Supershear earthquake

Rupture propagation velocity

During seismic events along a fault surface the displacement initiates at the focus and then propagates outwards. Typically for large earthquakes the focus lies towards one end of the slip surface and much of the propagation is unidirectional (e.g. the 2008 Sichuan and 2004 Indian Ocean earthquakes).[2] Theoretical studies have in the past suggested that the upper bound for propagation velocity is that of Rayleigh waves, approximately 0.92 of the shear wave velocity.[3] However, evidence of propagation at velocities between S-wave and compressional wave (P-wave) values have been reported for several earthquakes[4][5] in agreement with theoretical and laboratory studies that support the possibility of rupture propagation in this velocity range.[6][7]

Occurrence
Mode-I, Mode-II, and Mode-III cracks.

Evidence of rupture propagation at velocities greater than S-wave velocities expected for the surrounding crust have been observed for several large earthquakes associated with strike-slip faults. During strike-slip, the main component of rupture propagation will be horizontal, in the direction of displacement, as a Mode II (in-plane) shear crack. This contrasts with a dip-slip rupture where the main direction of rupture propagation will be perpendicular to the displacement, like a Mode III (anti-plane) shear crack. Theoretical studies have shown that Mode III cracks are limited to the shear wave velocity but that Mode II cracks can propagate between the S and P-wave velocities[8] and this may explain why supershear earthquakes have not been observed on dip-slip faults.

Initiation of supershear rupture

The rupture velocity range between those of Rayleigh waves and shear waves remains forbidden for a Mode II crack (a good approximation to a strike-slip rupture). This means that a rupture cannot accelerate from Rayleigh speed to shear wave speed. In the "Burridge–Andrews" mechanism, supershear rupture is initiated on a 'daughter' rupture in the zone of high shear stress developed at the propagating tip of the initial rupture. Because of this high stress zone, this daughter rupture is able start propagating at supershear speed before combining with the existing rupture.[9] Experimental shear crack rupture, using plates of a photoelastic material, has produced a transition from sub-Rayleigh to supershear rupture by a mechanism that "qualitatively conforms to the well-known Burridge-Andrews mechanism".[10]

Geological effects

The high rates of strain expected near faults that are affected by supershear propagation are thought to generate what is described as pulverized rocks. The pulverization involves the development of many small microcracks at a scale smaller than the grain size of the rock, while preserving the earlier fabric, quite distinct from the normal brecciation and cataclasis found in most fault zones. Such rocks have been reported up to 400 m away from large strike-slip faults, such as the San Andreas Fault. The link between supershear and the occurrence of pulverized rocks is supported by laboratory experiments that show very high strain rates are necessary to cause such intense fracturing.[11]

Examples

Directly observed
  • 1999 Izmit earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.6 associated with strike-slip movement on the North Anatolian Fault Zone[12]
  • 1999 Düzce earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.2 associated with strike-slip movement on the North Anatolian Fault Zone[12]
  • 2001 Kunlun earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.8 associated with strike-slip movement on the Kunlun fault[13][14]
  • 2002 Denali earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.9 associated with strike-slip movement on the Denali Fault[14][15]
  • 2010 Yushu earthquake, magnitude Mw 6.9 associated with strike-slip movement on the Yushu Fault[16]
  • 2012 Indian Ocean earthquakes, magnitude Mw 8.6 associated with strike-slip on several fault segments - the first supershear event recognised in oceanic lithosphere.[17]
  • 2013 Craig earthquakes, magnitude Mw 7.6 associated with strike-slip on the Queen Charlotte Fault - the first supershear event recognised on an oceanic plate boundary.[18]
  • 2014 Aegean Sea earthquake, magnitude Mw 6.9, supershear was recognised during the second sub-event.[19]
  • 2015 Tajikistan earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.2, supershear slip on two segments, with normal slip at the restraining bend linking them.[20]
  • 2016 Romanche fracture zone earthquake, magnitude 7.1, westwards-directed supershear rupture following an initial easterly-travelling phase on the Romanche ocean transform fault in the equatorial Atlantic[21]
  • 2017 Komandorsky Islands earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.7, supershear transition followed a rupture jump across a fault stepover.[22]
  • 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, magnitude Mw 7.5, associated with strike-slip movement on the Palu-Koro Fault[23]

Inferred
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gollark: C#? This is Lua; are you offloading stuff to a remote server somehow?
gollark: Is trying to move it from multiple coroutines at once a very good idea?

See also

References
  1. Levy D. (December 2, 2005). "A century after the 1906 earthquake, geophysicists revisit 'The Big One' and come up with a new model". Press release. Stanford University.
  2. McGuire J.J., Zhao L. & Jordan T.H. (2002). "Predominance of Unilateral Rupture for a Global Catalog of Large Earthquakes" (PDF). Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 92 (8): 3309–3317. doi:10.1785/0120010293.
  3. Broberg K.B (1996). "How fast can a crack go?". Materials Science. 32: 80–86. doi:10.1007/BF02538928.
  4. Archuleta,R.J. 1984. A faulting model for the 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 4559–4585.
  5. Ellsworth,W.L. & Celebi,M. 1999. Near Field Displacement Time Histories of the M 7.4 Kocaeli (Izimit), Turkey, Earthquake of August 17, 1999, Am. Geophys. Union, Fall Meeting Suppl. 80, F648.
  6. Okubo P.G. (1989). "Dynamic rupture modeling with laboratory-derived constitutive relations". Journal of Geophysical Research. 94 (B9): 12321–12335. Bibcode:1989JGR....9412321O. doi:10.1029/JB094iB09p12321.
  7. Rosakis A.J.; Samudrala O.; Coker D. (1999). "Cracks Faster than the Shear Wave Speed". Science. 284 (5418): 1337–1340. Bibcode:1999Sci...284.1337R. doi:10.1126/science.284.5418.1337. PMID 10334984.
  8. Scholz, Christopher H. (2002). The mechanics of earthquakes and faulting. Cambridge University Press. pp. 471. ISBN 978-0-521-65540-8.
  9. Rosakis, A.J.; Xia, K.; Lykotrafitis, G.; Kanamori, H. (2009). "Dynamic Shear Rupture in Frictional Interfaces: Speed, Directionality and Modes". In Kanamori H. & Schubert G. (ed.). Earthquake Seismology. Treatise on Geophysics. 4. Elsevier. pp. 11–20. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-53802-4.00072-5. ISBN 9780444534637.
  10. Xia, K.; Rosakis, A.J.; Kanamori, H. (2005). "Supershear and sub-Rayleigh to Supershear transition observed in laboratory earthquake experiments" (PDF). Experimental Techniques. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  11. Doan M.-L.; Gary G. (2009). "Rock pulverization at high strain rate near the San Andreas fault" (PDF). Nature Geoscience. 2 (10): 709–712. Bibcode:2009NatGe...2..709D. doi:10.1038/ngeo640.
  12. Bouchon, M., M.-P. Bouin, H. Karabulut, M. N. Toksöz, M. Dietrich, and A. J. Rosakis (2001), How Fast is Rupture During an Earthquake ? New Insights from the 1999 Turkey Earthquakes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(14), 2723–2726.]
  13. Bouchon M.; Vallee M. (2003). "Observation of Long Supershear Rupture During the Magnitude 8.1 Kunlunshan Earthquake". Science. 301 (5634): 824–826. Bibcode:2003Sci...301..824B. doi:10.1126/science.1086832. PMID 12907799.
  14. Walker, K.T.; Shearer P.M. (2009). "Illuminating the near-sonic rupture velocities of the intracontinental Kokoxili Mw 7.8 and Denali fault Mw 7.9 strike-slip earthquakes with global P wave back projection imaging" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 114 (B02304): B02304. Bibcode:2009JGRB..114.2304W. doi:10.1029/2008JB005738. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  15. Dunham E.M.; Archuleta R.J. (2004). "Evidence for a Supershear Transient during the 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake" (PDF). Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 92 (6B): S256–S268. doi:10.1785/0120040616.
  16. Wang, D.; Mori J. (2012). "The 2010 Qinghai, China, Earthquake: A Moderate Earthquake with Supershear Rupture". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 102 (1): 301–308. Bibcode:2012BuSSA.102..301W. doi:10.1785/0120110034. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
  17. Wang D., Mori J. Uchide T. (2012). "Supershear rupture on multiple faults for the Mw 8.6 Off Northern Sumatra, Indonesia earthquake of April 11, 2012". Geophysical Research Letters. 39 (21): L21307. Bibcode:2012GeoRL..3921307W. doi:10.1029/2012GL053622.
  18. Yue H., Lay T. Freymuller J.; et al. (2013). "Supershear rupture of the 5 January 2013 Craig, Alaska (Mw 7.5) earthquake". Journal of Geophysical Research. 108 (11): 5903–5919. Bibcode:2013JGRB..118.5903Y. doi:10.1002/2013JB010594.
  19. Evangelidis C.P. (2014). "Imaging supershear rupture for the 2014 M w 6.9 Northern Aegean earthquake by backprojection of strong motion waveforms". Geophysical Research Letters. 42 (2): 307–315. Bibcode:2015GeoRL..42..307E. doi:10.1002/2014GL062513.
  20. Sangha S.; Peltzer G.; Zhang A.; Meng L.; Liang C.; Lundgren P.; Fielding E. (2017). "Fault geometry of 2015, Mw7.2 Murghab, Tajikistan earthquake controls rupture propagation: Insights from InSAR and seismological data". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 462: 132–141. Bibcode:2017E&PSL.462..132S. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2017.01.018.
  21. Hicks, Stephen P.; Okuwaki, Ryo; Steinberg, Andreas; Rychert, Catherine A.; Harmon, Nicholas; Abercrombie, Rachel E.; Bogiatzis, Petros; Schlaphorst, David; Zahradnik, Jiri; Kendall, J-Michael; Yagi, Yuji (2020-08-10). "Back-propagating supershear rupture in the 2016 Mw 7.1 Romanche transform fault earthquake". Nature Geoscience. doi:10.1038/s41561-020-0619-9. ISSN 1752-0894.
  22. Kehoe, H. L.; Kiser, E. D. (9 April 2020). "Evidence of a Supershear Transition Across a Fault Stepover". Geophysical Research Letters. 47 (10). doi:10.1029/2020GL087400.
  23. Bao, Han; Ampuero, Jean-Paul; Meng, Lingsen; Fielding, Eric J.; Liang, Cunren; Milliner, Christopher W. D.; Feng, Tian; Huang, Hui (4 February 2019). "Early and persistent supershear rupture of the 2018 magnitude 7.5 Palu earthquake". Nature Geoscience. 12 (3): 200–205. doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0297-z.
  24. Song,S. Beroza,G.C. & Segall,P. 2005. Evidence for supershear rupture during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Eos.Trans.AGU, 86(52), Fall Meet.Suppl., Abstract S12A-05
  25. "Researchers find evidence of super-fast deep earthquake". Phys.org. July 10, 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
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