| Title | Breaking the oceanic lithosphere of a subducting slab: The 2013 Khash, Iran earthquake |
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| Author | Barnhart, W D; Hayes, G P; Samsonov, S V ; Fielding, E J; Seidman, L E |
| Source | Geophysical Research Letters vol. 41, issue 1, 2014 p. 32-36, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058096 |
| Year | 2014 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20150215 |
| Publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; digital; on-line |
| File format | pdf |
| Area | Khash; Iran |
| Lat/Long WENS | 61.0000 61.2500 28.2500 28.0000 |
| Subjects | geophysics; subduction; lithosphere; continental crust; earthquakes; earthquake studies; earthquake mechanisms |
| Illustrations | location maps; profiles; models |
| Released | 2014 01 08 |
| Abstract | Large intermediate-depth, intraslab normal-faulting earthquakes are a common, dangerous, but poorly understood phenomenon in subduction zones owing to a paucity of near-field geophysical observations.
Seismological and high-quality geodetic observations of the 2013 Mw7.7 Khash, Iran earthquake reveal that at least half of the oceanic lithosphere, including the mantle and entire crust, ruptured in a single earthquake, confirming with unprecedented
resolution that large earthquakes can nucleate in and rupture through the oceanic mantle. A rupture width of at least 55 km is required to explain both Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar observations and teleseismic waveforms, with the majority
of slip occurring in the oceanic mantle. Combining our well-constrained earthquake slip distributions with the causative fault orientation and geometry of the local subduction zone, we hypothesize that the Khash earthquake likely occurred as the
combined result of slab-bending forces and dehydration of hydrous minerals along a preexisting fault formed prior to subduction. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 296923 |
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