Determination of fault planes in a complex aftershock sequence using two-dimensional slip inversion

Similar documents
The source process of the 2001 July 26 Skyros Island (Greece) earthquake

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

RELOCATION OF THE MACHAZE AND LACERDA EARTHQUAKES IN MOZAMBIQUE AND THE RUPTURE PROCESS OF THE 2006 Mw7.0 MACHAZE EARTHQUAKE

Earthquake patterns in the Flinders Ranges - Temporary network , preliminary results

The 2003, M W 7.2 Fiordland Earthquake, and its nearsource aftershock strong motion data

Empirical Green s Function Analysis of the Wells, Nevada, Earthquake Source

DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATED MOMENT TENSOR SOFTWARE AT THE PROTOTYPE INTERNATIONAL DATA CENTER

Source Characteristics of Large Outer Rise Earthquakes in the Pacific Plate

EARTHQUAKE SOURCE PARAMETERS OF MODERATELY EARTHQUAKE IN THE SOUTH EASTERN IRAN BASED ON TELESEISMIC AND REGIONAL DISTANCES

Source rupture process of the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake determined by joint inversion of teleseismic body wave and strong ground motion data

Teleseismic waveform modelling of the 2008 Leonidio event

Characterization of Induced Seismicity in a Petroleum Reservoir: A Case Study

FOCAL MECHANISM DETERMINATION OF LOCAL EARTHQUAKES IN MALAY PENINSULA

Velocity contrast along the Calaveras fault from analysis of fault zone head waves generated by repeating earthquakes

CAP M S Wallace. Vol. 27 No. 2 Jun EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH IN CHINA M S 4. 8 CAP. 3km - - P315

Earthquake stress drop estimates: What are they telling us?

Materials and Methods The deformation within the process zone of a propagating fault can be modeled using an elastic approximation.

Earthquake Stress Drops in Southern California

JCR (2 ), JGR- (1 ) (4 ) 11, EPSL GRL BSSA

Potency-magnitude scaling relations for southern California earthquakes with 1.0 < M L < 7.0

Fracture induced shear wave splitting in a source area of triggered seismicity by the Tohoku-oki earthquake in northeastern Japan.

of other regional earthquakes (e.g. Zoback and Zoback, 1980). I also want to find out

Synthetic Seismicity Models of Multiple Interacting Faults

SOURCE MODELING OF RECENT LARGE INLAND CRUSTAL EARTHQUAKES IN JAPAN AND SOURCE CHARACTERIZATION FOR STRONG MOTION PREDICTION

Numerical Modeling for Earthquake Source Imaging: Implications for Array Design in Determining the Rupture Process

FOCAL MECHANISM DETERMINATION USING WAVEFORM DATA FROM A BROADBAND STATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

The M W 6.2 Cass, New Zealand, earthquake of 24 November 1995: Reverse faulting in a strike slip region

Triggering of earthquakes during the 2000 Papua New Guinea earthquake sequence

BEYOND TRAVELTIMES AND EARTHQUAKE LOCATION What else can seismograms tell us about the nature of earthquakes on faults?

High-Frequency Ground Motion Simulation Using a Source- and Site-Specific Empirical Green s Function Approach

FULL MOMENT TENSOR ANALYSIS USING FIRST MOTION DATA AT THE GEYSERS GEOTHERMAL FIELD

Modelling Strong Ground Motions for Subduction Events in the Wellington Region, New Zealand

EARTHQUAKE LOCATIONS INDICATE PLATE BOUNDARIES EARTHQUAKE MECHANISMS SHOW MOTION

Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting

Scaling of apparent stress from broadband radiated energy catalogue and seismic moment catalogue and its focal mechanism dependence

Widespread Ground Motion Distribution Caused by Rupture Directivity during the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal Earthquake

The Large Aftershocks of the Northridge Earthquake and Their Relationship to Mainshock Slip and Fault-Zone Complexity

revised October 30, 2001 Carlos Mendoza

Fine structure of the rupture zone of the April 26 and 27, 1997, N orthridge aftershocks

PEAT SEISMOLOGY Lecture 12: Earthquake source mechanisms and radiation patterns II

ON NEAR-FIELD GROUND MOTIONS OF NORMAL AND REVERSE FAULTS FROM VIEWPOINT OF DYNAMIC RUPTURE MODEL

Rupture Characteristics of Major and Great (M w 7.0) Megathrust Earthquakes from : 1. Source Parameter Scaling Relationships

Lab 6: Earthquake Focal Mechanisms (35 points)

Di#erences in Earthquake Source and Ground Motion Characteristics between Surface and Buried Crustal Earthquakes

Source model of the 2005 Miyagi-Oki, Japan, earthquake estimated from broadband strong motions

Source Complexity of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and Its Relation to Aftershock Mechanisms

Rapid Earthquake Rupture Duration Estimates from Teleseismic Energy Rates, with

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF STRONG GROUND MOTION CONSIDERING ASPERITY AND DIRECTIVITY OF FAULT

Slip distributions of the 1944 Tonankai and 1946 Nankai earthquakes including the horizontal movement effect on tsunami generation

Short Note Source Mechanism and Rupture Directivity of the 18 May 2009 M W 4.6 Inglewood, California, Earthquake

STUDYING THE IMPORTANT PARAMETERS IN EARTHQUAKE SIMULATION BASED ON STOCHASTIC FINITE FAULT MODELING

Source characteristics of large deep earthquakes: Constraint on the faulting mechanism at great depths

Scaling relationship of initiations for moderate to large earthquakes

Moment tensor inversion of near source seismograms

Rotation of the Principal Stress Directions Due to Earthquake Faulting and Its Seismological Implications

CHARACTERIZING EARTHQUAKE SLIP MODELS FOR THE PREDICTION OF STRONG GROUND MOTION

Earthquake Focal Mechanisms and Waveform Modeling

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

EARTHQUAKE CLUSTERS, SMALL EARTHQUAKES

Seismic Activity near the Sunda and Andaman Trenches in the Sumatra Subduction Zone

Rupture Process of the Great 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake

Comparison of direct and coda wave stress drop measurements for the Wells, Nevada, earthquake sequence

THE SEISMICITY OF THE CAMPANIAN PLAIN: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Source Process and Constitutive Relations of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Inferred from Near-Field Strong-Motion Data

Waveform inversion in the frequency domain for the simultaneous determination of earthquake source mechanism and moment function

29th Monitoring Research Review: Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Technologies ADVANCED WAVEFORM SIMULATION FOR SEISMIC MONITORING EVENTS

Inversion of Earthquake Rupture Process:Theory and Applications

Earthquakes and Seismotectonics Chapter 5

Magnitude 7.6 & 7.4 SOLOMON ISLANDS

Ground displacement in a fault zone in the presence of asperities

LETTER Earth Planets Space, 57, , 2005

Some aspects of seismic tomography

Centroid moment-tensor analysis of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. and its larger foreshocks and aftershocks

A GLOBAL MODEL FOR AFTERSHOCK BEHAVIOUR

An intermediate deep earthquake rupturing on a dip-bending fault: Waveform analysis of the 2003 Miyagi-ken Oki earthquake

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS OF THE EARTH, Vol. 19, No. 1,

Estimation of Peak Ground Acceleration for Delhi Region using Finsim, a Finite Fault Simulation Technique

High-precision location of North Korea s 2009 nuclear test

Routine Estimation of Earthquake Source Complexity: the 18 October 1992 Colombian Earthquake

OCEAN/ESS 410. Lab 12. Earthquake Focal Mechanisms. You can write your answers to all be (e) on this paper.

INVSP gathers of local earthquake seismograms: an approach for modelling the upper crustal P and S velocity structure

Case Study 1: 2014 Chiang Rai Sequence

Apparent Slow Oceanic Transform Earthquakes Due to Source Mechanism Bias

Aftershocks are well aligned with the background stress field, contradicting the hypothesis of highly heterogeneous crustal stress

DETAILED IMAGE OF FRACTURES ACTIVATED BY A FLUID INJECTION IN A PRODUCING INDONESIAN GEOTHERMAL FIELD

Rupture process of the 2007 Chuetsu-oki, Niigata, Japan, earthquake Waveform inversion using empirical Green s functions

SEISMOTECTONIC ANALYSIS OF A COMPLEX FAULT SYSTEM IN ITALY: THE

Crustal deformation in Taiwan: Results from finite source inversions of six M w > 5.8 Chi-Chi aftershocks

Data Repository: Seismic and Geodetic Evidence For Extensive, Long-Lived Fault Damage Zones

MODELING OF HIGH-FREQUENCY WAVE RADIATION PROCESS ON THE FAULT PLANE FROM THE ENVELOPE FITTING OF ACCELERATION RECORDS

Outstanding Problems. APOSTOLOS S. PAPAGEORGIOU University of Patras

A search for seismic radiation from late slip for the December 26, 2004 Sumatra-Andaman (M w = 9.15) earthquake

29th Monitoring Research Review: Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Technologies

F. Buech, T.R. Davies, J.R. Pettinga & M. Finnemore. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch

RECIPE FOR PREDICTING STRONG GROUND MOTIONS FROM FUTURE LARGE INTRASLAB EARTHQUAKES

Shear-wave anisotropy beneath the Ryukyu arc

Lesvos June 12, 2017, Mw 6.3 event, a quick study of the source

Seth Stein and Emile Okal, Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston IL USA. Revised 2/5/05

The 2002 M5 Au Sable Forks, NY, earthquake sequence: Source scaling relationships and energy budget

Incorporating simulated Hikurangi subduction interface spectra into probabilistic hazard calculations for Wellington

Transcription:

Geophys. J. Int. (2001) 146, 134 142 Determination of fault planes in a complex aftershock sequence using two-dimensional slip inversion Rachel E. Abercrombie, 1,2, * Stephen Bannister, 1 Aasha Pancha, 1 Terry H. Webb 1 and Jim J. Mori 3 1 Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand 2 Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. E-mail: rachel@seismology.harvard.edu 3 Disaster Research Prevention Institute, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611 0011, Japan Accepted 2001 January 24. Received 2000 September 26; in original form 2000 February 14 SUMMARY The (1994) Arthur s Pass earthquake (M w 6.7, South Island, New Zealand) had a complex aftershock sequence including events aligned with major mapped faults. To determine whether the major NE SW-trending strike-slip faults in the region were activated during this aftershock sequence, we investigate the largest well-recorded aftershocks. The Arthur s Pass earthquake itself was a reverse-faulting event, but the majority of the aftershocks were strike-slip. We use the empirical Green s function method to obtain source time functions for four aftershocks (M L 4.1 5.1). We then invert for slip on each nodal plane and compare the variance reduction to determine which is the fault plane. The two largest earthquakes (M L 5.1 and M L 4.2) located close to the mapped trace of the Bruce fault both occurred on fault planes striking NNW SSE, perpendicular to the strike of the Bruce and other regional strike-slip faults. The third earthquake studied (M L 4.1), located on a lineation of aftershocks parallel to the regional mapped trend, had a preferred fault plane with a NE SW strike. The fourth aftershock (M L 4.1) was located close to the main-shock fault plane and had an oblique reverse mechanism. This earthquake exhibited northward directivity, but the fault plane could not be identified. The earthquake stress drops ranged from 1 to 10 MPa. Key words: aftershocks, fault planes, New Zealand, slip inversion. INTRODUCTION The 1994 June 18 Arthur s Pass earthquake (M w 6.7), which struck the central South Island of New Zealand, had a complex aftershock sequence (Abercrombie et al. 2000; Robinson & McGinty 2000). The earthquake was located about 25 km SE of the Alpine fault, which forms the boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates through the South Island (Fig. 1). The South Island is an area of oblique convergence, with plate motion partitioned between strike-slip and reverse faults (Anderson et al. 1993). NE SW-trending strike-slip faults, including the Alpine and Harper faults, dominate the northern and central South Island (Fig. 1). The Arthur s Pass earthquake was a shallow (depth 5 km), primarily reverse-faulting event, striking NE SW (Abercrombie et al. 2000). The aftershock sequence extends approximately 30 km SSE of the fault plane and is elongated perpendicular to the strike of the Bruce, Harper and other main mapped faults. Lineations of aftershocks also occur parallel to and aligned with these principal faults. 134 The majority of the aftershocks to the Arthur s Pass earthquake have strike-slip focal mechanisms, consistent with the regional stress field (Robinson & McGinty 2000). The nodal planes predominantly align parallel and perpendicular to the NE SW-trending mapped faults. It is unclear whether significant slip occurred on the larger mapped faults (the Bruce and Harper faults, Fig. 1), or on unmapped conjugate faults. The 14 largest aftershocks to the Arthur s Pass earthquake had M L >5 (Haines 1981), but 13 of them occurred before the portable stations were installed and so were poorly recorded. 11 of the largest aftershocks, including the largest (M L 6.1), cluster at the southern end of the aftershock zone near the Harper fault (Fig. 1). One of the other three large aftershocks occurred NW of the main shock, one to the SW (near station WILA) and one near the mapped trace of the Bruce fault (M L 5.1, Event A in Fig. 1). Regional and teleseismic data constrain the largest aftershocks to have principally strike-slip mechanisms consistent with rupture on the Harper fault or a conjugate fault (Abercrombie et al. 2000; Robinson & McGinty 2000). The fault # 2001 RAS

Aftershock fault planes from slip inversion 135-42û 48' 10 km HARA Alpine Fault TARA -40û OTRA Australian Plate Alpine Fault HM Pacific Plate D Main-shock HALA 170û C WILA BURA WAIA AVOA BEAA A BF PEAA B CAVA -43û 12' CASA HPRA HF LAKA DOUA GEOA 171û 12' 171û 36' Figure 1. Map showing the location of the four earthquakes considered in this study (A D, black circles). The Arthur s Pass main shock is shown by a star, and the best-located aftershocks as grey circles. The M L i5 aftershocks are plotted as open circles, except for Event A, which is included in this study. The major active faults are marked [BF=Bruce fault, as mapped by Chamberlain (1996) and HF=Harper fault]. The portable stations used to locate the aftershocks are shown as triangles and those also used in the slip inversion as solid triangles. The upper-hemisphere focal mechanisms of the Arthur s Pass main shock and the four aftershocks included in this study are shown; the arrows indicate the preferred fault plane in the slip inversions. The inset map shows the location of the Arthur s Pass main shock in New Zealand; the arrow indicates the motion of the Pacific plate relative to the Australian plate and HM is the Hikurangi margin. planes cannot be distinguished from the regional short-period or strong-motion recordings. The aftershocks to the M L 6.1 earthquake (1994 June 19; the most easterly of the lineation of M L i5 events extending from near station CASA) align roughly NNW SSE, consistent with this largest (M L 6.1) aftershock having ruptured a conjugate fault to the Harper fault (Abercrombie et al. 2000). The aftershocks to the M L 5.7 earthquake (1994 June 21; the M L i5 aftershock nearest station HPRA) align roughly parallel to the Harper fault, suggesting that this (M L 5.7) aftershock may have ruptured the Harper fault. When the fault plane of a moderate-sized earthquake cannot be distinguished from the distribution of the aftershocks, the waveforms of the recorded seismograms can be used to determine the fault plane (e.g. Mori & Hartzell 1990; Mori 1993, 1996; Dreger et al. 1995). We use the procedure developed by Mori & Hartzell (1990) to determine the fault planes and source parameters of four well-recorded aftershocks of the Arthur s Pass earthquake. The aims of the present study are to determine whether any of the larger mapped faults experienced significant seismic slip during the aftershock sequence, to confirm whether unmapped conjugate faults exist in the area, and to investigate whether aftershock lineations represent planes of significant slip. In addition, we obtain some of the first estimates of seismic moment and stress drop for moderate-sized New Zealand earthquakes. DATA AND METHOD The Arthur s Pass earthquake sequence was recorded by the New Zealand National Seismograph Network (NZNSN) of short-period (1 Hz, 100 sample s x1 ) EARSS seismometers (Gledhill et al. 1991). 16 portable seismometers of the same type were installed in the five days following the main shock. The aftershocks were relocated using NZNSN and portable recordings and a 3-D velocity structure derived from inversion of the best-recorded events (Abercrombie et al. 2000). 10 M L i4

136 R. E. Abercrombie et al. earthquakes occurred during the period of the portable deployment and were located with standard errors of j0.5 km horizontally and j 1 km in depth. Mori & Hartzell (1990) developed a two-step procedure to determine the fault plane from the recorded seismograms. First the site and path effects are removed from the seismograms of the earthquake of interest (main shock) using empirical Green s functions derived from the recordings of a relatively small, collocated earthquake. The resulting source time functions are then inverted for slip on each nodal plane of the focal mechanism to determine which matches these data better. We searched the catalogue of well-located aftershocks for potential empirical Green s function events for the 10 wellrecorded earthquakes. We required the empirical Green s function earthquakes to be well located, to be at least an order of magnitude smaller than their respective main shocks, and to be located within 2 km horizontally and 3 km in depth. We found candidates for four of the larger earthquakes, which we designate A, B, C and D, listed in Table 1 and plotted in Fig. 1. Both Events A and D had a second potential empirical Green s function earthquake, but the resulting deconvolutions were noisy, so we did not use them in the inversions. The focal mechanisms of Events A, B, C and D and their empirical Green s functions are well constrained, using both first motions and also amplitude envelopes of the PS waves (Robinson & McGinty 2000). The four aftershocks that we are able to study include the only aftershock with M L i5 that was recorded by the portable network, on June 29 (M L 5.1, Event A, Table 1 and Fig. 1). This aftershock was the largest to occur near the mapped active trace of the Bruce fault during the entire aftershock sequence. The second earthquake that we study (B, M L 4.2) is also located close to the trace of the Bruce fault, and Event C (M L 4.1) is located in a parallel-striking lineation of aftershocks to the north (Abercrombie et al. 2000). Both of these earthquakes have similar strike-slip mechanisms to Event A. The fourth earthquake (D, M L 4.1) is located further north, near the inferred western termination of the main-shock rupture. Event D has a more oblique focal mechanism and a significant component of reverse motion, in common with many aftershocks near the main-shock fault plane (Robinson & McGinty 2000). Event D is also located close to the first M L 5.1 aftershock that occurred 15 min after the main shock. This first M L 5.1 aftershock was too poorly recorded to determine a focal mechanism. To determine the source time functions of Events A D, the seismograms of the small earthquakes (empirical Green s functions) are deconvolved from those of their respective main shocks following the procedure described by Mori (1993, 1996). At all available stations, a time window between 3 and 4 s long, centred on the main-shock P or S waves, is chosen to include the principal arrivals. The vertical-component seismograms are used for the P waves and the two horizontal components are rotated to produce SH. The input waveforms for Event B are shown as an example in Fig. 2. We then deconvolve the empirical Green s function from the main-event seismogram by spectral division. Deconvolutions are calculated for all available stations and data, including S waves, but some of the deconvolved waveforms have low signal-to-noise ratios. Noisy data are dropped from the subsequent slip inversion so as not to degrade the stability of the inversion. The resulting source time functions, which we use in the inversions, are shown in Figs 3 6. 0.02045 0.00568 0.04503 0.00123 0.06254 0.00275 0.03253 0.00059 0.16559 0.00617 PEAA LAKA HALA DOUA CASA 15 20 25 Figure 2. The vertical velocity seismograms for Event B (upper trace of each pair) and its empirical Green s function event (lower traces). They are aligned on the P wave, and the maximum amplitudes are given in cm s x1. Table 1. Hypocentre parameters of the four earthquakes and their respective empirical Green s function events. Event Date Time (UT) Lat. Long. Depth (km) M L Strike Dip Rake A 29/6/94 5 : 38 x43.0985 171.4825 9.8 5.1 165 83 x15 27/6/94 8 : 16 x43.0983 171.4823 10.1 2.8 157 83 x30 B 25/6/94 1 : 39 x43.1087 171.4660 5.5 4.2 150 75 x8 22/6/94 13 : 37 x43.1087 171.4660 6.3 2.8 150 70 x22 C 26/6/94 11.06 x43.0890 171.4487 4.1 4.1 253 76 203 24/6/94 16 : 10 x43.0890 171.4487 3.8 2.4 75 90 158 D 26/6/94 18 : 12 x43.0387 171.3887 9.1 4.1 45 75 135 26/6/94 16 : 27 x43.0442 171.4018 8.0 2.4 45 60 135

Aftershock fault planes from slip inversion 137 (a) PEAA 100 WAIA 352 HALA 30 WAIA-S 352 DOUA 208 AVOA-S 22 CASA 209 (b) 1.00 1.25 1.50 Time (s) (c) Variance 0.10 0.05 Velocity (km/s) (d) 257 165 2 3 4 0.30-9 NNW SSE NNW SSE -9 0.24 Depth (km) -10-10 0.18 0.12 0.06-1 0 1-1 0 1 0.00 Slip (m) Figure 3. Event A (M L 5.1): source time functions and slip inversion results. (a) Deconvolved source time functions input to the slip inversion (solid lines) and the synthetic seismograms from the best-fitting model (dashed lines) using the 165u plane and a rupture velocity of 2.8 km s x1. Note that the stations azimuths (in degrees) are given to the right of the station names, and that the onset time of the source time functions is 1.0 s in this and subsequent figures. (b) Normalized variance for the two nodal planes over the complete velocity range. The thick line is the 165u plane and the thin line is the 257u plane. (c) The slip distribution at 2.8 km s x1 on the 165u plane. The average non-zero slip is 12 cm. (d) The error distribution of slip at 2.8 km s x1 on the 165u plane. The average non-zero error is 25 50 per cent of the average slip. SLIP INVERSION We adopt the slip inversion procedure of Mori & Hartzell (1990) and Mori (1993). The inversion solves for slip distribution on a given fault with a circular rupture front moving at a constant rupture velocity. The model fault is divided into a grid of subfaults centred at the hypocentre. We calculate synthetic source time functions for each subfault using a technique similar to quake7 (Spudich & Frazer 1984). We use a rectangular grid rather than a triangular grid, however, and the directivity effects for the subfaults are calculated using a standard cosine directivity function rather than by numerical integration of rupture time isochrons. We use an 11r11 grid of subfaults in each case, as this number of unknowns is reasonable for the available input data. We vary the size of the individual subfaults in the different events to obtain a fault dimension appropriate for the average duration of the source time functions and the size of the earthquake. The grid sizes and other input parameters to the inversion are given in Table 2. The waveforms are all normalized to unit area so as to give each station equal weight in the inversion. The slip is calculated by least-squares inversion with a positivity constraint (Lawson & Hanson 1974). The fit of the data to the model is evaluated using the variance, which we normalize by the square of the maximum amplitude of the input data for each earthquake. The uncertainty in the slip on individual

138 R. E. Abercrombie et al. Table 2. Input parameters for the slip inversion. Event Subfault size (mrm) Depth to centre Nodal Plane 1 Nodal Plane 2 Moment (r10 14 Nm) (km) Strike Dip Strike Dip Stress drop (MPa) A 200r200 9.8 165u 83u 257u 75u 57 8 (20)* B 100r100 5.5 150u 75u 242u 83u 0.87 3 C 200r200 4.1 158u 68u 253u 76u 2.8 1 (6) D 100r100 9.1 149u 47u 45u 75u 2.2 9 12 * The stress drop for the principal subevent is given in brackets. subfaults is estimated from the model covariance matrix and a data error estimate of 10 per cent (Mori & Hartzell 1990; Mori 1993). We perform the inversion on both nodal planes for each focal mechanism, using a range of fixed rupture velocities. If one nodal plane consistently produces a better fit to the data then it can be interpreted as the fault plane. Rupture velocity is typically between about 60 and 90 per cent of the S wave velocity (b) (e.g. Dreger 1994a). At the hypocentral depth of Events A and D, b is 3.5 3.6 km s x1, and at the shallower depths of Events B and C, b is 3.2 3.4 km s x1 (Abercrombie et al. 2000). We invert all four earthquakes by assuming rupture velocities between 2.0 and 3.6 km s x1 at 0.1 km s x1 intervals. To estimate the actual values of slip, the seismic moment of the solution is set equal to the moment of the main shock (Table 2) calculated from the S-wave displacement spectral amplitudes (Brune 1970). To calculate the moment of the slip model, we assume that the rigidity is 3.5r10 10 Nm x2. (a) HALA 32 PEAA 97 DOUA 207 CASA-S 205 CASA 205 LAKA-S 149 1.00 1.25 Time (s) 1.00 1.25 (c) Variance (b) 0.015 0.010 242 150 0.005 2 3 4 Velocity (km/s) -5 Depth -6 NNW SSE -0.5 0.0 0.5 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.00 Slip (m) Figure 4. Event B (M L 4.2): source time functions and slip inversion results. (a) Deconvolved source time functions input to the slip inversion (solid lines) and the synthetic seismograms from the best-fitting model (dashed lines) using the 150u plane and a rupture velocity of 2.6 km s x1. (b) Normalized variance for the two nodal planes over the complete velocity range. The thick line is the 150u plane and the thin line is the 242u plane. (c) The slip distribution at 2.6 km s x1 on the 150u plane. The average non-zero slip is 1.5 cm and the average error is about 50 per cent of this.

Aftershock fault planes from slip inversion 139 (a) LAKA 149 PEAA 101 HALA 40 WAIA 6 CASA 191 WILA 290 1.00 1.25 1.50 Time (s) -3 (c) WSW ENE 0.020 0.016 Variance (b) 0.04 0.02 0.00 158 253 2 3 4 Velocity (km/s) -4 Depth -5-1 0 1 0.012 0.008 0.004 0.000 Slip (m) Figure 5. Event C (M L 4.1): source time functions and slip inversion results. (a) Deconvolved source time functions input to the slip inversion (solid lines) and the synthetic seismograms from the best-fitting model (dashed lines) using the 253u plane and a rupture velocity of 2.5 km s x1. Stations CASA and WAIA were given zero weight in the inversion because of their relatively high noise levels. (b) Normalized variance for the two nodal planes over the complete velocity range. The thick line is the 253u plane and the thin line is the 158u plane. (c) The slip distribution at 2.5 km s x1 on the 253u plane. The average non-zero slip is 2 cm and the average error is 25 50 per cent of this. RESULTS Event A (M L 5.1) The source time functions derived for Event A at stations WAIA and HALA to the north are longer than those from stations to the south (CASA and DOUA), which implies that rupture propagation is to the south (Fig. 3a). The inversion finds consistently better fits with the 165u nodal plane than the 257u nodal plane (Fig. 3b). We interpret the 165u plane as the fault plane, and therefore conclude that this earthquake did not rupture the Bruce fault but a conjugate fault. The variance decreases with increasing velocity at low rupture velocities, and then is almost constant for both planes above about 2.4 km s x1. At low velocities (<2.4 km s x1 ) the model slip is not able to propagate far enough across the model fault plane to match the data well. Previous studies (e.g. Mori & Hartzell 1990; Mori 1993; Dreger 1994b) have found that slip inversions yield only a weak constraint on the rupture velocity. The variance is often observed to decrease with increasing velocity simply because the faster propagation enables more subfaults to rupture and so increases the number of free parameters (Mori & Hartzell 1990). The actual minimum variance reduction is thus not a reliable indicator of rupture velocity. A relatively simple distribution of slip that remains stable with small changes in rupture velocity is the most reliable indication of a good fit (Mori 1993). We therefore prefer a rupture velocity of 0.8b, which is a typical average, for all four earthquakes studied here. For Event A, 0.8b is 2.8 km s x1 ; the corresponding slip distribution is shown in Fig. 3(c) and the uncertainties in Fig. 3(d). The average non-zero slip is 12 cm and the average errors are 3 6 cm, about 50 per cent of the average slip. The slip distribution remains stable for the rupture velocities from 2.7 3.2 km s x1. If the rupture area is equated to a circle, then the stress drop is about 8 MPa for the entire rupture and 20 MPa if only the principal region of slip is considered (Eshelby 1957). Event B (M L 4.2) The source time functions of Event B are shorter at stations CASA and DOUA to the south than at HALA to the north (Fig. 4). Also, the waveform at PEAA is more similar to that of HALA than that of CASA, suggesting that it is on the same

140 R. E. Abercrombie et al. (a) PEAA 109 PEAA-S 109 LAKA 146 LAKA-S 146 HARA 305 AVOA-S 117 DOUA 190 (b) 1.00 1.25 CASA 169 1.00 1.25 Time (s) (c) Variance 0.10 0.08 45 149 0.06 2 3 4 Velocity (km/s) (d) 0.15-8.0 NNW SSE SW NE -8.0 0.12 Depth (km) -8.5-8.5 0.09 0.06 0.03-0.5 0.0 0.5-0.5 0.0 0.5 Slip (m) Figure 6. Event D (M L 4.1): source time functions and slip inversion results. (a) Deconvolved source time functions input to the slip inversion (solid lines) and the synthetic seismograms from the model (dashed lines) using the 149u plane and a rupture velocity of 2.8 km s x1. (b) Normalized variance for the two nodal planes over the complete velocity range. The thick line is the 149u plane and the thin line is the 45u plane. (c) The slip distribution at 2.8 km s x1 on the 149u plane. The average non-zero slip on both planes is 3.8 cm, and the average non-zero error is about 65 per cent of this. (d) The slip distribution at 2.8 km s x1 on the 45u plane. 0.00 side of the fault as HALA (Mori & Hartzell 1990). The slip inversion is consistently able to obtain a better fit to the data using the 150u plane, so we interpret this to be the fault plane. The variance of both planes (Fig. 4b) decreases with increasing velocity, reflecting the observed increase in the number of subfaults ruptured as the rupture velocity is increased. A rupture velocity of 2.6 km s x1 is about 0.8b at the depth of Event B, and results in a concentration of slip up-dip and to the SSE of the hypocentre. Again, the slip distribution is relatively insensitive to moderate changes in rupture velocity. The average stress drop, including all the area that ruptured at 2.8 km s x1,is about 3 MPa. Event C (M L 4.1) This earthquake has the most complex source time functions (Fig. 5a). Only a small pulse can be discerned at the origin, followed by a much stronger one approximately 0.25 s later. We interpret these as an initial small subevent triggering the main slip. The large slip is probably displaced from the hypocentre because the timing of the largest peak varies from station to station. It arrives earliest at WAIA and WILA, next at HALA and last at PEAA and LAKA. We attempted a relative relocation of the two subevents, but the small amount of data and ambiguity of picking the onset of the second

Aftershock fault planes from slip inversion 141 subevent resulted in minimal constraints. The slip inversion is able to match the data significantly better using the 253u plane over most of the velocity range. A rupture velocity of 2.5 km s x1 corresponds to 0.8b at the hypocentre. The slip patterns on the 253u plane are relatively stable for small changes in the rupture velocity, and consistently show a small patch of slip at the hypocentre and a larger one at similar depth to the ENE. When using the 158u plane, the inversion is only able to match the waveforms by distributing the slip randomly around the slip plane. At velocities greater than 3 km s x1 the rupture front reaches the edge of the model fault grid by the end of the largest subevent. To ensure that our results are not being affected by the small grid size, we re-invert the data from this earthquake using a larger 300r300 m subfault size. The lower-resolution model cannot fit the waveforms as well, but the best fit is still for the 253u plane at a rupture velocity of about 2.5 km s x1. This earthquake involved a small initial subevent at the hypocentre, followed by the largest subevent about 600 m ENE, at approximately the same depth. The average stress drop is about 1 MPa for the entire rupture area, and 6 MPa in the largest subevent, assuming the rupture velocity to be 2.5 km s x1. sequence was located near the surface trace of the Harper fault, but probably did not rupture this fault but an unmapped conjugate (Abercrombie et al. 2000). Therefore, although alignments of aftershocks occurred along both the Bruce and Harper faults, in neither case did the largest of these aftershocks rupture the mapped faults. Event C is located within a lineation of aftershocks striking parallel to the Bruce fault to the north. Unlike the other two earthquakes, the preferred rupture plane of this event (253u) is close to the regional mapped fault trend. This suggests that some slip occurred on an unmapped right-lateral strikeslip fault that was activated during the Arthur s Pass aftershock sequence. Few measurements of the seismic moment of New Zealand earthquakes are available, so those obtained here significantly improve the calibration of the New Zealand M L (Haines 1981). They yield M w #M L x0.7. Global estimates of M w for the larger earthquakes in the region are about 0.3 magnitude units smaller than M L. Leitner et al. (2001) calculated moment tensors for four aftershocks of the nearby Cass earthquake and found that M w #M L x0.25. Event D (M L 4.1) Event D has the shortest, simplest source time functions, with an average duration of only about 0.1 s (Fig. 6a). Some azimuthal variation can be seen, with the pulse peaking earliest at PEAA and LAKA, and later at DOUA and CASA. The inversion variance is similar for both planes, however, and the slip patterns are simple and stable to small changes in rupture velocity (Figs 6b, c and d). The source time functions are so short that the slip is concentrated in the central nine subfaults even at rupture velocities nearing b. Decreasing the subfault size would not be worthwhile, as such high resolution requires higher frequencies than are present in the data. The average stress drops are about 9 and 12 MPa for the 45u and 149u nodal planes, respectively, assuming that the rupture velocity is 2.8 km s x1 (0.8b). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS We have determined the fault planes of three of the four earthquakes studied. The hypocentres are well constrained and the inversions are relatively insensitive to hypocentral errors since they do not use absolute times, and small and nodal arrivals are excluded. The orientations of the fault planes are subject to the same uncertainties as the original focal mechanisms, probably less than 15u (R. Robinson, personal communication, 2000). Such errors will produce uncertainties in the slip distributions. The good station distributions mean that these uncertainties should not affect our choice of fault plane. Events A and B are the largest in a group of aftershocks located vertically beneath the mapped active trace of the Bruce fault, but they ruptured fault planes at a high angle to this fault. Hence, the Bruce fault cannot have slipped in an earthquake larger than about M L 4. Event A was the only one of the four earthquakes studied that was large enough to have identifiable small aftershocks. These seven aftershocks occurred close to Event A within the following 30 min They align roughly NW SE, consistent with the 165u fault plane preferred by the slip inversion. The largest aftershock in the whole Arthur s Pass ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful to P. McGinty for calculating focal mechanisms for the small events and to R. Robinson for calculating the induced stress orientations. We also thank B. Leitner for discussion concerning earthquake magnitudes, and for providing a preprint of her paper. Reviews by R. Robinson, R. Benites, D. Wald, J. Boatwright, S. Ward, M. Savage, P. Abercrombie and two anonymous reviewers improved the clarity of this manuscript. This study was funded by the Earthquake Commission and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, New Zealand. REA thanks Harvard University for use of their facilities during the final stages of this work. This is IGNS Publication Number 1586. REFERENCES Abercrombie, R.E. & Leary, P.C., 1993. Source parameters of small earthquakes recorded at 2.5 km depth, Cajon Pass, Southern California: implications for earthquake scaling, Geophys. Res. Lett., 20, 1511 1514. Abercrombie, R.E., Webb, T.H., Robinson, R., McGinty, P.J., Mori, J.J. & Beavan, J., 2000. The enigma of the Arthur s Pass, New Zealand, earthquake 1: reconciling a variety of data for an unusual earthquake sequence, J. geophys. Res., 105, 16 119 16 137. Anderson, H., Webb, T. & Jackson, J., 1993. Focal mechanisms of large earthquakes in the South Island of New Zealand: implications for the accommodation of Pacific-Australia plate motion, Geophys. J. Int., 115, 1032 1054. Bruce, J.N., 1990. Tectonic stress and seismic shear waves from earthquakes, J. geophys. Res., 75, 4997 5009. Chamberlain, C.G., 1996. Seismic hazard from cross-faulting in North Canterbury: broader implications from the Arthur s Pass earthquake sequence of 18 June 1994, MSc thesis, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Dreger, D.S., 1994a. Investigation of the rupture process of the 28 June, 1992 Landers earthquake utilizing TERRAscope, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 84, 713 724. Dreger, D.S., 1994b. Empirical Green s function study of the January 17, 1994 Northridge, California earthquake, Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 2633 2636.

142 R. E. Abercrombie et al. Dreger, D.S., Ritsema, J. & Pasyanos, M., 1995. Broadband analysis of the 21 September, 1993, Klamath Falls earthquake sequence, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 997 1000. Eshelby, J.D., 1957. The determination of the elastic field of an ellipsoidal inclusion and related problems, Proc. R. Soc. Lond., A241, 376 396. Gledhill, K.R., Randall, M.J. & Chadwick, M.P., 1991. The EARSS digital seismograph: system description and field trials, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 81, 1380 1390. Haines, A.J., 1981. A local magnitude scale for New Zealand earthquakes, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 71, 275 294. Lawson, C.L. & Hanson, R.J., 1974. Solving Least Squares Problems, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Leitner, B., Eberhart-Phillips, D., Anderson, H., Nabal, K. & J.L., 2001. A focused look at the Alpine fault, New Zealand: seismicity, focal mechanisms and stress observations, J. geophys. Res., 106, 2193 2220 Mori, J., 1993. Fault plane determinations for three small earthquakes along the San Jacinto fault, California: search for cross faults, J. geophys. Res., 98, 17 711 17 722. Mori, J., 1996. Rupture directivity and slip distribution of the M4.3 foreshock to the 1992 Joshua Tree earthquake, southern California, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 86, 805 810. Mori, J. & Hartzell, S., 1990. Source inversion of the 1988 Upland, California, earthquake: determination of a fault plane for a small event, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 80, 507 518. Robinson, R. & McGinty, P.J., 2000. The enigma of the Arthur s Pass, New Zealand, earthquake, 2: the aftershock distribution and its relation to regional and induced stress fields, J. geophys. Res., 105, 16 137 16 150. Spudich, P. & Frazer, L.N., 1984. Use of ray theory to calculate high-frequency radiation from earthquake sources having spatially variable rupture velocity and stress drop, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 74, 2061 2082.