The possibility of estimating the coseismic deformation from water level observations in wells

A method for point estimation of coseismic volume deformation from amplitudes of earthquake-induced jumps in the water level and from the tidal sensitivity of the water level is presented. Application of this method is illustrated by six Kamchatka earthquakes of 1997–2004 with M w = 6.2–7.8 that occurred 128–316 km from the YuZ-5 well. Estimates of coseismic deformation provided by the level gage observations and by the model agree in amplitude and sign. The model reproduces an extended dislocation source in a homogeneous elastic isotropic half-space. Source rupture parameters correspond to focal mechanisms from the CMT international catalog. Consistence in experimental and theoretical estimates of the volume coseismic deformation indicates the high strain-resistance properties of YuZ-5 borehole and the possibility of quantitative estimation of seismotectonic deformation from high-precision water level measurements with time resolution not lower than 10 minutes.