Abstract Strong tsunami excitation from slow rupture of shallow subduction zone faults is recognized as a key concern for tsunami hazard assessment. Three months after the 22 July 2020 magnitude 7.8 thrust earthquake struck the plate boundary below the Shumagin Islands, Alaska, a magnitude 7.6 aftershock ruptured with complex intraplate faulting. Despite the smaller size and predominantly strike-slip faulting mechanism inferred from seismic waves for the aftershock, it generated much larger tsunami waves than the mainshock. Here we show through detailed analysis of seismic, geodetic, and tsunami observations of the aftershock that the event implicated unprecedented source complexity, involving weakly tsunamigenic fast rupture of two intraplate faults located below and most likely above the plate boundary, along with induced strongly tsunamigenic slow thrust slip on a third fault near the shelf break likely striking nearly perpendicular to the trench. The thrust slip took over 5 min, giving no clear expression in seismic or geodetic observations while producing the sizeable far-field tsunami.
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Oblique Convergence Causes Both Thrust and Strike‐Slip Ruptures During the 2021 M 7.2 Haiti Earthquake
A devastating magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Southern Haiti on 14 August 2021. The earthquake caused severe damage and over 2000 casualties. Resolving the earthquake rupture process can provide critical insights into hazard mitigation. Here we use integrated seismological analyses to obtain the rupture history of the 2021 earthquake. We find the earthquake first broke a blind thrust fault and then jumped to a disconnected strike‐slip fault. Neither of the fault configurations aligns with the left‐lateral tectonic boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates. The complex multi‐fault rupture may result from the oblique plate convergence in the region, so that the initial thrust rupture is due to the boundary‐normal compression and the following strike‐slip faulting originates from the Gonâve microplate block movement, orienting SW‐NE direction. The complex rupture development of the earthquake suggests that the regional deformation is accommodated by a network of segmented faults with diverse faulting conditions.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2022441
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10363013
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 49
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract On 29 July 2021, an
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ABSTRACT The largest earthquake since 1954 to strike the state of Nevada, United States, ruptured on 15 May 2020 along the Monte Cristo range of west-central Nevada. The Mw 6.5 event involved predominantly left-lateral strike-slip faulting with minor normal components on three aligned east–west-trending faults that vary in strike by 23°. The kinematic rupture process is determined by joint inversion of Global Navigation Satellite Systems displacements, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data, regional strong motions, and teleseismic P and SH waves, with the three-fault geometry being constrained by InSAR surface deformation observations, surface ruptures, and relocated aftershock distributions. The average rupture velocity is 1.5 km/s, with a peak slip of ∼1.6 m and a ∼20 s rupture duration. The seismic moment is 6.9×1018 N·m. Complex surface deformation is observed near the fault junction, with a deep near-vertical fault and a southeast-dipping fault at shallow depth on the western segment, along which normal-faulting aftershocks are observed. There is a shallow slip deficit in the Nevada ruptures, probably due to the immature fault system. The causative faults had not been previously identified and are located near the transition from the Walker Lane belt to the Basin and Range province. The east–west geometry of the system is consistent with the eastward extension of the Mina Deflection of the Walker Lane north of the White Mountains.more » « less
