Predictive modeling of the seismic cycle of the Greater San Francisco Bay Region

Authors:
  • CBCharles G. Bufe
    Charles G. Bufe
  • DVDavid J. Varnes
    David J. Varnes
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Abstract
The seismic cycle for the San Francisco Bay region is synthesized by a model combining the pre‐and post‐1906 seismic histories. The long‐term acceleration of seismic release (seismic moment, Benioff strain release, or event count) in the seismic cycle and the shorter‐term accelerations preceding the larger earthquakes within that cycle are modeled using an empirical predictive technique, called time‐to‐failure analysis, in which rate of seismic release is proportional to an inverse power of the remaining time to failure. The exponent of time to failure in the accelerating sequences appears to be scale invariant, and the length of the full cycle is estimated at 269 ± 50 years. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which is the culmination of the first subcycle in the present long‐term seismic cycle, should have been predictable with an uncertainty of 2 years in time and 0.5 in magnitude, although the specific location (at Loma Prieta) was not predictable by this technique. If our model is correct and if the Loma Prieta earthquake is the culmination of a subcycle, the San Francisco Bay region should be entering a relatively long (20–50 years) period of seismic quiescence above magnitude 6. A great earthquake, such as the 1906 San Francisco event, would appear to be more than a century in the future.

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