EPP

On November 13, 2016, an M_W7.8 earthquake struck Kaikoura in South Island of New Zealand. By means of back-projection of array recordings, ASTFs-analysis of global seismic recordings, and joint inversion of global seismic data and co-seismic InSAR data, we investigated complexity of the earthquake source. The result shows that the 2016 M_W7.8 Kaikoura earthquake ruptured about 100 s unilaterally from south to northeast (~N28°–33°E), producing a rupture area about 160 km long and about 50 km wide and releasing scalar moment 1.01×10²¹ Nm. In particular, the rupture area consisted of two slip asperities, with one close to the initial rupture point having a maximal slip value ~6.9 m while the other far away in the northeast having a maximal slip value ~9.3 m. The first asperity slipped for about 65 s and the second one started 40 s after the first one had initiated. The two slipped simultaneously for about 25 s. Furthermore, the first had a nearly thrust slip while the second had both thrust and strike slip. It is interesting that the rupture velocity was not constant, and the whole process may be divided into 5 stages in which the velocities were estimated to be 1.4 km/s, 0 km/s, 2.1 km/s, 0 km/s and 1.1 km/s, respectively. The high-frequency sources distributed nearly along the lower edge of the rupture area, the high-frequency radiating mainly occurred at launching of the asperities, and it seemed that no high-frequency energy was radiated when the rupturing was going to stop.

On September 8, 2018, an M_S 5.9 earthquake struck Mojiang, a county in Yunnan Province, China. We collect near-field seismic recordings (epicentral distances less than 200 km) to relocate the mainshock and the aftershocks within the first 60 hours to determine the focal mechanism solutions of the mainshock and some of the aftershocks and to invert for the finite-fault model of the mainshock. The focal mechanism solution of the mainshock and the relocation results of the aftershocks constrain the mainshock on a nearly vertical fault plane striking northeast and dipping to the southeast. The inversion of the finite-fault model reveals only a single slip asperity on the fault plane. The major slip is distributed above the initiation point, ~14 km wide along the down-dip direction and ~14 km long along the strike direction, with a maximal slip of ~22 cm at a depth of ~6 km. The focal mechanism solutions of the aftershocks show that most of the aftershocks are of the strike-slip type, a number of them are of the normal-slip type, and only a few of them are of the thrust-slip type. On average, strike-slip is dominant on the fault plane of the mainshock, as the focal mechanism solution of the mainshock suggests, but when examined in detail, slight thrust-slip appears on the southwest of the fault plane while an obvious part of normal-slip appears on the northeast, which is consistent with what the focal mechanism solutions of the aftershocks display. The multiple types of aftershock focal mechanism solutions and the slip details of the mainshock both suggest a complex tectonic setting, stress setting, or both. The intensity contours predicted exhibit a longer axis trending from northeast to southwest and a maximal intensity of Ⅷ around the epicenter and in the northwest.

On Aug. 8, 2017, an M_S7.0 earthquake struck Jiuzhaigou, a county of Sichuan province, China. A number of investigations and studies have been conducted, some of which involved local velocity models. However, the suitability of these models has not been properly addressed. Here we collect 11 already-existing models, including those used in studies of the 2017 M_S7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake, choose 10 local stations surrounding the earthquake, and employ the same technique (TRIT) to relocate the hypocenter. And furthermore, we choose a more suitable model from the 11 already-existed models by analyzing the relocation process and the relocated results for reasonability. Finally, our conclusion is that the model Fang2018 is more suitable and the hypocenter parameters, 103.801°E, 33.192°N and 15.8 km for longitude, latitude and depth, respectively, and 2017-08-08 13:19:46.66 for its origin time, based on this model should be recommended for the 2017 M_S7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake.