimates on the seismic hazard of a region.

Illustration: Depth profile of high-precision hypocenter locations of an earthquake sequence close to Winterthur in April 2014. The focal mechanism (beach-ball symbol) of the ML 2.0 event of April 17th indicates a westward dipping normal fault in the crystalline basement.