simultaneous rupture along two conjugate planes of the wharton basin earthquake analysis of broadband teleseismic data shows that the 18 june 2000 wharton basin earthquake a moment magnitude 7 8 intraplate event in the region of diffuse deformation separating the indian and australian plates consisted of two subevents that simultaneously ruptured two near conjugate planes this mode of rupture accommodates shortening by a mechanism different from that previously known elsewhere in the region the larger subevent occurred on a fossil fracture zone with a relatively high stress drop of about 20 megapascals showing that large stresses can accumulate in regions of distributed deformation

multi fault rupture and successive triggering during the 2012 mw 8 6 sumatra offshore earthquake 1 on april 11 2012 a mw 8 6 strike slip earthquake struck the northern sumatra offshore region and became the largest intraplate event ever recorded there preliminary study results show a remarkably complex rupture pattern on a fault system manifested by north south trending paleo transform faults and east west striking abyssal hill fabric to image the rupture pattern of the earthquake we back projected teleseismic p wave recordings observed at three regional seismic networks eu au and f net our results indicate that the earthquake ruptured on a conjugate fault system composed of two subparallel wnw ese trending faults and a nne ssw striking fault in between for a duration of at least 120 s the rupture started at the wnw end of the first wnw ese trending fault located at the east of the conjugate fault system and propagated toward ese it then jumped to the second nne ssw trending fault located west of the first fault and first extended sswward and 15 s later nneward after its end on the second fault the rupture jumped onto the third wnw ese trending fault and continued wnwward the static coulomb stress changes calculated from the rupture of the first and then the second faults based on simplified uniform slip models suggest that initiation of the rupture on the second fault could be statically and dynamically triggered by the first fault however the third fault was primarily dynamically triggered by s or even love waves radiated from the southern branch of the second fault

coseismic and postseismic deformation associated with the 2018 mw 7 9 kodiak alaska earthquake from low rate and high rate gps observationscoseismic and postseismic deformation associated with the 2018 mw 7 9 kodiak alaska earthquake

direct evidence of active deformation in the eastern indian oceanic plate conventional plate tectonics theory postulates that plates only deform on their boundaries to the contrary there is ample evidence of intraplate deformation in the equatorial indian ocean west of the ninetyeast aseismic ridge prior to this study no direct evidence of deforma tion east of the ninetyeast ridge was available we present the results of a multipurpose geo physical cruise showing that intraplate deformation also occurs in this area long at least 1000 km left lateral north south strike slip faults are active and reactivate fossil fracture zones this style of deformation is strikingly different from the east west folds and reverse faults that affect the region west of the ninetyeast ridge contrasting processes of convergence at the northern plate boundaries can account for the two styles of deformation west of the ninetyeast ridge there is a continent continent collision and east of the ridge oceanic lithosphere subducts along the sumatra trench the ninetyeast aseismic ridge therefore appears to be a mechanical border separating two distinct deformed areas

coseismic offsets due to the 11 april 2012 indian ocean earthquakes mw 8 6 and 8 2 derived from gps measurements 1 the 11 april 2012 earthquake mw 8 6 in the indian ocean about 100 km west off the sumatra subduction zone is the largest intraplate strike slip earthquake in the known history two hours later it triggered another great earthquake of mw 8 2 in its vicinity the earthquakes reflect the internal deformation of the diffused plate boundary between india and australia caused by the differential plate motion between them the slip occurred on conjugate planes and the presence of some of them has been reported from the swath bathymetry and satellite magnetic anomalies we estimate coseismic offsets due to these earthquakes at continuous gps sites in the andaman nicobar region and at other international gnss service igs sites around the earthquakes source region the sites on the andaman islands which are about 900 1200 km to the north of the earthquake epicenters experienced predominantly southward coseismic offset of up to 3 cm the nearest site campbell bay on great nicobar island about 500 km to the north of the earthquake documented an ese offset of about 4 cm the coseismic offsets are consistent with the finite fault slip models derived from back projection of the seismic waves recorded by the global networks

deep seismic reflection images of the wharton basin oceanic crust and uppermost mantle offshore northern sumatra relation with active and past deformation 1 we present deep seismic reflection images along two profiles collected in 2006 in the wharton basin offshore northern sumatra the main profile is located subparallel to the sumatran trench at a distance of 32 66 km faulting of the entire sedimentary section strike slip deformation sometimes accompanied by a dip slip component is imaged over two fracture zones of the extinct wharton spreading center that prior studies have shown to be reactivated as left lateral faults the western fracture zone is associated with a wide region of strong basement topography a difference in crustal thickness of 1 5 km and an age offset of 9 ma the epicenters of the 11 april 2012 mw 8 6 great strike slip earthquake its mw 7 2 foreshock and mw 8 2 aftershock align along this major structure 100 km south of the profile intersection our high quality long offset seismic reflection data also reveal bright dipping reflections extending down to a maximum of 24 km into the oceanic mantle 37 km below sea level apparent dips are mostly 25 35 corresponding to 30 55 along either n s to nne ssw or e w to wnw ese directions which encompass the directions of plate fabric and nodal planes of the mw 8 6 event we suggest that these enigmatic reflections arise from presently inactive dip slip fault planes reaching for the deepest ones to the base of the brittle layer possible origins include extension related to plate bending or an episode of now inactive thrust type deformation reactivating paleonormal faults similar to that taking place in the central indian basin

global marine gravity from retracked geosat and ers 1 altimetry ridge segmentation versus spreading rate 1 three approaches are used to reduce the error in the satellite derived marine gravity anomalies first we have retracked the raw waveforms from the ers 1 and geosat gm missions resulting in improvements in range precision of 40 and 27 respectively second we have used the recently published egm2008 global gravity model as a reference field to provide a seamless gravity transition from land to ocean third we have used a biharmonic spline interpolation method to construct residual vertical deflection grids comparisons between shipboard gravity and the global gravity grid show errors ranging from 2 0 mgal in the gulf of mexico to 4 0 mgal in areas with rugged seafloor topography the largest errors of up to 20 mgal occur on the crests of narrow large seamounts the global spreading ridges are well resolved and show variations in ridge axis morphology and segmentation with spreading rate for rates less than about 60 mm a the typical ridge segment is 50 80 km long while it increases dramatically at higher rates 100 1000 km this transition spreading rate of 60 mm a also marks the transition from axial valley to axial high we speculate that a single mechanism controls both transitions candidates include both lithospheric and asthenospheric processes

multiple observations of the prompt elastogravity signals heralding direct seismic waves the recent first observations of the prompt elastogravity signals pegs induced by the 2011 mw 9 1 tohoku megathrust earthquake generated interest in how these signals might best be observed especially for lower magnitude events simulations of these signals preceding the direct p wave for different depths and focal mechanisms first reveal that shallow strike slip earthquakes offer a better detection potential than subduction megathrust earthquakes consistently clear pegs are observed at several broadband seismometers during the 2012 mw 8 6 wharton basin earthquake due to their short source durations large deep earthquakes are then shown to have an even larger detection potential confirmed by the successful seismological observations for the 2018 mw 8 2 fiji and 1994 mw 8 2 bolivia earthquakes detection is even improved when an earthquake is recorded by a number of good quality stations allowing for stacking techniques thanks to the deployment of the usarray network across alaska the recent 2018 mw 7 9 off alaska earthquake strike slip is thus observed with an excellent signal to noise ratio array stacking is also shown to reveal the pegs induced by the large 2010 mw 8 8 maule megathrust earthquake for which individual observations are impeded by the long lasting radiation generated by a distant large earthquake as a whole we show new observations and successful modeling of the pegs for five earthquakes in the 7 9 8 8 magnitude range these findings demonstrate that even without considering promising future instruments the pegs detection is not restricted to exceptional events confirming their potential for magnitude and focal mechanism determination within the few minutes following a large earthquake

long term versus short term deformation of the meizoseismal area of the 2008 achaia elia mw 6 4 earthquake in nw peloponnese greece evidence from historical triangulation and morphotectonic data abstract the deformation of the meizoseismal area of the 2008 achaia elia mw 6 4 earthquake in nw peloponnese of the first significant strike slip earthquake in continental greece was examined in two time scales of 102 years based on the analysis of high accuracy historical triangulation data describing shear and of 105 106 years based on the analysis of the hydrographic network of the area for signs of streams offset by faulting our study revealed pre seismic accumulation of shear strain of the order of 0 2 rad year in the study area consistent with recent gps evidence but no signs of significant strike slip induced offsets in the hydrographic network these results confirm the hypothesis that the 2008 fault which did not reached the surface and was not associated with significant seismic ground deformation probably because of a surface flysch layer filtering high strain events was associated with an immature or a dormant recently activated fault this fault about 150 km long and discordant to the morphotectonic trends of the area seems first to contain segments which have progressively reactivated in a specific direction in the last 20 years reminiscent of the north anatolian fault and second to limit an 150 km wide recent shear zone in the internal part of the arc in a region mostly dominated by thrust faulting and strong destructive earthquakes

imaging supershear rupture for the 2014 mw 6 9 northern aegean earthquake by backprojection of strong motion waveforms the seismic source spatiotemporal evolution of the mw 6 9 event on 24 may 2014 in northern aegean is imaged by backprojection of strong motion envelopes the results indicate that the event ruptured on two different fault segments in the first one rupture propagated from the hypocenter westward for 20 km in the second delayed segment to the east rupture propagated eastward for 65 km with a supershear velocity 5 5 km s at the end of this rupture the largest stacking amplitudes are imaged associated with possible stopping phases from the abrupt cessation of a fast slip low aftershock seismicity on the supershear segment implies a simple and linear fault geometry there this is the third large event in the northern aegean trough northern anatolian fault zones that has ruptured with supershear speed this characteristic should be taken into account in studying past events and estimating seismic hazard in this area

modeling 3 d wave propagation and finite slip for the 1998 balleny islands earthquake we simulate surface waves in a 3 d earth model using a spectral element method for existing kinematic source models of the m w 8 1 25 march 1998 balleny islands earthquake the 3 d model incorporates lateral variations in the crust and mantle on the basis of models crust2 0 and s20rts our objective is to investigate the fit of the observed and simulated long period surface waves in the hope of improving on the existing source models we modify a body wave model determined by henry et al 2000 to improve the fit of long period surface waveforms we demonstrate that adding a smooth component of slip extending over a fault that connects the two subevents determined by henry et al 2000 without invoking slip on multiple fault planes or on unconnected fault patches provides reasonable fits to long period surface waves as well as body waves

a strong correlation between induced peak dynamic coulomb stress change from the 1992 m7 3 landers california earthquake and the hypocenter of the 1999 m7 1 hector mine california earthquake the 1992 m7 3 landers earthquake may have played a role in triggering the 1999 m7 1 1 hector mine earthquake as suggested by their close spatial 20 km proximity current investigations of triggering by static stress changes produce differing conclusions when small variations in parameter values are employed here i test the hypothesis that large amplitude dynamic stress changes induced by the landers rupture acted to promote the hector mine earthquake i use a flat layer reflectivity method to model the landers earthquake displacement seismograms by requiring agreement between the model seismograms and data i can constrain the landers main shock parameters and velocity model a similar reflectivity method is used to compute the evolution of stress changes i find a strong positive correlation between the hector mine hypocenter and regions of large 4 mpa dynamic coulomb stress changes peak f t induced by the landers main shock a positive correlation is also found with large dynamic normal and shear stress changes uncertainties in peak f t 1 3 mpa are only 28 of the median value 4 6 mpa determined from an extensive set 160 of model parameters therefore the correlation with dynamic stresses is robust to a range of hector mine main shock parameters as well as to variations in the friction and skempton s coefficients used in the calculations these results imply dynamic stress changes may be an important part of earthquake trigging such that large amplitude stress changes alter the properties of an existing fault in a way that promotes fault failure

a complex earthquake sequence captured by the continuous gps network in sw iceland a complex sequence of earthquakes struck the western part of the south iceland seismic zone sisz on 29 may 2008 the sequence initiated with a m w 6 3 neic earthquake in the western part of the sisz aftershocks from the earthquake delineate two parallel n s trending structures 4 km apart in addition to activity along an e w zone further westward continuous gps measurements can best be explained by right lateral strike slip motion on two parallel n s trending faults with little slip occurring on other structures illuminated by earthquake activity we estimate a total moment release of m w 6 2 with m w 6 1 on the first rupture and m w 6 0 on the second rupture high rate 1 hz cgps data from a near field station suggest that the main asperity on the kross fault ruptured within 3 s of the initial mainshock on the ingolfsfjall fault citation hreinsdottir s t amadottir j decriem h geirsson a tryggvason r a bennett and p lafemina 2009 a complex earthquake sequence captured by the continuous gps network in sw iceland geophys res lett 36 l12309 doi 10 1029 2009gl038391

tsunamis from strike slip earthquakes in the wharton basin northeast indian ocean march 2016 mw7 8 event and its relationship with the april 2012 mw 8 6 event

the june 2000 mw 7 9 earthquakes south of sumatra deformation in the india australia plate 1 two large mw 7 9 earthquakes occurred on 4 and 18 june 2000 south of sumatra beneath the indian ocean both earthquakes were predominantly left lateral strike slip on vertical n s trending faults that we interpret to be reactivated fracture zones the 4 june enggano earthquake occurred at the edge of the rupture area of the 1833 subduction earthquake the first strike slip subevent within the subducting plate triggered a thrust subevent on the plate interface which comprised at least 35 of the total moment and ruptured se away from the 1833 earthquake the 18 june earthquake in the wharton basin is one of the largest shallow strike slip faulting earthquakes ever recorded a small second subevent with reverse slip is required to fit the body waves the orientation of both subevents in our preferred model is consistent with the current stress field in the region both the june 2000 earthquakes are consistent with recent models of distributed deformation in the india australia composite plate the occurrence of the enggano earthquake implies that the stress field within the indian plate continues to a depth of 50 km in the subducting slab the purely strike slip source model of the wharton basin earthquake obtained by robinson et al 2001 matches the p waves very poorly and fits the s waves no better than our preferred model the strike slip subevents of both earthquakes had few aftershocks and higher stress drops than the subduction thrust subevent of the enggano earthquake this difference is consistent with previous observations of oceanic and subduction earthquakes

a rare great earthquake on an oceanic fossil fracture zone first motion solution found in this study and has a strike consistent with the fracture zone north of the bend the southern fault plane with strike 178 d ip 54 and rake 65 has a strike consistent with the portion of the fracture zone to the south of the bend and has a dip which can be explained by the style of deformation that the region is undergoing the centroid moment tensor solution of the broad band model is calculated and found to be consistent with the region of low misfit in mantle wave solution space the broad band solution has a moment of 1 53 10 21 nm mw 8 1 again consistent with the mantle wave data slip propagated bilaterally with an approximate rupture velocity of 3k ms 1 80 per cent of local shear wave speed the rupture front is less well resolved to the south of the epicentre than to the north the majority 75 per cent of moment originated from slip on the northern fault the broad band data requires significant slip below the oceanic moho with as much as 70 per cent of moment due to slip in the brittle uppermost mantle in the preferred model

multiple branching rupture of the 2009 tonga samoa earthquake several source models have been proposed to explain the enigmatic 2009 tonga samoa earthquake the long period data require a composite source model and can be fit with a normal faulting subevent followed by one or more reverse faulting subevents the short period data in contrast indicate a more compact rupture pattern around the epicenter the lack of a unified source model reflects the complexity of the event we analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of this earthquake with p wave back projection from globally distributed stations in different frequency bands low frequency 0 05 0 2 hz high frequency 0 2 2 hz and a multiple moment tensor inversion the rupture propagation revealed by back projection exhibits frequency dependent behavior with two branches of high frequency enriched bilateral rupture around the epicenter and a high frequency deficient rupture branch at the subduction interface a composite source model with one mw 8 0 normal faulting earthquake east of the trench axis seaward followed by one mw 8 1 reverse faulting earthquake along the subduction interface west of the trench axis landward can explain the very long period data 200 500 s combined with high resolution swath bathymetry data the back projection images show that the azimuth of rupture branches east of the trench axis were controlled by the geometry of bending related faults on the pacific plate and that the rupture branch west of the trench axis may correlate with the along strike fore arc segmentation the rupture along the subduction interface was triggered by the seaward rupture and a partially subducted normal fault may have played a key role in facilitating the triggering the apparent normal reverse faulting interactions pose a higher seismic risk to this region than their individual strands at the northernmost corner of the tonga subduction zone

seismic b value anomalies in the sumatran region seismotectonic implications abstract the spatial variations in the seismic b value seismic moment bouguer gravity change and fault plane solution are estimated in the sumatran region based on homogeneous seismicity data from june 2005 to march 2012 to investigate the seismotectonic characteristics and tectonic activity between the 2004 sumatran earthquake and the 2012 east indian ocean earthquakes based on changes in the seismicity rate this time period is divided into five intervals with different earthquake distributions and faulting styles the seismic b values faulting mechanisms and seismic moment release values are mapped throughout the sumatran region and the gravity change every two years between the 2004 event and the 2012 events are determined from satellite grace gravity data the b values vary from 0 45 to 1 59 and an inverse correlation is observed between the b values and convergence rates low b values are located at depths between 20 km and 40 km in the subduction zone and between 20 km and 35 km in the oceanic plate the lowest b values are located at a depth of approximately 28 km in both regions which indicates a homogeneous fault system between them the areas with low b values are associated with megathrust and strike slip mechanisms while the area with the lowest b values is dominated by a megathrust mechanism seismically active regions have low b values associated with a high stress accumulation and high seismic moment release low b value areas are located mainly along the andaman sunda trench and andaman nicobar sumatra forearc temporal variations in the seismicity distribution and faulting style are recognized with temporal variations in the b values in each period relationships exist between the epicenter of the 2004 event and the location of the maximum bouguer gravity change in 2012 and between the epicenters of the 2012 events and the location of the maximum bouguer gravity change in 2004 furthermore a zone of continuous 2 year positive gravity change is located near the nicobar islands the 2004 event boost the 2012 events and intraplate seismicity via stress transfer the seismicity distributions in individual periods within the studied timeframe highlight the active and locked portions of the fault systems

stochastic inversion of pressure and saturation changes from time lapse avo data effects of pressure and fluid saturation can have the same degree of impact on seismic amplitudes and differential travel

supershear rupture on multiple faults for the mw 8 6 off northern sumatra indonesia earthquake of april 11 2012 1 we perform a back projection method to image the rupture propagation and short period energy release of the 2012 off northern sumatra earthquake mw8 6 using hi net data recorded in japan the results show a complex pattern of four conjugate faults over about 180 sec there is a striking correspondence between the lengths and orientations of our rupture pattern with the distribution of aftershocks each of the first three stages of the rupture corresponds to a clear lineation in the aftershocks with lengths of 200 to 400 km rupture speeds for several of the fault segments were very high about 5 km s and exceed the local s wave velocity this is the first example of an oceanic earthquake with supershear rupture speed

the elmore ranch and superstition hills earthquakes of 24 november 1987 introduction to the special issue on 24 november 1987 two significant earthquakes occurred along the southern san jacinto fault zone and related structural elements in southern california not far from the international border these two events the elmore ranch earthquake m 6 2 at 0154 gmt and the superstition hills earthquake m 6 6 at 1315 gmt both moment magnitudes from sipkin 1989 and their aftershocks have yielded a rich harvest of geological seismological and engineering data pertinent to the cause and effect of earthquakes in this region where the southern san jacinto fault zone enters the salton depression from the peninsula ranges bordering it on the southwest fig 1 this special issue of the bulletin presents 18 geologic and seismologic investigations of these earthquakes a collection of papers born in el centro california on 8 and 9 february 1988 at a meeting attended by approximately 60 scientists interested in these earthquakes for one reason or another

slow slip acceleration beneath andaman islands triggered by the 11 april 2012 indian ocean earthquakes the m w 8 6 and 8 2 strike slip earthquakes that struck the northeast indian ocean on 11 april 2012 resulted in coseismic deformation both at near and distant sites the slip distribution deduced using seismic wave analysis for the orthogonal faults that ruptured during these earthquakes is sufficient to predict the coseismic displacements at the global positioning system gps sites such as ntus palk and cusv but fall short at four continuous sites in the andaman islands region slip modeling for times prior to the events suggests that the lower portion of the thrust fault beneath the andaman islands has been slipping at least at the rate of 40 cm yr in response to the 2004 sumatra andaman coseismic stress change modeling of gps displacements suggests that the en echelon and orthogonal fault ruptures of the 2012 intraplate oceanic earthquakes could have possibly accelerated the ongoing slow slip along the lower portion of the thrust fault beneath the islands with a month long slip of 4 10 cm the misfit to the coseismic gps displacements along the andaman islands could be improved with a better source model assuming that no local process contributed to this anomaly

source properties of earthquakes near the salton sea triggered by the 16 october 1999 m 7 1 hector mine california earthquake we analyze the source properties of a sequence of triggered earthquakes that occurred near the salton sea in southern california in the immediate aftermath of the m 7 1 hector mine earthquake of 16 october 1999 the sequence produced a number of early events that were not initially located by the regional network including two moderate earthquakes the first within 30 sec of the p wave arrival and a second approximately 10 minutes after the mainshock we use available amplitude and waveform data from these events to estimate magnitudes to be approximately 4 7 and 4 4 respectively and to obtain crude estimates of their locations the sequence of small events following the initial m 4 7 earthquake is clustered and suggestive of a local aftershock sequence using both broadband trinet data and analog data from the southern california seismic network scsn we also investigate the spectral characteristics of the m 4 4 event and other triggered earthquakes using empirical green s function egf analysis we find that the source spectra of the events are consistent with expectations for tectonic brittle shear failure earthquakes and infer stress drop values of 0 1 to 6 mpa for six m 2 1 to m 4 4 events the estimated stress drop values are within the range observed for tectonic earthquakes elsewhere they are relatively low compared to typically observed stress drop values which is consistent with expectations for faulting in an extensional high heat flow regime the results therefore suggest that at least in this case triggered earthquakes are associated with a brittle shear failure mechanism this further suggests that triggered earthquakes may tend to occur in geothermal volcanic regions because shear failure occurs at and can be triggered by relatively low stresses in extensional regimes

transient rheology of the oceanic asthenosphere following the 2012 indian ocean earthquake inferred from geodetic data abstract postseismic motion in the middle field 100 500 km from the epicenter geodetic data resulting from the 2012 indian ocean earthquake exhibited rapid change during the two months following the rupture this pattern probably indicates multiple postseismic deformation mechanisms and might have been controlled by transient rheology therefore the relative contribution of transient rheology in the oceanic asthenosphere and afterslip in the oceanic lithosphere should be incorporated to explain short and long term transitional features of postseismic signals in this study using two years of post earthquake geodetic data from northern sumatra a three dimensional spherical earth finite element model was constructed based on a heterogeneous structure and incorporating transient rheology a rheology model combined with stress driven afterslip was estimated our best fit model suggests an oceanic lithosphere thickness of 75 km with oceanic asthenosphere viscosity values of 1 10 17 pa s and 2 10 18 pa s for the kelvin and maxwell viscosity models respectively the model results indicate that horizontal landward motion and vertical uplift in northern sumatra require viscoelastic relaxation of the oceanic asthenosphere coupled with afterslip in the lithosphere the present study demonstrates that transient rheology is essential for reproducing the rapidly changing motion of postseismic deformation in the middle field area

dynamic stresses coulomb failure and remote triggering dynamic stresses associated with crustal surface waves with 15 30 sec periods and peak amplitudes 5 km the latter is consistent with the observation that extensional or transtensional tectonic regimes are more susceptible to remote triggering by rayleigh wave dynamic stresses than compressional or transpressional regimes locally elevated pore pressures may have a role in the observed prevalence of dynamic triggering in extensional regimes and geothermal volcanic systems

the great march 25 1998 antarctic plate earthquake moment tensor and rupture history we use broadband body and mantle wave data to study the 1998 antarctic intraplate earthquake the centroid moment tensor cmt has a large non double couple component there exist two pure double couple constrained solutions that fit the data almost equally well the frequent practice of taking the best double couple gives a far from optimal solution we use p and sh body waves to determine the rupture parameters of the first and larger of the two observed subevents the best rupture plane with strike 96 dip 69 and rake 18 is compatible with only one of the two cmt solutions strike 96 dip 64 rake 23 centroid location 63 1 s 148 4 e 10 km depth centroid time 0313 02 ut and m0 1 3 1021 n m mw 8 0 the first subevent is a simple primarily westward propagating 140 km rupture of 45 s duration with average velocity 3 km s 1 it has a seismic moment of 1 2 1021 n m mw 8 0 with 75 of its moment released between 10 and 27 s and a stress drop of 240 bars the rupture is physically bounded by two fracture zones at 147 5 e and 150 e the second subevent lasted from 70 to 90 s on a fault extending from 210 to 270 km west of the epicenter with a moment of 0 3 0 6 1021 n m mw 7 6 7 8 this is a spectacular example of dynamic stress triggering over a 100 km separation distance with a time delay of 40 s the complex pattern of aftershocks is primarily controlled by preexisting fracture zones on the ocean floor

imaging the 2016 mw 7 8 kaikoura new zealand earthquake with teleseismic p waves a cascading rupture across multiple faults the 13 november 2016 mw 7 8 kaikoura new zealand earthquake was investigated using teleseismic p waves backprojection of high frequency p waves from two regional arrays shows unilateral rupture of at least two southwest northeast striking faults with an average rupture speed of 1 4 1 6 km s and total duration of 100 s guided by these backprojection results 33 globally distributed low frequency p waves were inverted for a finite fault model ffm of slip the ffm showed evidence of several subevents however it lacked significant moment release near the epicenter where a large burst of high frequency energy was observed a local strong motion network recorded strong shaking near the epicenter hence for this earthquake the distribution of backprojection energy is superior to the ffm as a guide of strong shaking for future large earthquakes that occur in regions without strong motion networks initial shaking estimates could benefit from backprojection constraints

complex and diverse rupture processes of the 2018 mw 8 2 and mw 7 9 tonga fiji deep earthquakes author posting american geophysical union 2019 this article is posted here by permission of american geophysical union for personal use not for redistribution the definitive version was published in geophysical research letters 46 5 2019 2434 2448 doi 10 1029 2018gl080997

april 2012 intra oceanic seismicity off sumatra boosted by the banda aceh megathrust the two earthquakes of respective magnitudes 8 6 and 8 2 that occurred off the coast of the sumatra subduction zone on 11 april 2012 are shown to be part of a continuing boost of the intraplate deformation between india and australia that followed the aceh 2004 and nias 2005 megathrust earthquakes on 11 april 2012 two of the largest strike slip earthquakes ever recorded at magnitudes of 8 7 and 8 2 occurred in the northeastern indian ocean a few hundred kilometres off the coast of sumatra three groups now report the analysis of seismic data from the days and months before and after these events as well as the events themselves matthias delescluse and co authors show that these earthquakes are part of the ongoing boost of intraplate deformation between india and australia that followed the aceh 2004 and nias 2005 megathrust earthquakes they conclude that the australian plate driven by slab pull forces at the sunda trench is gradually detaching from the indian plate han yue and colleagues show that the 11 april event involved a complex four fault rupture lasting several minutes followed two hours later by a magnitude 8 2 aftershock these great ruptures on a lattice of strike slip faults that extends through the crust and into the upper mantle represent large lithospheric deformation that may eventually create a localized boundary between the indian and australian plates fred pollitz and colleagues show that in the six days following 11 april the global rate of remote earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 5 5 increased nearly fivefold and events up to magnitude 7 seem to have been triggered the unprecedented delayed triggering power of this earthquake may arise from its strike slip source geometry or because it struck at a time of an unusually low global earthquake rate and increased the number of nucleation sites that were very close to failure large earthquakes nucleate at tectonic plate boundaries and their occurrence within a plate s interior remains rare and poorly documented especially offshore the two large earthquakes that struck the northeastern indian ocean on 11 april 2012 are an exception they are the largest strike slip events reported in historical times1 2 and triggered large aftershocks worldwide3 yet they occurred within an intra oceanic setting along the fossil fabric of the extinct wharton basin rather than on a discrete plate boundary4 5 6 7 8 here we show that the 11 april 2012 twin earthquakes are part of a continuing boost of the intraplate deformation between india and australia that followed the aceh 2004 and nias 2005 megathrust earthquakes subsequent to a stress transfer process recognized at other subduction zones9 10 using coulomb stress change calculations we show that the coseismic slips of the aceh and nias earthquakes can promote oceanic left lateral strike slip earthquakes on pre existing meridian aligned fault planes we further show that persistent viscous relaxation in the asthenospheric mantle several years after the aceh megathrust explains the time lag between the 2004 megathrust and the 2012 intraplate events on a short timescale the 2012 events provide new evidence for the interplay between megathrusts at the subduction interface and intraplate deformation offshore on a longer geological timescale the australian plate driven by slab pull forces at the sunda trench is detaching from the indian plate which is subjected to resisting forces at the himalayan front6 8 11

static stress impact of the 1992 landers earthquake sequence on nucleation and slip at the site of the 1999 m 7 1 hector mine earthquake southern california the proximity in time 7 years and space 20 km between the 1992 m 7 3 landers earthquake and the 1999 m 7 1 hector mine event suggests a possible link between the quakes we thus calculated the static stress changes following the 1992 joshua tree landers big bear earthquake sequence on the 1999 m 7 1 hector mine rupture plane in southern california resolving the stress tensor into rake parallel and fault normal components and comparing with changes in the post landers seismicity rate allows us to estimate a coefficient of friction on the hector mine plane seismicity following the 1992 sequence increased at hector mine where the fault was unclamped this increase occurred despite a calculated reduction in right lateral shear stress the dependence of seismicity change primarily on normal stress change implies a high coefficient of static friction 0 8 we calculated the coulomb stress change using 0 8 and found that the hector mine hypocenter was mildly encouraged 0 5 bars by the 1992 earthquake sequence in addition the region of peak slip during the hector mine quake occurred where coulomb stress is calculated to have increased by 0 5 1 5 bars in general slip was more limited where coulomb stress was reduced though there was some slip where the strongest stress decrease was calculated interestingly many smaller earthquakes nucleated at or near the 1999 hector mine hypocenter after 1992 but only in 1999 did an event spread to become a m 7 1 earthquake

compound rupture of the great 1998 antarctic plate earthquake the march 25 1998 antarctic plate earthquake ruptured a portion of the antarctic plate more than 200 km west of its boundary with the australian plate the harvard centroid moment tensor solution indicates that the earthquake was primarily a strike slip event but the large non double couple component of the moment tensor suggests considerable complexity in the rupture process we use a finite fault inversion method to determine details of the rupture process from teleseismic body waves recorded by the global seismic network the p waves are poorly fit by one or more subevents having only a strike slip mechanism we find that the presence of a large oblique normal faulting subevent located to the east of the hypocenter is necessary to improve the fit this subevent combines with a larger strike slip subevent to the west to comprise the main moment release in the earthquake and is the cause of the large non double couple component in the long period focal mechanism the earthquake exhibited very high slip and high stress drop compared with most interplate strike slip events and the rupture was largely confined to the upper 15 20 km of the lithosphere both constituent focal mechanisms indicate that this part of the antarctic plate is under nw se oriented tension although the origin of these stresses is unknown

the 2012 mw 8 6 sumatra earthquake evidence of westward sequential seismic ruptures associated to the reactivation of a n s ocean fabric 1 the 11 april 2012 mw 8 6 earthquake offshore sumatra is the largest of the rare great intraplate earthquakes of the instrumental era this major strike slip event occurred in the diffuse zone of deformation that accommodates differential rotation between indian and australian plates we perform a back projection analysis calibrated with well located aftershocks of short period teleseismic p waves recorded by the european array to image the rupture process during the mainshock in complement a love wave analysis is conducted for tracking azimuthal change in the apparent global source duration due to the source spatio temporal extent the combined analysis reveals a complex rupture pattern characterized by three main episodes of energy release the latest being located 370 km west of the epicenter on the ninety east ridge with a delay of 120 s we interpret the 11 april 2012 mw 8 6 offshore sumatra earthquake as a complex westward propagating sequence of dynamically triggered strike slip fault ruptures associated to the reactivation of the inherited nne striking sea floor fabric the dynamic triggering mechanism could result from the interaction between transient surface wave stress perturbations and fluids

illuminating the near sonic rupture velocities of the intracontinental kokoxili mw 7 8 and denali fault mw 7 9 strike slip earthquakes with global p wave back projection imaging 1 the denali and kokoxili strike slip earthquakes are two of the longest recent intracontinental ruptures previous studies report a range of rupture velocities here we image these earthquakes by reverse time migration of the intermediate frequency p wave train recorded by global broadband seismometers this technique permits a relatively direct measure of rupture velocity speed and direction as constrained by the radiated seismic energy free from restrictive assumptions or rupture speed bounds placed on the solution we compare our results with published seismic gps displacement and surface slip inversion results both ruptures were initially subshear and transitioned over a distance no longer than 40 km to supershear speeds close to the p wave speed of 5 6 km s we investigate the accuracy of our results with synthetic data and experiment with using different imaging parameters and seismic subnetworks these tests allow us to rule out the possibility of subshear speeds along the supershear segments although we cannot exclude supershear speeds of 4 5 6 5 km s our most reliable rupture velocities of 5 6 km s are close to the local p wave speeds we hypothesize that these intracontinental faults have weak shear strengths or high breakdown slips or crustal rigidities and experience at least moderate slip or slip rate weakening our observations and previous published results lead us to speculate that very long surface extending faults with general homogeneity in prestress and fault strength together with smaller adjacent fault segments to provide triggering may be necessary ingredients for the sub rayleigh to supershear rupture speed transition in strike slip earthquakes

rapid modeling of the 2011 mw 9 0 tohoku oki earthquake with seismogeodesy 1 rapid characterization of finite fault geometry and slip for large earthquakes is important for mitigation of seismic and tsunamigenic hazards saturation of near source weak motion and problematic integration of strong motion data into displacements make this difficult in real time combining gps and accelerometer data to estimate seismogeodetic displacement waveforms overcomes these limitations by providing mm level three dimensional accuracy and improved estimation of coseismic deformation compared to gps only methods we leverage collocated gps and accelerometer data from the 2011 mw 9 0 tohoku oki japan earthquake by replaying them in simulated real time mode using a novel approach to account for fault finiteness we generate an accurate centroid moment tensor solution independently of any constraint on the slab geometry followed by a finite fault slip model the replay of gps and seismic data demonstrates that robust models could have been made available within 3 min of earthquake initiation

a window into the complexity of the dynamic rupture of the 2011 mw 9 tohoku oki earthquake the 2011 mw 9 tohoku oki earthquake recorded by over 1000 near field stations and multiple large aperture arrays is by far the best recorded earthquake in the history of seismology and provides unique opportunities to address fundamental issues in earthquake source dynamics here we conduct a high resolution array analysis based on recordings from the usarray and the european network the mutually consistent results from both arrays reveal rupture complexity with unprecedented resolution involving phases of diverse rupture speed and intermittent high frequency bursts within slow speed phases which suggests spatially heterogeneous material properties the earthquake initially propagates down dip with a slow initiation phase followed by sustained propagation at speeds of 3 km s the rupture then slows down to 1 5 km s for 60 seconds a rich sequence of bursts is generated along the down dip rim of this slow and roughly circular rupture front before the end of the slow phase an extremely fast rupture front detaches at about 5 km s towards the north finally a rupture front propagates towards the south running at about 2 5 km s for over 100 km key features of the rupture process are confirmed by the strong motion data recorded by k net and kik net the energetic high frequency radiation episodes within a slow rupture phase suggests a patchy image of the brittle ductile transition zone composed of discrete brittle asperities within a ductile matrix the high frequency is generated mainly at the down dip edge of the principal slip regions constrained by geodesy suggesting a variation along dip of the mechanical properties of the mega thrust fault or their spatial heterogeneity that affects rise time

rupture imaging of the mw 7 9 12 may 2008 wenchuan earthquake from back projection of teleseismic p waves 1 the mw 7 9 wenchuan earthquake of 12 may 2008 was the most destructive chinese earthquake since the 1976 tangshan event tens of thousands of people were killed hundreds of thousands were injured and millions were left homeless here we infer the detailed rupture process of the wenchuan earthquake by back projecting teleseismic p energy from several arrays of seismometers this technique has only recently become feasible and is potentially faster than traditional finite fault inversion of teleseismic body waves therefore it may reduce the notification time to emergency response agencies using the iris dmc we collected 255 vertical component broadband p waves at 30 95 from the epicenter we found that at periods of 5 s and greater nearly all of these p waves were coherent enough to be used in a global array we applied a simple down sampling heuristic to define a global subarray of 70 stations that reduced the asymmetry and sidelobes of the array response function arf we also considered three regional subarrays of seismometers in alaska australia and europe that had apertures less than 30 and p waves that were coherent to periods as short as 1 s individual arfs for these subarrays were skewed toward the subarrays however the linear sum of the regional subarray beams at 1 s produced a symmetric arf similar to that of the groomed global subarray at 5 s for both configurations we obtained the same rupture direction rupture length and rupture time we found that the wenchuan earthquake had three distinct pulses of high beam power at 0 23 and 57 s after the origin time with the pulse at 23 s being highest and that it ruptured unilaterally to the northeast for about 300 km and 110 s with an average speed of 2 8 km s it is possible that similar results can be determined for future large dip slip earthquakes within 20 30 min of the origin time using relatively sparse global networks of seismometers such as those the usgs uses to locate earthquakes in near real time

scardec a new technique for the rapid determination of seismic moment magnitude focal mechanism and source time functions for large earthquakes using body wave deconvolution accurate and fast magnitude determination for large shallow earthquakes is of key importance for post seismic response and tsumami alert purposes when no local real time data are available which is today the case for most subduction earthquakes the first information comes from teleseismic body waves standard body wave methods give accurate magnitudes for earthquakes up to mw 7 7 5 for larger earthquakes the analysis is more complex because of the non validity of the point source approximation and of the interaction between direct and surface reflected phases the latter effect acts as a strong high pass filter which complicates the magnitude determination we here propose an automated deconvolutive approach which does not impose any simplifying assumptions about the rupture process thus being well adapted to large earthquakes we first determine the source duration based on the length of the high frequency 1 3 hz signal content the deconvolution of synthetic double couple point source signals depending on the four earthquake parameters strike dip rake and depth from the windowed real data body wave signals including p pcp pp sh and scs waves gives the apparent source time function stf we search the optimal combination of these four parameters that respects the physical features of any stf causality positivity and stability of the seismic moment at all stations once this combination is retrieved the integration of the stfs gives directly the moment magnitude we apply this new approach referred as the scardec method to most of the major subduction earthquakes in the period 1990 2010 magnitude differences between the global centroid moment tensor cmt and the scardec method may reach 0 2 but values are found consistent if we take into account that the global cmt solutions for large shallow earthquakes suffer from a known trade off between dip and seismic moment we show by modelling long period surface waves of these events that the source parameters retrieved using the scardec method explain the observed surface waves as well as the global cmt parameters thus confirming the existing trade off for some well instrumented earthquakes our results are also supported by independent studies based on local geodetic or strong motion data this study is mainly focused on moment determination however the scardec method also informs us about the focal mechanism and source depth and can be a starting point to study systematically the complexity of the stf

ten year recurrence time between two major earthquakes affecting the same fault segment earthquake ruptures stop when they encounter barriers impeding further propagation these barriers can theoretically originate from changes of geometry or nature of the seismic faults or from a strong lowering of the tectonic stresses typically due to the occurrence of a recent major earthquake we show here that this latter mechanism can be ineffective at stopping rupture expansion the 17 november 2013 magnitude 7 8 scotia sea earthquake has propagated into a 100 km long zone already ruptured 10 years ago by a magnitude 7 6 earthquake given the plate velocities between scotia and antarctic plates 8 9 mm yr simple recurrence models would have predicted that the segment affected by the 2003 earthquake could not be reruptured by a major earthquake during several hundreds of years this earthquake pair indicates that the variations of the tectonic stress during the seismic history of the fault are small compared to the stresses dynamically generated by a large earthquake

imaging short period seismic radiation from the 27 february 2010 chile mw 8 8 earthquake by back projection of p pp and pkikp waves 1 teleseismic short period 0 5 5 s p waves from the 27 february 2010 chile earthquake mw 8 8 are back projected to the source region to image locations of coherent short period seismic wave radiation several receiver array configurations are analyzed using different p wave arrivals including networks of stations in north america p japan pkikp and europe pp as well as a global configuration of stations with a broad azimuthal distribution and longer period p waves 5 20 s coherent bursts of short period radiation from the source are concentrated below the chilean coastline along the downdip portion of the megathrust the short period source region expands bilaterally with significant irregularity in the radiation comparison with finite fault slip models inverted from longer period seismic waves indicates that the regions of large slip on the megathrust are located updip of the regions of short period radiation a manifestation of frequency dependent seismic radiation similar to observations for the great 2011 tohoku earthquake mw 9 0 back projection of synthetic p waves generated from the finite fault models demonstrates that if the short period energy had radiated with the same space time distribution as the long period energy back projection analysis would image it in the correct location updip we conclude that back projection imaging of short period signals provides a distinct view of the seismic source that is missed by studies based only on long period seismic waves geodetic data and or tsunami observations

coherent seismic arrivals in the p wave coda of the 2012 m w 7 2 sumatra earthquake water reverberations or an early aftershock

olivine friction at the base of oceanic seismogenic zones 1 we investigate the strength and frictional behavior of olivine aggregates at temperatures and effective confining pressures similar to those at the base of the seismogenic zone on a typical ridge transform fault triaxial compression tests were conducted on dry olivine powder grain size 60 m at effective confining pressures between 50 and 300 mpa using argon as a pore fluid temperatures between 600 c and 1000 c and axial displacement rates from 0 06 to 60 m s axial strain rates from 3 10 6 to 3 10 3 s 1 yielding shows a negative pressure dependence consistent with predictions for shear enhanced compaction and with the observation that samples exhibit compaction during the initial stages of the experiments a combination of mechanical data and microstructural observations demonstrate that deformation was accommodated by frictional processes sample strengths were pressure dependent and nearly independent of temperature localized shear zones formed in initially homogeneous aggregates early in the experiments the frictional response to changes in loading rate is well described by rate and state constitutive laws with a transition from velocity weakening to velocity strengthening at 1000 c microstructural observations and physical models indicate that plastic yielding of asperities at high temperatures and low axial strain rates stabilizes frictional sliding extrapolation of our experimental data to geologic strain rates indicates that a transition from velocity weakening to velocity strengthening occurs at approximately 600 c consistent with the focal depths of earthquakes in the oceanic lithosphere

a diffuse plate boundary model for indian ocean tectonics it is suggested that motion along the virtually aseismic owen fracture zone is negligible so that arabia and india are contained within a single indo arabian plate divided from the australian plate by a diffuse boundary the boundary is a zone of concentrated seismicity and deformation commonly characterized as intraplate the rotation vector of australia relative to indo arabia is consistent with the seismologically observed 2 cm yr of left lateral strike slip along the ninetyeast ridge north south compression in the central indian ocean and the north south extension near chagos