Earthquake crisis unveils the growth of an incipient continental fault system - Sorbonne Université
Article Dans Une Revue Nature Communications Année : 2019

Earthquake crisis unveils the growth of an incipient continental fault system

Ingo Grevemeyer
Yann Klinger
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Alain Rabaute

Résumé

Large continental faults extend for thousands of kilometres to form boundaries between rigid tectonic blocks. These faults are associated with prominent topographic features and can produce large earthquakes. Here we show the first evidence of a major tectonic structure in its initial-stage, the Al-Idrissi Fault System (AIFS), in the Alboran Sea. Combining bathymetric and seismic reflection data, together with seismological analyses of the 2016 M w 6.4 earthquake offshore Morocco-the largest event ever recorded in the area-we unveil a 3D geometry for the AIFS. We report evidence of left-lateral strike-slip displacement, char-acterise the fault segmentation and demonstrate that AIFS is the source of the 2016 events. The occurrence of the M w 6.4 earthquake together with historical and instrumental events supports that the AIFS is currently growing through propagation and linkage of its segments. Thus, the AIFS provides a unique model of the inception and growth of a young plate boundary fault system.
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Dates et versions

hal-02286516 , version 1 (13-09-2019)

Identifiants

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Eulalia Gracia, Ingo Grevemeyer, Rafael Bartolome, Hector Perea, Sara Martinez-Loriente, et al.. Earthquake crisis unveils the growth of an incipient continental fault system. Nature Communications, 2019, 10, pp.3482. ⟨10.1038/s41467-019-11064-5⟩. ⟨hal-02286516⟩
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