THE 2014 MW 6.9 NORTH AEGEAN TROUGH (NAT) EARTHQUAKE: SEISMOLOGICAL AND GEODETIC EVIDENCE

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Published: Jul 27, 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/bgsg.11877
Keywords:
focal mechanism active tectonics surface deformation Samothraki Gökçeada (Imvros)
V. Saltogianni
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras
M. Gianniou
National Cadastre and Mapping Agency SA
T. Taymaz
Department of Geophysical Engineering, The Faculty of Mines, İstanbul Technical University
S. Yolsal-Çevikbilen
Department of Geophysical Engineering, The Faculty of Mines, İstanbul Technical University
S. Stiros
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras
Abstract

A strong earthquake (Mw 6.9) on 24 May 2014 ruptured the North Aegean Trough (NAT) in Greece, west of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ). In order to provide unbiased constrains of the rupture process and fault geometry of the earthquake, seismological and geodetic data were analyzed independently. First, based on teleseismic long-period P- and SH- waveforms a point-source solution yielded dominantly right-lateral strike-slip faulting mechanism. Furthermore, finite fault inversion of broad-band data revealed the slip history of the earthquake. Second, GPS slip vectors derived from 11 permanent GPS stations uniformly distributed around the meizoseismal area of the earthquake indicated significant horizontal coseismic slip. Inversion of GPS-derived displacements on the basis of Okada model and using the new TOPological INVersion (TOPINV) algorithm permitted to model a vertical strike slip fault, consistent with that derived from seismological data. Obtained results are consistent with the NAT structure and constrain well the fault geometry and the dynamics of the 2014 earthquake. The latter seems to fill a gap in seismicity along the NAT in the last 50 years, but seems not to have a direct relationship with the sequence of recent faulting farther east, along the NAFZ.

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  • Section
  • Seismology
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