Three-dimensional dynamic rupture simulations across interacting faults: The M w 7.0, 2010, Haiti earthquake

International audienceThe mechanisms controlling rupture propagation between fault segments during a large earthquake are key to the hazard posed by fault systems. Rupture initiation on a smaller fault sometimes transfers to a larger fault, resulting in a significant event (e.g., 2002 M7.9 Denali USA and 2010 M7.1 Darfield New Zealand earthquakes). In other cases rupture is constrained to the initial fault and does not transfer to nearby faults, resulting in events of more moderate magnitude. This was the case of the 1989 M6.9 Loma Prieta and 2010 M7.0 Haiti earthquakes which initiated on reverse faults abutting against a major strike-slip plate boundary fault but did not propagate onto it. Here we investigate the rupture dynamics of the Haiti earthquake, seeking to understand why rupture propagated across two segments of the Léogâne fault but did not propagate to the adjacent Enriquillo Plantain Garden Fault, the major 200 km long plate boundary fault cutting through southern Haiti. We use a finite element model to simulate propagation of rupture on the Léogâne fault, varying friction and background stress to determine the parameter set that best explains the observed earthquake sequence, in particular, the ground displacement. The two slip patches inferred from finite fault inversions are explained by the successive rupture of two fault segments oriented favorably with respect to the rupture propagation, while the geometry of the Enriquillo fault did not allow shear stress to reach failure

3-D velocity structure in southern Haiti from local earthquake tomography

International audienceWe investigate 3-D local earthquake tomography for high-quality travel time arrivals from aftershocks following the 2010 M7.0 Haiti earthquake on the Léogâne fault. The data were recorded by 35 stations, including 19 ocean bottom seismometers, from which we selected 595 events to simultaneously invert for hypocenter location and 3-D Vp and Vs velocity structures in southern Haiti. We performed several resolution tests and concluded that clear features can be recovered to a depth of 15 km. At 5 km depth we distinguish a broad low-velocity zone in the Vp and Vs structure offshore near Gonave Island, which correlate with layers of marine sediments. Results show a pronounced low-velocity zone in the upper 5 km across the city of Léogâne, which is consistent with the sedimentary basin location from geologic map. At 10 km depth, we detect a low-velocity anomaly offshore near the Trois Baies fault and a NW-SE directed low-velocity zone onshore across Petit-Goâve and Jacmel, which is consistent with a suspected fault from a previous study and that we refer to it in our study as the Petit-Goâve-Jacmel fault. These observations suggest that low-velocity structures delineate fault structures and the sedimentary basins across the southern peninsula, which is extremely useful for seismic hazard assessment in Haiti

Exploration of remote triggering: A survey of multiple fault structures in Haiti

International audienceTriggering studies provide an important tool for understanding the fundamental physics of how faults slip and interact, and they also provide clues about the stress states of faults. In this study, we explore how seismic waves from the 27 February 2010 Mw8.8 Maule, Chile mainshock interact with the left lateral strike-slip Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault (EPGF) and surrounding reverse faults in the southern Haiti peninsula. The Chile mainshock occurred 6,000 km away and just 46 days after the 12 January 2010 Mw7.0 Haiti earthquake, a tragic event which activated multiple faults in the southern Haiti peninsula. During the surface waves of the Chile mainshock, several tectonic tremor signals were observed, originating from south of the EPGF trace. Cross-correlation of the triggered tremor and transient stresses resolved onto to the EPGF indicates that the Love wave of the Chile mainshock was the primary driving mechanism of the triggered deep shear slip and tremor signals, as opposed to dilatational stress changes generated by the Rayleigh wave. We also searched for any influence of transient stresses on Haiti aftershock activity by applying the matched filter technique to multiple days of seismic data around the time of the Chile mainshock. While we identified a slight increase in Haiti aftershock activity rate, the rate changes were significant only when small magnitude events were included in the significance tests. These observations are generally consistent with recent inferences that deep tectonic tremor is more sensitive than shallow earthquakes to external stress perturbations

Crustal Structure and Fault Geometry of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake from Temporary Seismometer Deployments,

International audienceHaiti has been the locus of a number of large and damaging historical earthquakes. The recent 12 January 2010 Mw 7.0 earthquake affected cities that were largely unprepared, which resulted in tremendous losses. It was initially assumed that the earthquake ruptured the Enriquillo Plantain Garden fault (EPGF), a major active structure in southern Haiti, known from geodetic measurements and its geomorphic expression to be capable of producing M 7 or larger earthquakes. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data, however, showed that the event ruptured a previously unmapped fault, the Léogâne fault, a north‐dipping oblique transpressional fault located immediately north of the EPGF. Following the earthquake, several groups installed temporary seismic stations to record aftershocks, including ocean‐bottom seismometers on either side of the EPGF. We use data from the complete set of stations deployed after the event, on land and offshore, to relocate all aftershocks from 10 February to 24 June 2010, determine a 1D regional crustal velocity model, and calculate focal mechanisms. The aftershock locations from the combined dataset clearly delineate the Léogâne fault, with a geometry close to that inferred from geodetic data. Its strike and dip closely agree with the global centroid moment tensor solution of the mainshock but with a steeper dip than inferred from previous finite fault inversions. The aftershocks also delineate a structure with shallower southward dip offshore and to the west of the rupture zone, which could indicate triggered seismicity on the offshore Trois Baies reverse fault. We use first‐motion focal mechanisms to clarify the relationship of the fault geometry to the triggered aftershocks