Search

On August 6, 2023, a magnitude MW5.5 earthquake struck Pingyuan County, Dezhou City, Shandong Province, China. This event was significant as no large earthquakes had been recorded in the region for over a century, and no active fault had been previously identified. This study collects 1309 P-wave arrival times and 866 S-wave arrival times from 74 seismic stations less than 200 km to the epicenter to constrain the spatial distribution of the mainshock and its 125 early aftershocks by the double difference earthquake relocation method, and selects 864 P-waveforms from 288 stations located within 800 km of the epicenter to constrain the focal mechanism solution of the mainshock through centroid moment tensor inversion. The relocation and the inversion indicate, the Pingyuan MW5.5 earthquake was caused by a rupture on a buried fault, likely an extensive segment of the Gaotang fault. This buried fault exhibited a dip of approximately 75° to the northwest, with a strike of 222°, similar to the Gaotang fault. The rupture initiated at the depth of 18.6 km and propagated upward and northeastward. However, the ground surface was not broken. The total duration of the rupture was ~6.0 s, releasing the scalar moment of 2.589 5 × 1017 N·m, equivalent to MW5.54. The moment rate reached the maximum only 1.4 seconds after the rupture initiation, and the 90% scalar moment was released in the first 4.6 s. In the first 1.4 seconds of the rupture process, the rupture velocity was estimated to be 2.6 km/s, slower than the local S-wave velocity. As the rupture neared its end, the rupture velocity decreased significantly. This study provides valuable insights into the seismic characteristics of the Pingyuan MW5.5 earthquake, shedding light on the previously unidentified buried fault responsible for the seismic activity in the region. Understanding the behavior of such faults is crucial for assessing seismic hazards and enhancing earthquake preparedness in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted rapid inversions of rupture process for the 2023 earthquake doublet occurred in SE Türkiye, the first with a magnitude of MW7.8 and the second with a magnitude of MW7.6, using teleseismic and strong-motion data. The teleseismic rupture models of the both events were obtained approximately 88 and 55 minutes after their occurrences, respectively. The rupture models indicated that the first event was an asymmetric bilateral event with ruptures mainly propagating to the northeast, while the second one was a unilateral event with ruptures propagating to the west. This information could be useful in locating the meizoseismal areas. Compared with teleseismic models, the strong-motion models showed relatively higher resolution. A noticeable difference was found for the MW7.6 earthquake, for which the strong-motion models shows a bilateral event, rather than a unilateral event, but the dominant rupture direction is still westward. Nevertheless, all strong-motion models are consistent with the teleseismic models in terms of magnitudes, durations, and dominant rupture directions. This suggests that both teleseismic and strong-motion data can be used for fast determination of major source characteristics. In contrast, the strong-motion data would be preferable in future emergency responses since they are recorded earlier and have a better resolution ability on the source ruptures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]