Abstract

GOMEZ-GONZALEZ, Juan Martín; MENDOZA, Carlos; SLADEN, Anthony  and  GUZMAN-SPEZIALE, Marco. Kinematic source analysis of the 2003 Tecomán, México, earthquake (Mw 7.6) using teleseismic body waves. Bol. Soc. Geol. Mex [online]. 2010, vol.62, n.2, pp.249-262. ISSN 1405-3322.

We analyze the Tecomán, Colima, earthquake (Mw 7.6) of January 22, 2003, one of the major seismic events that has occurred in the Colima-Jalisco region, México, during the last 100 years. We describe its rupture process by a classical waveform modeling of teleseismic body waves. A point source inversion indicates a shallow underthrust event (25 km); its fault plane is defined by a strike of 278°, a dip of 27°, and a rake of 78°. The source time function (STF) has a total duration of about 22 s and shows a relatively simple time history. The main moment release is preceded by a small onset of about 6.6 sec, located 17 km south of the main moment release. This precursor is associated with an initial rupture velocity of about 2.6 km/s. Slight azimuthal variations of relative source time functions (RSTF) indicate a weak directivity, probably produced by a bilateral asymmetrical rupture oriented NNE-SSW. The RSTFs confirm that the Tecomán earthquake is composed of three subevents that mainly ruptured down-dip. A finite line-source analysis along the strike and dip also confirms the orientation of the rupture propagation and shows the wide range of apparent rupture velocities along the fault. The Tecomán earthquake is an interesting case of a well-recorded event, with good quality data, but with results that are poorly constrained, which affects the uncertainty of several parameters, like directivity and hypocenter depth.

Keywords : Body waves; earthquake-source mechanism; fault plane solution; seismology; source time function; waveform analysis.

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