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Abstract The 2021 shallow plate‐boundary thrust‐faulting and 2023 outer rise normal‐faultingMW7.7 earthquakes southeast of the Loyalty Islands produced significant, well‐recorded tsunamis around the North and South Fiji Basins. The two earthquakes occurred in close proximity on opposing sides of the Southern Vanuatu Trench with similar seismic moments and east‐west rupture lengths but different faulting mechanisms. This provides a basis to examine tsunami sensitivity to source geometry and location for paths in the complex southwest Pacific region. Finite‐fault models of the source processes for both events were inverted from teleseismic body wave data with constraints from forward, nonhydrostatic modeling of regional tide gauge and seafloor pressure sensor recordings. The wave motions are reversed in sign, with a leading crest generated by 1.31 m uplift on the upper plate slope for the 2021 tsunami and a leading trough from 2.37 m subsidence on the subducting plate near the trench for the 2023 tsunami. The more recent outer rise normal faulting produces narrower seafloor deformation beneath deeper water resulting in shorter period tsunami waves that shoal and refract more effectively along seamounts and island chains to produce a more elaborate radiation pattern. The source location relative to seamounts and small islands in the near field influences the energy lobes and directionality of the far‐field tsunami to the north. In contrast, both events have very similar radiation patterns to the south due to absence of major bathymetric features immediately southward of the sources.
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Macrofracturing of Oceanic Lithosphere in Complex Large Earthquake Sequences
Abstract Major earthquakes in oceanic lithosphere seaward of the subduction zone outer trench slope are relatively uncommon, but several recent occurrences have involved very complex sequences rupturing multiple nonaligned faults and/or having high aftershock productivity with diffuse distribution. This includes the 21 December 2010MW7.4 Ogasawara (Bonin), 11 April 2012MW8.6 Indo‐Australia, 23 January 2018MW7.9 Off‐Kodiak Island, and 20 December 2018MW7.3 Nikol'skoye (northwest Pacific) earthquakes. Major oceanic intraplate event sequences farther from plate boundaries do not tend to be as complex in faulting or aftershocks. Outer trench slope extensional faulting can involve complex distributed sequences, particularly when activated by great megathrust ruptures such as 11 March 2011MW9.1 Tohoku and 15 November 2006MW8.3 Kuril Islands. Intense faulting sequences also occur near subduction zone corners, with many fault geometries being activated, including some in nearby oceanic lithosphere, as for the 29 September 2009MW8.1 Samoa, 6 February 2013MW8.0 Santa Cruz Islands, and 16 November 2000MW8.0 New Ireland earthquakes. The laterally varying plate boundary stresses from heterogeneous locking, recent earthquakes, or boundary geometry influence the specific faulting geometries activated in nearby major intraplate ruptures in oceanic lithosphere. Preexisting lithospheric structures and fabrics exert secondary influences on the faulting. Intraplate stress release in oceanic lithosphere near subduction zones favors distributed macrofracturing of near‐critical fault systems rather than localized, single‐fault failures, both under transient loading induced by plate boundary ruptures and under slow loading by tectonic motions and slab pull.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1802364
- PAR ID:
- 10381042
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
- Volume:
- 125
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2169-9313
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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