Slip model of the 17 November 2015 M w  = 6.5 Lefkada earthquake from the joint inversion of geodetic and seismic data

• Published in: Geophysical research letters 2016-08, Vol.43 (15), p.7973-7981
• Main Authors: Chousianitis, Konstantinos, Konca, A. Ozgun, Tselentis, G.‐Akis, Papadopoulos, Gerassimos A., Gianniou, Michail
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1002/2016GL069764

We inferred the rupture process of the 2015 Lefkada earthquake by combining teleseismic and near‐field strong motion data, together with static and dynamic GPS displacements. The joint inversion of all data sets revealed a relatively complex slip pattern with a heterogeneous distribution. Slip is confined in the upper 10 km. Two principal asperities with peak slip amplitude of 2.35 m, which released 65% of the total seismic moment, were recovered southwest of the epicenter. Remarkably, the 2015 earthquake ruptured the part of the Cephalonia Transform Fault Zone that remained unbroken during the 2003 event, revealing a pattern of rupture segmentation along the fault zone. In this context the Lefkada segment can be divided into a northern and southern part. Preseismic deformation onshore southern Lefkada revealed that since the 2003 rupture, the northern part of the Lefkada segment continuously loaded the southern part, which eventually broke during the 2015 event. Two principal asperities were recovered southwest of the epicenter at a depth of 5 km The Lefkada segment of the CTFZ can be divided into two parts in terms of rupture segmentation Differential strain rate pattern onshore Lefkada revealed preseismic deformation