Dynamic viability of the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake cascade on weak crustal faults

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09125-w. This is version 4 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Thomas ULRICH , Alice-Agnes Gabriel , Jean Paul Ampuero , Wenbin Xu

Abstract

We present a dynamic rupture model of the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake to unravel the event’s riddles in a physics-based manner and provide insight on the mechanical viability of competing hypotheses proposed to explain them. Our model reproduces key characteristics of the event and constraints puzzling features inferred from high-quality observations including a large gap separating surface rupture traces, the possibility of significant slip on the subduction interface, the non-rupture of the Hope fault, and slow apparent rupture speed. We show that the observed rupture cascade is dynamically consistent with regional stress estimates and a crustal fault network geometry inferred from seismic and geodetic data. We propose that the complex fault system operates at low apparent friction thanks to the combined effects of overpressurized fluids, low dynamic friction and stress concentrations induced by deep fault creep.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/osf.io/aed4b

Subjects

Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Keywords

dynamic rupture, SeisSol, kaikoura, multi-segment rupture

Dates

Published: 2018-07-26 15:34

Last Updated: 2019-04-10 15:48

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License

GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 2.1