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The effects of friction coefficient, stress drop ratio, the ratio of residual strength to initial stress, and the dip angle of faults on the rupture velocity under hydrostatic pressure condition, as well as the stress distribution on the fault, are investigated using General Particle Dynamics code. The numerical results indicate three distinct regimes of rupture dynamics: (i) slow rupture, (ii) sub-Rayleigh rupture, and (iii) supershear rupture. This suggests that rupture-mode selection is coupled to friction coefficient, stress drop ratio, the ratio of residual strength to initial stress, and the dip angle of faults. Moreover, supershear rupture can occur under upper-crustal (< 250 MPa), lower-crustal (250 to 1000 MPa), and upper-mantle (1000 to 10000 MPa) conditions. Since rupture velocity is fastest under upper-crustal conditions, supershear rupture most easily occurs under these condition.

This study aims to explain the records of seismicity before the onset of the 2018 Mw 7.5 Palu earthquake, concerning the timing of earthquake nucleation of a large strike-slip supershear earthquake. The mainshock was preceded by two distinct series of foreshock sequences, seven months before the mainshock and three hours before the mainshock. The foreshock seismicity took place on a distinguishing isolated zone surrounding the epicenter of the impending mainshock, near the northern edge of the total rupture. Cross-correlating the regional seismogram indicates that the foreshocks were not repeated ruptures of the same patch by fault creep. Neither low-frequency signals nor an extended initiation phase were observed immediately before the impending rupture. The foreshocks were attributed to a cascade model, that is, the Palu mainshock was triggered by a cascade of foreshocks, not by a slow-slip transient. This is explained by the Coulomb stress changes model imparted by the largest foreshock (Mw 6.1). However, it is also possible that the mainshock initial break was instantaneously triggered by the dynamic seismic wave of the very last foreshock.

We characterize the crack-tip strain field in the high-speed (supershear) crack in the elastomers propagating faster than the shear wave speed of sound (Cs). The dependence of steady-state crack ve...

Snow slab avalanches, characterized by a distinct, broad fracture line, are released following anticrack propagation in highly porous weak snow layers buried below cohesive slabs. The anticrack mechanism is driven by the volumetric collapse of the weak layer, which leads to the closure of crack faces and to the onset of frictional contact. Here, on the basis of snow fracture experiments, full-scale avalanche measurements and numerical simulations, we report the existence of a transition from sub-Rayleigh anticrack to supershear crack propagation. This transition follows the Burridge–Andrews mechanism, in which a supershear daughter crack nucleates ahead of the main fracture front and eventually propagates faster than the shear wave speed. Furthermore, we show that the supershear propagation regime can exist even if the shear-to-normal stress ratio is lower than the static friction coefficient as a result of the loss of frictional resistance during collapse. This finding shows that snow slab avalanches have fundamental similarities with strike-slip earthquakes., Nature Physics, 18, ISSN:1745-2473, ISSN:1745-2481

International audience; Most earthquake ruptures propagate at speeds below the shear wave velocity within the crust, but in some rare cases, ruptures reach supershear speeds. The physics underlying the transition of natural subshear earthquakes to supershear ones is currently not fully understood. Most observational studies of supershear earthquakes have focused on determining which fault segments sustain fully grown supershear ruptures. Experimentally cross-validated numerical models have identified some of the key ingredients required to trigger a transition to supershear speed. However, the conditions for such a transition in nature are still unclear, including the precise location of this transition. In this work, we provide theoretical and numerical insights to identify the precise location of such a transition in nature. We use fracture mechanics arguments with multiple numerical models to identify the signature of supershear transition in coseismic off-fault damage. We then cross-validate this signature with high-resolution observations of fault zone width and early aftershock distributions. We confirm that the location of the transition from subshear to supershear speed is characterized by a decrease in the width of the coseismic off-fault damage zone. We thus help refine the precise location of such a transition for natural supershear earthquakes.

Dynamic crack propagation problems, including intersonic rupture, are simulated with two Hamiltonian based formulations of particle discretization scheme (PDS) FEM: the traditional displacement momentum form and the strain momentum form, for which consistent momentum conserving and symplectic integration schemes are derived. Numerical results are verified, and validated by comparing with photoelastic observations of a dynamic mode-I crack captured with a 1 Mfps camera. Both methods are successful in accurately reproducing the crack patterns observed in classical 2D and 3D dynamic rupture scenarios, as well as the near crack tip stress field during the propagation. The two methods are found to be numerically indifferentiable, although the displacement based method offers a significantly better computational performance. As a demonstrative application, we simulate the super-shear rupture in earthquakes, modeling the contact at the fault surface by a linear slip weakening friction law. The Burridge–Andrews mechanism naturally appears in the simulations, making the crack front jump from the sub-Rayleigh regime to the intersonic regime and propagate while producing shear Mach cones.

SUMMARYField studies have characterized natural faults as rough, non-planar surfaces at all scales. Fault roughness induces local stress perturbations during slip, which dramatically affect rupture behaviour, resulting in slip heterogeneity. However, the relation between fault roughness and slip heterogeneity remains a key knowledge gap between current numerical and field studies. In this study, we analyse numerical simulations of earthquake rupture to determine how roughness influences final slip. Using a rupture catalogue containing thousands of dynamic rupture simulations on band-limited self-similar fractal fault profiles with varying roughness and background shear stress levels, we quantify how fault roughness affects the spectral characteristics of the resulting slip distribution. We find that slip distributions become increasingly more self-affine, that is, containing more short wavelength fluctuations as compared to the self-similar fault profiles, as roughness increases. We also find that, at very short wavelengths (

An Mw 7.5 earthquake struck Palu in the northern coast of Sulawesi island, Indonesia, on 28 September 2018. Its focal mechanism was determined to be a left‐lateral strike‐slip fault, which is generally expected to not produce a tsunami. However, a large tsunami with runup heights of more than 6 m was observed along the coast of Palu city. Here, we show a complex triggering supershear source model as determined by teleseismic waveform inversion. Three asperities with different slip characteristics were found on the 120‐kilometer‐long rupture zone. Significant triggering rupture with a supershear speed was observed south of the epicenter, which was just beneath Palu city. This special rupture process can cause a strong directivity effect that produced anomalously large ground shaking with nonlinear effects in Palu area. The coseismic deformation determined from the inverted source model showed large horizontal displacements. These horizontal movements combined with complex bathymetry and topography could have pushed seawater to generate a tsunami even though the Palu earthquake was a strike‐slip event.

The September 2018, Mw 7.5 Sulawesi earthquake occurring on the Palu-Koro strike-slip fault system was followed by an unexpected localized tsunami. We show that direct earthquake-induced uplift and subsidence could have sourced the observed tsunami within Palu Bay. To this end, we use a physics-based, coupled earthquake–tsunami modeling framework tightly constrained by observations. The model combines rupture dynamics, seismic wave propagation, tsunami propagation and inundation. The earthquake scenario, featuring sustained supershear rupture propagation, matches key observed earthquake characteristics, including the moment magnitude, rupture duration, fault plane solution, teleseismic waveforms and inferred horizontal ground displacements. The remote stress regime reflecting regional transtension applied in the model produces a combination of up to 6 m left-lateral slip and up to 2 m normal slip on the straight fault segment dipping 65∘ East beneath Palu Bay. The time-dependent, 3D seafloor displacements are translated into bathymetry perturbations with a mean vertical offset of 1.5 m across the submarine fault segment. This sources a tsunami with wave amplitudes and periods that match those measured at the Pantoloan wave gauge and inundation that reproduces observations from field surveys. We conclude that a source related to earthquake displacements is probable and that landsliding may not have been the primary source of the tsunami. These results have important implications for submarine strike-slip fault systems worldwide. Physics-based modeling offers rapid response specifically in tectonic settings that are currently underrepresented in operational tsunami hazard assessment. ISSN:0033-4553 ISSN:1420-9136 ISSN:1557-7368

The 28 September 2018 Sulawesi earthquake generated a much larger tsunami than expected from its Mw = 7.5 magnitude and from its dominant strike-slip mechanism. Within a few minutes after the earthquake, the tsunami devastated the seafront of Palu bay, destroying houses and infrastructures over a few hundred meters. Coastal subsidence and slumping at various locations around the bay were also observed. There is debate in the scientific community as to whether submarine landslides and shore collapses contributed to the generation of strong and destructive waves locally. The objective of this study is threefold: first, to determine whether standard seismic inversions could predict the source in the context of tsunami early warning; second, to define a new seismic source built from optical image correlation and based on the geological and tectonic context; third, to assess whether the earthquake alone is able to generate up to 9-m wave heights at the coast. Numerical simulations of the tsunami propagation are performed for different seismic dislocation sources. Nonlinear shallow water equations are solved by a finite-difference method in grids with 200-m and 10-m resolutions. The early CMT focal solutions calculated by seismological institutes show dominant strike-slip mechanisms with a homogenous slip distribution. These sources produce maximum tsunami heights of 40-cm on the coast of Palu city. Two heterogeneous sources are tested and compared: the USGS “finite fault” model calculated from seismic inversion and a new “hybrid” source inferred from different techniques. The latter is based on a segmented fault in agreement with the geological context and built from both from seismic parameters of a CMT solution and the observed horizontal ground displacements. This source produces water wave heights of 4 to 5-m in the Palu bay. The observed inundation heights and distances are reproduced satisfactorily by the model at Pantoloan and at the southwestern tip of Palu bay. However, the “hybrid” source is unable to reproduce the largest 8 to 12-m water heights as reported from field surveys. Thus, even though this “hybrid” source produces most of the reported tsunami energy, we cannot exclude that the numerous coastal collapses observed in Palu bay contributed to increase the local tsunami run-up.

Producing dynamic ruptures in the laboratory allows us to study fundamental characteristics of interface dynamics. Our laboratory earthquake experimental setup has been successfully used to reproduce a number of dynamic rupture phenomena, including supershear transition, bimaterial effect, and pulse-like rupture propagation. However, previous diagnostics, based on photoelasticity and laser velocimeters, were not able to quantify the full-field behavior of dynamic ruptures and, as a consequence, many key rupture features remained obscure. Here we report on our dynamic full-field measurements of displacement, velocities, strains and strain rates associated with the spontaneous propagation of shear ruptures in the laboratory earthquake setup. These measurements are obtained by combining ultrahigh-speed photography with the digital image correlation (DIC) method, enhanced to capture displacement discontinuities. Images of dynamic shear ruptures are taken at 1-2 million frames/s over several sizes of the field of view and analyzed with DIC to produce a sequence of evolving full-field maps. The imaging area size is selected to either capture the rupture features in the far field or to focus on near-field structures, at an enhanced spatial resolution. Simultaneous velocimeter measurements on selected experiments verify the accuracy of the DIC measurements. Owing to the increased ability of our measurements to resolve the characteristic field structures of shear ruptures, we have recently been able to observe rupture dynamics at an unprecedented level of detail, including the formation of pressure and shear shock fronts in viscoelastic materials and the evolution of dynamic friction.

Tsunami generation from earthquake-induced seafloor deformations has long been recognized as a major hazard to coastal areas. Strike-slip faulting has generally been considered insufficient for triggering large tsunamis, except through the generation of submarine landslides. Herein, we demonstrate that ground motions due to strike-slip earthquakes can contribute to the generation of large tsunamis (>1 m), under rather generic conditions. To this end, we developed a computational framework that integrates models for earthquake rupture dynamics with models of tsunami generation and propagation. The three-dimensional time-dependent vertical and horizontal ground motions from spontaneous dynamic rupture models are used to drive boundary motions in the tsunami model. Our results suggest that supershear ruptures propagating along strike-slip faults, traversing narrow and shallow bays, are prime candidates for tsunami generation. We show that dynamic focusing and the large horizontal displacements, characteristic of strike-slip earthquakes on long faults, are critical drivers for the tsunami hazard. These findings point to intrinsic mechanisms for sizable tsunami generation by strike-slip faulting, which do not require complex seismic sources, landslides, or complicated bathymetry. Furthermore, our model identifies three distinct phases in the tsunamic motion, an instantaneous dynamic phase, a lagging coseismic phase, and a postseismic phase, each of which may affect coastal areas differently. We conclude that near-source tsunami hazards and risk from strike-slip faulting need to be re-evaluated.

Deep microseismicity occurs in high-temperature ductile mantle mylonite shear zones resulting from semibrittle fracturing., Oceanic transform faults, a key element of plate tectonics, represent the first-order discontinuities along mid-ocean ridges, host large earthquakes, and induce extreme thermal gradients in lithosphere. However, the thermal structure along transform faults and its effects on earthquake generation are poorly understood. Here we report the presence of a 10- to 15-kilometer-thick in-depth band of microseismicity in 10 to 34 kilometer depth range associated with a high-temperature (700° to 900°C) mantle below the brittle lithosphere along the Romanche mega transform fault in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. The occurrence of the shallow 2016 moment magnitude 7.1 supershear rupture earthquake and these deep microearthquakes indicate that although large earthquakes occur in the upper brittle lithosphere, a substantial amount of deformation is accommodated in the semibrittle mylonitic mantle that resides at depths below the 600°C isotherm. We also observe a rapid westward deepening of this band of seismicity indicating a strong lateral heterogeneity.

Earthquake rupture dynamic models capture the variability of slip in space and time while accounting for the structural complexity which is characteristic for subduction zones. The use of a geodynamic subduction and seismic cycling (SC) model to initialize dynamic rupture (DR) ensures that initial conditions are self-consistent and reflect long-term behavior. We extend the 2D geodynamical subduction and SC model of van Zelst et al. (2019) and use it as input for realistic 3-dimensional DR megathrust earthquake models. We follow the subduction to tsunami run-up linking approach described in Madden et al. (2020), including a complex subduction setup along with their resulting tsunamis. The distinct variation of shear traction and friction coefficients with depth lead to realistic average rupture speeds and dynamic stress drop as well as efficient tsunami generation. We here analyze a total of 14 subduction-initialized 3D dynamic rupture-tsunami scenarios. By varying the hypocentral location along arc and depth, we generate 12 distinct unilateral and bilateral earthquakes with depth-variable slip distribution and directivity, bimaterial, and geometrical effects in the dynamic slip evolutions. While depth variations of the hypocenters barely influence the tsunami behavior, lateral varying nucleation locations lead to a shift in the on-fault slip which causes time delays of the wave arrival at the coast. The fault geometry of our DR model that arises during the SC model is non-planar and includes large-scale roughness. These features (topographic highs) trigger supershear rupture propagation in up-dip or down-dip direction, depending on the hypocentral depth.In two additional scenarios, we analyze variations in the energy budget of the DR scenarios. In the SC model, an incompressible medium is assumed (ν=0.5) which is valid only for small changes in pressure and temperature. Unlike in the DR model where the material is compressible and a different Poisson’s ratio (ν=0.25) has to be assigned. Poisson’s ratios between 0.1 and 0.4 stand for various compressible materials. To achieve a lower shear strength of all material on and off the megathrust fault and to facilitate slip, we increase the Poisson ratio in the DR model to ν=0.3 which is consistent with basaltic rocks. As a result, larger fault slip is concentrated at shallower depths and generates higher vertical seafloor displacement and earthquake moment magnitude respectively. Even though the tsunami amplitudes are much higher, the same dynamic behavior as in the twelve hypocenter-variable models can be observed. Lastly, we increase fracture energy by changing the critical slip distance in the linear slip-weakening frictional parameterization. This generates a tsunami earthquake (Kanamori, 1972) characterized by low rupture velocity (on average half the amount of s-wave speed) and low peak slip rate, but at the same time large shallow fault slip and moment magnitude. The shallow fault slip of this event causes the highest vertical seafloor uplift compared to all other simulations. This leads to the highest tsunami amplitude and inundation area while the wavefront hits the coast delayed compared to the other scenarios.

Supershear earthquakes have significant implications for seismic hazard, in terms of ground shaking and aftershock pattern. It has been suggested that supershear ruptures are associated with fewer aftershocks on the supershear rupture segment, however this needs to be tested using high resolution event locations. Current aftershock catalogues for the M7.5 Palu 2018 supershear rupture are not of sufficient resolution to identify any characteristic aftershock pattern. Additionally it is unclear whether the supershear rupture speed occurred from the time of earthquake initiation, or at a later time on a certain segment of the fault.We deployed a nodal array to record aftershocks following the main event. The array comprised of twenty short-period nodes, which can be deployed rapidly, making them ideal for post-rupture investigations in areas of sparse coverage. We expand the earthquake catalogue by applying template matching to the nodal array data. We then relocate seismicity recorded by the array using a double difference method. We also relocate seismicity that occurred before the array was active, using a relative relocation method. To do this, we calibrate the more distant permanent stations using events well-located by the nodal array. We further derive moment tensors for the largest events by waveform modelling using short-period and broadband records.Our results show that the aftershocks cluster at the northern and southern extents of rupture. There is a relative dearth of aftershocks in the middle part of the rupture, particularly in the Palu valley, where rupture terminated to the surface. The fault here is a long and straight distinctive geomorphic feature. Many secondary faults were triggered, particularly in the southern Sapu valley fault system. An earthquake swarm was triggered 1 month after the main event on a strike-slip fault 200km away.

The 2018 Mw 7.5 Palu earthquake is a remarkable strike-slip event due to its nature as a shallow supershear fault rupture across several segments and a destructive tsunami that followed co-seismic deformation. GPS offsets in the wake of the 2018 earthquake display a transient in the surface motions of northwest Sulawesi. A Bayesian approach identifies (predominantly a-seismic) deep afterslip on and below the co-seismic rupture plane as the dominant physical mechanism causing the cumulative, post-seismic, surface displacements whereas viscous relaxation of the lower crust and poro-elastic rebound contribute negligibly. We confirm a correlation between shallow supershear rupture and post-seismic surface transients with afterslip activity in the zone below an inter-seismically locked fault plane where the slip rate tapers from zero to creeping.

The Mw 7.5 earthquake that struck Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on September 28, 2018, was rapidly followed by coastal landslides and destructive tsunami waves within Palu Bay. Here, we present new tsunami modeling that supports a dual source mechanism from the supershear strike-slip earthquake and coastal landslides. Up until now the tsunami mechanism: earthquake, coastal landslides, or a combination of both, has remained controversial, because published research has been inconclusive; with some studies explaining most observations from the earthquake and others the landslides. Major challenges are the numerous different earthquake source models used in tsunami modeling, and that landslide mechanisms have been hypothetical. Here, we simulate tsunami generation using the earthquake models of Jamelot et al. (2019, Socquet et al. (2019), and Ulrich et al. (2019), alone and in combination with seven coastal landslides identified and confirmed by field and bathymetric evidence Liu et al. (2020),Takagi et al. (2019) which, from video evidence, produced significant waves. To generate and propagate the tsunamis, we use a combination of two wave models, the 3D non-hydrostatic model NHWAVE and the 2D Boussinesq model FUNWAVE-TVD. Both models are nonlinear and address the physics of wave frequency dispersion critical in modeling tsunamis from landslides, which here, in NHWAVE are modeled as granular material. Our combined, earthquake and coastal landslide, simulations recreate all observed tsunami runups, except those in the southeast of Palu Bay where they were most elevated (10.5 m), as well as observations made in video recordings and at the Pantoloan Port tide gauge located within Palu Bay. With regard to the timing of tsunami impact on the coast, results from the dual landslide/earthquake sources, particularly those using the earthquake models of Ulrich et al. (2019), are in good agreement with reconstructed time series at most locations. Our new work shows that an additional tsunami mechanism is also necessary to explain the elevated tsunami observations in the southeast of Palu Bay. Using partial information from bathymetric surveys we show that an additional, submarine landslide here, when simulated with the other coastal slides, and the earthquake mechanism of Ulrich et al. (2019), better explains the observations.

With the availability of new instrumentation for more complete ground motion measurements, as rotation or strain measurements using optical technology, novel application opportunities in seismology arise. Back azimuth information can be determined from combined measurements of rotations and translations at a single site. Such six degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) measurements are reasonably stable in delivering similar information compared to a small-scale array of three-component seismometers. Here we investigate whether a 6-DoF approach is applicable for imaging earthquake rupture propagation. While common approaches determining the timing and location of energy sources generating seismic waves rely on the information of P-waves, here we take S-waves into account. We analyze 2-D and 3-D synthetic cases of unilateral but complex rupture propagation. The back azimuths of directly arriving SH-waves in the 2-D case, and P-converted SV-waves and SH-waves in the 3-D case are tracked. For data analysis in terms of wave polarity we compare a cross-correlation approach using a grid-search optimization algorithm with a polarization analysis method using point measurements. We successfully recover rupture path and rupture velocity with only one station, under the assumption of an approximately known fault location. Using more than one station, rupture imaging in space and time is possible without a priori assumptions. We demonstrate robustness of the approach in resolving relatively small variations of rupture velocity, and rupture jumping across off set fault segments. We discuss the effects of rupture directivity, supershear rupture velocity, source-receiver geometry as well as potential and challenges for the method.

On May 24, 2013, the largest deep earthquake ever seismically recorded struck 609 km beneath the Sea of Okhotsk off the southwest coast of Kamchatka Peninsula. Previous multiple point-source inversion results have shown that the earthquake might not rupture along the subhorizontal fault plane as presumed in the finite-fault inversion. Here we employ a three-dimensional (3-D) high-resolution MUSIC BP method to revisit the spatiotemporal characteristics of the rupture processes for this great event and its two largest aftershocks. The multitaper cross-spectrum estimator and MUSIC (MUltiple SIgnal Classification) Back Projection method are combined to first obtain robust data covariance matrix for each sliding time window of seismic waveforms recorded by dense array and back project them to retrieve the space–time energy distribution. We apply such array-processing procedures to P waves filtered at the two frequency bands of 0.5–2.0 and 0.2–1.0 Hz recorded by the seismic networks across the US and Europe. The low frequency P- and pP wave BP images are combined to diminish the spatial uncertainties of 3D BP images. All the BP results are inspected jointly to characterize resolved features, with the aid of synthetic tests performed to assess the recovery capability of the 3D complex rupture scenario. Our results corroborate that the mainshock occurred as the en echelon-like fault ruptures along the two nearly parallel, N-S striking subhorizontal planes but in the opposite direction of propagation with the depth separation of 10–15 km. The rupture began propagating NNE-wards during the first 8–12 s; afterwards it concurrently shifted downward and reversed to Southward lasting for about 18–20 s. The lengths of these two ruptures are estimated to be about 27–40 and 80–85 km with the average propagation speeds of 3.3 and 4.25 km/s, respectively. Two MW 6.7 aftershocks have similar rupture properties as indicated by the similarity of simple, short-duration P waveforms. The 3D BP images resolved with the European data delineate rupturing along subvertical fault planes that may reach supershear rupture speeds.

The 2018 (Formula presented.) Palu earthquake is a remarkable strike-slip event due to its nature as a shallow supershear fault rupture across several segments and a destructive tsunami that followed coseismic deformation. GPS offsets in the wake of the 2018 earthquake display a transient in the surface motions of northwest Sulawesi. A Bayesian approach identifies (predominantly aseismic) deep afterslip on and below the coseismic rupture plane as the dominant physical mechanism causing the cumulative, postseismic, surface displacements whereas viscous relaxation of the lower crust and poro-elastic rebound contribute negligibly. We confirm a correlation between shallow supershear rupture and postseismic surface transients with afterslip activity in the zone below an interseismically locked fault plane where the slip rate tapers from zero to creeping.

International audience; Earthquake rupture speed can affect ground shaking and therefore seismic hazard. Seismological observations show that large earthquakes span a continuum of rupture speeds, from slower than Rayleigh waves up to P-wave speed, and include speeds that are predicted to be unstable by two-dimensional theory. This discrepancy between observations and theory has not yet been reconciled by a quantitative model. Here we present numerical simulations that show that long ruptures with oblique slip (both strike-slip and dip-slip components) can propagate steadily at various speeds, including those previously suggested to be unstable. The obliqueness of slip and the ratio of fracture energy to static energy release rate primarily control the propagation speed of long ruptures. We find that the effects of these controls on rupture speed can be predicted by extending the three-dimensional theory of fracture mechanics to long ruptures with oblique slip. This model advances our ability to interpret supershear earthquakes, to constrain the energy ratio of faults based on observed rupture speed and rake angle, and to relate the potential rupture speed and size of future earthquakes to the observed slip deficit along faults.

Summary On 28 September 2018, 18:02:44 local time, the Magnitude 7.5 earthquake accompanied by a tsunami and massive liquefaction devastated Palu region in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Comprehensive post-disaster surveys have been conducted, including field survey of surface ruptures, LiDAR, multibeam-bathymetry mapping, and seismic-reflection survey. We used these data to map fault ruptures and measure offsets accurately. In contrast to previous remote-sensing studies, suggesting that the earthquake broke an immature, hidden-unknown fault inland, our research shows that it occurred on the mappable, mature geological fault line offshore. The quake ruptured 177-km long multi-fault segments, bypassing two large releasing bends (first offshore and second inland). The rupture onset occurred at a large fault discontinuity underwater in a transition zone from regional extensional to compressional tectonic regimes. Then it propagated southward along the ∼110-km submarine fault line before reaching the west side of Palu City. Hence, its long submarine ruptures might trigger massive underwater landslides and significantly contribute to tsunami generation in Palu Bay. The rupture continued inland for another 67 km, showing predominantly left-lateral strike-slip up to 6-m, accompanied by a 5–10% dip-slip on average. The 7km sizeable releasing bend results in a pull-apart Palu basin. Numerous normal faults occur along the eastern margin. They cut the Quaternary sediments, and some of them ruptured during the 2018 event. Our fault-rupture map on mature straight geological fault lines allows the possible occurrence of early and persistent ‘supershear’, but significant asperities and barriers on segment boundaries may prohibit it.

We obtained high-resolution (10 m) horizontal displacement fields from pre- and post-seismic Sentinel-2 optical images of the 2018 Mw7.5 Palu earthquake using subpixel image correlation. From these, we calculated the curl, divergence, and shear strain fields from the north-south (NS) and east-west (EW) displacement fields. Our results show that the surface rupture produced by the event was distributed within the Sulawesi neck (0.0974–0.6632°S) and Palu basin (0.8835–1.4206°S), and had a variable strike of 313.0–355.2° and strike slip of 2.00–6.62 m. The NS and EW displacement fields within the Palu basin included fine-scale displacements in both the near- and far-fault, the deformation patterns included a small restraining bend (localized shortening), a distributed rupture zone, and a major releasing bend (net extension) from the curl, divergence, and shear strain. Surface rupture was dominated by left-lateral strike-slip from initiation to termination, with a localized normal slip component peaking at ~3.75 m. The characteristics and geometric variation of the ruptured fault controlled both the formation of these surface deformation patterns and sustained supershear rupture.

How does fault slip follow an earthquake rupture front propagating faster than the local shear-wave velocity (i.e., at supershear speed)? How does a supershear rupture front pass through a geometrically complex fault system? Resolving the evolution of such complex earthquake ruptures is fundamental to our understanding of earthquake-source physics, but these events have not been well captured by conventional waveform inversions of observational data. We applied a new framework of finite-fault inversion to globally observed teleseismic waveforms and resolved both the spatiotemporal evolution of slip and the fault geometry of the 2018 Palu earthquake (moment magnitude 7.6) in Sulawesi, Indonesia. We show that supershear rupture propagation for this event was sustained by transient slip stagnation and advancement as the rupture front passed through the geometrically complex fault system. This peculiar inchworm-like slip evolution was caused by the rupture front encountering fault bends with favorable and unfavorable orientations for rupture propagation. Our analysis also identified the possible existence of a fault junction beneath Palu Bay connecting an unmapped primary fault in northern Sulawesi with the Palu-Koro fault in the south.

How an earthquake rupture propagates strongly influences the potentially destructive ground shaking. Complex ruptures often involve slip along multiple faults, which masks information on the frictional behaviour of fault zones. Geometrically smooth ocean transform fault plate boundaries offer a favourable environment to study fault dynamics, because strain is accommodated along a single, wide fault zone that offsets the homogeneous geology. Here we present an analysis of the 2016 Mw 7.1 earthquake on the Romanche fracture zone in the equatorial Atlantic, using data from both nearby seafloor seismometers and global seismic networks. We show that this rupture had two phases: (1) upward and eastward propagation towards a weaker region where the transform fault intersects the mid-ocean ridge, and then (2) an unusual back-propagation westwards at a supershear speed towards the centre of the fault. We suggest that deep rupture into weak fault segments facilitated greater seismic slip on shallow locked zones. This highlights that even earthquakes along a single distinct fault zone can be highly dynamic. Observations of back-propagating ruptures are sparse, and the possibility of reverse propagation is largely absent in rupture simulations and unaccounted for in hazard assessments. In one earthquake, an oceanic transform fault ruptured in one direction and then backwards at a speed exceeding that of shear-wave propagation, according to an analysis of data recorded by nearby seafloor and global seismometers.

Israel Science Foundation 840/19 International Research Project "Non-Equilibrium Physics of Complex Systems" (IRP-PhyComSys, France-Israel) Laboratoire International Associe "Matiere: Structure et Dynamique" (LIA-MSD, France-Chile)

Near-fault motion is often dominated by long-period, pulse-like particle velocities with fault-normal polarization that, when enhanced by directivity, may strongly excite mid- to high-rise structures. We assess the extent to which plastic yielding may affect amplitude, frequency content, and distance scaling of near-fault directivity pulses. Dynamic simulations of 3D strike-slip ruptures reveal significant plasticity effects, and these persist when geometrical fault roughness is added. With and without off-fault yielding, these models (~ M 7) predict fault-normal pulse behavior similar to that of observed pulses (periods of 2-5 seconds, amplitudes increasing with rupture distance until approaching a limit), but yielding systematically reduces pulse amplitude and increases the dominant period. Yielding causes near-fault (< ~2 km) peak ground velocity (PGV) to saturate with respect to increases in both stress drop and epicentral distance, and at small distance to rupture, yielding may contribute significantly to the observed magnitude saturation of PGV. The results support the following elements for functional forms in empirical pulse models: (i) a fault-normal distance saturation factor, (ii) a period-dependent and along-strike distance-dependent factor representing directivity, and (iii) an along-strike saturation factor to truncate growth of the directivity factor. In addition to the foregoing effects on long-period fault-normal pulses, the model with off-fault plasticity is very efficient in suppressing the high-frequency fault-parallel acceleration pulses that otherwise develop when local supershear rupture transients occur. The latter result may explain, at least in part, the absence of an observable Mach wave signature from supershear rupture.

The speed at which an earthquake rupture propagates affects its energy balance and ground shaking impact. Dynamic models of supershear earthquakes, which are faster than the speed of shear waves, often start at subshear speed and later run faster than Eshelby’s speed. Here we present robust evidence of an early and persistent supershear rupture at the sub-Eshelby speed of the 2018 magnitude 7.5 Palu, Indonesia, earthquake. Slowness-enhanced back-projection of teleseismic data provides a sharp image of the rupture process, along a path consistent with the surface rupture trace inferred by subpixel correlation of synthetic-aperture radar and satellite optical images. The rupture propagated at a sustained velocity of 4.1 km s–1 from its initiation to its end, despite large fault bends. The persistent supershear speed is further validated by seismological evidence of far-field Rayleigh Mach waves. The unusual features of this earthquake probe the connections between the rupture dynamics and fault structure. An early supershear transition could be promoted by fault roughness near the hypocentre. Steady rupture propagation at a speed unexpected in homogeneous media could result from the presence of a low-velocity damaged fault zone. Supershear rupture speed occurred at the devastating 2018 magnitude 7.5 Palu earthquake, Indonesia, according to back-projection of teleseismic data.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit the city of Palu in Sulawesi, Indonesia on 28 September 2018 at 10:02:43 (coordinated universal time). It was followed a few minutes later by a 4–7-m-high tsunami. Palu is situated in a narrow pull-apart basin surrounded by high mountains of up to 2,000 m altitude. This morphology has been created by a releasing bend in the Palu-Koro fault, a rapidly moving left-lateral strike-slip fault. Here we present observations derived from optical and radar satellite imagery that constrain the ground surface displacements associated with the earthquake in great detail. Mapping of the main rupture and associated secondary structures shows that the slip initiated on a structurally complex and previously unknown fault to the north, extended southwards over 180 km and passed through two major releasing bends. The 30 km section of the rupture south of Palu city is extremely linear, and slightly offset from the mapped geological fault at the surface. This part of the rupture accommodates a large and smooth surface slip of 4–7 m, with no shallow slip deficit. Almost no aftershock seismicity was recorded from this section of the fault. As these characteristics are similar to those from known supershear segments, we conclude that the Palu earthquake probably ruptured this segment at supershear velocities. The devastating 2018 magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Palu, Indonesia, ruptured at supershear speeds according to evidence from space geodesy.

The 2013 Craig, Alaska MW 7.5 earthquake ruptured along ∼150 km of the Queen Charlotte Fault (QCF), a right-lateral strike-slip plate boundary fault separating the Pacific and North American plates. Regional shear wave analyses suggest that the Craig earthquake rupture propagated in the northward direction faster than the S-wave (supershear). Theoretical studies suggest that a bimaterial interface, such as that along the QCF, which separates oceanic and continental crust with differing elastic properties, can promote supershear rupture propagation. We deployed short-period ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) as a part of a rapid-response effort less than four months after the Craig earthquake mainshock. During a 21-day period, 1,133 aftershocks were recorded by 8 OBS instruments. Aftershock spatial distribution indicates that the base of the seismogenic zone along the QCF approaches ∼25 km depth, consistent with a thermally-controlled fault rheology expected for igneous rocks at oceanic transform faults. The spatial distribution also provides supporting evidence for a previously hypothesized active strand of the QCF system within the Pacific Plate. Tomographic traveltime inversion for velocity structure indicates a low-velocity (VP and VS) zone on the Pacific side of the plate boundary at 5–20 km depths, where Neogene Pacific crust and upper mantle seismic velocities average ∼3–11% slower than the North American side, where the Paleozoic North American crust is seismically faster. Our results suggest that elastic properties along the studied portion of the QCF are different than those of a simple oceanic–continental plate boundary fault. In our study region, velocity structure across the QCF, while bimaterial, does not support faster material on the west side of the fault, which has been proposed as one possible explanation for northward supershear propagation during the Craig earthquake. Instead, we image low-velocity material on the west side of the fault. Explanations could include that part of the rupture was subshear, or that fault damage zone properties or fault smoothness are more important controls on supershear rupture than a bimaterial contrast.

The Beichuan area suffered the most serious seismic damage in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake although the Beichuan is over 100 km away from the instrumental epicenter of the mainshock. The mechanism for this peculiar phenomenon remains unclear even though 10 years has passed since the Wenchuan event. For this purpose, we construct a spontaneous rupture model in which Gaochuan right bend (GRB) is included in the middle of Yingxiu-Beichuan fault, a major seismogenic fault for the Wenchuan event. The simulated results show that the complex geometry of the GRB played a controlling role in the rupture propagation. Once the rupture was initiated at the epicenter of the Wenchuan mainshock, it propagated spontaneously, and the rupture speed on the first segment of the fault is ∼2.79 km/s, slower than the shear wave speed of local medium. When the rupture front spread near the end of the Yingxiu-Gaochuan fault, a new rupture was re-nucleated at the curve section of the Gaochuan bend, and propagated in the northeast direction with the speed of 5.02 km/s, greater than the S wave velocity. In addition, this rupture speed transition from subshear to supershear does not need any time delay, much distinct from the case of fault stepover in which delay is needed in supershear transition. The result also demonstrates that the relation between the high values of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and the supershear rupture is strong. The large area with high values of PGA distributed in the Beichuan directly led to grave seismic catastrophe there. Therefore, this work may give some insight into why the most serious seismic damage occurred in the Beichuan area, and may have important implications for understanding earthquake dynamics and assessing seismic hazards.

Edge-on impact experiments on AlON, a transparent ceramic with superior ballistic performance, show combined intergranular and transgranular fracture. An initial fast-propagating damage front transitions into slower-propagating localized cracks. We develop a peridynamic model for polycrystalline AlON to investigate the failure evolution observed in experiments. We use a computational polycrystalline structure with the same average grain size as the samples used in experiments. The peridynamic model helps explain the reasons behind the observed failure front supershear propagation speed (higher than 2 times the shear wave speed), and the subsequent transition to sub-Rayleigh propagating localized cracks. The computed propagation speeds for the damage front, and the cracks that emanate from it, match very well those measured in experiments. Elastic anisotropy, material microstructure, and brittle failure are the only ingredients used here to determine damage evolution in edge-on impact on brittle polycrystalline materials, under no confinement. Other possible dissipation mechanisms, like twinning, plasticity, friction, are not included in the model. These are likely second-order effects in the evolution of damage and failure for this material and at these impact speeds.

An earthquake is an event of dynamic, unstable slip that releases elastic energy stored in the earth's crust. This abrupt energy release requires the weakening of the slipping fault that is manifested by a strength drop from a static level to a dynamic level. The fault weakening occurs in two general zones: The rupture-front at the earthquake tip, and the frictional zone in the wake of the propagating front. Here, we analyze the weakening processes of the rupture-front in experimental stick-slips, and compare these processes to the weakening in the frictional zone. Our experimental analysis focuses on high-speed monitoring (1 MHz) of the strain-fields associated with spontaneous, unstable ruptures propagating bilaterally from a nucleation site along a circular fault. The ruptures propagated at velocities ranging from slow (∼100 m/s) to supershear, and the fault weakening by the rupture-front, defined by WS = [strength drop/peak strength], is proportional to the rupture propagation velocity. WS ranged 0.08-0.58 during tiny slip-displacements of 3.7-43 microns, in agreement with similar weakening intensity in a few sets of dynamic rupture experiments. In contrast, frictional weakening, which is traditionally analyzed in constant-velocity experiments, requires slip-displacements in the range of 0.1-10 m to reach similar weakening intensity. Therefore, in terms of slip-displacements, rupture-front weakening is more efficient than frictional weakening by orders of magnitude. Further, we observed that a rupture-front transported its intense weakening from a nucleation site to the entire experimental fault, and we argue that the equivalent process can occur along natural faults. If the rupture of a tiny earthquake, e.g., M

On September 28th, 2018, a supershear earthquake of moment magnitude (Mw) 7.5 struck the Palu area in central Sulawesi, Indonesia. To gain insight into landslides triggered by the Palu earthquake, a detailed landslide interpretation project was carried out in the meizoseismal area. To establish a co-seismic landslide inventory, we collected high-resolution images, including Worldview pre- and post- earthquake images, Sentinel pre- and post- earthquake images and Google Earth pre- and post- earthquake images. The results show that the Palu event triggered at least 7063 co-seismic landslides, including 8 flowslides. The total landslide area is 29.7 km2, with the highest density being 96 landslides/km2. The rock type (Kambuno granite) is a dominant factor influencing the landslide distribution; the average landslide H/L (H is the fall height and L is the horizontal length of an entire landslide) is 0.56. The flowslides that occurred in the Palu Basin are seismic liquefaction-induced landslides that failed along very gentle slopes (generally, slopes that are

The transition from sub-Rayleigh to supershear propagation of mode II cracks is a fundamental problem of fracture mechanics. It has extensively been studied in homogeneous uniform setups. When the applied shear load exceeds a critical value, transition occurs through the Burridge-Andrews mechanism at a well-defined crack length. However, velocity structures in geophysical conditions can be complex and affect the transition. Damage induced by previous earthquakes causes low-velocity zones surrounding mature faults and inclusions with contrasting material properties can be present at seismogenic depth. We relax the assumption of homogeneous media and investigate dynamic shear fracture in heterogeneous media using two-dimensional finite-element simulations and a linear slip-weakening law. We analyze the role of heterogeneities in the elastic media, while keeping the frictional interface properties uniform. We show that supershear transition is possible due to the sole presence of favorable off-fault heterogeneities. Sub-critical shear loads, for which propagation would remain permanently sub-Rayleigh in an equivalent homogeneous setup, will transition to supershear as a result of reflected waves. P-wave reflected as S-waves, followed by further reflections, affect the amplitude of the shear stress peak in front of the propagating crack, leading to supershear transition. A wave reflection model allows to uniquely describe the effect of off-fault inclusions on the shear stress peak. A competing mechanism of modified released potential energy affects transition and becomes predominant with decreasing distance between fault and inclusions. For inclusions at far distances, the wave reflection is the predominant mechanism.

Numerous investigations of supershear earthquakes make a conclusion that a supershear earthquake produces a seismic shock wave on the ground that may increase the resulting destruction. We investigate a supershear rupture promoted by the free surface, and find out that, although the seismic energy of a supershear earthquake can be transmitted further with large amplitudes, the peak slip velocity on a fault near the free surface is smaller than that caused by a subshear rupture earthquake. Our results show that the free-surface-induced supershear rupture mitigates the amplitudes of ground motions near the fault plane compared with the subshear rupture. The Coulomb failure change derived from dynamic modeling further suggests that this free-surface-induced supershear reduces aftershock potential compared to a subshear rupture. Both ground motion at near-fault and aftershock possibility show low risk for the free-surface-induced supershear rupture earthquake than subshear earthquake, contrary to the traditional concept.

Experiments on frictional stick-slip instability in brittle materials and natural observations show that friction falls towards zero in the head of shear ruptures propagating with extreme velocities (up to supershear levels). Although essential for understanding earthquakes, fracture mechanics and tribology the question of what physical processes determine how weakening occurs is still unclear. Here, using a mathematical model, we demonstrate that the extremely low friction can be caused by a fan-like fault structure formed on the basis of a tensile-cracking process observed in all extreme ruptures. The mathematical model visualises and describes the fan-structure as a mechanical system during rupture propagation. It explains some features observed in laboratory experiments.

International audience; The city of Istanbul is characterized by one of the highest levels of seismic risk in the Mediterranean region. An important source of such increased risk is the high probability of large earthquake occurrence during the coming years, which stands at about 65% likelihood owing to the existing seismic gap and the post-1999 earthquake stress transfer at the western portion of the North Anatolian fault zone.In this study, we simulated hybrid broadband time histories from selected earthquakes having magnitude M-w > 7.0 in the Sea of Marmara within 10-20 km of Istanbul, the most probable scenarios for simulated generation of the devastating 1509 event in this region. Physics-based rupture scenarios, which may be an indication of potential future events, are adopted to estimate the ground-motion characteristics and its variability in the region. Two simulation techniques are used to compute a realistic time series, considering generic rock site conditions. The first is a full 3D wave propagation method used for generating low-frequency seismograms, and the second is a stochastic finite-fault model approach based on dynamic corner-frequency high-frequency seismograms. Dynamic rupture is generated and computed using a boundary integral equation method, and the propagation in the medium is realized through a finite-difference approach. The results from the two simulation techniques are then merged by performing a weighted summation at intermediate frequencies to calculate a broadband synthetic time series.The simulated hybrid broadband ground motions are validated by comparing peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity (PGV), and spectral accelerations (5% damping) at different periods with the ground-motion prediction equations in the region. Our simulations reveal strong rupture directivity and supershear rupture effects over a large spatial extent, which generate extremely high near-fault motions exceeding the 250 cm/s PGV along the entire length of the ruptured fault.

Supershear earthquakes are rare but powerful ruptures with devastating consequences. How quickly an earthquake rupture attains this speed, or for that matter decelerates from it, strongly affects high-frequency ground motion and the spatial extent of coseismic off-fault damage. Traditionally, studies of supershear earthquakes have focused on determining which fault segments sustained fully-grown supershear ruptures. Knowing that the rupture first propagated at subshear rupture speeds, these studies usually guessed an approximate location for the transition from subshear to supershear regimes. The rarity of confirmed supershear ruptures, combined with the fact that conditions for supershear transition are still debated, complicates the investigation of supershear transition in real earthquakes. Here, we find a unique signature of the location of a supershear transition: we show that, when a rupture accelerates towards supershear speed, the stress concentration abruptly shrinks, limiting the off-fault damage and aftershock productivity. First, we use theoretical fracture mechanics to demonstrate that, before transitioning to supershear, the stress concentration around the rupture tip shrinks, confining the region where damage & aftershocks are expected. Then, employing two different dynamic rupture modeling approaches, we confirm such reduction in stress concentration, further validating the expected signature in the transition region. We contrast these numerical and theoretical results with high-resolution aftershock catalogs for three natural supershear earthquakes, where we identify a small region with lower aftershock density near the supershear transition. Finally, using satellite optical image correlation techniques, we show that, for a fourth event, the transition zone is characterized by a diminution in the width of the damage zone. Our results demonstrate that the transition from subshear to supershear rupture can be clearly identified by a localized absence of aftershocks, and a decrease in off-fault damage, due to a transient reduction of the stress intensity at the rupture tip.

A barrier may induce a supershear rupture on a fault. This paper focuses on two questions: One is whether the existence of a barrier accelerates the propagation speed of a whole fault rupture, and the other is what are the effects of friction laws and strength of a barrier on the rupture propagation process. For these purposes, classical slip-weakening, rate-state, and modified slip-weakening friction laws are employed to simulate the effect of a barrier on the fault rupture process. The simulation results showed that the rupture speed of the fault obviously decreases when the rupture front propagates to the barriers, and the rupture speed obviously increases when the rupture front leaves barriers. It was also found that a barrier on a fault may induce a supershear rupture via the rate-state friction law. The simulation results also showed that with the increase of barrier strength, the rupture speed near barriers fluctuates more and more, when the barrier strength exceeds a certain level, a supershear rupture area appears on the fault, with the increase of barrier strength, the propagation distance of the rupture at supershear wave velocity correspondingly increases. In addition, with the increase of barrier strength, the overall rupture duration of the fault slightly increases. This indicates that a barrier cannot shorten the total duration of a fault rupture. Though a barrier will lead to a supershear rupture, it just regulates the distribution of the rupture speed on the fault surface. Moreover, with the increase of barrier strength, the peak ground acceleration caused by rupture through the barrier also increases, indicating that the existence of a barrier may lead to the intensification of seismic hazards.