Fukuyama, E.

On October 31, 2002 a ML=5.4 earthquake occurred in southern Italy, at the margin between the Apenninic thrust belt (to the west) and the Adriatic plate (to the east). In this area, neither historical event nor seismogenic fault is reported in the literature. In spite of its moderate magnitude, the earthquake caused severe damage in cities close to the epicenter and 27 people, out of a total of 29 casualties, were killed by the collapse of a primary school in S. Giuliano di Puglia. By inverting broadband regional waveforms, we computed moment tensor solutions for 15 events, as small as ML=3.5 (Mw=3.7). The obtained focal mechanisms show pure strike-slip geometry, mainly with focal planes oriented to NS (sinistral) and EW (dextral). In several solutions focal planes are rotated counterclockwise, in particular for later events, occurring west of the mainshock. From the relocated aftershock distribution, we found that the mainshock ruptured along an EW plane, and the fault mechanisms of some aftershocks were not consistent with the mainshock fault plane. The observed stress field, resulting from the stress tensor inversion, shows a maximum principal stress axis with an east–west trend (N83°W), whereas the minimum stress direction is almost N–S. Considering both the aftershock distribution and moment tensor solutions, it appears that several pre-existing faults were activated rather than a single planar fault associated with the mainshock. The finite fault analysis shows a very simple slip distribution with a slow rupture velocity of 1.1 km/s, that could explain the occurrence of a second mainshock about 30 h after. Finally, we attempt to interpret how the Molise sequence is related to the normal faulting system to the west (along the Apennines) and the dextral strike-slip Mattinata fault to the east.

We compute the temporal evolution of traction by solving the elasto-dynamic equation and by using the slip velocity history as a boundary condition on the fault plane. We use different source time functions to derive a suite of kinematic source models to image the spatial distribution of dynamic and breakdown stress drop, strength excess and critical slip weakening distance (Dc). Our results show that the source time functions, adopted in kinematic source models, affect the inferred dynamic parameters. The critical slip weakening distance, characterizing the constitutive relation, ranges between 30% and 80% of the total slip. The ratio between Dc and total slip depends on the adopted source time functions and, in these applications, is nearly constant over the fault. We propose that source time functions compatible with earthquake dynamics should be used to infer the traction time history.

We propose a new source-time function, to be used in kinematic modeling of ground-motion time histories, which is consistent with dynamic propagation of earthquake ruptures and makes feasible the dynamic interpretation of kinematic slip models. This function is derived from a source-time function first proposed by Yoffe (1951), which yields a traction evolution showing a slip-weakening behavior. In order to remove its singularity, we apply a convolution with a triangular function and obtain a regularized source-time function called the regularized Yoffe function. We propose a parameterization of this slip-velocity time function through the final slip, its duration, and the duration of the positive slip acceleration (Tacc). Using this analytical function, we examined the relation between kinematic parameters, such as peak slip velocity and slip duration, and dynamic parameters, such as slip-weakening distance and breakdown-stress drop. The obtained scaling relations are consistent with those proposed by Ohnaka and Yamashita (1989) from laboratory experiments. This shows that the proposed source-time function suitably represents dynamic rupture propagation with finite slip-weakening distances.

In this study we aim to understand the dependence of the critical slip weakening distance (Dc) on the final slip (Dtot) during the propagation of a dynamic rupture and the consistency of their inferred correlation. To achieve this goal we have performed a series of numerical tests suitably designed to validate the adopted numerical procedure and to verify the actual capability in measuring Dc. We have retrieved two kinematic rupture histories from spontaneous dynamic rupture models governed by a slip weakening law in which a constant Dc distribution on the fault plane as well as a constant Dc / Dtot ratio are assumed, respectively. The slip velocity and the shear traction time histories represent the synthetic “real” target data which we aim to reproduce. We use a 3-D traction-at-split nodes numerical procedure to image the dynamic traction evolution by assuming our modeled slip velocity as a boundary condition on the fault plane. We assume a regularized Yoffe function as source time function in our modeling attempts and we measure the critical slip weakening distance from the inferred traction versus slip curves at each point on the fault. We compare the inferred values with those of the target dynamic models. Our numerical tests show that fitting the slip velocity functions of the target models at each point on the fault plane is not enough to retrieve good traction evolution curves and to obtain reliable measures of Dc. We find that the estimation of Dc is very sensitive to any small variation of the slip velocity function. An artificial correlation between Dc/Dtot is obtained when a fixed shape of slip velocity is assumed on the fault (i.e., constant rise time and constant time for positive acceleration) which differs from that of the target model. We point out that the estimation of fracture energy (breakdown work) on the fault is not affected by biases in measuring Dc.