Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface
The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica is one of the few places on Earth where the seismically active plate interface of a subduction zone is directly overlaid by land rather than ocean. At this plate interface, large megathrust earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 7 occur approximately every 50 yea...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2014
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/103819 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/19299 |
| _version_ | 1826130112573079552 |
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| author | Protti, Marino González, Victor Newman, Andrew V. Dixon, Timothy H. Malservisi, Rocco Owen, Susan E. Schwartz, Susan Y. Marshall, Jeffrey S. Feng, Lujia Walter, Jacob I. |
| author2 | School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences |
| author_facet | School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Protti, Marino González, Victor Newman, Andrew V. Dixon, Timothy H. Malservisi, Rocco Owen, Susan E. Schwartz, Susan Y. Marshall, Jeffrey S. Feng, Lujia Walter, Jacob I. |
| author_sort | Protti, Marino |
| collection | NTU |
| description | The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica is one of the few places on Earth where the seismically active plate interface of a subduction zone is directly overlaid by land rather than ocean. At this plate interface, large megathrust earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 7 occur approximately every 50 years. Such quakes occurred in 1853, 1900 and 1950, so another large earthquake had been anticipated1, 2. Land-based Global Positioning System3, 4 (GPS) and seismic5, 6, 7 measurements revealed a region where the plate interface was locked and hence accumulated seismic strain that could be released in future earthquakes. On 5 September 2012, the long-anticipated Nicoya earthquake occurred in the heart of the previously identified locked patch. Here we report observations of coseismic deformation from GPS and geomorphic data along the Nicoya Peninsula and show that the magnitude 7.6 Nicoya earthquake ruptured the lateral and down-dip extent of the previously locked region of the plate interface. We also identify a previously locked part of the plate interface, located immediately offshore, that may not have slipped during the 2012 earthquake, where monitoring should continue. By pairing observations of the spatial extent of interseismic locking and subsequent coseismic rupture, we demonstrate the use of detailed near-field geodetic investigations during the late interseismic period for identifying future earthquake potential. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T07:51:12Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/103819 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T07:51:12Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1038192020-09-26T21:36:44Z Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface Protti, Marino González, Victor Newman, Andrew V. Dixon, Timothy H. Malservisi, Rocco Owen, Susan E. Schwartz, Susan Y. Marshall, Jeffrey S. Feng, Lujia Walter, Jacob I. School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Earth Observatory of Singapore DRNTU::Science::Geology::Volcanoes and earthquakes The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica is one of the few places on Earth where the seismically active plate interface of a subduction zone is directly overlaid by land rather than ocean. At this plate interface, large megathrust earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 7 occur approximately every 50 years. Such quakes occurred in 1853, 1900 and 1950, so another large earthquake had been anticipated1, 2. Land-based Global Positioning System3, 4 (GPS) and seismic5, 6, 7 measurements revealed a region where the plate interface was locked and hence accumulated seismic strain that could be released in future earthquakes. On 5 September 2012, the long-anticipated Nicoya earthquake occurred in the heart of the previously identified locked patch. Here we report observations of coseismic deformation from GPS and geomorphic data along the Nicoya Peninsula and show that the magnitude 7.6 Nicoya earthquake ruptured the lateral and down-dip extent of the previously locked region of the plate interface. We also identify a previously locked part of the plate interface, located immediately offshore, that may not have slipped during the 2012 earthquake, where monitoring should continue. By pairing observations of the spatial extent of interseismic locking and subsequent coseismic rupture, we demonstrate the use of detailed near-field geodetic investigations during the late interseismic period for identifying future earthquake potential. Accepted version 2014-05-05T07:41:44Z 2019-12-06T21:21:02Z 2014-05-05T07:41:44Z 2019-12-06T21:21:02Z 2014 2014 Journal Article Protti, M., González, V., Newman, A. V., Dixon, T. H., Schwartz, S. Y., Marshall, J. S., Feng, L., Walter, J. I., Malservisi, R., & Owen, S. E. (2014). Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface. Nature Geoscience, 7(2), 117-121 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/103819 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/19299 10.1038/ngeo2038 en Nature geoscience © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by Nature Geoscience, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at:[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2038]. 5 p. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | DRNTU::Science::Geology::Volcanoes and earthquakes Protti, Marino González, Victor Newman, Andrew V. Dixon, Timothy H. Malservisi, Rocco Owen, Susan E. Schwartz, Susan Y. Marshall, Jeffrey S. Feng, Lujia Walter, Jacob I. Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface |
| title | Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface |
| title_full | Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface |
| title_fullStr | Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface |
| title_short | Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface |
| title_sort | nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface |
| topic | DRNTU::Science::Geology::Volcanoes and earthquakes |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/103819 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/19299 |
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