Joint modeling of teleseismic and tsunami wave observations to constrain the 16 September 2015 Illapel, Chile, M_w 8.3 earthquake rupture process

Abstract

The 16 September 2015 Illapel, Chile, M_w 8.3 earthquake ruptured ~170 km along the plate boundary megathrust fault from 30.0°S to 31.6°S. A patch of offshore slip of up to 10 m extended to near the trench, and a patch of ~3 m slip occurred downdip below the coast. Aftershocks fringe the large-slip zone, extending along the coast from 29.5°S to 32.5°S between the 1922 and 1971/1985 ruptures. The coseismic slip distribution is determined by iterative modeling of teleseismic body waves as well as tsunami signals recorded at three regional DART stations and tide gauges immediately north and south of the rupture. The tsunami observations tightly delimit the rupture length, suppressing bilateral southward extension of slip found in unconstrained teleseismic-wave inversions. The spatially concentrated rupture area, with a stress drop of ~3.2 MPa, is validated by modeling DART and tide gauge observations in Hawaii, which also prove sensitive to the along-strike length of the rupture.

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