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Abstract Slow slip events (SSEs) have been observed in spatial and temporal proximity to megathrust earthquakes in various subduction zones, including the 2014Mw7.3 Guerrero, Mexico earthquake which was preceded by aMw7.6 SSE. However, the underlying physics connecting SSEs to earthquakes remains elusive. Here, we link 3D slow‐slip cycle models with dynamic rupture simulations across the geometrically complex flat‐slab Cocos plate boundary. Our physics‐based models reproduce key regional geodetic and teleseismic fault slip observations on timescales from decades to seconds. We find that accelerating SSE fronts transiently increase shear stress at the down‐dip end of the seismogenic zone, modulated by the complex geometry beneath the Guerrero segment. The shear stresses cast by the migrating fronts of the 2014Mw7.6 SSE are significantly larger than those during the three previous episodic SSEs that occurred along the same portion of the megathrust. We show that the SSE transient stresses are large enough to nucleate earthquake dynamic rupture and affect rupture dynamics. However, additional frictional asperities in the seismogenic part of the megathrust are required to explain the observed complexities in the coseismic energy release and static surface displacements of the Guerrero earthquake. We conclude that it is crucial to jointly analyze the long‐ and short‐term interactions and complexities of SSEs and megathrust earthquakes across several (a)seismic cycles accounting for megathrust geometry. Our study has important implications for identifying earthquake precursors and understanding the link between transient and sudden megathrust faulting processes.
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Limited Shallow Slip for the 2020 Simeonof Earthquake, Alaska, Constrained by GNSS‐Acoustic
Abstract The 22 July 2020 Mw7.8 Simeonof earthquake was a deep megathrust event that ruptured along the Shumagin segment of the Alaska‐Aleutian subduction zone. This earthquake occurred ∼250 km from a seafloor geodetic GNSS‐Acoustic site IVB1, where we observed a velocity of 3.78 ± 1.15 cm/yr with the down‐going slab prior to the earthquake followed by 0.6 ± 0.7 eastward and −15.5 ± 0.8 cm northward coseismic offset. We computed a slip model of the coseismic rupture using the static offset at IVB1 alongside regional continuous GNSS and strong motion stations. The small static horizontal offset at the site precludes significantly shallower rupture than previously inferred from terrestrial observations, confirming that the Simeonof earthquake was a deep megathrust earthquake. The observed site velocity implies partial locking prior to the earthquake, implying significant shallow strain accumulation such that the small coseismic offset is unlikely to have relieved all of the accumulated strain since the last coseismic rupture.
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- PAR ID:
- 10449973
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 16
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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