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Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone
In the 1970s, the Shumagin Islands region of the Alaska subduction zone was identified as a seismic gap expected to host a future great [moment magnitude (M(w)) ≥8.0] earthquake. More recent geodetic data indicate that this region is weakly coupled, and the geologic record shows little evidence of p...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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American Association for the Advancement of Science
2021
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7990338/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33762346 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf7590 |
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author | Herman, Matthew W. Furlong, Kevin P. |
author_facet | Herman, Matthew W. Furlong, Kevin P. |
author_sort | Herman, Matthew W. |
collection | PubMed |
description | In the 1970s, the Shumagin Islands region of the Alaska subduction zone was identified as a seismic gap expected to host a future great [moment magnitude (M(w)) ≥8.0] earthquake. More recent geodetic data indicate that this region is weakly coupled, and the geologic record shows little evidence of past large events. From July to October 2020, a series of earthquakes occurred in this region, raising the possibility of greater coupling. The initial M(w) 7.8 thrust faulting earthquake straddled the eastern edge of the Shumagin Gap and was followed by an M(w) 7.6 strike-slip earthquake within the Shumagin Gap. Stress modeling indicates that this strike-slip earthquake is in fact favored if the Shumagin Gap has low coupling, whereas a highly coupled Shumagin Gap inhibits that type and location of earthquake. The initial thrust earthquake and its afterslip enhanced the strike-slip loading within the subducting slab, helping to trigger the October event. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7990338 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79903382021-04-02 Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone Herman, Matthew W. Furlong, Kevin P. Sci Adv Research Articles In the 1970s, the Shumagin Islands region of the Alaska subduction zone was identified as a seismic gap expected to host a future great [moment magnitude (M(w)) ≥8.0] earthquake. More recent geodetic data indicate that this region is weakly coupled, and the geologic record shows little evidence of past large events. From July to October 2020, a series of earthquakes occurred in this region, raising the possibility of greater coupling. The initial M(w) 7.8 thrust faulting earthquake straddled the eastern edge of the Shumagin Gap and was followed by an M(w) 7.6 strike-slip earthquake within the Shumagin Gap. Stress modeling indicates that this strike-slip earthquake is in fact favored if the Shumagin Gap has low coupling, whereas a highly coupled Shumagin Gap inhibits that type and location of earthquake. The initial thrust earthquake and its afterslip enhanced the strike-slip loading within the subducting slab, helping to trigger the October event. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2021-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7990338/ /pubmed/33762346 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf7590 Text en Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Articles Herman, Matthew W. Furlong, Kevin P. Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone |
title | Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone |
title_full | Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone |
title_fullStr | Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone |
title_full_unstemmed | Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone |
title_short | Triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone |
title_sort | triggering an unexpected earthquake in an uncoupled subduction zone |
topic | Research Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7990338/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33762346 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf7590 |
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