A northeast-dipping zone of low frequency earthquakes at the southern edge of Cascadia subduction

David R. Shelly; Dara Elyse Goldberg; Aaron Wech; Amanda M. Thomas

doi:10.1029/2025gl116116

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A northeast-dipping zone of low frequency earthquakes at the southern edge of Cascadia subduction

David R. Shelly·Dara Elyse Goldberg·Aaron Wech·Amanda M. Thomas

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Abstract

Tectonic tremor monitoring occasionally detects events in an anomalous zone in southern Cascadia, 50–100 km west of the main tremor band, near the expected southern edge of the subducting Gorda slab at the Mendocino triple junction. To investigate the geometry and temporal behavior of this tremor, we examine its constituent low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) by developing 27 stacked LFE waveform templates that we use to detect events from 2018 to 2024. We then relocate LFE sources together with regional seismicity. We find that LFE hypocenters form a northeast-dipping alignment at 22–29 km depth, extending eastward from a zone of micro-earthquakes, ∼15 km south of the southern edge of Gorda slab seismicity. These LFE families exhibit small bursts of activity every few days. Considering the strong world-wide association of tremor and LFEs with high slip-rate, plate-bounding faults, we hypothesize these LFEs may demark the southern edge of Cascadia subduction.

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Geophysical Research Letters Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 39.09452043926575° to 40.90524515269453° latitude; -124.69502883019663° to -122.5274521203633° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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David R. Shelly, Dara Elyse Goldberg, Aaron Wech, Amanda M. Thomas. 2025-06-21. A northeast-dipping zone of low frequency earthquakes at the southern edge of Cascadia subduction. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl116116

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