Conjugate and bending faults drive the multiplex ruptures during the 2014 Mw 6.2 Thailand earthquake

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Authors

Tira Tadapansawut, Yuji Yagi, Ryo Okuwaki , SHINJI YAMASHITA, Kousuke Shimizu 

Abstract

A moment magnitude 6.2 crustal earthquake occurred in northern Thailand on 5 May 2014, and its aftershocks exhibit several lineaments with conjugate pattern, involving geometric complexity in a multi-segmented fault system of the Phayao fault zone. However, a relationship between those geometric complexities and the rupture evolution of the 2014 Thailand earthquake is still elusive, which is critical to understand complex nature of the earthquake physics and to assess the hazard. Here we elaborated the newly developed flexible finite-fault inversion method, used it to invert the globally observed teleseismic P waveforms, and estimated the spatiotemporal distribution of both the slip and the fault geometry. We found the complex rupture evolution consisting of two rupture episodes along a conjugated strike-slip fault system that comprises two distinct fault planes. The fault system derived from our finite-fault solution exhibits geometric complexities including bends, which may have caused the perturbation of the rupture propagation and the triggering of the distinct rupture episodes. Our source model of the 2014 Thailand earthquake shows that even in the case of smaller-scale earthquakes, the rupture evolution can be complex when the underlying fault geometry is multiplex.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X56P7T

Subjects

Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Keywords

2014 Thailand earthquake, Conjugate fault, Complex fault geometry

Dates

Published: 2021-07-22 10:51

Last Updated: 2021-11-02 04:11

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License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
None