Publication Date:
2016-05-05
Description:
On 2012 April 11, a great strike-slip earthquake (moment magnitude of M w 8.6) occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra area followed by an M w 8.2 aftershock 2 hr later. Different geophysical data and methods have been used to investigate the mechanism, faulting, seismic radiation and slip propagation of this event, but frequency-dependent features of its rupture process have not been discussed much. In this study, we use a compressive sensing method based on sparsity inversion in the frequency domain to study the frequency-dependent seismic radiation and rupture process of this event. Our results indicate a very complex rupture process concerning at least three different rupture stages on multiple subfaults with nearly conjugate geometries. The main shock has triggered seismicity on a series of ridge-perpendicular or ridge-parallel conjugate strike-slip faults around the Nighty East Ridge. Obvious frequency-dependent rupture process has been presented and discussed. Combining results from slip inversion based on the finite-fault model, we observe that in the beginning stage of the rupture lower frequency radiation appears to originate from the areas with large slip, while the high-frequency radiation is located at the boundary of large-slip region or rupture front. Some radiation probably originates from the repeating slip on the main faults or triggered events on some nearby faults in the rupture area. The complex frequency-dependent seismic radiation patterns observed in this study provide important information for future investigation of rupture physics of this complex strike-slip event.
Keywords:
Seismology
Print ISSN:
0956-540X
Electronic ISSN:
1365-246X
Topics:
Geosciences
Published by
Oxford University Press
on behalf of
The Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG) and the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
