Slow Slip and Potential Earthquake Triggering Near Guerrero, Mexico From Geodetic Remote Sensing

Date: 4/24/2019

Time: 06:00 PM

Room: Grand Ballroom

Slow slip events (SSEs) are known to occur episodically along subduction zones, in areas known as “seismic gaps” that seldom produce large earthquakes. The Guerrero seismic gap in Mexico has seen several SSEs, the most recent having been observed in 2017-2018. These events can change the local stress field and could be responsible for triggering large earthquakes, and they provide an opportunity for studying mechanical conditions on subduction zone faults near areas of fast earthquake nucleation. The Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) mission provides geodetic deformation measurements with unprecedented coverage, having data acquisitions every 6-12 days at high spatial resolution, which allow for constraining the spatio-temporal evolution of slow events. We use data from the Sentinel-1 mission from two look geometries and regional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations to generate a time-series of surface displacements, and apply novel techniques to disentangle the different tectonic components superimposed in the time-series. We estimate cumulative slip for the SSE and earthquakes and investigate the spatial temporal aspects of how deformation and slip evolve during the event. Finally, we investigate the impact of the SSE on the local stress field and discuss possible triggering relationships between SSEs and earthquakes on this part of the Mexico subduction zone.

Presenting Author: Jeremy Maurer

Authors