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A Deeper Look Into the 2021 Tyrnavos Earthquake Sequence (TES) Reveals Coseismic Breaching of an Unrecognized Large-Scale Fault Relay Zone in Continental Greece

Large magnitude (Mw ∼ ≥6) earthquakes in extensional settings are often associated with simultaneous rupture of multiple normal faults as a result of static and/or dynamic stress transfer.
Here, we report details of the coseismic breaching of a previously unrecognized large-scale fault relay zone in central Greece, through three successive normal fault earthquakes of moderate magnitude (Mw 5.7–6.3) that occurred over a period of ∼10 days in March 2021. Specifically, joint analysis of InSAR, GNSS and seismological data, coupled with detailed field and digital fault mapping, reveals that the Tyrnavos Earthquake Sequence (TES) was accommodated at the northern end of a ∼100 km wide transfer structure, by faults largely unbroken during the Holocene. By contrast, the southern section of this relay zone appears to have accrued significant slip during Holocene. InSAR-derived displacements agree with the loci of eight subtle, previously undetected, faults that accommodated coseismic and/or syn-seismic normal fault slip during the TES. Kinematic modeling coupled with fault mapping suggests that all involved faults are interconnected at depth, with their conjugate fault-intersections acting largely as barriers to coseismic rupture propagation. We also find that the TES mainshocks were characterized by unusually high (>6 MPa) stress-drop values that scale inversely with rupture length and earthquake magnitude. These findings, collectively suggest that the TES propagated northwestward to rupture increasingly stronger asperities at fault intersections, transferring slip between the tips of a well-established, but previously unrecognized, relay structure. Fault relay zones may be prone to high stress-drop earthquakes and associated elevated seismic hazard.

Details

Author
Vasiliki Mouslopoulou1, Henriette Sudhaus2, Kostas Konstantinou3, John Begg4, Vasso Saltogianni5, Benjamin Männel6, Onno Oncken6
Institutionen
1National Observatory of Athens, Greece; 2Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts- University, Kiel, Germany; 3Department of Earth Sciences, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan; 4J Begg Geo Ltd, Masterton, New Zealand; 5GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany;National Observatory of Athens, Greece; 6GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
Veranstaltung
GeoBerlin 2023
Datum
2023
DOI
10.48380/zfm1-ec37