Abstract
Slow slip events were discovered in many subduction zones during the
last two decades thanks to recordings of the displacement of Earth’s
surface by dense GNSS networks. Slow slip can last from a few days to
several years and have a relatively short recurrence time (months to
years), compared to the recurrence time of regular earthquakes (up to
several hundreds of years), allowing scientists to observe and study
many complete event cycles. In many places, tectonic tremor is also
observed in relation to slow slip and can be used as a proxy to study
slow slip events of moderate magnitude where surface deformation is
hidden in GNSS noise. However, in subduction zones where no clear
relationship between tremor and slow slip occurrence is observed, these
methods cannot be applied, and we need other methods to be able to
better detect and quantify slow slip. Wavelets methods such as the
Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and the Maximal Overlap Discrete
Wavelet Transform (MODWT) are mathematical tools for analyzing time
series simultaneously in the time and the frequency domain by observing
how weighted averages of a time series vary from one averaging period to
the next. In this study, we use wavelet methods to analyze GPS time
series and seismic recordings of slow slip events in Cascadia. We use
detrended GPS data, apply the MODWT transform and stack the wavelet
details over several nearby GPS stations. As an independent check on the
timing of slow slip events, we also compute the cumulative number of
tremors in the vicinity of the GPS stations, detrend this signal, and
apply the MODWT transform. In both time series, we can then see
simultaneous waveforms whose timing corresponds to the timing of slow
slip events. We assume that there is a slow slip event whenever there is
a peak in the wavelet signal. We verify that there is a good correlation
between slow slip events detected with only GPS data, and slow slip
events detected with only seismic data. The wavelet-based detection
method detects all events of magnitude higher than 6 as determined by
independent event catalogs (e.g. Michel et al., 2019, Pure Appli.
Geophys.).