Modeling subduction earthquake sources in the central-western region of Colombia using waveform inversion of body waves

• Published in: Journal of geodynamics Vol. 116; pp. 47 - 61
• Main Authors: Monsalve-Jaramillo, Hugo, Valencia-Mina, William, Cano-Saldaña, Leonardo, Vargas, Carlos A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2018
• Subjects: Source parameters; Subevent mechanism; Wadati-Benioff zone; Waveform inversion; Source parameters; Wadati-Benioff zone; Waveform inversion; Subevent mechanism
• ISSN: 0264-3707
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jog.2018.02.005

Source parameters of four earthquakes located within the Wadati-Benioff zone of the Nazca plate subducting beneath the South American plate in Colombia were determined. The seismic moments for these events were recalculated and their approximate equivalent rupture area, slip distribution and stress drop were estimated. The source parameters for these earthquakes were obtained by deconvolving multiple events through teleseismic analysis of body waves recorded in long period stations and with simultaneous inversion of P and SH waves. The calculated source time functions for these events showed different stages that suggest that these earthquakes can reasonably be thought of being composed of two subevents. Even though two of the overall focal mechanisms obtained yielded similar results to those reported by the CMT catalogue, the two other mechanisms showed a clear difference compared to those officially reported. Despite this, it appropriate to mention that the mechanisms inverted in this work agree well with the expected orientation of faulting at that depth as well as with the wave forms they are expected to produce. In some of the solutions achieved, one of the two subevents exhibited a focal mechanism considerably different from the total earthquake mechanism; this could be interpreted as the result of a slight deviation from the overall motion due the complex stress field as well as the possibility of a combination of different sources of energy release analogous to the ones that may occur in deeper earthquakes. In those cases, the subevents with very different focal mechanism compared to the total earthquake mechanism had little contribution to the final solution and thus little contribution to the total amount of energy released.