Is it possible to infer the background stress tensor from the moment tensors of tensile earthquakes, which have a significant non double-couple part?
Can I apply techniques used for stress inversion of pure double-couple moment tensors to the double-couple part of my moment tensors? (i.e. using methods which assume the slip vector is within the fault plane, for example Michael (1984) method and variants of.)
If none of the above: what/how can I learn about regional stress conditions from such data?
Luke, here's my take on it, for simple earthquakes in the purely brittle regime. The moment tensor gives a slip direction, so the simplest assumption is that the two possible slip planes are the planes of maximum shear stress. If you assume that the planes pre-existed, i.e. were not created as new coulomb shear fractures, then that would make the direction is max stresses parallel to the P and T axes. That is 45 degrees to the slip possible slip planes. If the earthquake is not a simple one, i.e. large, complex in the sense of multiple slip events, deep so that he purely brittle assumption is not a good one, then this bet is off. Jim
Jim Granath , thanks for your helpful reply! This is good for DC earthquakes, but it's a stretch for my data.
I recently came across a paper by Jia et al. (2018)(https://academic.oup.com/gji/advance-article/doi/10.1093/gji/ggy290/5056162) who perform stress inversion whilst considering Vavrycuk's (2001) model for tensile earthquakes (shear + opening). I think this might be useful...
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