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Rupture in the 4 May 2018 M W 6.9 Earthquake Seaward of the Kilauea East Rift Zone Fissure Eruption in Hawaii
Author(s) -
Liu Chengli,
Lay Thorne,
Xiong Xiong
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl079349
Subject(s) - geology , seismology , epicenter , rift zone , rift , earthquake rupture , thrust fault , seafloor spreading , slip (aerodynamics) , subduction , décollement , fault (geology) , tectonics , paleontology , thermodynamics , physics
The 4 May 2018, M W 6.9 thrust‐faulting earthquake occurred a day after the first fissure eruption in Leilani Estates along the East Rift Zone of Kilauea, Hawaii, relatively early in the 2018 eruptive sequence. The earthquake's location and geodetic deformation pattern are similar to those of the larger 1975 Kalapana earthquake ( M W 7.7), which is thought to have occurred on the décollement between the island volcanics and the former Pacific seafloor. The 2018 event has a shallow‐dipping thrust plane and shallow epicenter located just offshore. A finite‐fault kinematic slip model is determined by inversion of teleseismic body waves, strong‐ground motion recordings, and coseismic Global Positioning System offsets along the southeastern coast of Hawaii. Inversions indicate a preferred dip of 7°, slip of up to 3.0 m near 5‐km deep offshore of the coast, and low average rupture speed of ~1 km/s. These are consistent with rupture of a weak décollement.