HR: 15:25h
AN: S23D-08 [Abstracts]
TI: Earthquake doublet that occurred in a pull-apart basin along the Sumatran fault and its seismotectonic implication
AU: * Nakano, M
EM: mnakano@bosai.go.jp
AF: NIED, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0006, Japan
AU: Kumagai, H
AF: NIED, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0006, Japan
AU: Yamashina, T
AF: NIED, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0006, Japan
AU: Inoue, H
AF: NIED, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0006, Japan
AU: Toda, S
AF: Active Fault Research Center, AIST, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568, Japan
AB:
On March 6, 2007, an earthquake doublet occurred around Lake Singkarak, central Sumatra in Indonesia. An
earthquake with magnitude (Mw) 6.4 at 03:49 is followed two hours later (05:49) by a similar-size event (Mw 6.3).
Lake Singkarak is located between the Sianok and Sumani fault segments of the Sumatran fault system, and is a
pull-apart basin formed at the segment boundary. We investigate source processes of the earthquakes using
waveform data obtained from JISNET, which is a broad-band seismograph network in Indonesia. We first
estimate the centroid source locations and focal mechanisms by the waveform inversion carried out in the
frequency domain. Since stations are distributed almost linearly in the NW-SE direction coincident with the
Sumatran fault strike direction, the estimated centroid locations are not well resolved especially in the direction
orthogonal to the NW-SE direction. If we assume that these earthquakes occurred along the Sumatran fault, the
first earthquake is located on the Sumani segment below Lake Singkarak and the second event is located at a
few tens of kilometers north of the first event on the Sianok segment. The focal mechanisms of both events point
to almost identical right-lateral strike-slip vertical faulting, which is consistent with the geometry of the Sumatran
fault system. We next investigate the rupture initiation points using the particle motions of the P-waves of these
earthquakes observed at station PPI, which is located about 20 km north of the Lake Singkarak. The initiation
point of the first event is estimated in the north of the lake, which corresponds to the northern end of the Sumani
segment. The initiation point of the second event is estimated at the southern end of the Sianok segment. The
observed maximum amplitudes at stations located in the SE of the source region show larger amplitudes for the
first event than those for the second one. On the other hand, the amplitudes at station BSI located in the NW of the
source region show larger amplitude for the second event than that for the first one. Since the magnitudes, focal
mechanisms, and source locations are almost identical for the two events, the larger amplitudes for the second
event at BSI may be due to the effect of rupture directivity. Accordingly, we obtain the following image of source
processes of the earthquake doublet: The first event initiated at the segment boundary and its rupture propagated
along the Sumani segment to the SW direction. Then, the second event, which may be triggered by the first event,
initiated at a location close to the hypocenter of the first event, but its rupture propagated along the Sianok
segment to the NE direction, opposite to the first event. It is known that the previous significant seismic activity
along the Sianok and Sumani segments occurred in 1926, which was also an earthquake doublet with similar
magnitudes to those in 2007. If we assume that the time interval between the earthquake doublets in 1926 and
2007 represents the average recurrence interval and that typical slip in the individual earthquakes is 1 m, we
obtain approximately 1 cm/year for a slip rate of the fault segments. Geological features indicate that Lake
Singkrak is no more than a few million years old (Sieh and Natawidjaja, 2000, JGR). If the pull-apart basin has
been created since a few million years ago with the estimated slip rate of the segments, we obtain roughly 20 km
of the total offset on the Sianok and Sumani segments, which is consistent with the observed offset. Our study
supports the model of Sieh and Natawidjaja (2000) that the basin continues to be created by dextral slip on the en
echelon Sumani and Sianok segments.
DE: 7209 Earthquake dynamics (1242)
DE: 7215 Earthquake source observations (1240)
DE: 7223 Earthquake interaction, forecasting, and prediction (1217, 1242)
DE: 7230 Seismicity and tectonics (1207, 1217, 1240, 1242)
SC: Seismology [S]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting