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Field observations of surface ruptures accompanying a tsunami and supershear earthquake along a plate boundary strike-slip fault

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2022

Chuanyou Li Open the ORCID record for Chuanyou Li [Opens in a new window] ,
Jinrui Liu ,
Jun Ma ,
Gang Su ,
Jian Lan ,
Xinnan Li ,
Zhikun Ren  and
Hongliu Ran
Chuanyou Li*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China
Jinrui Liu
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China
Jun Ma
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China
Gang Su
Affiliation:
China Earthquake Disaster Prevention Center, Beijing, China
Jian Lan
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China
Xinnan Li
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Zhikun Ren
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China
Hongliu Ran
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China
*
Author for correspondence: Chuanyou Li, Email: chuanyou@ies.ac.cn
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Abstract

Strike-slip earthquakes near major subduction zones have received less attention than thrust or reverse earthquakes in subduction zone areas. The occurrence of the 2018 Palu Mw 7.5 earthquake in eastern Indonesia provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the characteristics of one of these events. The Palu earthquake occurred on the left-lateral, north–south-striking Palu–Koro fault, which is the main plate boundary structure accommodating the convergence between blocks in a triple junction area. It excited a significant tsunami, which unusually is associated with strike-slip earthquakes, and also ruptured at a supershear speed, which is mostly observed on strike-slip faults in continents. Based on our fieldwork, we speculate that the normal slip component of the offshore rupture section in Palu bay on the middle segment probably favours tsunami genesis. Our field investigation has revealed evidence of a simple geometry as well as slip partitioning of dip-slip and strike-slip motion on two subparallel strands on the main segment, both of which may have contributed to the supershear of the rupture propagation. Instead of only a transtensive behaviour of the middle segment, our results also illustrate the transpressional property of the northern and southern rupture segments, which shows more complex behaviour than that of a common continental strike-slip fault.

Keywords

Palu Mw 7.5 earthquakestrike-slip earthquakesubduction zonedestructive tsunamisupershear rupture
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 159 , Issue 6 , June 2022 , pp. 893 - 903
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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