Small slow-strain steps and their forerunners observed in gold mine in South Africa

Abstract

The Research Group for Semi-controlled Earthquake-generation Experiments in South African deep gold mines (SeeSA) has continuously monitored strain changes with a resolution of 24 bit 25 Hz at the Bambanani mine near Welkom. An Ishii borehole strainmeter was installed at a depth of 2.4 km near the potential M ∼ 3 earthquake source area. Instantaneous strain steps of ∼10−4 strains associated with two M2 events were observed within a length of seismic fault. These steps were followed by significant post-seismic creep-like drift, but not preceded by forerunners. Analysis of the continuous 25 Hz data reveals many smaller steps with much longer durations (100 ms ∼ 100 s) than seen in normal earthquakes (−1 < M < 2) with source durations of 1 ms∼50 ms. Some of the especially slow steps were preceded by accelerations in strain, the maximum being as large as one-third of the step.