Crustal deformation due to aseismic slip on buried faults

Besides being earthquake sources, active faults can slip aseismically. Aseismic slip plays an important role in releasing stress along plate boundaries and should be considered in the interpretation of geodetic measurements in tectonically active areas. An asperity model is presented showing that, due to the heterogeneity of fault surfaces, aseismic slip occurs through advancing dislocation fronts. The ground deformation pattern produced by such propagating dislocations is studied by calculating tilt as a function of time produced by a dislocation front moving at constant velocity in an elastic half-space model.