TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamics of episodic supershear in the 2023 M7.8 Kahramanmaraş/Pazarcik earthquake, revealed by near-field records and computational modeling
AU - Abdelmeguid, Mohamed
AU - Zhao, Chunhui
AU - Yalcinkaya, Esref
AU - Gazetas, George
AU - Elbanna, Ahmed
AU - Rosakis, Ares
N1 - The authors would like to thank associate editor Carolina Ortiz Guerrero, Eric Dunham and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments that improved this manuscript. The ground motion data used in this study can be obtained from Turkish Disaster and Emergency Managment Authority AFAD, US Geological Survey (USGS), and Kandilli Observatory And Earthquake Research Institute. We would like to thank the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) for setting up dense near-fault observatories, and for immediately publishing a huge number of openly accessible accelerometers during these trying times for Türkiye. A.J.R. acknowledges support by the Caltech/MCE Big Ideas Fund (BIF), as well as the Caltech Terrestrial Hazard Observation and Reporting Center (THOR). He would also like to acknowledge the support of NSF (Grant EAR-2045285). A.E. acknowledges support from the Southern California Earthquake Center through a collaborative agreement between NSF. Grant Number: EAR0529922 and USGS. Grant Number: 07HQAG0008 and the National Science Foundation CAREER award No. 1753249 for modeling complex fault zone structures. We are grateful to Idaho National Lab for providing High performance computing support and access and for the MOOSE/Falcon team for offering technical support. Funding provided by DOE EERE Geothermal Technologies Office to Utah FORGE and the University of Utah under Project DE-EE0007080 Enhanced Geothermal System Concept Testing and Development at the Milford City, Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (Utah FORGE) site.
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - The 2023 M7.8 Kahramanmaraş/Pazarcik earthquake was larger and more destructive than what had been expected. Here we analyzed nearfield seismic records and developed a dynamic rupture model that reconciles different currently conflicting inversion results and reveals spatially non-uniform propagation speeds in this earthquake, with predominantly supershear speeds observed along the Narli fault and at the southwest (SW) end of the East Anatolian Fault (EAF). The model highlights the critical role of geometric complexity and heterogeneous frictional conditions in facilitating continued propagation and influencing rupture speed. We also constrained the conditions that allowed for the rupture to jump from the Narli fault to EAF and to generate the delayed backpropagating rupture towards the SW. Our findings have important implications for understanding earthquake hazards and guiding future response efforts and demonstrate the value of physics based dynamic modeling fused with near-field data in enhancing our understanding of earthquake mechanisms and improving risk assessment.
AB - The 2023 M7.8 Kahramanmaraş/Pazarcik earthquake was larger and more destructive than what had been expected. Here we analyzed nearfield seismic records and developed a dynamic rupture model that reconciles different currently conflicting inversion results and reveals spatially non-uniform propagation speeds in this earthquake, with predominantly supershear speeds observed along the Narli fault and at the southwest (SW) end of the East Anatolian Fault (EAF). The model highlights the critical role of geometric complexity and heterogeneous frictional conditions in facilitating continued propagation and influencing rupture speed. We also constrained the conditions that allowed for the rupture to jump from the Narli fault to EAF and to generate the delayed backpropagating rupture towards the SW. Our findings have important implications for understanding earthquake hazards and guiding future response efforts and demonstrate the value of physics based dynamic modeling fused with near-field data in enhancing our understanding of earthquake mechanisms and improving risk assessment.
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U2 - 10.1038/s43247-023-01131-7
DO - 10.1038/s43247-023-01131-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85178413842
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 4
JO - Communications Earth and Environment
JF - Communications Earth and Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 456
ER -