Abstract
The long rupture length and complex fault geometries of the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake offer a great opportunity to investigate the relationship between coseismic radiation and fault complexities. In this study, we first improved the compressive-sensing back-projection method (CS-BP) with window time adjustment and parallel computation to enhance its spatial–temporal resolution and computational efficiency. Then we applied the CS-BP to invert for the coseismic radiation of the Wenchuan earthquake in multiple frequency bands. Our results show that the coseismic radiation of the Wenchuan earthquake is frequency-dependent and strongly associated with the fault geometries: low-frequency radiation sources are concentrated on smooth fault segments with large coseismic slip, while higher-frequency sources are mainly related to fault complexities (e.g., Xiaoyudong fault, Gaochuan fault-bend, Leigu fault-bend, and Nanba fault step-over). An acceleration of rupture speed from ~ 1.5 to ~ 3.0 km/s is also observed the near Xiaoyudong fault, where strong high-frequency energies were radiated. Finally, we discuss the role of rupture speed in mediating the relationship between coseismic radiation and fault complexities. On one hand, sudden changes of rupture speeds contribute to strong high-frequency radiation. On the other hand, fault complexities can also strongly affect the rupture speed: a sudden break of a large asperity is able to propel the acceleration, while rupture front may decelerate when it jumps across geometric barriers.
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Acknowledgements
We appreciate the constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers, which help to improve the manuscript significantly. We acknowledge the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology–Data Management Center (IRIS-DMC) for providing the waveform data used in this study. We appreciate Guixi Yi for providing the information of aftershocks. This work is benefitted from discussion with Yehuda Ben-Zion. Some figures are plotted using GMT (the Generic Mapping Tools, http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu). This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41374055) and China Earthquake Science Experiment Project, China Earthquake Administration (Project Code 2017CESE0101).
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Huang, T., Yao, H. Coseismic Radiation of the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan Earthquake and Its Relationship to Fault Complexities. Pure Appl. Geophys. 176, 1207–1224 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-2050-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-2050-3