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A vigorous shallow earthquake sequence along the southern coast of Puerto Rico commenced on 28 December 2019 in a region with little prior large seismicity. The largest event in the sequence (MW = 6.4), struck on 7 January 2020 and involved normal faulting. It produced extensive damage in southern Puerto Rico and power disruption across the island. Nearby strong ground motions and static offsets from GPS stations along with teleseismic recordings are inverted for the kinematic rupture process of the mainshock. The ~15‐km‐long rupture is spatially concentrated, with most slip between 3 and 13 km deep and peak slip of ~1.6 m. The static stress drop is high, ~19 MPa, with the rupture locating in the eastern section of a ~30‐km‐long band of seismicity bisected by a near‐orthogonal lineation. Complex faulting and high stress in the intraplate region appears to be responsible for the high earthquake productivity. Plain Language Summary: An extensive earthquake sequence, with thousands of events, occurred near the southern coast of Puerto Rico from December 2019 through April 2020, with the largest event being a damaging MW 6.4 extensional faulting earthquake on 7 January 2020. Analysis of seismic recordings from local and distant stations, combined with static ground deformation recordings, resolves the space–time history of the mainshock rupture. The slip zone extends about 15 km horizontally at depths from 3 to 13 km deep below the southern margin of the island. The overall sequence extends much further, about 30 km parallel to the east–west coast, and there is a roughly north–south lineation of activity that bisects this trend, with focal mechanisms indicating activation of multiple strike‐slip and normal faults during the sequence. The mainshock has a high change in stress due to the concentration of large slip. The high stress intraplate environment and the faulting complexity appear responsible for the intense earthquake activity. Key Points: The 7 January 2020 MW 6.4 normal‐faulting earthquake is the largest in a vigorous seismicity sequence along Puerto Rico's southern coastInversion of strong‐motion, teleseismic, and GPS data for the MW 6.4 rupture indicates concentrated slip of up to 1.6 m from 3 to 13 km deepThe rupture spanned a small region of the overall earthquake sequence which has a cruciform pattern indicating multiple fault activation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, involving remote sensing, seismology, and geology, revealed complex faulting during the mainshock of the Ston–Slano earthquake sequence (5 September, 1996, Mw = 6.0). The observed DInSAR interferogram fringe patterns could not be explained by a single fault rupture. Geological investigations assigned most of the interferogram features either to previously known faults or to those newly determined by field studies. Relocation of hypocentres and reassessment of fault mechanisms provided additional constraints on the evolution of stress release during this sequence. Available data support the scenario that the mainshock started with a reverse rupture with a left-lateral component on the Slano fault 4.5 km ESE of Slano, at the depth of about 11 km. The rupture proceeded unilaterally to the NW with the velocity of about 1.5 km/s for about 11 km, where the maximum stress release occurred. DInSAR interferograms suggest that several faults were activated in the process. The rupture terminated about 20 km away from the epicentre, close to the town of Ston, where the maximum DInSAR ground displacement reached 38 cm. Such a complicated and multiple rupture has never before been documented in the Dinarides. If this proves to be a common occurrence, it can pose problems in defining realistic hazard scenarios, especially in deterministic hazard assessment.

A major (MW 7.9) intraplate earthquake ruptured the Pacific plate seaward of the Alaska subduction zone near Kodiak Island on 23 January 2018. The aftershock seismicity is diffuse, with both NNW‐ and ENE‐trending distributions, while long‐period point source moment tensors have near‐horizontal compressional and tensional principal strain axes and significant non‐double‐couple components. Backprojections from three large‐aperture networks indicate sources of short‐period radiation not aligned with the best double‐couple fault planes. A suite of finite‐fault rupture models with one to four faults was considered, and a four‐fault model, dominated by right‐lateral slip on an SSE trending, westward‐dipping fault, is compatible with most seismic, GPS, and tsunami data. However, the precise geometry, timing, and slip distribution of the complex set of faults is not well resolved. The sequence appears to be the result of intraplate stresses influenced by slab pull, the 1964 Alaska earthquake, and collision of the Yakutat terrane in northeastern Alaska. Plain Language Summary: On 23 January 2018 a very large earthquake, with magnitude 7.8, ruptured in the Pacific plate southwest of the Alaskan subduction zone. There are multiple indications of complex faulting for this event: The point source moment tensor is not consistent with a single fault rupture; the aftershock distribution is diffuse, with nearly orthogonal trends in seismicity; the aftershock mechanisms are diverse; backprojections of short‐period seismic waves show complex patterns of high‐frequency energy release not on a single plane; and teleseismic waveforms are complex. Inversions of the teleseismic signals for a variety of models with from one to four different faults being allowed provide slip models that are used to predict regional GPS observations from Alaska along with deepwater tsunami recordings from seafloor pressure sensors at Deep‐ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) stations. The primary rupture occurred on a fault trending SSE, dipping to the west, and several nearly perpendicular faults appear to have ruptured as well, but the limited spatial extent of the rupture makes it difficult to resolve the details of the faulting. Key Points: Several faults ruptured the Pacific plate seaward of Kodiak Island; most slip was on a southward‐trending right‐lateral strike‐slip faultTeleseismic body waves, aftershock distribution, regional GPS offsets, and tsunami observations are used to constrain the complex faultingThe principal stress directions are influenced by slab pull, the 1964 Alaska earthquake deformation, and collision of the Yakutat terrane [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We combine aftershock relocations, source mechanisms, teleseismic P wave backprojection, and Global Positioning System data inversion to constrain complex faulting geometry of the 2018 MW 7.9 offshore Kodiak earthquake. Relocated aftershocks delineate several N‐S trends including a prominent 110‐km‐long segment, as well as broad NE‐SW trends. Global Positioning System modeling and backprojection indicate that the NE‐SW trending left‐lateral strike‐slip segments released most energy dominating far‐field crustal deformation and radiated wavefield. Backprojection infers fast E‐to‐W rupture propagations superimposed on a slower S‐to‐N migration. We propose a five‐segment model of the rupture that was partially driven by dynamic triggering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The M w6.2 Lefkada earthquake occurred on 14 August 2003 beneath the western coastline of Lefkada Island. The main shock was followed by an intense aftershock activity, which formed a narrow band extending over the western coast of the Island and the submarine area between Lefkada and Kefalonia Islands, whereas additional off fault aftershocks formed spatial clusters on the central and northwestern part of the Island. The aftershock spatial distribution revealed the activation of along-strike adjacent fault segment as well as of secondary faults close to the main rupture. The properties of the activated segments were illuminated by the precisely located aftershocks, fault plane solutions determination and the cross sections performed parallel and normal to their strike. The aftershock focal mechanisms exhibited mainly strike slip faulting throughout the activated area, although deviation of the dominant stress pattern is also observed. The results help to emphasize the importance of the identification of activated nearby fault segments possibly triggered by the main rupture. Because such segments are capable to produce moderate events causing appreciable damage, they should be viewed with caution in seismic hazard assessment in addition to the major regional faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

— The historical development of spontaneous rupture propagation, starting from the landmark paper of Griffith in 1920, through to the late 1980s is traced, with particular emphasis on the work carried out at MIT in the 1970s by K. Aki and his co-workers. Numerical applications of Kostrov's method for planar shear cracks were developed by Hamano, Das and Aki. Simultaneously at MIT, Madariaga considered the radiated field of a dynamic shear crack. The further development of these ideas, for example, three-dimensional spontaneous planar faulting models, continued through the 1980s. Major insight into the maximum possible rupture speeds for earthquakes developed, with the acceptance of the theoretical possibility of supersonic rupture speeds for faults with cohesion and friction, the theoretical developments spurring the search for such observations for earthquake ruptures. Possible mechanisms by which faults stop were elucidated. It was shown that a propagating rupture can jump over barriers for cracks with a cohesive zone at its tip. Complex faulting models, namely the barrier and asperity models, and their associated radiated field developed. In the late 1980s, it was shown that “dynamic” or transient asperities can develop during the complex rupturing process. Even seemingly relatively simple physical situations, can lead to such complex rupturing processes that the usual idea of “rupture velocity” needs to be abandoned in those cases. Some of the work initiated by Aki and his co-workers, such as the details of the transition from sub-Rayleigh to super-shear speeds in inplane shear mode, and the behavior of the cohesive zone size as the crack extends, still remains the subject of research today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, involving remote sensing, seismology, and geology, revealed complex faulting during the mainshock of the Ston–Slano earthquake sequence (5 September, 1996, Mw = 6.0). The observed DInSAR interferogram fringe patterns could not be explained by a single fault rupture. Geological investigations assigned most of the interferogram features either to previously known faults or to those newly determined by field studies. Relocation of hypocentres and reassessment of fault mechanisms provided additional constraints on the evolution of stress release during this sequence. Available data support the scenario that the mainshock started with a reverse rupture with a left-lateral component on the Slano fault 4.5 km ESE of Slano, at the depth of about 11 km. The rupture proceeded unilaterally to the NW with the velocity of about 1.5 km/s for about 11 km, where the maximum stress release occurred. DInSAR interferograms suggest that several faults were activated in the process. The rupture terminated about 20 km away from the epicentre, close to the town of Ston, where the maximum DInSAR ground displacement reached 38 cm. Such a complicated and multiple rupture has never before been documented in the Dinarides. If this proves to be a common occurrence, it can pose problems in defining realistic hazard scenarios, especially in deterministic hazard assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]