In the middle of the night (my time) I got a notification from the EMSC earthquake notification service. I encourage everyone to download and use this app.
There was an intermediate depth magnitude M 7.5 earthquake in Peru. The tectonics in this region of the world are dominated by the convergent plate boundary, a subduction zone formed by the convergence of the oceanic Nazca and continental South America plates.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000fxq2/executive
As the Nazca plate subducts, it dips below the South America plate at different dip angles. In this region of Peru, the dip angle is shallow and we term this flat-slab subduction.
This M 7.5 earthquake occurred in the downgoing Nazca plate, so was not a subduction zone megathrust event, but a “slab” event (for being in the Nazca slab).
I prepared a much more extensive report for a M 8.0 earthquake in a nearby location that happened on 26 May 2019. Read more about the tectonics of this region in that report here.
Was this M 7.5 an aftershock of the M 8.0? Probably not, based on the USGS M 8.0 slip model. However this M 7.5 could have been triggered by changes in static coulomb stress following the M 8.0.
I don’t always have the time to write a proper Earthquake Report. However, I prepare interpretive posters for these events.
Because of this, I present Earthquake Report Lite. (but it is more than just water, like the adult beverage that claims otherwise). I will try to describe the figures included in the poster, but sometimes I will simply post the poster here.
Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
- I plot the seismicity from the past month, with diameter representing magnitude (see legend). I include earthquake epicenters from 1921-2021 with magnitudes M ≥ 3.0 in one version.
- I plot the USGS fault plane solutions (moment tensors in blue and focal mechanisms in orange), possibly in addition to some relevant historic earthquakes.
- A review of the basic base map variations and data that I use for the interpretive posters can be found on the Earthquake Reports page. I have improved these posters over time and some of this background information applies to the older posters.
- Some basic fundamentals of earthquake geology and plate tectonics can be found on the Earthquake Plate Tectonic Fundamentals page.
- In the upper left corner is a large scale plate tectonic map showing the major plate boundary faults.
- In the lower left center is a map showing how the Nazca slab is configured in different locations (Ramos and Folguera, 2009).
- In the left center is a cross section showing seismicity in this region (Kirby et al., 1995). The source area for this plot is designated by a dashed yellow box on the map.
- In the upper right corner is a pair of maps that show the landslide probability (left) and the liquefaction susceptibility (right) for this M 7.5 earthquake. I spend more time describing these types of data here. Read more about these maps here.
- In the lower right corner I plot the USGS modeled intensity (Modified Mercalli Intensity scale, MMI) and the USGS “Did You Feel It?” observations (labeled in yellow). Above the map is a plot showing these same data plotted relative to distance from the earthquake. Read more about what these data sets are and what they represent in the report here.
I include some inset figures.
- 2010.02.27 M 8.8 Earthquake Review
- 2021.11.28 M 7.5 Peru
- 2019.08.01 M 6.8 Chile
- 2019.06.14 M 6.4 Chile
- 2019.05.26 M 8.0 Peru
- 2019.05.12 M 6.1 Panama
- 2019.03.01 M 7.0 Peru
- 2019.02.22 M 7.5 Ecuador
- 2019.01.20 M 6.7 Chile
- 2018.08.21 M 7.3 Venezuela
- 2018.08.24 M 7.1 Peru
- 2018.04.02 M 6.8 Bolivia
- 2018.01.14 M 7.1 Peru
- 2018.01.15 M 7.1 Peru Update #1
- 2017.06.30 M 6.0 Ecuador
- 2017.04.24 M 6.9 Chile
- 2017.04.23 M 5.9 Chile
- 2016.12.25 M 7.6 Chile
- 2016.11.24 M 7.0 El Salvador
- 2016.11.04 M 6.4 Maule, Chile
- 2016.04.16 M 7.8 Ecuador
- 2016.04.16 M 7.8 Ecuador Update #1
- 2015.11.29 M 5.9 Argentina
- 2015.11.11 M 6.9 Chile
- 2015.11.24 M 7.6 Peru
- 2015.11.26 M 7.6 Peru Update
- 2015.09.16 M 8.3 Chile
- 2014.04.01 M 8.2 Chile
- 2010.02.27 M 8.8 Chile
- 1960.05.22 M 9.5 Chile
Chile | South America
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
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- Frisch, W., Meschede, M., Blakey, R., 2011. Plate Tectonics, Springer-Verlag, London, 213 pp.
- Hayes, G., 2018, Slab2 – A Comprehensive Subduction Zone Geometry Model: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7PV6JNV.
- Holt, W. E., C. Kreemer, A. J. Haines, L. Estey, C. Meertens, G. Blewitt, and D. Lavallee (2005), Project helps constrain continental dynamics and seismic hazards, Eos Trans. AGU, 86(41), 383–387, , https://doi.org/10.1029/2005EO410002. /li>
- Jessee, M.A.N., Hamburger, M. W., Allstadt, K., Wald, D. J., Robeson, S. M., Tanyas, H., et al. (2018). A global empirical model for near-real-time assessment of seismically induced landslides. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 123, 1835–1859. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JF004494
- Kreemer, C., J. Haines, W. Holt, G. Blewitt, and D. Lavallee (2000), On the determination of a global strain rate model, Geophys. J. Int., 52(10), 765–770.
- Kreemer, C., W. E. Holt, and A. J. Haines (2003), An integrated global model of present-day plate motions and plate boundary deformation, Geophys. J. Int., 154(1), 8–34, , https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-246X.2003.01917.x.
- Kreemer, C., G. Blewitt, E.C. Klein, 2014. A geodetic plate motion and Global Strain Rate Model in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 15, p. 3849-3889, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GC005407.
- Meyer, B., Saltus, R., Chulliat, a., 2017. EMAG2: Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid (2-arc-minute resolution) Version 3. National Centers for Environmental Information, NOAA. Model. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5H70CVX
- Müller, R.D., Sdrolias, M., Gaina, C. and Roest, W.R., 2008, Age spreading rates and spreading asymmetry of the world’s ocean crust in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 9, Q04006, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GC001743
- Pagani,M. , J. Garcia-Pelaez, R. Gee, K. Johnson, V. Poggi, R. Styron, G. Weatherill, M. Simionato, D. Viganò, L. Danciu, D. Monelli (2018). Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Seismic Hazard Map (version 2018.1 – December 2018), DOI: 10.13117/GEM-GLOBAL-SEISMIC-HAZARD-MAP-2018.1
- Silva, V ., D Amo-Oduro, A Calderon, J Dabbeek, V Despotaki, L Martins, A Rao, M Simionato, D Viganò, C Yepes, A Acevedo, N Horspool, H Crowley, K Jaiswal, M Journeay, M Pittore, 2018. Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Seismic Risk Map (version 2018.1). https://doi.org/10.13117/GEM-GLOBAL-SEISMIC-RISK-MAP-2018.1
- Zhu, J., Baise, L. G., Thompson, E. M., 2017, An Updated Geospatial Liquefaction Model for Global Application, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 107, p 1365-1385, https://doi.org/0.1785/0120160198
- Antonijevic, S.K., et a;l., 2015. The role of ridges in the formation and longevity of flat slabs in Nature, v. 524, p. 212-215, doi:10.1038/nature14648
- Bishop, B.T., Beck, S.L., Zandt, G., Wagner, L., Long, M., Knezevic Antonijevic, S., Kumar, A., and Tavera, H., 2017, Causes and consequences of flat-slab subduction in southern Peru: Geosphere, v. 13, no. 5, p. 1392–1407, doi:10.1130/GES01440.1.
- Chlieh, M. Mothes, P.A>, Nocquet, J-M., Jarrin, P., Charvis, P., Cisneros, D., Font, Y., Color, J-Y., Villegas-Lanza, J-C., Rolandone, F., Vallée, M., Regnier, M., Sogovia, M., Martin, X., and Yepes, H., 2014. Distribution of discrete seismic asperities and aseismic slip along the Ecuadorian megathrust in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 400, p. 292–301
- Kumar, A., et al., 2016. Seismicity and state of stress in the central and southern Peruvian flat slab in EPSL, v. 441, p. 71-80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2016.02.023
- Rhea, S., Hayes, G., Villaseñor, A., Furlong, K.P., Tarr, A.C., and Benz, H.M., 2010. Seismicity of the earth 1900–2007, Nazca Plate and South America: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010–1083-E, 1 sheet, scale 1:12,000,000.
- Villegas-Lanza, J. C., M. Chlieh, O. Cavalié, H. Tavera, P. Baby, J. Chire-Chira, and J.-M. Nocquet (2016), Active tectonics of Peru: Heterogeneous interseismic coupling along the Nazca megathrust, rigid motion of the Peruvian Sliver, and Subandean shortening accommodation, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 121, 7371–7394, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013080.
- Wagner, L.S., and Okal, E.A., 2019. The Pucallpa Nest and its constraints on the geometry of the Peruvian Flat Slab in Tectonophysics, v. 762, p. 97-108, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2019.04.021
- Yepes,H., L. Audin, A. Alvarado, C. Beauval, J. Aguilar, Y. Font, and F. Cotton (2016), A new view for the geodynamics of Ecuador: Implication in seismogenic source definition and seismic hazard assessment, Tectonics, 35, 1249–1279, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015TC003941.
References:
Basic & General References
Specific References
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
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I awakened to be late to attending the GSA meeting today. I had not checked the time. 7am is too early, but i understand the time differences… To the north is a strike-slip plate boundary localized along the North Anatolia fault system. This is a right lateral fault system, where the plates move side by side, relative to each other. See the introductory information links below to learn more about different types of faults.
Seismicity of the Eastern Mediterranean region and surroundings reported by USGS–NEIC during 1973–2007 with magnitudes for M . 3 superimposed on a shaded relief map derived from the GTOPO-30 Global Topography Data taken after USGS. Bathymetry data are derived from GEBCO/97–BODC, provided by GEBCO (1997) and Smith & Sandwell (1997a, b).
Tectonic map of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region showing the main plate boundaries, major suture zones, fault systems and tectonic units. Thick, white arrows depict the direction and magnitude (mm a21) of plate convergence; grey arrows mark the direction of extension (Miocene–Recent). Orange and purple delineate Eurasian and African plate affinities, respectively. Key to lettering: BF, Burdur fault; CACC, Central Anatolian Crystalline Complex; DKF, Datc¸a–Kale fault (part of the SW Anatolian Shear Zone); EAFZ, East Anatolian fault zone; EF, Ecemis fault; EKP, Erzurum–Kars Plateau; IASZ, Izmir–Ankara suture zone; IPS, Intra–Pontide suture zone; ITS, Inner–Tauride suture; KF, Kefalonia fault; KOTJ, Karliova triple junction; MM, Menderes massif; MS, Marmara Sea; MTR, Maras triple junction; NAFZ, North Anatolian fault zone; OF, Ovacik fault; PSF, Pampak–Sevan fault; TF, Tutak fault; TGF, Tuzgo¨lu¨ fault; TIP, Turkish–Iranian plateau (modified from Dilek 2006).
Present-day kinematic and tectonic map encompassing the Central and Eastern Mediterranean, summarizing our main results and interpretations. Our kinematic model includes rigid-block motions as well as localized and distributed strain. Central-SW Aegean block (CSW AEG block) and East Anatolian block (East Anat. block) are purely kinematic and directly results from strain modeling (Figure 5). AP-IO Block is our Apulian-Ionian block with tentative tectonic boundaries. Rotation pole of this Apulian-Ionian block relative to Nubia (Nu WAp-Io) and to Eurasia (Eu WAp-Io) are shown with their 95% confidence ellipse.
Geological map showing the distribution of the Menderes Extensional Metamorphic Complex (MEMC), Oligocene–Miocene volcanic and sedimentary units and volcanic centers in the Aegean Extensional Province (compiled from geological maps of Greece (IGME) and Turkey (MTA), and adapted from Ersoy and Palmer, 2013). Extensional deformation field with rotation (rotational extension) is shown with gray field, and simplified from Brun and Sokoutis (2012), Kissel et al. (2003) and van Hinsbergen and Schmid (2012). İzmir–Balıkesir Transfer zone (İBTZ) give the outer limit for the rotational extension, and also limit of ellipsoidal structure of the MEMC. MEMC developed in two stages: the first one was accommodated during early Miocene by the Simav Detachment Fault (SDF) in the north; and the second one developed during Middle Miocene along the Gediz (Alaşehir) Detachment Fault (GDF) and Küçük Menderes Detachment Fault (KMDF). Extensional detachments were also accommodated by strike-slip movement along the İBTZ (Ersoy et al., 2011) and Uşak–Muğla Transfer Zone (Çemen et al., 2006; Karaoğlu and Helvacı, 2012). Other main core complexes in the Aegean, the Central Rhodope (CRCC), Southern Rhodope (SRCC), Kesebir–Kardamos Dome (KKD) and Cycladic (CCC) Core Complexes are also shown. The area bordered with dashed green line represents the surface trace of the asthenospheric window between the Aegean and Cyprean subducted slabs (Biryol et al., 2011; de Boorder et al., 1998). See text for detail.
Mantle flow pattern at Aegean scale powered by slab rollback in rotation around vertical axis located at Scutary-Pec (Albania). A: Map view of fl ow lines above (red) and below (blue) slab. B: Three-dimensional sketch showing how slab tear may accommodate slab rotation. Mantle fl ow above and below slab in red and blue, respectively. Yellow arrows show crustal stretching.
A: Tectonic map of the Aegean and Anatolian region showing the main active structures
C: GPS velocity field with a fixed Eurasia after Reilinger et al. (2010) D: the domain affected by distributed post-orogenic extension in the Oligocene and the Miocene and the stretching lineations in the exhumed metamorphic complexes.
E: The thick blue lines illustrate the schematized position of the slab at ~150 km according to the tomographic model of Piromallo and Morelli (2003), and show the disruption of the slab at three positions and possible ages of these tears discussed in the text. Velocity anomalies are displayed in percentages with respect to the reference model sp6 (Morelli and Dziewonski, 1993). Coloured symbols represent the volcanic centres between 0 and 3 Ma after Pe-Piper and Piper (2006). F: Seismic anisotropy obtained from SKS waves (blue bars, Paul et al., 2010) and Rayleigh waves (green and orange bars, Endrun et al., 2011). See also Sandvol et al. (2003). Blue lines show the direction of stretching in the asthenosphere, green bars represent the stretching in the lithospheric mantle and orange bars in the lower crust.
G: Focal mechanisms of earthquakes over the Aegean Anatolian region.
Input GPS velocities of the model. Velocities are in Eurasia fixed reference frame with their respective 95% confidence ellipse. Velocity vectors are color coded relative to the study they have been taken from (see paper for more details). (a) GPS velocities of the entire Nubian plate used to constrain the Nubia–Eurasia relative motion. Nubia–Eurasia rotation pole defined in this and previous studies are shown with their 1s confidence ellipse: circle, Calais et al. [2003]; diamond, Le Pichon and Kreemer [2010]; open square, D’Agostino et al. [2008]; triangle, Argus et al. [2010]; filled square, Reilinger et al. [2006]; red star, present study. Parameters of these rotation poles are summarized in Table 2. (b) Focus on the GPS velocities in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean region.
Input seismic moment tensors of the model. Fault plane solutions are from the Harvard CMT catalog (from 1976 to 2007) and the Regional Centroid Moment Tensor (RCMT) catalog (from 1995 to 2007). Location and hypocenter depth of the events are relocalized according to the Engdahl et al. [1998] catalog.
Outline geological map of western Anatolia showing Neogene and Quaternary basins [simplified from Bingo1 (1989).
Simplified geological map of the northern margin of the Btiytik Menderes Graben in the area between Germencik and Umurlu.
Geological cross-section of the northern margin of the Bt~yt~k Menderes Graben (see Fig. 6b for location) based on fig. llb of Cohen et al. (1995). This cross-section indicates a total of c. 5 km of extension. Assuming a uniform extension rate, the age of the fault zone is (c. 5 km/1 mm a -1) 5 Ma. More details in the paper.
Geology map of the study area (simplified from MTA 1: 500,000 scale geology map) and location of the seismic lines. Active faults are marked onland with bold lines.
Time migrated seismic sections, offshore Teke and Karaburun, showing active normal faults marked with white lines and strike-slip faults with black lines (see Fig. 3A for locations). Vertical exaggeration is ~2. Observed vertical displacement on the seafloor and basement surface by normal fault (marked with bold circle on Line-10) looks the same, thus this normal fault is Quaternary age. On line-18, vertical displacement seen on basement units are greater than displacement on Pliocene–Quaternary deposits due to fault marked with a bold circle thus this normal fault can be interpreted as Later Miocene–Pliocene age.
(A) The correlations between offshore and onshore active fault systems in the study region. N–S, NE–SW and NW–SE oriented lines and dashed-lines show interpreted active strike-slip faults and their possible extensions. These faults are annotated with dNT for those at north and dST for those at south. E–W oriented lines and dashed lines show interpreted active normal faults and their possible continuations, with footwalls indicated by the plus symbol. (B) Simplified active fault map of the study area. The bold lines show the master active faults. (C) Pureshear model can explain the development of active structures in the study area.
Geological map of western Turkey showing the Menderes massif and its subdivision into the AG Alasehir graben, the BMG Büyük Menderes graben, the CMM Central Menderes massif, the KMG Küçük Menderes graben, the NMM Northern Menderes massif and the SMM Southern Menderes massif, modified from Sengör and Bozkurt (2013).
(a) A conceptual model of geothermal circulation in the study area, (b) a deep seismic profile with the N–S direction taken from a 30 km west of study area (Nazilli region) (Çifçi et al., 2011). Roman numerals indicate the different sedimentary sequences.
Simplified geological map of the KMG showing the positions of geological cross-sections.
Series of geological cross-sections showing various sectors of the KMG depicting horst and graben structures overprinted onto the huge synclinal structure (see Fig. 3 for positions of geological cross-sections).
Schematic tentative cross-sections showing the Miocene to Quaternary evolution of the KMG (modified from Erinç [66]). Note the continuing extension since Miocene.
Simplified tectonic map of the Mediterranean region showing the plate boundaries, collisional zones, and directions of extension and tectonic transport. Red lines A through G show the approximate profile lines for the geological traverses depicted in Figure 2. MHSZ—mid-Hungarian shear zone; MP—Moesian platform; RM—Rhodope massif; IAESZ— Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture zone; IPS—Intra-Pontide suture zone; ITS—inner Tauride suture zone; NAFZ—north Anatolian fault zone; KB—Kirsehir block; EKP—Erzurum-Kars plateau; TIP—Turkish-Iranian plateau.
Simplified tectonic cross-sections across various segments of the broader Alpine orogenic belt.
Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic geodynamic evolution of the western Anatolian orogenic belt as a result of collisional #EarthquakeReport for #Earthquake #Deprem and #Tsunami in the eastern #AegeanSea offshore of #Turkey poster is now updated with aftershocks from @LastQuake report here:https://t.co/vNuRdWw0Gs pic.twitter.com/SnYXwg2n3T — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) October 31, 2020 #EarthquakeReport #TsunamiReport for M7 offshore of #Turkey small sized tsunami observed across the #AegeanSea https://t.co/i1lZJ0pkb3 analog event in 2017 and more tectonic background herehttps://t.co/jwwXh0SpXl pic.twitter.com/sk1HVbbCKD — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) October 30, 2020 Unfortunately, with the source so close to the coast, any Tsunami Early Warning System (#TEWS) has little room to warn the population in advanced to save lives. Prepareness/education is then the key ingredient. — Jorge Macías Sánchez (@JorgeMACSAN) October 30, 2020 İzmir #deprem Alaçatı #tsunami #deliklikoy pic.twitter.com/Fo74diHpBJ — ulaş tuzak (@ulastuzak) October 30, 2020 M6.9 #earthquake (#deprem) strikes 66 km SW of #İzmir (#Turkey) 21 min ago. Updated map of its effects: pic.twitter.com/Kh3WMz6Hxi — EMSC (@LastQuake) October 30, 2020 Video forwarded by a friend pic.twitter.com/P5g7H7LInn — Tiernan Henry (@tiernanhenry) October 30, 2020 I'd be cautious. A similar EQ occurred offshore Bodrum, SW Turkey, in 2017 (Mw 6.6). Many assumed it ruptured the big mapped normal fault, but careful analysis showed it ruptured a smaller conjugate fault that would've been missing from this database. https://t.co/zEKYatNi1O — Edwin Nissen (@faulty_data) October 30, 2020 #deprem geçmiş olsun İzmir 2020 son hızıyla devam ediyor. pic.twitter.com/cZc3rgWV0e — jojomiyo (@jojomiyo1) October 30, 2020 Fully automatic processing (beta-version) of the expected permament deformation and #InSAR fringes for the M 7.0 #earthquake in #dodecanese (#Greece), 11:51 (UTC). Focal mechanism from USGS, both nodal planes used. With @antandre71 pic.twitter.com/TQiaoDgYf7 — Simone Atzori (@SimoneAtzori73) October 30, 2020 Absolutely terrible scenes coming out of Turkey after the M7.0 earthquake. My thoughts are with all of the people impacted by this event. 💔 https://t.co/gs8Wj8Cj5a — Dr. Wendy Boo – hon 👻 (@DrWendyRocks) October 30, 2020 The October 30 M7 EQ offshore Samos Island, Greece, occurred as the result of normal faulting at a shallow crustal depth within the Eurasia tectonic plate in the E Aegean Sea. This indicates N-S oriented extension that is common in the Aegean Sea. 🍫 https://t.co/r5i9Ni1S1B pic.twitter.com/C6CyLDOlZ1 — USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) October 30, 2020 Η #Σάμος άντεξε στο τρομακτικό μέγεθος των 6,7 ρίχτερ ευτυχώς δεν έχουμε θύματα!! #Σεισμός pic.twitter.com/Sd00bTBOd5 — Θεοδόσης Ζερβουδάκης (@tzervoudakis) October 30, 2020 El terremoto de Turquía de hace un rato llevó a un desastre tremendo. Uno que se da por la falta de preparación ante algo así, sobre todo en la parte ingenieril. Tendrá magnitud 7, pero a 10 km de profundidad golpea fuerte a las ciudades cercanas, que estaban mal paradas pic.twitter.com/vomUd3Xauu — Cristian Farías (@cfariasvega) October 30, 2020 30 Ekim 2020 #Seferihisar açıkları (#İzmir)/Sisam (M6.6/6.9) #depremi anaşokundan itibaren 1.0 ile 5.1 arasında değişen toplam 85 deprem oldu. Depremler D-B doğrultulu normal fay boyunca dağılım göstermektedir. pic.twitter.com/65ULhiqEq2 — Dr. Ramazan Demirtaş (@Paleosismolog) October 30, 2020 İzmir'de su seviyesi yükseldi. Tsunami benzeri görüntüler ortaya çıkıyor.#deprem pic.twitter.com/dbxCCgks5C — Politikaloji🇹🇷 (@politikaloji) October 30, 2020 Location of Samos Mw7 #earthquake on Aegean Sea seismo-tectonic sketch. In yellow, grabens / major extension zones. Today's earthquake happened on a major normal fault bounding one of these grabens. Map from Armijo et al. GJI, 1996 pic.twitter.com/qx46D6peTS — Robin Lacassin (@RLacassin) October 30, 2020 Seferihisar'da tsunami… — FORUM ATMOSFER (@forumatmosfer) October 30, 2020 Watch the waves from the M7.0 #earthquake near Turkey roll across seismic stations in Europe. https://t.co/SoZMmJHvCU (THREAD) pic.twitter.com/8YKQHaj2yf — IRIS Earthquake Sci (@IRIS_EPO) October 30, 2020 Map of extension responsible for today's Mw 7.0 earthquake in the Aegean (red star). GPS vectors show motion relative to Anatolia plate. NW Turkey moves N, SW Turkey moves S, so western Turkey stretches N-S. Graph shows how W Turkey opens up like spreading the fingers of a hand pic.twitter.com/JpWklc7YZY — Edwin Nissen (@faulty_data) October 30, 2020 🌊🇬🇷 Vathí es otra localidad al norte de la isla de #Samos que también registró los efectos del tsunami, inundando las zonas más baja de la ciudad. Se observan estragos menores en el registro. Vídeo: @atta_fareid pic.twitter.com/CnZzN6c48l — EarthQuakesTime (@EarthQuakesTime) October 30, 2020 More @NERC_COMET LiCSAR results for yesterday's Aegean earthquake, including filtered/unwrapped interferograms and kmz files for viewing in google earth: https://t.co/TY8ijrUoml — Tim Wright (@timwright_leeds) October 31, 2020 Helpful map showing tectonic setting of today's M7.0 #IzmirEarthquake (yellow dot). The African Plate is subducting under the South Aegean/Anatolian Plate, which is extending as it overrides. The fault that broke today is a "pull-apart" fault (normal fault). #EarthquakeIzmir pic.twitter.com/31Hw4EFWze — Brian OLSON (@mrbrianolson) October 30, 2020 30 Ekim 2020 / İzmir pic.twitter.com/OYzy0n9hF5 — Son Dakika TV (@sondakikativi) October 30, 2020 GPS velocity & direction of surface monitoring stations in the area of today's M7.0 #IzmirEarthquake showing SSW-directed extension towards the African Plate. The stations near the epicenter are moving ~0.9 – 1.3 inches per year (relative to stable African P.) Data via @UNAVCO pic.twitter.com/iVJJO93Gtl — Brian OLSON (@mrbrianolson) October 30, 2020 Today's Mw 7.0 #earthquake near the Greek island of Samos ruptured near the Menderes Graben in Western Turkey, a region with a long history of strike-slip and normal faulting. pic.twitter.com/9FiOreCK2R — Sylvain Barbot (@quakephysics) October 30, 2020 #EarthquakeReport for #Earthquake #Deprem and #Tsunami in the eastern #AegeanSea offshore of #Turkey poster is now updated with aftershocks from @LastQuake report here:https://t.co/vNuRdWw0Gs pic.twitter.com/SnYXwg2n3T — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) October 31, 2020 AGGIORNAMENTO: Terremoto Mw 7.0 a Nord di Samos (Grecia) del 30 ottobre 2020 https://t.co/pnhYLioLb1 — INGVterremoti (@INGVterremoti) October 30, 2020 It is a bit late in the game, but here is a simulation of yesterdays Turkey/Greece tsunami: pic.twitter.com/HrSnsCl2mA — Amir Salaree (@amirsalaree) October 31, 2020 My thoughts are with the bereaved, injured and homeless after yesterday's earthquake in Turkey. The size of the quake is shown on these responses from @raspishake seismometers across the globe. The plot is made using @obspy. pic.twitter.com/wrD1Xhfcx8 — Mark Vanstone (@wmvanstone) October 31, 2020 Map of ground displacements calculated from @CopernicusData Sentinel-1 radar (InSAR) by NASA-JPL ARIA project. Western Samos island moved up (blue tones), small area of coast moved down (red) due to M7.0 earthquake yesterday. Other areas affected by atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/26rFem82YN — Eric Fielding (@EricFielding) October 31, 2020 Jason, also the ~1 days @LastQuake aftershocks distribution seems to be in agreement with the positive stress change related to the @usgs preliminary finite fault model pic.twitter.com/7FNr52Aat2 — Jugurtha Kariche (@JkaricheKariche) October 31, 2020 The red curve below represents the intensity (i.e. shaking and damage level) vs epicentral distance for yesterday M7 #Izmir #Samos #earthquake #deprem. The blue dots are individual felt reports shared by eyewitnesses via LastQuake app. — EMSC (@LastQuake) October 31, 2020 Preliminary teleseismic finite fault model of the 30 Oct Mw 7 Greece #earthquake for both planes. Method= Ji et al. (2002). Here rupture started from the KOERI hypocenter (H=10 km). Rupture moved bilaterally; most of the high slip and its peak located up-dip in the shallow depth. pic.twitter.com/7E4jpwJzvu — Dimas Sianipar (@SianiparDimas) November 1, 2020 Regional tectonics of the area where the M7.0 Samos #earthquake occurred pic.twitter.com/XaWmKMsrlA — IRIS Earthquake Sci (@IRIS_EPO) November 2, 2020 A bit of lunchtime #dataviz. — Stephen Hicks 🇪🇺 (@seismo_steve) November 2, 2020 Damage Proxy Map from ARIA shows surface changes that may be due to damage measured with radar images. Maps on NASA Disasters Portal: https://t.co/Q4JA2ezU8R — Advanced Rapid Imaging & Analysis (ARIA) (@aria_hazards) November 2, 2020 The "GEER-069: 2020 #Samos Island (Aegean Sea) #earthquake Report" by @HAEE_ETAM, @DepremVakfi, #TDMD, @EERI_tweets and #GEER has been published and is available online (https://t.co/7pb7V8kSMx) ! pic.twitter.com/zpNehqIrTg — EQUIDAS (@equidas) January 3, 2021
It was a busy week (usual, right?). The previous week I was working on getting a house remodel done so someone could move in (they have been sleeping on couches for 6 months, so want to get them in asap). This week I spent lots of time putting final touches on a USGS National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program external grant proposal together, proposing to conduct a paleoseismic investigation for a fault I discovered in late 2018 (see AGU poster here). So, I am catching up on my earthquake reporting for this earthquake offshore northern California. More about different types of faults can be found here.
A: Mapped faults and fault-related ridges within Gorda plate based on basement structure and surface morphology, overlain on bathymetric contours (gray lines—250 m interval). Approximate boundaries of three structural segments are also shown. Black arrows indicated approximate location of possible northwest- trending large-scale folds. B, C: uninterpreted and interpreted enlargements of center of plate showing location of interpreted second-generation strike-slip faults and features that they appear to offset. OSC—overlapping spreading center.
Models of brittle deformation for Gorda plate overlain on magnetic anomalies modified from Raff and Mason (1961). Models A–F were proposed prior to collection and analysis of full-plate multibeam data. Deformation model of Gulick et al. (2001) is included in model A. Model G represents modification of Stoddard’s (1987) flexural-slip model proposed in this paper.
Tectonic configuration of the Gorda deformation zone and locations and source models for 1976–2010 M ≥ 5.9 earthquakes. Letters designate chronological order of earthquakes (Table 1 and Appendix A). Plate motion vectors relative to the Pacific Plate (gray arrows in main diagram) are from Wilson [1989], with Cande and Kent’s [1995] timescale correction.
The Gorda and Juan de Fuca plates subduct beneath the North America plate to form the Cascadia subduction zone fault system. In 1992 there was a swarm of earthquakes with the magnitude Mw 7.2 Mainshock on 4/25. Initially this earthquake was interpreted to have been on the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ). The moment tensor shows a compressional mechanism. However the two largest aftershocks on 4/26/1992 (Mw 6.5 and Mw 6.7), had strike-slip moment tensors. These two aftershocks align on what may be the eastern extension of the Mendocino fault. Well Well Well https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70008jr5/executive Idaho lies in the intersection of several different physiographic provinces. Physiographic provinces are areas of Earth that have landforms of similar shape. These landforms are largely caused by tectonics and climate (of course, the climate is controlled largely by tectonics, but there are other factors like the rotation of the planet, convection cells in the atmosphere, etc. well, those convection cells are also controlled by tectonics (i.e. where continents are) too. so, yes, tectonics controls everything (even though it does not). The two main physiographic provinces (also called geomorphic provinces, after the word “geomorphology” – the shape of the landscape) at play in central Idaho are the Basin and Range and the Rocky Mountains. Here is a view of the physiographic provinces in the USA. There are many different phases of tectonic deformation that formed the geomorphic provinces of North America, so take an historical geology course to learn more! In northern Idaho, there is additional period of tectonic deformation that left behind geologic structures that appear to be playing a part in the M 6.5 temblor. During the Eocene, there was a period of east-west extension that caused lots of faults to form. These faults have been inactive for a very long time. However, sometimes there are older inactive faults that are oriented optimally to be reactivated under newer and possibly different tectonic forces. One example of this is in the Gorda plate offshore of northern California. Faults formed along the spreading ridge (the Gorda Rise), initially formed as normal faults, are exposed to north-south oriented compression and reactivate as strike-slip faults. Here we are, in central Idaho, where there are some Basin and Range faults (generally northwest trending here) that have been responsible for very large historic earthquakes. A recent example of a Basin and Range fault earthquake happened in 2017 in southeastern Idaho, just south of the Snake River Plain (another geomorphic province, formed by the passage of the Yellowstone Hotspot). Here is my report for that earthquake. Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the amount of people making observations, looking at the academic and govt literature, and forming hypotheses about these events.It used to be just a few of us, but now the bug has spread and lots of people are part of this educational process. This all is expressed via social media (mostly on twitter), where peoples’ hypotheses are discussed, shot down, or synchronistically further developed to learn something new we were not expecting. I am a coauthor of a forthcoming paper where we discussed some of these events. This is where it happens, online and in real time. The same was true for this M 6.5 earthquake in Idaho. People started using existing data, using visualizations in Google Earth, and using all the tools we have at our desktop fingertips, to figure out what the heck happened in a remote region of Idaho. The main B&R normal fault that may be somehow related to the M 6.5 earthquake is the Sawtooth fault, a northwest trending (striking) fault that Dr. Glenn Thackray (2013) suggested was “Holocene Active.” (This means the last time it had a large earthquake was sometime during the Holocene, or during the last 12,000 years or so.) Here is a figure from Thackray et al. (2013) that shows the fault they observed (in the inset B, look at the shadow formed by the fault; the arrows are pointing at the fault scarp). This fault is listed as a high priority to be studied, yet there are no published records yet (Crone et al., 2009). One of the major older faults (Eocene age) that cuts through the center of Idaho is the Trans-Challis fault zones (TCFZ; Bennet, 1986). Based on the work of others (like Kiilsgaard et al., 1986), this fault is thought to be related to the extension from Eocene time and is possibly related to the volcanism and detatchemnt faulting associated with metamorphic core complexes. Most of the faults in the TCFZ are also normal faults (makes sense since they were formed from extension). However, there are lots of faults of different types as they can form is they are oriented in ways different than the normal faults. So, at second glance, the M 6.5 event may have been on one of these older faults associated with the TCFZ. Perhaps the pre-existing older fault, which was inactive, was oriented in the correct position to respond to the modern tectonic forces. Thus, this fault would be considered to be reactivated. At third glance, it is possible that the M 6.5 event happened on a fault not observed at Earth’s surface and could be related to the Sawtooth fault (or some other fault). The mechanism is not a purely strike-slip earthquake as it is not a 100% double-couple earthquake (a double couple is the type of force that is associated with the crust moving in one direction on one side of the fault and in the other direction on the other side of the fault). Someone has hypothesized that the M 6.5 earthquake may have been complicated and involved both normal and strike-slip faulting. I like this hypothesis as it fits my idea of an older fault being reactivated under a newer (modern = today) tectonic regime. Something else to note. I took a look at Wells and Coppersmith (1994). These authors use earthquake event data to prepare some empirical relations between earthquakes of various sizes, types,e tc. and the magnitude of those earthquakes. So we can take one parameter and estimate what another parameter may be. One thing we might do is estimate what the surface rupture length might it take to generate a M 6.5 earthquake. According to the Wells and Coppersmith (1994) empirical relations, there may be a surface rupture length of about 20 km. If we look at the aftershock sequence in the poster below, we might observe that the fault length may be about 24 km. So, while these are not the same thing, they are of about the same scale. (I used the relations in their figure 9) There are many different ways in which a landslide can be triggered. The first order relations behind slope failure (landslides) is that the “resisting” forces that are preventing slope failure (e.g. the strength of the bedrock or soil) are overcome by the “driving” forces that are pushing this land downwards (e.g. gravity). The ratio of resisting forces to driving forces is called the Factor of Safety (FOS). We can write this ratio like this: FOS = Resisting Force / Driving Force When FOS > 1, the slope is stable and when FOS < 1, the slope fails and we get a landslide. The illustration below shows these relations. Note how the slope angle α can take part in this ratio (the steeper the slope, the greater impact of the mass of the slope can contribute to driving forces). The real world is more complicated than the simplified illustration below. Landslide ground shaking can change the Factor of Safety in several ways that might increase the driving force or decrease the resisting force. Keefer (1984) studied a global data set of earthquake triggered landslides and found that larger earthquakes trigger larger and more numerous landslides across a larger area than do smaller earthquakes. Earthquakes can cause landslides because the seismic waves can cause the driving force to increase (the earthquake motions can “push” the land downwards), leading to a landslide. In addition, ground shaking can change the strength of these earth materials (a form of resisting force) with a process called liquefaction. Sediment or soil strength is based upon the ability for sediment particles to push against each other without moving. This is a combination of friction and the forces exerted between these particles. This is loosely what we call the “angle of internal friction.” Liquefaction is a process by which pore pressure increases cause water to push out against the sediment particles so that they are no longer touching. An analogy that some may be familiar with relates to a visit to the beach. When one is walking on the wet sand near the shoreline, the sand may hold the weight of our body generally pretty well. However, if we stop and vibrate our feet back and forth, this causes pore pressure to increase and we sink into the sand as the sand liquefies. Or, at least our feet sink into the sand. Below is a diagram showing how an increase in pore pressure can push against the sediment particles so that they are not touching any more. This allows the particles to move around and this is why our feet sink in the sand in the analogy above. This is also what changes the strength of earth materials such that a landslide can be triggered. Below is a diagram based upon a publication designed to educate the public about landslides and the processes that trigger them (USGS, 2004). Additional background information about landslide types can be found in Highland et al. (2008). There was a variety of landslide types that can be observed surrounding the earthquake region. So, this illustration can help people when they observing the landscape response to the earthquake whether they are using aerial imagery, photos in newspaper or website articles, or videos on social media. Will you be able to locate a landslide scarp or the toe of a landslide? This figure shows a rotational landslide, one where the land rotates along a curvilinear failure surface. Here is an excellent educational video from IRIS and a variety of organizations. The video helps us learn about how earthquake intensity gets smaller with distance from an earthquake. The concept of liquefaction is reviewed and we learn how different types of bedrock and underlying earth materials can affect the severity of ground shaking in a given location. The intensity map above is based on a model that relates intensity with distance to the earthquake, but does not incorporate changes in material properties as the video below mentions is an important factor that can increase intensity in places. There are landslide slope stability and liquefaction susceptibility models based on empirical data from past earthquakes. The USGS has recently incorporated these types of analyses into their earthquake event pages. More about these USGS models can be found on this page. I prepared some maps that compare the USGS landslide probability maps for the 2020 M 6.5 and 1959 M 7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquakes.
Nowicki Jessee and others (2018) is the preferred model for earthquake-triggered landslide hazard. Our primary landslide model is the empirical model of Nowicki Jessee and others (2018). The model was developed by relating 23 inventories of landslides triggered by past earthquakes with different combinations of predictor variables using logistic regression. The output resolution is ~250 m. The model inputs are described below. More details about the model can be found in the original publication. We modify the published model by excluding areas with slopes <5° and changing the coefficient for the lithology layer "unconsolidated sediments" from -3.22 to -1.36, the coefficient for "mixed sedimentary rocks" to better reflect that this unit is expected to be weak (more negative coefficient indicates stronger rock).To exclude areas of insignificantly small probabilities in the computation of aggregate statistics for this model, we use a probability threshold of 0.002.
Trans-Challis fault system and other selected geologic features in Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia, Canada. Modified from Tipper et al. (1981); strontium data from Armstrong (1979) and Armstrong et al. (1977). Volcanics: 1—McAbee Basin; 2—Tranquille Basin; 3—Monte Lake Volcanics; 4—Torada graben; 5—Republic graben; 6—Kettle graben; 7—Clarno Volcanics; 8—Challis Volcanics; 9—Challis Volcanics in Owyhee County. Core complexes: A—Shuswap Complex; B—Valhalla gneiss dome and Passmore gneiss dome; C— Kcitie yueiss dome; D—Okanogan gneiss dome; E—Selkirk igneous complex (Kaniksu batholith); F—Spokane dome; 6—Boehls Butte Formation; H—Pioneer Mountain core complex; I—House Mountain metamorphic complex. X—Chilly Buttes; Borah Peak earthquake, October 28,1983. Dashdot line = boundary of Basin and Range province in Oregon.
Major geologic features of trans-Challis fault system in central Idaho. Modified from Kiilsgaard et al. (1986).
Tectonic map of the western United States, showing the major components of the Cordilleran orogenic belt. The initial Sr ratio line is taken to represent the approximate western edge of North American cratonic basement (Armstrong and others, 1977; Kistler and Peterman, 1978). Abbreviations as follows: CRO, Coast Range ophiolite; LFTB, Luning-Fencemaker thrust belt; CNTB, Central Nevada thrust belt; WH, Wasatch hinge line; UU, Uinta Mountains uplift; CMB, Crazy Mountains basin; PRB, Powder River basin; DB, Denver basin; RB, Raton basin. Precambrian shear zones after Karlstrom and Williams (1998).
Simplified version of figure 2, showing some of the major tectonic features in the Cordilleran thrust belt discussed in the text. Abbreviations as follows: LCL, Lewis and Clark line; SWMT, Southwest Montana transverse zone; CC, Cabin culmination; WC, Wasatch culmination; SAC, Santaquin culmination; SC, Sevier culmination; CNTB, Central Nevada thrust belt; LFTB, Luning-Fencemaker thrust belt; WH, Wasatch hinge line. Stippled region represents Cordilleran foreland basin system.
Location map of central Idaho showings elected Cenozoic normal faults. Solid triangles hows location of tilted Tertiary conglomerates in the footwall of the Pass Creek fault system. Widely-spaced diagonal rule shows Trans-Challis zone. Selected Tertiary plutons are cross-hatched. Small dots outline late Cenozoic basin fill. Numerous NE striking normal faults in the central Lost River Range are omitted for clarity. BPH is Borah Peak horst; WKH is White Knob horst; PCWC is Pass Creek-Wet Creek reentrant.
Northwest-southeast cross section of three NE striking normal faults. Volcanic rocks are stippled. Location of cross section is in above map. Restoration indicates 30% extension during synvolcanic faulting int he area. The Long Lost fault may have been reactivated.
Generalized map of southern Idaho showing major geologic and physiographic features and locations referred to in the text.
Surface-rupture extent of the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake (red), which ruptured the Thousand Springs and southernmost Warm Springs sections of the Lost River fault zone (LRFZ). The Willow Creek Hills are an area of hanging-wall bedrock and complex surface faulting that form a normal-fault structural barrier between the two sections. Yellow polygons show the extent of digital surface models generated in this study using low-altitude aerial imagery derived from unmanned aircraft systems. Fault traces and time of most recent faulting modified from U.S. Geological Survey (2018). Focal mechanism from Doser and Smith (1985); approximate location is 10 km south of figure extent (Richins et al., 1987). Triangles indicate paleoseismic sites: RC—Rattlesnake Creek; SC—Sheep Creek; PS—Poison Spring; DP—Doublespring Pass; EC—Elkhorn Creek; MC—McGowen Creek. Inset map shows regional context. LFZ—Lemhi fault zone; BFZ—Beaverhead fault zone; ESRP—Eastern Snake River Plain; INL—Idaho National Laboratory. Base maps are National Elevation Data set 10 m and 30 m (inset map) digital elevation models.
Vertical separation (VS) along the southern 8 km of Warm Springs section. (A) 1983 VS measured in this study (red) compared to those of Crone et al. (1987) (blue) for the 1983 surface rupture. RC shows displacement measured at the Rattlesnake Canyon trench (Schwartz, written communication, 2016). (B) Cumulative VS for prehistoric scarps along the Warm Springs section, showing scarps having VS of ≤2 m (PE1; blue line and shading) and >2 m (PE2; magenta line and shading). Plus signs (1983 rupture) and circles (prehistoric) indicate preferred VS values; vertical lines show min-max VS range based on multiple VS measurement iterations.
Vertical separation (VS) along the 8-km-long Arentson Gulch fault near the northernmost Thousand Springs section. (A) 1983 VS measured in this study (red) compared to those of Crone et al. (1987) (blue) for the 1983 surface rupture. (B) Cumulative VS for prehistoric scarps (squares), including VS for compound (including 1983 and prehistoric displacement) and single-event (prehistoric displacement only) scarps.
Summary of vertical separation (VS) along the Warm Springs and Thousand Springs sections. (A) Cumulative VS, showing Warm Springs section scarps (magenta and blue) and the 1983 rupture (red). Prehistoric scarps along the northern Thousand Springs section (gray circles; this study) show a pattern of VS decreasing toward the Willow Creek Hills that is similar to the 1983 (red) and prehistoric (green) VS curves for the Arentson Gulch fault. The VS curve for the 1983 rupture of the Thousand Springs section (kilometers 13–34) is fit to data reported in Crone et al. (1987). (B) Per-event vertical displacement based on mean displacement difference curves (see text for discussion). Along the Warm Poorly constrained, first-motion mechanism is similarhttps://t.co/X6uaWFVKia pic.twitter.com/9MTWWeo3SY — Anthony Lomax 🌍🇪🇺 (@ALomaxNet) April 1, 2020 #EarthquakeReport for #Idaho #Earthquake near #Stanley and #Challis #IdahoEarthquake updated @USGSBigQuakes landslide maps@IDGeoSurvey faults@IRIS_EPO sourced #AftershockUpdate! report w tectonic backgrhttps://t.co/cVonuc98VA pic.twitter.com/fAKT7YGsRA — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) April 2, 2020 Epicenter of today's #idahoearthquake placed on our Miocene and Younger Fault map (M-8)-ZOOMED IN. It falls close to the trans-Challis faults system and northern end of the Basin and Range. Thanks @cmcfeeney for quick turn around. pic.twitter.com/egOkiwnj3F — ID Geological Survey (@IDGeoSurvey) April 1, 2020 Mw=6.4, WESTERN IDAHO (Depth: 16 km), 2020/03/31 23:52:31 UTC – Full details here: https://t.co/KoSYYgCGpJ pic.twitter.com/JtS0KbyVxj — Earthquakes (@geoscope_ipgp) April 1, 2020 See those waves on Lake Okanagan? It's a perfectly still day and no boats are out. That's from the earthquake in Idaho 10 min ago pic.twitter.com/ztFWWBErb8 — Molly Millions (@lilorphanammo) April 1, 2020 Exactly! There are many miocene-Quaternary faults documented by the Idaho Geologic Survey with similar north-northeast orientations pic.twitter.com/8DmoJmmosG — Colin Chupik (@ChupikColin) April 1, 2020 Geomorphically, there are some compelling uphill-facing scarps along the linear valley where the Idaho epicenter sits, precisely atop the "Pre-Miocene" strike-slip Trans-Challis Fault Zone. — Austin Elliott (@TTremblingEarth) April 1, 2020 Today's quake struck off the end of the Sawtooth Fault, which accommodates E-W stretching of the northern Basin and Range. Could the Sawtooth Fault now unzip? It happened before, in 1983, when the nearby Lost River Fault ruptured in an M 7.3 earthquake. pic.twitter.com/msbHRqg0Px — temblor (@temblor) April 1, 2020 The USGS ShakeMap of ground motion intensity has been updated since y'day, as new constraints have come in. Main new constraints appear to be the DYFI community responses, as new pockets of MMI V emerged in Snake River Plain towns with clusters of respondents but few seismometers https://t.co/ZPBcCugUBJ pic.twitter.com/iYNuuVpoGD — Austin Elliott (@TTremblingEarth) April 1, 2020 Watch the waves from the M6.5 Idaho earthquake roll across seismic stations in North America! (THREAD) #IdahoEarthquake #IdahoQuake pic.twitter.com/ZbWYe1svBe — IRIS Earthquake Sci (@IRIS_EPO) April 1, 2020 … "These earthquakes are caused by tectonic extension of the region and are not related to Yellowstone, nor will they have a significant impact on the Yellowstone system." — Dr Janine Krippner (@janinekrippner) April 1, 2020 Trying to decompose the moment tensor of M6.5 Idaho earthquake into two double couple mechanisms. It can be decomposed into an Mw6.5 strike-slip event plus an Mw6.1 normal event, which seems consistent with the local tectonics. A first-motion mechanism might offer additional info pic.twitter.com/xP8s5R0waV — Baoning Wu (@BoilingWoo) April 1, 2020 More Idaho earthquake fun in Jerome Idaho. Video from Tanner Bangerter #idahoquake #earthquake @CNN @BreitbartNews @FoxNews @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/8bgQ8LWS17 — Paul Dickinson (@pdicky77) April 1, 2020 A friend of mine sent these cool pictures of her sand pendulum. It recorded #earthquakeidaho! pic.twitter.com/sE1wCTsmmk — Geo_Sci_Jerry (@SciJerry) April 1, 2020 Our flight over the #IdahoEarthquake epicenter region north of Stanley was pretty uneventful in terms of observing earthquake effects. pic.twitter.com/M6esihwi2V — Zach Lifton (@zachlifton) April 2, 2020 Latest #Sentinel1 interferogram for M6.5 Idaho #earthquake; still low coherence from snow/forests but fringes & aftershocks hint at a NNW main fault plane, continuation of Sawtooth FZ? Rupture prob. more complex. Processed with DIAPASON at @esa_gep _gep #idahoearthquake pic.twitter.com/7Lfk0VFCCs — Sotiris Valkaniotis (@SotisValkan) April 5, 2020
Welcome to the next decade of the 21st century. We may look back a decade to review the second most deadly earthquake in the 21st century, from the magnitude M 7.0 Haiti Earthquake on 12 Jan 2010. I put together an overview of this event sequence here. The latest aftershock forecast was tweeted here. I hope people follow this link to stay up to date on these forecasts. Aftershocks have continued in #PuertoRico, with 144 magnitude 3.0 and greater aftershocks recorded since the M6.4 quake on Jan 7. Current models estimate about an 11% chance for future aftershocks of M6.0 or greater. Daily updates can be found at: https://t.co/WFthaXL9vp — USGS (@USGS) January 12, 2020
In so-called ‘earthquake swarms’, numerous earthquakes occur locally over an extended period without a clear sequence of foreshocks, main quakes and aftershocks. The Swiss Seismological Service (SED) registers several of earthquakes swarms every year. They are therefore nothing extraordinary. Swarms usually end after a few days or months. Only seldom does the strength and number of earthquakes increase over time or do occur single, damaging events. How an earthquake swarm develops over time is just as difficult to predict as earthquakes are in general.
Many earthquake swarms occur in regions with complex contiguous fracture systems. The theory is that they are related to the movement of fluid gases and liquids in the Earth’s crust.
Seismotectonic setting of the Caribbean region. Black lines show the major active plate boundary faults. Colored circles are precisely relocated seismicity [1960–2008, Engdahl et al., 1998] color coded as a function of depth. Earthquake focal mechanism are from the Global CMT Catalog (1976–2014) [Ekstrom et al., 2012], thrust focal mechanisms are shown in blue, others in red. H = Haiti, DR = Dominican Republic, MCS = mid-Cayman spreading center, WP = Windward Passage, EPGF = Enriquillo Plaintain Garden fault
Seismicity and kinematics of the NE Caribbean. The inset shows Caribbean and surrounding plates, red arrows show relative motions in cm/yr: a: NEIC seismicity 1974–2015 is shown with circles colored as a function of depth, stars show large (M > 7) instrumental and historical earthquakes; b: red and blue bars show earthquake slip vector directions derived from the gCMT database [www.globalcmt.org], black arrows show the present-day relative motion of the NA plate with respect to the Caribbean.
Contoured bathymetry map of the northeastern Caribbean showing a summarized tectonic setting. Isobaths based on satellite-derived bathymetry gridded at 1 arcminute intervals (Smith and Sandwell, 1997) using the free software Generic Mapping Tools (GMT; Wessel and Smith, 1998). The purple dashed rectangle marks the study area. Thick green arrows show the relative convergence motion between the North American and the Caribbean plates. GPS-derived velocities with respect to the North American plate are shown with thin red arrows, the arrow length being proportional to the displacement rate (Manaker et al., 2008). Error ellipse for each vector represents two-dimensional error, 95% confidence limit. The thick blue dashed line marks the Hispaniola-PRVI block boundary as suggested by ten Brink and Lopez-Venegas (2012). The green area shows the extension of the Muertos thrust belt (Granja Bru~na et al., 2009, 2014, this study). NOAM ¼ North American. CARIB ¼ Caribbean. EPGFZ ¼ Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone. SFZ ¼ Septentrional fault zone. BF ¼ Bunce fault. SB ¼ Sombrero basin. PRVI BLOCK ¼ Puerto RicoeVirgin Islands block. VIB ¼ Virgin Islands basin. MR ¼ Mona rift. IFZ ¼ Investigator fault zone. JS ¼ Jaguey spur. SCR ¼ St. Croix rise. SCI ¼ St. Croix Island. The inset map shows GPS-derived velocities with respect to St. Croix Island (SCI), the arrow length being proportional to the displacement rate (ten Brink and Lopez-Venegas, 2012). Error ellipse for each vector represents two-dimensional error, 95% confidence limit. MI ¼ Mona Island. CI ¼ Culebra Island. STI ¼ St. Thomas Island. AI ¼ Anegada Island. SCI ¼ St. Croix Island. IFZ ¼ Investigator fault zone.
Map of Puerto Rico showing known and possible Quaternary-active faults. Well-located faults are shown by solid lines; inferred fault locations are shown by dashed lines. The northwest end of the Great Southern Puerto Rico fault zone (GSPRFZ) likely follows the Cerro Goden fault, but an alternative location shown by Jansma et al. (2000) and Jansma and Mattioli (2005) is indicated by the dashed lines. The GSPRFZ is shown by double lines because the fault zone mapped in bedrock is up to 2 km wide. Map base is a digital elevation model (DEM) created from 30-m (∼1 arcsec) National Elevation Dataset (NED) (see Data and Resources). Bathymetric contours are from ten Brink et al. (2004).
Regional morphotectonic interpretation. Faults picked from the seismic data and correlated along strike with the aid of swath bathymetry data. Thick orange lines mark the major onshore structures (GSPRFZ ¼ Great Southern Puerto Rico fault zone; LVF ¼ Lajas Valley fault). Thin orange lines show the faults mapped by Bawiec (1999). FC ¼ Frederickted canyon. WIFZ ¼ Western sector of the Investigator fault zone. CIFZ ¼ Central sector of the Investigator fault zone. EIFZ ¼ Eastern sector of the Investigator fault zone. PF ¼ Ponce fault. BTF ¼ Bajo Tasmanian fault. CMF ¼ Caja de Muertos fault. CF ¼ Central fault. MPC ¼ Mona passage canyon. R ¼ Recess. S ¼ Salient in the deformation front. Ss ¼ Salient in the deformation front referred in Section 4.1. JP ¼ Jungfern passage. WC ¼ Whiting canyon. VC ¼ Vieques canyon. Z ¼ Bench in the northern flank of St. Croix rise. PRSBF ¼ Puerto Rican sub-basin fault. RR ¼ Relay ramp.W¼ Canyon referred to in Section 4.4.3. Q ¼ 080-oriented fault in Section 4.4.3. T ¼ possible source of the 1867 earthquake (Barkan and ten Brink, 2010) referred in Section 5.2.
(top) GPS velocities used in the model shown with respect to the North American plate defined by the velocity of 25 GPS sites located in the stable interior of the plate [Calais et al., 2006]. (bottom) GPS velocities shown with respect to the Caribbean plate as defined in the best fit block model described in the text. Error ellipses are 95% confidence. Blue arrows show GPS velocities from Pérez et al. [2001] in Venezuela because of their large uncertainty and the lack of common sites with our solution, which prevents us from rigorously combining them to our solution. They are not used in the model but used to show that they are consistent with the rest of the velocity field.
Earthquake focal mechanisms [Ekstrom et al., 2012] and locations [Engdahl et al., 1998] along the subduction interface and cross sections showing with a thick black line the position of the Caribbean-North America plate interface used in the model. Other faults are shown with thick dashed black lines. SF = Septentrional fault, PRT = Puerto Rico trench, MT = Muertos trench, LAT = Lesser Antilles trench, NHT = Northern Hispaniola trench. White dots on the map (top) show the vertices of the triangles used to discretize the subduction interface. Grey lines on cross section show the bathymetry with significant vertical exaggeration compared to the earthquake depth scale. The area used for each cross
Hypothesized model of the tectonic relationships. The PRVI sits between two subducting slabs; the dip angles of the two subducting slabs increase from east to west. The North American Plate splits in the eastern PRVI (modified after ten Brink, 2005). North arrow is black. Red arrows show the directions of movement for the PRVI and Hispaniola microplate with respect to the North American Plate. The light grey area at the centre is above 2 km bathymetry line. PRVI, Puerto Rico Virgin Islands; AP, Anegada Passage
Sections across the Lesser and Greater Antilles subduction showing topography (grey line), earthquake hypocenter [Engdahl et al., 1998], velocity magnitude at the GPS sites (red circles with 95% confidence error bar), velocity predicted by the best fit model (solid red line), and velocity predicted by a forward model where we impose full coupling on the subduction interface (dashed blue line). The misfit of the data to a fully locked plate interface is apparent on the three Lesser Antilles cross sections.
Velocities at selected GPS sites in the NE Caribbean shown with respect to the Caribbean plate (a) and to the North American plate (b). Error ellipses are 95% confidence.
Block geometry used in the models tested. Solid black lines show the block boundaries for the best fit model, thick dashed lines show other tested block boundaries. NHIS = North Hispaniola, PRVI = Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, GONA = Gonave, HISP = Hispaniola, NLAB = North Lesser Antilles Block, SJAM = South Jamaica. CARW = Caribbean West, CARE = Caribbean East, NVEN = North Venezuela, MARA = Maracaibo, ANDE = Andes, HFBT = Hispaniola fault and thrust belt, NMF = Neiba-Matheux thrust, SJF = South Jamaica fault. Thin dashed lines are depth contours of the subduction interface used in the model, derived from the earthquake hypocenters cross sections shown in Figure 4.
Coupling ratio estimated along the Greater-Lesser Antilles subduction interface estimated on the discretized plate interface also shown in Figure 4. Residual velocities are shown with black arrows. We omitted their error ellipses for a sake of readability. The thin dashed line indicates the boundary of the Bahamas Platform. Note the coincidence between the transition from coupled to uncoupled plate interface with the transition from Bahamas Platform collision to oceanic subduction at the Puerto Rico trench.
Fault slip rates and slip rate deficit from the best-fit model. Open circles represent the surface projection of fault nodes. Heavy black lines show the model block boundaries. Vertical faults are shown to the right of each main figure. (a) Fault slip rates (mm yr−1). (b) Slip rate deficit (mm yr−1).
FOS = Resisting Force / Driving Force When FOS > 1, the slope is stable and when FOS < 1, the slope fails and we get a landslide. The illustration below shows these relations. Note how the slope angle α can take part in this ratio (the steeper the slope, the greater impact of the mass of the slope can contribute to driving forces). The real world is more complicated than the simplified illustration below. #EarthquakeReport for (so far) the mainshock M6.4 #Earthquake in #PuertoRico #PuertoRicoEarthquake #terremoto #TremblementDeTerre #temblor minor #tsunami 5cm at Magueyes Island tide gagehttps://t.co/J5jfn8LJWvhttps://t.co/Vh4RcbVMCN EQ history here https://t.co/eH5gBgIkYT pic.twitter.com/CXuTjdDU1y — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) January 7, 2020 "In so-called 'earthquake swarms', numerous earthquakes occur locally over an extended period without a clear sequence of foreshocks, main quakes and aftershocks", from @seismoCH_E: https://t.co/wZqNJd1YFS pic.twitter.com/qBXfB0TQ1i — Dr. Kasey Aderhold (@kaseyaderhold) January 11, 2020 Puerto Rico has been hit by spate of damaging M5-6 earthquakes over the past few days. All this shaking is due to Puerto Rico’s location along the edge of the Caribbean plate. This adds to the damage still present from Hurricane Maria: https://t.co/cQ82kTD7g0 @DiscoverMag pic.twitter.com/v2fTav0oYe — Dr. Erik Klemetti (@eruptionsblog) January 7, 2020 Animation from the Interactive Earthquake Browser showing #earthquakes near #PuertoRico between Nov 1, 2019 and Jan 7, 2020 (8 am). The color of the dots indicates the depth (purple means shallow) and the size of the dot indicates the magnitude. https://t.co/Gs3ykBEp0y pic.twitter.com/EBzkXgzumD — IRIS Earthquake Sci (@IRIS_EPO) January 7, 2020 Auto solution FMNEAR (Géoazur/OCA) with regional records for the 2020-01-07 08:24:26 UTC M6.5 PUERTO RICO 17.87N 66.79W 10km depth (Loc EMSC used to trigger inversion).https://t.co/UHDsc1hVXA (not on mobile version) — Bertrand Delouis (@BertrandDelouis) January 7, 2020 Backprojection of the M6.4 #PuertoRicoEarthquake pic.twitter.com/FaACUzK9ks — IRIS Earthquake Sci (@IRIS_EPO) January 7, 2020 The movie. Perspective view from SE rotating to NE. Swarm seismicity suggests steeply NNE dipping structures above ~12km, and deeper, N-S & WNW-ESE vertical faulting within a gently N dipping structure which continue northwards under Puerto Rico at base of background seismicity. pic.twitter.com/a3sA5C5JF2 — Anthony Lomax 🌍🇪🇺 (@ALomaxNet) January 12, 2020 NASA JPL image release of displacement map for Puerto Rico earthquake, from #InSAR processing of Copernicus Sentinel-1 data. https://t.co/wEJQ8tQ4dm@NASAJPL pic.twitter.com/dVURwkBawQ — Eric Fielding (@EricFielding) January 11, 2020 PR is more used to dealing with hurricanes than earthquakes. Due of this, housing is mostly concrete and worse, elevated on piers (carports/flooding). Both aspects make them more vulnerable to EQs. These pics are from a few days ago from smaller eqs on PR #PuertoRicoEarthquake pic.twitter.com/IXRdP0mBNP — Forrest Lanning (@rabidmarmot) January 7, 2020 #EarthquakeReport Shaking Intensity from @USGSBigQuakes for M 6.4 #Earthquake in #PuertoRico #PuertoRicoEarthquake #Terremoto #TremblementDeTerre #Temblor #TemblorPuertoRico #TemblorPR #TemblorEnPuertoRico pic.twitter.com/RfJpjoUVmF — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) January 7, 2020 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) January 7, 2020 Dozens of earthquakes, some as large as M5-6, have struck the southern coast of Puerto Rico over the past few days. After Hurricane Maria, these quakes add to the challenge of recovery on the Carribbean island (Image: USGS) https://t.co/cQ82kTUIEA @DiscoverMag pic.twitter.com/zFPcAN77We — Dr. Erik Klemetti (@eruptionsblog) January 7, 2020 No todos los heroes tienen capa pic.twitter.com/07WqFgXeh6 — htj (@htjlaw) January 7, 2020 Seismo Blog: Deadly Earthquakes in the Muertos Trough — Berkeley Seismo Lab (@BerkeleySeismo) January 7, 2020 Watch the waves from the M6.4 #PuertoRicoEarthquake roll across the USArray Transportable Array seismic network (https://t.co/RIcNz4sRNY )! pic.twitter.com/0bWbX3SgTS — IRIS Earthquake Sci (@IRIS_EPO) January 7, 2020 #PuertoRico 🇵🇷 en estado de emergencia, tras los fuertes sismos de hoy. — Geól. Sergio Almazán (@chematierra) January 7, 2020 Central Meteorológica y Geológica del Caribe pública las siguientes fotos en Facebook de la escuela Agripina Seda en Guanica. pic.twitter.com/y3CkkGuHVV — Nuria Sebazco (@nsebazco) January 7, 2020 https://t.co/ikNyzpw9xJ #TemblorPR #TemblorEnPuertoRico #earthquakes pic.twitter.com/mJT89HqyLl — temblor (@temblor) January 8, 2020 https://t.co/ikNyzpNKph #TemblorPR #TemblorEnPuertoRico #earthquakes pic.twitter.com/867UGoTgcw — temblor (@temblor) January 8, 2020 #EarthquakeReport interpretive poster showing potential for earthquake induced liquefaction from M6.4 #PuertoRicoEarthquake #PuertoRico #EarthquakePR #EarthquakePuertoRico from @USGSBigQuakes modeling here https://t.co/IszgHm9rL4 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) January 8, 2020 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) January 8, 2020 A few #landslides triggered by the recent Puerto Rico #earthquake, near the Mw 6.4 epicenter area. #Sentinel2 upscaled image comparison for Dec 29 and Jan 8. Location ~10km east of Guánica, along the southern coast. pic.twitter.com/c0OuhGu3OK — Sotiris Valkaniotis (@SotisValkan) January 8, 2020 Quickly drawn idea. Turns out that the Great Southern Puerto Rico Fault is further east of Ponce, following the Rio Grande de Anasco north of the current sequence – I have found few detailed or helpful fault maps for Puerto Rico, hence my error. pic.twitter.com/bQNYFmF4kT — Jamie Gurney (@UKEQ_Bulletin) January 9, 2020 USGS forecasts a 3 percent chance of one or more aftershocks larger than a magnitude 6.4 in Puerto Rico in the next week and that smaller earthquakes are likely to occur. Forecasts are updated periodically and official information can be found here: https://t.co/YpNeR6rxQd pic.twitter.com/ainSKWbjMU — USGS (@USGS) January 9, 2020 Watching earthquakes roll in on the real time monitor 😮 Video taken by Alena Leeds and Elizabeth Vanacore, two of the folks on the @USGS+@redsismica field crew installing @usgs_seismic stations pic.twitter.com/VFiwtDZY8t — Emily Wolin (@GeoGinger) January 11, 2020 En Puerto Rico, muchos se preguntan ansiosamente ¿y ahora, qué viene? Nadie puede predecir terremotos, pero la sismología puede dar pronósticos: estimar probabilidades de que ocurran más sismos, pequeños o grandes. Lo hace @USGS https://t.co/tVUXGWrqXY Explicación 👇 pic.twitter.com/Uvt7VWJMOK — Pablo Ampuero (@DocTerremoto) January 11, 2020 The GS-PR01 station was the closest to this morning's M5.9, providing valuable strong motion recordings. pic.twitter.com/SgD4FucQCg — USGS_Seismic (@usgs_seismic) January 11, 2020 #EarthquakeReport #Earthquake #Aftershocks in #PuertoRico interpretive posters with mechanisms and comparisons (6.4 v 5.9) intensity and liquefaction susceptibility (6.4 v 5.9)#PuertoRicoEarthquakes #TerremotoPR #TerremotosPR #terremoto #terremotopuertorico #Terremotos pic.twitter.com/YANM7Uze8i — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) January 12, 2020 Time progression of Puerto Rico earthquake sequence based on local network catalog — Jascha Polet (@CPPGeophysics) January 11, 2020 NASA JPL ARIA processing of new Copernicus Sentinel-1 #InSAR for Puerto Rico earthquakes, using data from 2020/01/02–2020/01/14 shows displacement of the land surface. The coast centered on Guayanilla Bay moved 14 cm (5.5 inches) downward in radar line-of-sight. Quakes from USGS pic.twitter.com/iwi69RHuez — Eric Fielding (@EricFielding) January 15, 2020 Update on the Southern #PuertoRico Seismic Sequence since December 27 until January 25th 00:26 am. — Janira Irizarry (@jany_ip) January 25, 2020
Just a moment ago, there was an intermediate depth Great Earthquake (magnitude M≥8.0) beneath Peru. I was heading to bed at about 1:10 local time (Sacramento, CA) when I noticed a tweet from Dr. Anthony Lomax (presenting his first motion mechanism for this earthquake). I realized that I was no longer heading to bed. I put together the interpretive posters and tweeted out to social media, but put off completing the report until today. I plot the seismicity from the past month, with color representing depth and diameter representing magnitude (see legend). I include earthquake epicenters from 1918-2018 with magnitudes M ≥ 3.0 in one version.
Geological setting of South America with depth contours of slab 1.0 (Hayes et al., 2012)indicated by thin black lines, subducting oceanic plateaus translucent gray and continental cratons translucent white. The major flat slabs in South America are outlined with thick black lines. The locations of oceanic plateaus, cratons and flat slabs are modified from Gutscher et al.(2000), Loewy et al.(2004)and Ramos and Folguera (2009), respectively. The present-day plate motion is shown as black arrows. Tooth-shaped line represents the South American trench. Seafloor ages to the west of South America are shown with colorful lines with numbers indicating the age in Ma.
Map of South American seismicity and Holocene volcanism. Red triangles indicate Holocene volcanism from the Global Volcanism Project (2013). Circles indicate earthquakes from Jan 1990 to Jan 2015 listed in the Reviewed International Seismological Centre On-line Bulletin (2015) with magnitudes > 4 and depths > 70 km. Orange box shows Pucallpa nest described in this study. Yellow boxes show other nests: the Bucaramanga nest in Colombia and the Pipanaco nest in Argentina. The faded black lines show slab contours from Slab 2.0 (Hayes et al., 2018). The faded blue lines show slab contours from Cahill and Isacks (1992). The black arrow offshore shows relative Nazca-South America plate motion from Altamimi et al. (2016).
Cross sections of the best-fit model from 5◦to 30◦S at an interval of 5◦. Orange arrows mark the location of these cross sections. In each cross section, background color represents the temperature field with the yellow lines indicating the interpolated Benioff zone from slab 1.0(Hayes et al., 2012). Gray circles represent the locations of earthquakes with magnitude >4.0 from IRIS earthquake catalog for years from 1970 to 2015. Black lines above each cross section delineate the topography, with the vertical scale amplified by 20 times. Note the overall match of the slab geometry to both individual seismicity and slab 1.0 contour.
Slab bending depicted as a hypothetical contorted surface. The drawings represent the subduction and bending of Farallon and Nazca plates from three different perspectives. The margin convexity (concavity from the perspective of the continental plate) forces the slab to flex and shorten at depth which accumulates stresses in most strained areas. Present-day position of the Grijalva rifted margin at the trench coincides with a noticeable inflection point of the trench axis (in red). A horizontal grid has been added to help visualize the plates dipping angles. A transparent 100 km thick volume has been added below the contorted surface to simulate the plate, but at intermediate depths the depicted surface should be representing the plate inner section. (a) South to north perspective showing the different dipping angles of Farallon and Nazca plates. The slab depth color scale is valid for the three drawings. (b) West to east oblique perspective at approximately the same angle as Nazca plate’s dip. The contortion of the Farallon plate at depth south of the Grijalva rifted margin is clearly noticeable from this perspective. (c) East to west perspective. Intermediate depth seismicity (50–300 km) from the instrumental catalog [Beauval et al., 2013] is drawn at the reported hypocentral depth. Two areas of maximum strain in the Farallon plate are shown (hachured): the El Puyo seismic cluster (SC) and the 100–130 km depth stretch of high moment release seismicity related to a potential hinge in the subducting plate. Lack of seismicity in the Nazca plate is explained due to the fact that this young plate, even though it is also strained, is too hot for brittle rupture.
Map of Pucallpa Nest with focal mechanisms and cross sections. Top: map view: circles show seismicity (same as Fig. 2) along with focal mechanisms from the Global CMT catalog (Dziewonski et al., 1981; Ekström et al., 2012). The red contours are our proposed slab geometry in 50 km increments. Teal outlined shape is the projected location of the subducted Nazca Ridge based on its conjugate Tuamotu Plateau on the Pacific plate (Hampel, 2002). The dark blue outlined shape is the subducted Inca Plateau based on the location of its conjugate, the Marquesas Plateau (Rosenbaum et al., 2005). The pink shaded region shows the location of the Shira Mountains (Hermoza et al., 2006). Cross sections have earthquakes and focal mechanisms projected onto the transect from within the boxes outlined on the map. For all cross sections, the red line is the proposed slab geometry shown in red contours and in Fig. 7 – the solid red line indicates the slab geometry determined from PULSE studies (e.g. Antonijevic et al., 2015, 2016; Kumar et al., 2016; Bishop et al., 2017) and the dashed red line indicates the slab geometry inferred in the present study. The dashed black line is the slab from Cahill and Isacks (1992). The blue line is the slab from Slab2.0 (Hayes et al., 2018). The black line above the depth profiles on each cross section shows topography/bathymetry in km. Middle: Cross-section A–A′ through the NNW-SSE trending arm of the Pucallpa Nest. T-axes are uniformly down-dip, roughly parallel to the dip of the proposed slab geometry. Bottom: Cross-section B–B′ is parallel to the WSW-ENE arm of the Pucallpa Nest. Focal mechanisms on this segment are more variable. The inverted red triangle on the topography profile shows the location of the Agua Caliente Oil Field and Boiling River. Cross-section C–C′ is parallel to the NNW-SSE arm of the Pucallpa Nest.
3D image of slab seismicity and possible slab geometry surrounding the Pucallpa Nest. Cubes show event location for seismicity>70 km depth from the RISC 1990–2015. Squares on underlying and overlying topographic maps show projections of the same events. Slab geometry south of ~9°S is constrained by seismic stations of the PULSE deployment (see Fig. 2). Slab geometry proposed here for areas further north is based on RISC event locations and focal mechanisms.
The two beach balls show the stike-slip fault motions for the M6.4 (left) and M6.0 (right) earthquakes. Helena Buurman's primer on reading those symbols is here. pic.twitter.com/aWrrb8I9tj — AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) August 15, 2018
Strike Slip: A cutaway view along the Hawaiian island chain showing the inferred mantle plume that has fed the Hawaiian hot spot on the overriding Pacific Plate. The geologic ages of the oldest volcano on each island (Ma = millions of years ago) are progressively older to the northwest, consistent with the hot spot model for the origin of the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamount Chain. (Modified from image of Joel E. Robinson, USGS, in “This Dynamic Planet” map of Simkin and others, 2006.)
Hawaiian-Emperor Chain. White dots are the locations of radiometrically dated seamounts, atolls and islands, based on compilations of Doubrovine et al. and O’Connor et al. Features encircled with larger white circles are discussed in the text and Fig. 2. Marine gravity anomaly map is from Sandwell and Smith.
Today, on #SeismogramSaturday: what are all those strangely-named seismic phases described in seismograms from distant earthquakes? And what do they tell us about Earth’s interior? pic.twitter.com/VJ9pXJFdCy — Jackie Caplan-Auerbach (@geophysichick) February 23, 2019
— Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 26, 2019 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 26, 2019 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 26, 2019 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 26, 2019 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 26, 2019 interesting… pic.twitter.com/VPiB0bLbCQ — Cenk YALTIRAK (@CYaltirak) May 26, 2019 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 27, 2019 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 27, 2019 #ERCC #DailyMap: 2019-05-27 ⦙ Peru | 8.0 M Earthquake of 26 May 2019 ▸https://t.co/MQ0fKG8FDW pic.twitter.com/34UGFWqo1D — Copernicus EMS (@CopernicusEMS) May 27, 2019 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) May 27, 2019 #SismoEnLoreto: La clave es la profundidad <– con la participación de @DocTerremoto https://t.co/ohqaAX8zLx vía @elcomercio_peru — Bruno Ortiz B. (Blogdenotas) (@blogdenotas) May 27, 2019 Self-reactivated rupture during the 2019 Mw = 8 northern Peru intraslab earthquake https://t.co/gpGCv0CMS7 — Baoning Wu (@BaoningWu) November 12, 2022 https://academic.oup.com/gji/article-abstract/232/1/115/6674205?redirectedFrom=fulltext This region of Earth is one of the most seismically active in the past decade plus. This morning, as I was preparing for work, I got an email notifying me of an earthquake with a magnitude M = 7.5 located near New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. I plot the seismicity from the past month, with color representing depth and diameter representing magnitude (see legend). I include earthquake epicenters from 1918-2018 with magnitudes M ≥ 3.0 in one version. There are many different ways in which a landslide can be triggered. The first order relations behind slope failure (landslides) is that the “resisting” forces that are preventing slope failure (e.g. the strength of the bedrock or soil) are overcome by the “driving” forces that are pushing this land downwards (e.g. gravity). The ratio of resisting forces to driving forces is called the Factor of Safety (FOS). We can write this ratio like this: FOS = Resisting Force / Driving Force When FOS > 1, the slope is stable and when FOS < 1, the slope fails and we get a landslide. The illustration below shows these relations. Note how the slope angle α can take part in this ratio (the steeper the slope, the greater impact of the mass of the slope can contribute to driving forces). The real world is more complicated than the simplified illustration below.
Nowicki Jessee and others (2018) is the preferred model for earthquake-triggered landslide hazard. Our primary landslide model is the empirical model of Nowicki Jessee and others (2018). The model was developed by relating 23 inventories of landslides triggered by past earthquakes with different combinations of predictor variables using logistic regression. The output resolution is ~250 m. The model inputs are described below. More details about the model can be found in the original publication. We modify the published model by excluding areas with slopes <5° and changing the coefficient for the lithology layer "unconsolidated sediments" from -3.22 to -1.36, the coefficient for "mixed sedimentary rocks" to better reflect that this unit is expected to be weak (more negative coefficient indicates stronger rock).To exclude areas of insignificantly small probabilities in the computation of aggregate statistics for this model, we use a probability threshold of 0.002.
Zhu and others (2017) is the preferred model for liquefaction hazard. The model was developed by relating 27 inventories of liquefaction triggered by past earthquakes to globally-available geospatial proxies (summarized below) using logistic regression. We have implemented the global version of the model and have added additional modifications proposed by Baise and Rashidian (2017), including a peak ground acceleration (PGA) threshold of 0.1 g and linear interpolation of the input layers. We also exclude areas with slopes >5°. We linearly interpolate the original input layers of ~1 km resolution to 500 m resolution. The model inputs are described below. More details about the model can be found in the original publication.
Tectonic setting and mineral deposits of eastern Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The modern arc setting related to formation of the mineral deposits comprises, from west to east, the West Bismarck arc, the New Britain arc, the Tabar-Lihir-Tanga-Feni Chain and the Solomon arc, associated with north-dipping subduction/underthrusting at the Ramu-Markham fault zone, New Britain trench and San Cristobal trench respectively. Arrows denote plate motion direction of the Australian and Pacific plates. Filled triangles denote active subduction. Outlined triangles denote slow or extinct subduction. NBP: North Bismarck plate; SBP: South Bismarck plate; AT: Adelbert Terrane; FT: Finisterre Terrane; RMF: Ramu-Markham fault zone; NBT: New Britain trench.
3-D model of the Solomon slab comprising the subducted Solomon Sea plate, and associated crust of the Woodlark Basin and Australian plate subducted at the New Britain and San Cristobal trenches. Depth is in kilometres; the top surface of the slab is contoured at 20 km intervals from the Earth’s surface (black) to termination of slabrelated seismicity at approximately 550 km depth (light brown). Red line indicates the locations of the Ramu-Markham Fault (RMF)–New Britain trench (NBT)–San Cristobal trench (SCT); other major structures are removed for clarity; NB, New Britain; NI, New Ireland; SI, Solomon Islands; SS, Solomon Sea; TLTF, Tabar–Lihir–Tanga–Feni arc. See text for details.
Forward tectonic reconstruction of progressive arc collision and accretion of New Britain to the Papua New Guinea margin. (a) Schematic forward reconstruction of New Britain relative to Papua New Guinea assuming continued northward motion of the Australian plate and clockwise rotation of the South Bismarck plate. (b) Cross-sections illustrate a conceptual interpretation of collision between New Britain and Papua New Guinea.
Weitin Fault, Southern New Ireland, showing trace of fault, topography and evidence used by Hohnen (1978) to tentatively suggest sinistral fault movement (after Hohnen, 1978).
a) Present day tectonic features of the Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands region as shown in plate reconstructions. Sea floor magnetic anomalies are shown for the Caroline plate (Gaina and Müller, 2007), Solomon Sea plate (Gaina and Müller, 2007) and Coral Sea (Weissel and Watts, 1979). Outline of the reconstructed Solomon Sea slab (SSP) and Vanuatu slab (VS)models are as indicated. b) Cross-sections related to the present day tectonic setting. Section locations are as indicated. Bismarck Sea fault (BSF); Feni Deep (FD); Louisiade Plateau
Map showing onshore structures of the Gazelle Peninsula and New Ireland and those interpreted from SeaMARC II sidescan backscatter data in the Eastern Bismarck Sea. BSSL, Bismarck Sea Seismic Lineation (BSSL). SeaMARC II backscatter data from which lineations have been picked are from Taylor et al. (1991 a-c). Modified after Madsen and Lindley (1994).
Tectonic setting of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. A) Regional plate boundaries and tectonic elements. Light grey shading illustrates bathymetry <2000m below sea level indicative of continental or arc crust, and oceanic plateaus. The New Guinea Orogen comprises rocks of the New Guinea Mobile Belt and the Papuan Fold and Thrust Belt; Adelbert Terrane (AT); Aure-Moresby trough (AMT); Bougainville Island (B); Bismarck Sea fault (BSF); Bundi fault zone (BFZ); Choiseul Island (C); Feni Deep (FD); Finisterre Terrane (FT); Guadalcanal Island (G); Gazelle Peninsula (GP); Kia-Kaipito-Korigole fault zone (KKKF); Lagaip fault zone (LFZ); Malaita Island (M); Manus Island (MI); New Britain (NB); New Georgia Islands (NG); New Guinea Mobile Belt (NGMB); New Ireland (NI); Papuan Fold and Thrust Belt (PFTB); Ramu-Markham fault (RMF); Santa Isabel Island (SI); Sepik arc (SA); Weitin Fault (WF); West Bismarck fault (WBF); Willaumez-Manus Rise (WMR). Arrows indicate rate and direction of plate motion of the Australian and Pacific plates (MORVEL, DeMets et al., 2010); B) Pliocene-Quaternary volcanic centres and magmatic arcs related to this study. Figure modified from Holm et al. (2016). Subduction zone symbols with filled pattern denote active subduction; empty symbols denote extinct subduction zone or negligible convergence.
Selected tectonic reconstructions and mineral deposit formation for key areas and times within the eastern Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands region. A) Formation of the Panguna and Fauro Island Deposits above the interpreted subducted margin of the Solomon Sea plate-Woodlark Basin, and Mase deposit above the subducting Woodlark spreading center; B) Formation of the New Georgia deposits above the subducting Woodlark spreading center, and Guadalcanal deposits above the subducting margin of the Woodlark Basin; C) Formation of the Solwara deposits related to transtension along the Bismarck Sea fault above the subducting Solomon Sea plate, and deposits of the Tabar- Lihir-Tanga-Feni island arc chain related to upper plate extension (normal faulting indicated by hatched linework between New Ireland and Bougainville), while the Ladolam deposit forms above a tear in the subducting slab. Interpreted Solomon Sea slab (light blue shaded area for present-day) is from Holm and Richards (2013); the reconstructed surface extent or indicative trend of slab structure is indicated by the dashed red lines. Green regions denote the present-day landmass using modern coastlines; grey regions are indicative of crustal extent using the 2000m bathymetric contour. The reconstruction is presented here relative to the global moving hotspot reference frame, please see the reconstruction files in the supplementary material for specific reference frames.
The two beach balls show the stike-slip fault motions for the M6.4 (left) and M6.0 (right) earthquakes. Helena Buurman's primer on reading those symbols is here. pic.twitter.com/aWrrb8I9tj — AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) August 15, 2018
Strike Slip: A cutaway view along the Hawaiian island chain showing the inferred mantle plume that has fed the Hawaiian hot spot on the overriding Pacific Plate. The geologic ages of the oldest volcano on each island (Ma = millions of years ago) are progressively older to the northwest, consistent with the hot spot model for the origin of the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamount Chain. (Modified from image of Joel E. Robinson, USGS, in “This Dynamic Planet” map of Simkin and others, 2006.)
Hawaiian-Emperor Chain. White dots are the locations of radiometrically dated seamounts, atolls and islands, based on compilations of Doubrovine et al. and O’Connor et al. Features encircled with larger white circles are discussed in the text and Fig. 2. Marine gravity anomaly map is from Sandwell and Smith.
Today, on #SeismogramSaturday: what are all those strangely-named seismic phases described in seismograms from distant earthquakes? And what do they tell us about Earth’s interior? pic.twitter.com/VJ9pXJFdCy — Jackie Caplan-Auerbach (@geophysichick) February 23, 2019
At shortly before 13:30 today in northern Alaska there was a large earthquake, with a magnitude of M=5.1. I plot the seismicity from the past month, with color representing depth and diameter representing magnitude (see legend). I include earthquake epicenters from 1918-2018 with magnitudes M ≥ 3.0 in one version.
Map of a portion of the field epicenter. Alaska earthquake of 7 April 1958. (Compiled from vertical air photos and USGS Alaska Topographic Series 1:63,360, Melozitna and Kateel River Quadrangles, 1954.
Isoseismal map of the intensities of the April 7, 1958 earthquake, (Modified Mercalli scale).
Surface of one of the major sand flows covering an area greater than 1 square mile. The silty sand has a relatively uniform thickness of approximately 2½ feet.
A conical collapse nearly 20 feet deep. It occurred approximately 200 yards from the nearest sand flow.
Cross-section A-A’ showing the arrested sand dune deposits resting on the alluvium below. Location of the cross-section is shown on the map (figure 5). [Figure 5 is the map and legend.]
The two beach balls show the stike-slip fault motions for the M6.4 (left) and M6.0 (right) earthquakes. Helena Buurman's primer on reading those symbols is here. pic.twitter.com/aWrrb8I9tj — AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) August 15, 2018
Strike Slip: A cutaway view along the Hawaiian island chain showing the inferred mantle plume that has fed the Hawaiian hot spot on the overriding Pacific Plate. The geologic ages of the oldest volcano on each island (Ma = millions of years ago) are progressively older to the northwest, consistent with the hot spot model for the origin of the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamount Chain. (Modified from image of Joel E. Robinson, USGS, in “This Dynamic Planet” map of Simkin and others, 2006.)
Hawaiian-Emperor Chain. White dots are the locations of radiometrically dated seamounts, atolls and islands, based on compilations of Doubrovine et al. and O’Connor et al. Features encircled with larger white circles are discussed in the text and Fig. 2. Marine gravity anomaly map is from Sandwell and Smith.
Today, on #SeismogramSaturday: what are all those strangely-named seismic phases described in seismograms from distant earthquakes? And what do they tell us about Earth’s interior? pic.twitter.com/VJ9pXJFdCy — Jackie Caplan-Auerbach (@geophysichick) February 23, 2019
Large earthquake strikes near Kobuk National Preserve in remote part of Alaska https://t.co/fHqOrc1nt5 — Jason "Jay" R. Patton (@patton_cascadia) March 27, 2019
This morning (my time) there was a moderately deep earthquake along the coast of southern Mexico and northern Guatemala. Here is my Temblor article about this M=6.6 earthquake and how it might relate to the 2017 M=8.2 quake. I plot the seismicity from the past month, with color representing depth and diameter representing magnitude (see legend). I include earthquake epicenters from 1919-2019 with magnitudes M ≥ 6.5 in one version. There are also some interesting relations between different historic earthquakes.
A. Geodynamic and tectonic setting alongMiddle America Subduction Zone. JB: Jalisco Block; Ch. Rift—Chapala rift; Co. rift—Colima rift; EGG—El Gordo Graben; EPR: East Pacific Rise; MCVA: Modern Chiapanecan Volcanic Arc; PMFS: Polochic–Motagua Fault System; CR—Cocos Ridge. Themain Quaternary volcanic centers of the TransMexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) and the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA) are shown as blue and red dots, respectively. B. 3-D view of the Pacific, Rivera and Cocos plates’ bathymetrywith geometry of the subducted slab and contours of the depth to theWadati–Benioff zone (every 20 km). Grey arrows are vectors of the present plate convergence along theMAT. The red layer beneath the subducting plate represents the sub-slab asthenosphere.
Kinematic model (mantle reference frame) of the subducting Cocos slab along the MAT in the vicinity of Cocos–Caribbe–North America triple junction since Early Miocene. The evolution of Caribbean–North America tectonic contact is based on the model of Witt et al. (2012). The blue strips represent markers on the Cocos plate. Note how trench roll forward is associated with steep slab in Central America, whereas trench roll back is associated with flat slab in Mexico.
Present setting of Central America showing plates, Cocos crust produced at East Pacifi c Rise (EPR), and Cocos-Nazca spreading center (CNS), triple-junction trace (heavy dotted line), volcanoes (open triangles), Middle America Trench (MAT), and rates of relative plate motion (DeMets et al., 2000; DeMets, 2001). East Pacifi c Rise half spreading rates from Wilson (1996) and Barckhausen et al. (2001). Lines 1, 2, and 3 are locations of topographic and tomographic profi les in Figure 6.
(A) Tomographic slices of the P-wave velocity of the mantle at depths of 100, 300, and 500 km beneath Central America. (B) Upper panels show cross sections of topography and bathymetry. Lower panels: tomographic profi les showing Cocos slab detached below northern Central America, upper Cocos slab continuous with subducted plate at Middle America Trench (MAT), and slab gap between 200 and 500 km. Shading indicates anomalies in seismic wave speed as a ±0.8% deviation from average mantle velocities. Darker shading indicates colder, subducted slab material of Cocos plate. Circles are earthquake hypocenters. Grid sizes on profi les correspond to quantity of ray-path data within that cell of model; smaller boxes indicate regions of increased data density. CT—Cayman trough; SL—sea level (modifi ed from Rogers et al., 2002).
Proposed model of faults kinematics and coupling along the Cocos slab interface, revised from Lyon-Caen et al. (2006). Numbers are velocities relative to CA plate in mmyr−1. Focal mechanisms are for crustal earthquakes (depth ≤30 km) since 1976, from CMT Harvard catalogue.
The two beach balls show the stike-slip fault motions for the M6.4 (left) and M6.0 (right) earthquakes. Helena Buurman's primer on reading those symbols is here. pic.twitter.com/aWrrb8I9tj — AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) August 15, 2018
Strike Slip: A cutaway view along the Hawaiian island chain showing the inferred mantle plume that has fed the Hawaiian hot spot on the overriding Pacific Plate. The geologic ages of the oldest volcano on each island (Ma = millions of years ago) are progressively older to the northwest, consistent with the hot spot model for the origin of the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamount Chain. (Modified from image of Joel E. Robinson, USGS, in “This Dynamic Planet” map of Simkin and others, 2006.)
Hawaiian-Emperor Chain. White dots are the locations of radiometrically dated seamounts, atolls and islands, based on compilations of Doubrovine et al. and O’Connor et al. Features encircled with larger white circles are discussed in the text and Fig. 2. Marine gravity anomaly map is from Sandwell and Smith.
“When a fault slips during an #earthquake, there are changes in stress in the surrounding crust. These changes can either promote or inhibit the subsequent earthquake, depending on the orientation and type of fault on which the stress is imparted.” https://t.co/Qj4iOTQLwR — Dr Lucy Jones Center (@DLJCSS) February 3, 2019
We just had a large earthquake in the region of the Bering Kresla fracture zone, a strike-slip fault system that coincides with the westernmost portion of the Aleutian trench (which is a subduction zone further to the east). I plot the seismicity from the past month, with color representing depth and diameter representing magnitude (see legend). I include earthquake epicenters from 1918-2018 with magnitudes M ≥ 6.0 in one version.
Tectonic setting of the Sredinny and Ganal Massifs in Kamchatka. Kamchatka/Aleutian junction is modified after Gaedicke et al. (2000). Onland geology is after Bogdanov and Khain (2000). 1, Active volcanoes (a) and Holocene monogenic vents (b). 2, Trench (a) and pull-apart basin in the Aleutian transform zone (b). 3, Thrust (a) and normal (b) faults. 4, Strike-slip faults. 5–6, Sredinny Massif. 5, Amphibolite-grade felsic paragneisses of the Kolpakovskaya series. 6, Allochthonous metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Malkinskaya series. 7, The Kvakhona arc. 8, Amphibolites and gabbro (solid circle) of the Ganal Massif. Lower inset shows the global position of Kamchatka. Upper inset shows main Cretaceous-Eocene tectonic units (Bogdanov and Khain 2000): Western Kamchatka (WK) composite unit including the Sredinny Massif, the Kvakhona arc, and the thick pile of Upper Cretaceous marine clastic rocks; Eastern Kamchatka (EK) arc, and Eastern Peninsulas terranes (EPT). Eastern Kamchatka is also known as the Olyutorka-Kamchatka arc (Nokleberg et al. 1998) or the Achaivayam-Valaginskaya arc (Konstantinovskaya 2000), while Eastern Peninsulas terranes are also called Kronotskaya arc (Levashova et al. 2000).
Kamchatka subduction zone. A: Major geologic structures at the Kamchatka–Aleutian Arc junction. Thin dashed lines show isodepths to subducting Pacific plate (Gorbatov et al., 1997). Inset illustrates major volcanic zones in Kamchatka: EVB—Eastern Volcanic Belt; CKD—Central
The two beach balls show the stike-slip fault motions for the M6.4 (left) and M6.0 (right) earthquakes. Helena Buurman's primer on reading those symbols is here. pic.twitter.com/aWrrb8I9tj — AK Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) August 15, 2018
Strike Slip: A cutaway view along the Hawaiian island chain showing the inferred mantle plume that has fed the Hawaiian hot spot on the overriding Pacific Plate. The geologic ages of the oldest volcano on each island (Ma = millions of years ago) are progressively older to the northwest, consistent with the hot spot model for the origin of the Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamount Chain. (Modified from image of Joel E. Robinson, USGS, in “This Dynamic Planet” map of Simkin and others, 2006.)
Hawaiian-Emperor Chain. White dots are the locations of radiometrically dated seamounts, atolls and islands, based on compilations of Doubrovine et al. and O’Connor et al. Features encircled with larger white circles are discussed in the text and Fig. 2. Marine gravity anomaly map is from Sandwell and Smith.
Mw=7.3, KOMANDORSKIYE OSTROVA REGION (Depth: 18 km), 2018/12/20 17:01:54 UTC – Full details here: https://t.co/pUYUdEnFtb pic.twitter.com/u9Uv1X4v4u — Earthquakes (@geoscope_ipgp) December 20, 2018 very strong #earthquake offshore #Kamchatka, #Russia, minor, regional #tsunami expected. Fortunately, region not well inhabitat @Quake_Tracker @LastQuake @JuskisErdbeben @UKEQ_Bulletin pic.twitter.com/DwCE4NuAOd — CATnews (@CATnewsDE) December 20, 2018 Seismic waves from the M7.4 Russia earthquake have rolled across Canada during the past hour (not felt here). The fastest travelling waves took about 7 minutes to travel from Kamchatka to Dawson, Yukon. — John Cassidy (@earthquakeguy) December 20, 2018
Earthquake Report: Turkey!
As i was logging into Zoom, my coworker emailed our Tsunami Unit group about a M7 in the eastern Mediterranean. So, I shifted gears a bit. But i had my poster to present, so i had to stay somewhat focused on that.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000c7y0/executive
Today, in the wee hours (my time in California), there was a M 7.0 earthquake offshore of western Turkey in the Icarian Sea. The earthquake mechanism (i.e. focal mechanism or moment tensor) was for an extensional type of an earthquake, slip along a normal fault.
I immediately thought about some quakes/deprems that happened there several years ago. This area is an interesting and complicated part of the world, tectonically.
To the south is a convergent plate boundary (plates are moving towards each other) related to (1) the Alpide Belt, a convergent plate boundary formed in the Cenozoic that extends from Australia to Morocco. On the southern side of Greece and western Turkey, there are subduction zones where the Africa plate dives northward beneath the Eurasia and Anatolia plates.
The region of today’s earthquake is in a zone of north-south oriented extension. This extension appears to be in part due to gravitational collapse of uplifted metamorphic core complexes.
There are several “massifs” that were emplaced in the past, lifted up, creating gravitational potential. The normal faults may have formed as the upper crust extended. It is complicated here, so i am probably missing some details. But, with the references i provide below, y’all can read more on your own. Feel free to contact me if i wrote something incorrect. I love my peer reviewers (you).
So, this N-S extension creates east-west oriented valleys/basins with E-W striking (trending) faults. There are south dipping faults on the north sides and north dipping faults on the south side of these valleys.
These structures are called rifts. A famous rift is the East Africa Rift.
There are two main rifts in western Turkey, the Büyük Menderes Graben and the Küçük Menderes Graben Systems. If we project these rifts westward, we can see another rift, the rift that forms the Gulf of Corinth in Greece, the Gulf of Corinth Rift. This is one of the most actively spreading rifts in the world.
In addition to the large earthquake, which caused lots of building damage and also caused over a dozen deaths so far (sadly), there was recorded a tsunami on the tide gages in the region. I use the IOC website to obtain tide gage data. This is an excellent service. There are only a few national tide gage online websites that rival this one.
It is also highly likely that there were landslides or that there was liquefaction somewhere in the region. The USGS models i present below show a high likelihood for these earthquake triggered processes.Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
Other Report Pages
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
(black lines), the main sutures zones (thick violet or blue lines), the main thrusts in the Hellenides where they have not been reworked by later extension (thin blue lines), the North Cycladic Detachment (NCDS, in red) and its extension in the Simav Detachment (SD), the main metamorphic units and their contacts; AlW: Almyropotamos window; BD: Bey Daglari; CB: Cycladic Basement; CBBT: Cycladic Basement basal thrust; CBS: Cycladic Blueschists; CHSZ: Central Hellenic Shear Zone; CR: Corinth Rift; CRMC: Central Rhodope Metamorphic Complex; GT: Gavrovo–Tripolitza Nappe; KD: Kazdag dome; KeD: Kerdylion Detachment; KKD: Kesebir–Kardamos dome; KT: Kephalonia Transform Fault; LN: Lycian Nappes; LNBT: Lycian Nappes Basal Thrust; MCC: Metamorphic Core Complex; MG: Menderes Grabens; NAT: North Aegean Trough; NCDS: North Cycladic Detachment System; NSZ: Nestos Shear Zone; OlW: Olympos Window; OsW: Ossa Window; OSZ: Ören Shear Zone; Pel.: Peloponnese; ÖU: Ören Unit; PQN: Phyllite–Quartzite Nappe; SiD: Simav Detachment; SRCC: South Rhodope Core Complex; StD: Strymon Detachment; WCDS: West Cycladic Detachment System; ZD: Zaroukla Detachment. B: Seismicity. Earthquakes are taken from the USGS-NEIC database. Colour of symbols gives the depth (blue for shallow depths) and size gives the magnitude (from 4.5 to 7.6).
Those Rifts
Regional Cross Sections
necking and asthenospheric upwelling have produced locally well-developed alkaline volcanism (e.g., Sardinia). Slab tear or detachment in the Calabria segment of Adria, as imaged through seismic tomography (Spakman and Wortel, 2004), is probably responsible for asthenospheric upwelling and alkaline volcanism in southern Calabria and eastern Sicily (e.g., Mount Etna). Modified from Séranne (1999), with additional data from Spakman et al. (1993); Doglioni et al. (1999); Spakman and Wortel (2004); Lentini et al. (this volume).
and extensional processes in the upper plate of north-dipping subduction zone(s) within the Tethyan realm. See text
for discussion.
Europe
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
Social Media
complicated tectonics
also a plot of tide gage data from the region
Arrival times as prediceted by #Tsunami–#HySEA#IzmirEarthquake pic.twitter.com/8UEwItsLal
Deniz suyu ilçeyi kapladı…
İzmir Seferihisar'da 6.6 büyüklüğündeki depremin ardından tsunami meydana geldi.#İzmir #deprem #izmirdedeprem #Tsunami pic.twitter.com/kCugei77Zj
Unwrapped data (below) easier to interpret. Main subsidence (red) is offshore N of Samos. pic.twitter.com/eGGCHL6LXx
complicated tectonics
also a plot of tide gage data from the region
1/n pic.twitter.com/cBn4sew2xx
Aftershock sequence of the M7.0 Western Turkey as it stands.
Catalogue: @LastQuake pic.twitter.com/5oUa0fyXpL
Data also on ARIA-share: https://t.co/CDz2xn2gFo pic.twitter.com/uu5iYqi6WA
References:
Basic & General References
Specific References
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: Gorda Rise
On 18 May 2020 there was a magnitude M 5.5 extensional earthquake located near the Gorda Rise, an oceanic spreading ridge where oceanic crust is formed to create (love using the word create in science) the Gorda and Pacific plates.
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70009jgy/executive
There are three types of plate boundaries and three types of earthquake faults (this is not a coincidence because plate boundaries are generally in the form of earthquake faults).
The northeast Pacific (aka Pacific Northwest as viewed by land lubbers) is dominated by the plate boundary formed between the Pacific (PP) and North America plates (NAP). In much of California, this plate boundary is realized in the form of the San Andreas fault (SAF), where the PP moves north relative to the NAP. Both plates are moving to the northwest, but the PP is moving faster, so it appears that the NAP is moving south. This southerly motion is relative not absolute. I present a background of the SAF in my review of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake here.
Near Cape Mendocino, in Humboldt County, California, the plate boundary gets more complicated and involves all three types of fault systems.
It appears that the San Andreas fault terminates in the King Range, causing some of the highest tectonic uplift rates in North America. There are sibling faults to the east of the San Andreas that continue further north (e.g. the Maacama fault turns into the Garberville fault and the Bartlett Springs fault (eventually) turns into the Bald Mountain/Big Lagoon fault. So, it looks like these San Andreas related faults extend offshore, possibly to at least the Oregon border. Geodetic evidence supports this, as first published by Williams et al. (2002).
The San Andreas ends near the beginning of the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ), formed where the Gorda/Juan de Fuca/Explorer plates dive eastwards beneath the North America plate. More about the CSZ can be found here, where I describe the basis of our knowledge about prehistoric earthquakes and tsunami along the CSZ.
Far offshore of the CSZ are oceanic spreading ridges, the Gorda Rise and the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Because the plates are moving away from each other here (we think this is due to processes called slab pull and ridge push; slab pull describes the process that in the subduction zone, the downgoing oceanic plate is going deep into the mantle and pulling down the crust; ridge push is not really pushing from the ridge, but that there is additional mass added to the crust and this pushes down and then out, pushing the plate away from the ridge, towards the subduction zone). As these plates diverge, there is lowered pressure beneath this divergent zone. These lowered pressures cause the mantle to melt, leading to eruptions of mafic lava. When the lava cools, it becomes new oceanic crust.
Connecting the CSZ with these spreading ridges, and spreading ridges with other spreading ridges, are transform plate boundaries in the form of strike-slip faults. For example, the Mendocino fault and the Blanco fault. Here is a report that includes background information about the Mendocino fault. Here is a report with some background information about the Blamco fault.
The 18 May 2020 M 5.5 earthquake happened near the Gorda Rise and was an extensional earthquake. As the Gorda plate moves away from the spreading ridge, the normal faults formed at the ridge don’t disappear. The Gorda plate is a strange plate as it gets internally deformed, so as the plate moves towards the subduction zone, these normal faults get reactivated as strike-slip faults. These strike-slip faults have been responsible for some of the most damaging earthquakes to impact coastal northern California. More about these left-lateral strike-slip Gorda plate earthquakes can be found in a report here.
The M 5.5 earthquake happened along one of these normal faults, before that fault turns into a strike-slip fault. There is a good history of earthquakes just like this one. Here is a report for a similar event further to the north, also slightly east of the Gorda Rise.
One of the most common questions people have is, “does this earthquake change our chances for a CSZ earthquake?” The answer is no. The reason is because the stress changes from earthquakes extends for a limited distance from those earthquakes. I spend more time discussing this limitation for the Blanco fault here. Basically, this M 5.5 event was too small and too far away from the CSZ to change the chance that the CSZ will slip. Today is not different from a couple weeks ago: we always need to be ready for an earthquake when we live in earthquake country.Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
Other Report Pages
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
I have compiled some literature about the CSZ earthquake and tsunami. Here is a short list that might help us learn about what is contained within the core that I collected.
There have been several series of intra-plate earthquakes in the Gorda plate. Two main shocks that I plot of this type of earthquake are the 1980 (Mw 7.2) and 2005 (Mw 7.2) earthquakes. I place orange lines approximately where the faults are that ruptured in 1980 and 2005. These are also plotted in the Rollins and Stein (2010) figure above. The Gorda plate is being deformed due to compression between the Pacific plate to the south and the Juan de Fuca plate to the north. Due to this north-south compression, the plate is deforming internally so that normal faults that formed at the spreading center (the Gorda Rise) are reactivated as left-lateral strike-slip faults. In 2014, there was another swarm of left-lateral earthquakes in the Gorda plate. I posted some material about the Gorda plate setting on this page.
Cascadia subduction zone
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
Gorda plate
Blanco transform fault
Mendocino fault
Mendocino triple junction
North America plate
Explorer plate
Uncertain
Social Media
References:
Basic & General References
Specific References
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: Idaho!
Yesterday there was a very interesting magnitude M 6.5 earthquake that ruptured in central Idaho, near the Sawtooth fault.
The M 6.5 earthquake yesterday happened in an area where a Basin & Range (B&R) fault ends near one of these older Eocene aged faults. Most of us saw the earthquake notification and probably thought that the quake would have been a B&R normal (extensional) fault. However, when the mechanism was posted online, the earthquake mechanism was instead a strike-slip earthquake. This was really interesting. I love when things happen that are unexpected. This is what makes life exciting.
Thanks to the Idaho Geological Survey, I learned of some of the faults in the region. I downloaded their geologic maps and GIS data and started to work.
Dr. Thackray used newly collected high resolution LiDAR topographic data to identify fault scarps that offset geomorphic features that during Holocene time. If the landforms were created less than 12,000 years ago and the fault cut through these landforms, then the earthquake that cut the landforms happened after the landforms were created (and also less than 12,000 years ago).
OK, lets look at some eye candy. (sorry for the long introduction)Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
Earthquake Triggered Landslides
If we look at the map at the top of this report, we might imagine that because the areas close to the fault shake more strongly, there may be more landslides in those areas. This is probably true at first order, but the variation in material properties and water content also control where landslides might occur.
Other Report Pages
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
Springs section, prehistoric ruptures PE2 (magenta) and PE1 (blue) show significantly more displacement than the 1983 rupture (red). Green line shows prehistoric VS along the Arentson Gulch fault. Gray box shows extent of the Willow Creek Hills structure along the Lost River fault zone. Triangles show paleoseismic sites. SC—Sheep Creek; DP—Doublespring Pass.
Basin and Range
Earthquake Reports
Utah
Idaho
Nevada
Social Media
cf. fault maps https://t.co/d28LmscgnFhttps://t.co/HI9CvkxAwshttps://t.co/P3jEoJ2KLM pic.twitter.com/i6IYXgS9xE
Full report in the link below: https://t.co/30Jpx70s0g
UPDATE 2020.04.05
References:
Basic & General References
Specific References
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: Puerto Rico!
Since late December, southwestern Puerto Rico has seen a sequence of smaller (M3-5) earthquakes, culminating with the 29 Dec 2019 M 5 which later turned out to be a foreshock (there was also a M 4.7 that was a foreshock to the M5). Then on 6 Jan, there was a M 5.8, which was now the mainshock. Then, on the following day, there was the real mainshock, the M 6.4. Lots of other earthquakes too. The largest aftershock was the M 5.9 on 11 Jan. Below I include some comparisons for the M 6.4 and M 5.9 quakes.
Here is a plot showing the cumulative energy release from this sequence. I used the USGS NEIC earthquake catalog for events M≥0. Time is on the horizontal axis and energy release (in joules) on the vertical axis. For every earthquake, the plot steps up relative to the energy released by that quake.
These earthquakes in Puerto Rico have been deadly and damaging. Many structures there are constructed with soft stories on the ground level (the buildings are uplifted to mitigate hurricane flood hazards). Unfortunately, these soft story structures don’t perform well when subjected to earthquake shaking. Thus, there have been many structure collapses. Luckily, there have been only a few deaths. While we may all agree that having no deaths is best, there could have been more.
The M 6.4 even generated a small tsunami. This was localized and was observed clearly on only one tide gage (The Magueyes Island gage).
Here is the tsunami record, along with a map showing the location of the tide gage in southwestern Puerto Rico. These data are from a site that is my “go-to” website for looking for tsunami in tide gage data. I generally look here first.
USGS Earthquake Event Pages
Here is a screenshot of the forecast updated today (12 Jan 2020). Head to the USGS site to stay up to date.
UPDATE: 2020.02.02 -palindrome day!
Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
Background Information
section is shown by a black rectangle on the top map.
Tectonic Strain and Seismic Hazard
Earthquake Shaking Intensity
Earthquake Triggered Landslides
There are many different ways in which a landslide can be triggered. The first order relations behind slope failure (landslides) is that the “resisting” forces that are preventing slope failure (e.g. the strength of the bedrock or soil) are overcome by the “driving” forces that are pushing this land downwards (e.g. gravity). The ratio of resisting forces to driving forces is called the Factor of Safety (FOS). We can write this ratio like this:
Landslide ground shaking can change the Factor of Safety in several ways that might increase the driving force or decrease the resisting force. Keefer (1984) studied a global data set of earthquake triggered landslides and found that larger earthquakes trigger larger and more numerous landslides across a larger area than do smaller earthquakes. Earthquakes can cause landslides because the seismic waves can cause the driving force to increase (the earthquake motions can “push” the land downwards), leading to a landslide. In addition, ground shaking can change the strength of these earth materials (a form of resisting force) with a process called liquefaction.
Sediment or soil strength is based upon the ability for sediment particles to push against each other without moving. This is a combination of friction and the forces exerted between these particles. This is loosely what we call the “angle of internal friction.” Liquefaction is a process by which pore pressure increases cause water to push out against the sediment particles so that they are no longer touching.
An analogy that some may be familiar with relates to a visit to the beach. When one is walking on the wet sand near the shoreline, the sand may hold the weight of our body generally pretty well. However, if we stop and vibrate our feet back and forth, this causes pore pressure to increase and we sink into the sand as the sand liquefies. Or, at least our feet sink into the sand.
Below is a diagram showing how an increase in pore pressure can push against the sediment particles so that they are not touching any more. This allows the particles to move around and this is why our feet sink in the sand in the analogy above. This is also what changes the strength of earth materials such that a landslide can be triggered.
Below is a diagram based upon a publication designed to educate the public about landslides and the processes that trigger them (USGS, 2004). Additional background information about landslide types can be found in Highland et al. (2008). There was a variety of landslide types that can be observed surrounding the earthquake region. So, this illustration can help people when they observing the landscape response to the earthquake whether they are using aerial imagery, photos in newspaper or website articles, or videos on social media. Will you be able to locate a landslide scarp or the toe of a landslide? This figure shows a rotational landslide, one where the land rotates along a curvilinear failure surface.
Surface Deformation from Remote Sensing
Caribbean Earthquake Reports
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
Social Media
Thanks to the seismic network of Puerto Rico through IRIS pic.twitter.com/EZoJnIEozu
For the past 11 days, the US territory of Puerto Rico has been shaken by hundreds of earthquakes, culminating in a magnitude 5.8 temblor on Monday and a deadly magnitude 6.4…https://t.co/2FQ9tV8HlU #PuertoRicoEarthquake pic.twitter.com/21iIa6Tz8v
Video desde #Guánica justo que en el momento que un #sismo #réplica termina de colapsar la torre de una iglesia
Via Luis Alberto Románhttps://t.co/OZ2dztAA2x pic.twitter.com/GijFbTnayj
and doi: 0.1785/0120160198 pic.twitter.com/PBgrDlIrk5
(with the usual caveats for near real-time local catalog: changes in catalog completeness and network configuration with time are common when large quakes occur) pic.twitter.com/guhuUodobqUPDATE 2020.01.14
UPDATE 2020.01.25
Maximum magnitudes show a general decreasing tendency since January 07, 2020.
Data from @redsismica of PR! #TemblorPR @DavidBegnaud @adamonzon #EarthquakePR pic.twitter.com/Ag6xErR4My
References:
Basic & General References
Specific References
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: Peru
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us60003sc0/executive
The major plate boundary in this region of the world is the subduction zone that forms the Peru-Chile Trench, where the Nazca plate dives eastwards beneath the South America plate.
This magnitude M = 8.0 Great earthquake is extensional (normal) and in the downgoing Nazca plate at a depth of about 110 km. Earthquakes M ≥ 8 are generally considered “Great” earthquakes.
In the past few years, there have been some good examples of deep earthquakes, depths ≥ 300 km or so. For example an M 7.6 on 2015.11.24, an M 6.8 on 2018.04.02, an M 7.1 on 2018.08.24, an M 7.5 on 2019.02.22, and a M 7.0 on 2019.03.01. Today’s temblor happened ~500 km from the 2 February 2019 M 7.5 quake. It seems that the M 8 may be related to this earlier M 7.5, though someone would need to conduct coulomb modeling to get a better gauge of this possibility.
At first take, this event was deep, so some would consider this to lead to lesser damage had the quake been closer to the surface. While this is true, the size of the quake and the fact that it was not deep (but intermediate in depth, at about 110 km), the damage has shown to be quite extensive. The USGS PAGER alert, along with the USGS liquefaction and landslide probability maps, also suggested that this event would be deadly and damaging (unfortunately). Luckily, the areas hardest hit have low population exposure. Though Iquitos is still pretty close. The MMI contours show MMI VII (very strong shaking) near the epicenter.
Below I present the standard interpretive posters, as well as maps that show the USGS Ground Failure products.
Today’s earthquake appears to have occurred where the downgoing Nazca plate is changing the steepness of dip (the angle measured from the horizontal plane). To the west of the quake, the subducting slab is less steeply dipping (flat slab subduction), and to the east, the slab is dipping more steeply. As the plate bends downwards, there is extension in the upper part of the subducting slab (like when one bends a finger, the wrinkles in their knuckles stretch out and disappear due to the extension in the upper part of the finger).Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I plot the USGS fault plane solutions (moment tensors in blue and focal mechanisms in orange), possibly in addition to some relevant historic earthquakes.
Magnetic Anomalies
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
USGS Landslide and Liquefaction Ground Failure data products
UPDATE: 2019.05.27
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
Geologic Fundamentals
Compressional:
Extensional:
Chile | South America
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
Social Media
UPDATE 2019.05.27
References:
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: New Ireland
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70003kyy/executive
There are every type of plate boundary fault in this region. There are subduction zones, such as that forms the New Britain and San Cristobal trenches. There are transform faults, such as that responsible for the M 7.5 temblor. There are also spreading ridges, such as the one that forms the Manus Basin to the northwest of today’s quake.
I interpret this M 7.5 earthquake to be a left-lateral strike slip earthquake based on (1) the USGS mechanism (moment tensor), (2) our knowledge of the faulting in the region, and (3) historic analogue earthquake examples. There was an earthquake on a subparallel strike-slip fault on 8 March 2018 (here is the earthquake report for that event). Also in that report, I discuss an earthquake from November 2000 that had a magnitude M = 8.0.
After my work on the 28 September 2018 Donggala-Palu earthquake, landslides, and tsunami, I am open minded about the possibility of strike-slip earthquakes as having tsunamigenic potential. There are actually many examples of strike-slip earthquakes causing tsunami, including the 1999 Izmit, 2012 Wharton Basin, and the 2000 New Ireland earthquake too! (see Geist and Parsons, 2005 for more about the small 2000 tsunami.) There was initially a tsunami notification from tsunami.gov about the possibility of a tsunami. Here is a great website where I usually visit when I am looking for tsunami records on tide gage data. This is the closest gage to the quake, but it is not located optimally to record a small tsunami as might have been generated today (I checked).
The Weitin fault is a very active fault, with a slip rate of about 130 mm/yr (Tregoning et al, 1999, 2005). For a comparison, the San Andreas fault has a slip rate of about 25-35 mm/year. Here is a great treatise on the SAF.
There are also examples of earthquake triggering in this region. For example, the 2000.11.16 M 8.0 strike-slip earthquake triggered the 2000.11.16 M 7.8 thrust fault earthquake. It is not unreasonable to consider it possible that there may be triggered earthquakes from this M 7.5 earthquake. Of course, we won’t know until it happens because nobody has the capability to predict earthquakes (regardless of what the charlatans may claim).
The USGS has a variety of products associated with their earthquake pages. I use many of these products in these earthquake reports, so I especially appreciate them. One of the recently added products is a landslide and a liquefaction probability model output. Based on our knowledge of how earthquake release energy, and our knowledge of how earth materials respond to this energy release, people have developed models that allow us to estimate the possibility any given region may experience landslides or liquefaction. I spent some time discussing this in the 28 Sept. 2018 Donggala-Palu earthquake report here.Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I plot the USGS fault plane solutions (moment tensors in blue and focal mechanisms in orange), possibly in addition to some relevant historic earthquakes.
Magnetic Anomalies
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
M 7.5 Landslide and Liquefaction Models
Landslide ground shaking can change the Factor of Safety in several ways that might increase the driving force or decrease the resisting force. Keefer (1984) studied a global data set of earthquake triggered landslides and found that larger earthquakes trigger larger and more numerous landslides across a larger area than do smaller earthquakes. Earthquakes can cause landslides because the seismic waves can cause the driving force to increase (the earthquake motions can “push” the land downwards), leading to a landslide. In addition, ground shaking can change the strength of these earth materials (a form of resisting force) with a process called liquefaction.
Sediment or soil strength is based upon the ability for sediment particles to push against each other without moving. This is a combination of friction and the forces exerted between these particles. This is loosely what we call the “angle of internal friction.” Liquefaction is a process by which pore pressure increases cause water to push out against the sediment particles so that they are no longer touching.
An analogy that some may be familiar with relates to a visit to the beach. When one is walking on the wet sand near the shoreline, the sand may hold the weight of our body generally pretty well. However, if we stop and vibrate our feet back and forth, this causes pore pressure to increase and we sink into the sand as the sand liquefies. Or, at least our feet sink into the sand.
Below is a diagram showing how an increase in pore pressure can push against the sediment particles so that they are not touching any more. This allows the particles to move around and this is why our feet sink in the sand in the analogy above. This is also what changes the strength of earth materials such that a landslide can be triggered.
Below is a diagram based upon a publication designed to educate the public about landslides and the processes that trigger them (USGS, 2004). Additional background information about landslide types can be found in Highland et al. (2008). There was a variety of landslide types that can be observed surrounding the earthquake region. So, this illustration can help people when they observing the landscape response to the earthquake whether they are using aerial imagery, photos in newspaper or website articles, or videos on social media. Will you be able to locate a landslide scarp or the toe of a landslide? This figure shows a rotational landslide, one where the land rotates along a curvilinear failure surface.
Here is an excellent educational video from IRIS and a variety of organizations. The video helps us learn about how earthquake intensity gets smaller with distance from an earthquake. The concept of liquefaction is reviewed and we learn how different types of bedrock and underlying earth materials can affect the severity of ground shaking in a given location. The intensity map above is based on a model that relates intensity with distance to the earthquake, but does not incorporate changes in material properties as the video below mentions is an important factor that can increase intensity in places.
If we look at the map at the top of this report, we might imagine that because the areas close to the fault shake more strongly, there may be more landslides in those areas. This is probably true at first order, but the variation in material properties and water content also control where landslides might occur.
There are landslide slope stability and liquefaction susceptibility models based on empirical data from past earthquakes. The USGS has recently incorporated these types of analyses into their earthquake event pages. More about these USGS models can be found on this page.
I prepared some maps that compare the USGS landslide and liquefaction probability maps.
Other Report Pages
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
(LP); Manus Basin (MB); New Britain trench (NBT); North Bismarck microplate (NBP); North Solomon trench (NST); Ontong Java Plateau (OJP); Ramu-Markham fault (RMF); San Cristobal trench (SCT); Solomon Sea plate (SSP); South Bismarck microplate (SBP); Trobriand trough (TT); projected Vanuatu slab (VS); West Bismarck fault (WBF); West Torres Plateau (WTP); Woodlark Basin (WB).
Here is a visualization of the seismicity as presented by Dr. Steve Hicks.
Geologic Fundamentals
Compressional:
Extensional:
New Britain | Solomon | Bougainville | New Hebrides | Tonga | Kermadec Earthquake Reports
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
Social Media
References:
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: Northern Alaska
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ak0193wxcfea/executive
Many of us are familiar with the Good Friday earthquake, a megathrust subduction zone earthquake. This earthquake has a birthday tomorrow, from 27 March, 1964 (55 years ago).
The M=9.2 1964 temblor created a tsunami that traveled across the Pacific Ocean. More about the Good Friday earthquake and tsunami can be found here.
Alaska has a variety of major fault systems in addition to the subduction zone. There are also large strike-slip faults (move side by side) such as the Denali fault and the Kaltag fault. There are even more strike slip systems too, like the Queen Charlotte / Fairweather fault in southeastern Alaska and the Bering-Kresla shear zone in the extreme western part of the Aleutian Islands. Alaska is so cool, they even have extensional (normal) earthquakes, such as on 1 December 2018.
Recently, there was a series of strike-slip earthquakes in the Gulf of Alaska probably related to reactivation of pre-existing structures in the Pacific plate. We continue to have aftershocks in this area.
Also, there is an ongoing sequence of earthquakes (now, maybe it is a swarm?) in northeastern Alaska. The largest quake was in August last year (2018), with a magnitude of M=6.3.
Today’s earthquake happened away from one of the mapped faults in the USGS Quaternary Active Fault and Fold Database (the Kaltag fault). The earthquake mechanism shows this earthquake may have been a slightly oblique normal type of an earthquake. I placed strike-slip arrows on the 2 possible nodal planes.but this is mainly a normal earthquake.
There was also a normal earthquake in 1958, when a M=7.1 quake struck about 50 km (35 miles) to the southeast of today’s quake. However, the 1958 event was oriented perpendicular to today’s quake. Below are some observations made following the 1958 earthquake. There was evidence of liquefaction, with sand volcanoes about a meter thick extending for hundreds of meters laterally.
I need to get to bed, but will try to write more tomorrow.Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I plot the USGS fault plane solutions (moment tensors in blue and focal mechanisms in orange), possibly in addition to some relevant historic earthquakes.
Magnetic Anomalies
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
Other Report Pages
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
Geologic Fundamentals
Compressional:
Extensional:
Alaska | Kamchatka | Kurile
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
Social Media
References:
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: Guatemala and Mexico
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000jbub/executive
Offshore of Guatemala and Mexico, the Middle America trench is formed by the subduction of the oceanic Cocos plate beneath the North America and Caribbean plates.
To the east of Guatemala and Mexico, the North America and Caribbean plates are separated by a left lateral (sinistral) strike-slip plate boundary fault (that forms the Cayman Trough beneath the Caribbean Sea).
As this plate boundary comes onshore, this fault forms multiple splays, including the Polochi-Montagua fault. As this system trends westwards across Central America, it joins another strike-slip plate boundary associated with the subduction zone (the Volcanic Arc fault).
South of about 15°N, the relative plate motion between the Caribbean and Cocos plates is oblique (they are not moving towards each other in a direction perpendicular to the subduction zone fault). At plate boundaries where plate convergence is oblique (like also found in Sumatra), the strain is partitioned onto the subduction zone (for fault normal component of the relative plate motion) and a forearc sliver fault (for the fault parallel relative motion).
The Tehuantepec fracture zone (TFZ) is a major structure in the Cocos plate. Coincidentally, the strike-slip fault systems trend towards where the TFZ intersects the trench.
There is left-lateral offset of the seafloor across the TFZ so the crust is about 10 million years older on the north side of the eastern TFZ. This age offset changes the depth of the crust across the TFZ and also may affect the megathrust fault properties on either side of the TFZ.
In addition, the TFZ may have geological properties that also affect the fault properties when this part of the plate subducts (affecting where, when, and how the fault slips).
There are so many things going on, but I will mention one more thing. Something that also appears to be happening in this part of the subduction zone is that there may be gaps in the slab beneath the megathrust. If this is true (Mann, 2007), then there may be changes in slab pull tension along strike as a result of different widths of attached downgoing slab.Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I plot the USGS fault plane solutions (moment tensors in blue and focal mechanisms in orange), possibly in addition to some relevant historic earthquakes.
Magnetic Anomalies
Age of Oceanic Lithosphere
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
In 2017 there was a series of large magnitude earthquakes in the region of today’s M=6.6 and further to the south. These quakes are highlighted in the posters above, notable are the 6 Jun M=6.9 and 22 Jun M=6.8. The first quake was a deep extensional event, followed by a thrust event (possibly triggered by the M=6.9). In addition, there was a M=6.9 extensional earthquake in 2014 that also may have been a player.
I presented an interpretive poster showing the zone of aftershocks associated with the June sequence. Later, in Sept, there was a M=8.2 extensional tsunamigenic earthquake to the north of the June sequence. If we look at the aftershock zone for the M=8.2 quake, it looks like a sausage link adjacent to the sausage link formed by the June aftershocks. mmmm veggie sausages.
However there was no megathrust earthquake in the area of the M=8.2 sequence.
Other Report Pages
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
Geologic Fundamentals
Compressional:
Extensional:
Mexico | Central America
Earthquake Reports
Social Media
References:
in northern Central America: Geological Society of America Special Paper 428, p. 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1130/2007.2428(01).Return to the Earthquake Reports page.
Earthquake Report: Bering Kresla / Pacific plate
At first, when I noticed the location, I hypothesized that this may be a strike-slip earthquake. womp womp. The earthquake mechanism from the USGS shows that this M = 7.4 earthquake was a normal fault earthquake (extension).
This earthquake happened in an interesting region of the world where there is a junction between two plate boundaries, the Kamchatka subduction zone with the Aleutian subduction zone / Bering-Kresla Shear Zone. The Kamchatka Trench (KT) is formed by the subduction (a convergent plate boundary) beneath the Okhotsk plate (part of North America). The Aleutian Trench (AT) and Bering-Kresla Shear Zone (BKSZ) are formed by the oblique subduction of the Pacific plate beneath the Pacific plate. There is a deflection in the Kamchatka subduction zone north of the BKSZ, where the subduction trench is offset to the west. Some papers suggest the subduction zone to the north is a fossil (inactive) plate boundary fault system. There are also several strike-slip faults subparallel to the BKSZ to the north of the BKSZ.
Today’s M = 7.4 earthquake shows northwest-southeast directed extension. This is consistent with slab tension in the direction of the Kurile subduction zone. It may also represent extension due to bending in the Pacific plate, but this seems less likely to me. Basically, the Pacific plate, as it subducts beneath the Okhotsk plate, the downgoing slab (the plate) exerts forces on the rest of the plate that pulls it down, into the subduction zone.
A second cool thing about this earthquake is that this may be evidence that the Kuril subduction zone extends north of the intersection of the BKSZ with Kamchatka. I discussed this in my earthquake report from 2017 here.
There are a couple analogy earthquakes, but one is the best. There were several strike-slip earthquakes nearby in 1982, 1987, and 1999. However, there was a M = 6.2 earthquake in almost the same location as the M = 7.4 from today. This M = 6.2 earthquake was slightly deeper (33 km) relative to the M = 7.4 (9.6 km).Check out my update here
Below is my interpretive poster for this earthquake
I plot the USGS fault plane solutions (moment tensors in blue and focal mechanisms in orange), possibly in addition to some relevant historic earthquakes.
Magnetic Anomalies
Age of Oceanic Lithosphere
I include some inset figures. Some of the same figures are located in different places on the larger scale map below.
Other Report Pages
Some Relevant Discussion and Figures
Kamchatka Depression (rift-like tectonic structure, which accommodates the northern end of EVB); SR—Sredinny Range. Distribution of Quaternary volcanic rocks in EVB and SR is shown in orange and green, respectively. Small dots are active vol canoes. Large circles denote CKD volcanoes: T—Tolbachik; K l — K l y u c h e v s k o y ; Z—Zarechny; Kh—Kharchinsky; Sh—Shiveluch; Shs—Shisheisky Complex; N—Nachikinsky. Location of profiles shown in Figures 2 and 3 is indicated. B: Three dimensional visualization of the Kamchatka subduction zone from the north. Surface relief is shown as semi-transparent layer. Labeled dashed lines and color (blue to red) gradation of subducting plate denote depths to the plate from the earth surface (in km). Bold arrow shows direction of Pacific Plate movement.
Geologic Fundamentals
Compressional:
Extensional:
Alaska | Kamchatka | Kurile
General Overview
Earthquake Reports
Social Media
Quake details: https://t.co/sCHEMhsY7g
Tsunami info: https://t.co/kIFgUWkdzj pic.twitter.com/15ixlcPRld
References:
Return to the Earthquake Reports page.