The 2007 Azores earthquakes: A case of triggering?

On 5 April (Mw=6.3) and 7 April 2007 (Mw=6.1 ) two earthquakes occur at the Formigas Islets (Azores Islands), both with same epicenter and felt (I=V/VI MSK) in S. Miguel Island. The rupture process of these earthquakes has been studied from body wave inversion of broad band data at telesesimic distances. Results obtained shown normal faulting for both shocks, with planes oriented in NW–SE direction, with focus at shallow depth (10 km and 6 km respectively). The slip distribution over the fault plane (152/44/-88) shows for the 05-04-07 event, the rupture propagating downward and a duration of 12s for the source time function. For the 07-04-07 event, the slip distribution over the fault plane (125/52/-81) shows de rupture propagating downward and duration of 10s for the STF. From these results we have estimated the static Coulomb stress change. We find that the static stress change caused by the 5 April event is higher, about 2 bar at epicenter the location of the second event (April 7), triggering the second rupture. Locations of aftershocks do not agree well with areas of increased Coulomb failure stress, which can be explained by the complexities of the rupture process oy by uncertainties at the hypocerter locatio

Study of the fracture process of Al Hoceima earthquake (24/02/2004, Mw=6.2) from regional and teleseismic data.

We studied the source time function (STF) and rupture process of the 2004 Alhoceima, Morocco earthquake of Mw = 6.2 using teleseismic and regional broad-band data. From regional broad-band data, STF function was determined using three large after- shocks as empirical Green functions. We inverted of body wave forms at teleseismic distances using an extended source model with rupture velocity between 2.5-3.0 km and using as preliminary orientation the fault plane solution derived from 126 P-wave polarities. Results show a complex bilateral rupture formed by four shallow subevents (2-8 km) with a maximum seismic moment release during the first seconds (more than 80% of a total of 1.8x1018 Nm) and time duration of 8-10 s. The focal mechanism shows a strike slip motion with a normal component. Nodal planes strike on NNE- SSW and WNW-ESE direction with horizontal pressure axes in NNW-SSE direction. The rupture propagated mainly towards the North. This propagation is in agreement with the damages caused in the epicentral region. The larger aftershocks have been relocated using a master event method. Comparisson of these results with those ob- tained for the 1994 earthquake shown similar behaviour: complex rupture process and, apparently, no relation of the 1994 nor the 2004 shocks with the Nekor fault, the most important geological feature in the area. The stress pattern derived from focal mech- anisms of 1994 and 2004 are in agreement with the regional stress pattern, horizontal compression in NNW-SSE and horizontal extension in E-W direction in the Alboran Sea

Seismicity along the Azores-Gibraltar region controlled by global plates’kinematics

The seismicity along the western part of the Eurasia-Nubian plate boundary has been widely studied and is charac- terized by a very complex pattern. The movement is transtensional in the Azores, dextral along the Gloria transform and convergent between the SW Atlantic margin and the Ibero-Maghrebian zone. In order to understand geograph- ical evolution of the seismicity pattern along this plate frontier, we compare it to the global plate kinematics. More precisely, we consider the difference between the kinematics velocities, supplied by several global kinematics mod- els, across of the Eurasia and Nubian plates. We find a good correlation between this difference of the kinematics velocities and the slip vector provided by the seismicity. Indeed, the directions of these vectors are very similar. A change in the direction of the displacement vector is systematically associated with a similar change of the vector representing the difference of the kinematics velocities. This points out that the seismicity pattern would be con- trolled by the global plates’ kinematics. More quantitatively, the norm of the difference of the kinematics velocities also scales with the slip velocity deduced from the seismicity studies