Detailed spatiotemporal evolution of microseismicity and repeating earthquakes following the 2012 Mw 7.6 Nicoya earthquake. Issue 1 (26th January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yao, Dongdong; Walter, Jacob I.; Meng, Xiaofeng; Hobbs, Tiegan E.; Peng, Zhigang; Newman, Andrew V.; Schwartz, Susan Y.; Protti, Marino
• Is Part Of: Journal of geophysical research. Volume 122:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 524
• Page End: 542
• Publication Date: 2017-01-26
• Subjects: Nicoya Peninsula -- matched filter technique -- repeating earthquakes -- afterslip; Geomagnetism -- Periodicals; Geochemistry -- Periodicals; Geophysics -- Periodicals; Earth sciences -- Periodicals; 551.1
• DOI: 10.1002/2016JB013632
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2169-9313

Abstract

Abstract: We apply a waveform matching technique to obtain a detailed earthquake catalog around the rupture zone of the 5 September 2012 moment magnitude 7.6 Nicoya earthquake, with emphasis on its aftershock sequence. Starting from a preliminary catalog, we relocate ~7900 events using TomoDD to better quantify their spatiotemporal behavior. Relocated aftershocks are mostly clustered in two groups. The first is immediately above the major coseismic slip patch, partially overlapping with shallow afterslip. The second one is 50 km SE to the main shock nucleation point and near the terminus of coseismic rupture, in a zone that exhibited little resolvable afterslip. Using the relocated events as templates, we scan through the continuous recording from 29 June 2012 to 30 December 2012, detecting approximately 17 times more than template events. We find 190 aftershocks in the first half hour following the main shock, mostly along the plate interface. Later events become more scattered in location, showing moderate expansion in both along‐trench and downdip directions. From the detected catalog we identify 53 repeating aftershock clusters with mean cross‐correlation values larger than 0.9, and indistinguishably intracluster event locations, suggesting slip on the same fault patch. Most repeating clusters occurred within the first major aftershock group. Very few repeating clusters were found in the aftershock grouping along the southern edge of the Peninsula, which is not associated with substantial afterslip. Our observations suggest that loading from nearby afterslip along the plate interface drives spatiotemporal evolution of aftershocks just above the main shock rupture patch, while aftershocks in the SE group are to the SE of the observed updip afterslip and poorly constrained. Key Points: We relocated the original catalog event with TomoDD and identified linear dipping structure around the epicenter Using the matched filter technique, we identified about 17 times more aftershocks within the first 4 months We observed 53 repeating aftershock clusters, each with at least four events, and they majorly occurred along the interface