Determining Fault Orientation with Sagnac Interferometers

Typically, earthquake fault ruptures emit seismic waves in directions dependent on the fault's orientation. Specifically, as the fault slips to release strain, compressional P-waves propagate parallel and perpendicular to the fault plane, and transverse S-waves propagate at 45 degree angles to the fault--a result of the double-couple model of fault slippage. Sagnac Interferometers (ring-lasers) have been used to study wave components of several natural phenomena. We used the initial responses of a ring-laser from transverse S-waves to determine the orientation of the nearby Guy/Greenbrier fault, the source of an earthquake swarm in 2010-11 purportedly caused by hydraulic fracturing. This orientation was compared to the structure of the fault extracted by nearby seismogram responses. Our goal was to determine if ring-lasers could reinforce or add to the models of fault orientation constructed from seismographs. The results indicate that the ring-laser's responses can aid in constructing fault orientation in a manner similar to traditional seismographs.