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Two successive slow slip events evidenced in 2009-2010 by a dense GPS network in Guerrero, Mexico
Andrea Walpersdorf, Nathalie Cotte, Vladimir Kostoglodov, Mathilde Vergnolle, Mathilde Radiguet, José Antonio Santiago, Michel Campillo
To cite this version:
Andrea Walpersdorf, Nathalie Cotte, Vladimir Kostoglodov, Mathilde Vergnolle, Mathilde Radiguet, et al.. Two successive slow slip events evidenced in 2009-2010 by a dense GPS network in Guer- rero, Mexico. Geophysical Research Letters, American Geophysical Union, 2011, 38, pp.L15307.
�10.1029/2011GL048124�. �hal-00620540�
Two successive slow slip events evidenced in 2009 – 2010 by a dense GPS network in Guerrero, Mexico
Andrea Walpersdorf,
1Nathalie Cotte,
1Vladimir Kostoglodov,
2Mathilde Vergnolle,
1,3Mathilde Radiguet,
1José Antonio Santiago,
2and Michel Campillo
1Received 12 May 2011; revised 27 June 2011; accepted 28 June 2011; published 9 August 2011.
[
1] A large slow slip event (SSE) had been expected for the Guerrero gap for 2010. It was actually observed with an onset in July 2009. Comparison with the preceding large SSEs, which occurred in 2002 and 2006, highlights both persistent characteristics of the Guerrero SSEs (e.g. the localization of slip in the seismogenic part of the subduction interface), and also particularities of the 2009/2010 event (namely two distinct slip patches on the fault interface moving consecutively). The long GPS time series and the density of the GPS network provide evidence that the Guerrero SSEs, like classical earthquakes, have complex features. Despite having very short and relatively regular repeat times (∼4 yr), Guerrero SSEs appear aperiodic. A shorter loading time before the 2009/2010 event than before the 2006 SSE seems to produce consistently reduced surface displacements for a group of stations in a core zone.
Citation: Walpersdorf, A., N. Cotte, V. Kostoglodov, M. Vergnolle, M. Radiguet, J. Antonio Santiago, and M. Campillo (2011), Two successive slow slip events evidenced in 2009 – 2010 by a dense GPS network in Guerrero, Mexico, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L15307, doi:10.1029/2011GL048124.
1. Introduction
[
2] The world’s largest Slow Slip Events (SSE) take place on the Mexican subduction zone, in the state of Guerrero.
Three slow slip events were registered by the Mexican permanent GPS network in 1998, 2002 and 2006. They reach surface displacements up to 5–6 cm, with an equiva- lent seismic moment of up to M = 7.6 [Lowry et al., 2001;
Kostoglodov et al., 2003; Larson et al., 2004; Radiguet et al., 2011]. The very frequent and large SSEs in Mexico represent a significant contribution to the seismic cycle that was, until recently, ignored by the existing models. More- over, the Guerrero SSEs reproduce features of the seismic cycle which, for classical earthquakes, are observable only over much longer time spans. The Guerrero subduction zone is, therefore, an exceptional natural laboratory for studying the seismic cycle and improving our capability of evaluating seismic hazard. The relatively regular occurrence of the Guerrero slip events has permitted us to calculate an average repeat time of 4 – 4.5 yr [Cotte et al., 2009; Vergnolle et al.,
2010]. Since the onset of the last SSE was in April 2006, we expected the next transient event to start in 2010. In fact, the new SSE started in July 2009 and ended in September 2010. It was monitored by the continuous GPS network maintained by UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Geofisica – IG, and Servicio Sismológico Nacional ‐ SSN). This paper aims to highlight the common characteristics and the particularities of the 2009/2010 event with respect to the preceding SSEs by examining the time evolution of the GPS positions at the surface and by using a simple dislocation model in an elastic half space [Savage, 1983] to estimate fault slip and its location on the subduc- tion plate interface.
2. GPS Network and Data Analysis
[
3] The 2009/2010 slow slip event was monitored over its total extent by 17 GPS stations situated in and around the Guerrero state (Figure 1). 24 other Mexican stations (19 UNAM, 5 Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia ‐ INEGI) were not affected by the event, which indicates the spatial limits of the slow slipping patch. The Mexican stations were compli- mented by 36 stations from the global IGS (International GNSS Service) network in order to establish the reference frame (ITRF2008) [Altamimi et al., 2011]. This regional network was analyzed using the GAMIT/GLOBK software (version 10.35) [Herring et al., 2006], with particular atten- tion to an up ‐ to ‐ date modeling of environmental effects on the GPS measurements, a strategy that has been shown to decrease noise in the time series efficiently [Vergnolle et al., 2010]. Also, as in the work of Vergnolle et al. [2010], the regional network solutions were combined with solutions from a network of globally distributed IGS stations, a strategy that helps to decrease persistent noise in the EW component, which is probably due to a lack of sufficiently close reference stations east and west of the regional network.
3. GPS Evidence for Two Consecutive Sub ‐ Events During the 2009/2010 SSE
[
4] The slow slip events in Mexico affect mainly the NS motion of the stations, due to the convergence of the Cocos plate with respect to the North America plate in a direction of ∼30°N and the fact that most of the slow slip motion is directed in the opposite sense to the inter‐seismic loading.
Therefore, to illustrate the effect of the SSE, we present in Figure 2 the north position time series of some Guerrero stations (the east and up position time series are provided in Figures S1 and S2 of the auxiliary material).
11Institut des Sciences de la Terre,
Université Joseph Fourier, CNRS UMR 5275, Grenoble, France.
2Instituto de Geofı´sica,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México City, Mexico.
3Now at Ge´oazur, Universite´ de Nice, CNRS UMR 6526, Valbonne, France.
Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.
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