Source complexity of the 2016 M_W7.8 Kaikoura (New Zealand) earthquake revealed from teleseismic and InSAR data

On November 13, 2016, an M_W7.8 earthquake struck Kaikoura in South Island of New Zealand. By means of back-projection of array recordings, ASTFs-analysis of global seismic recordings, and joint inversion of global seismic data and co-seismic InSAR data, we investigated complexity of the earthquake source. The result shows that the 2016 M_W7.8 Kaikoura earthquake ruptured about 100 s unilaterally from south to northeast (~N28°–33°E), producing a rupture area about 160 km long and about 50 km wide and releasing scalar moment 1.01×10²¹ Nm. In particular, the rupture area consisted of two slip asperities, with one close to the initial rupture point having a maximal slip value ~6.9 m while the other far away in the northeast having a maximal slip value ~9.3 m. The first asperity slipped for about 65 s and the second one started 40 s after the first one had initiated. The two slipped simultaneously for about 25 s. Furthermore, the first had a nearly thrust slip while the second had both thrust and strike slip. It is interesting that the rupture velocity was not constant, and the whole process may be divided into 5 stages in which the velocities were estimated to be 1.4 km/s, 0 km/s, 2.1 km/s, 0 km/s and 1.1 km/s, respectively. The high-frequency sources distributed nearly along the lower edge of the rupture area, the high-frequency radiating mainly occurred at launching of the asperities, and it seemed that no high-frequency energy was radiated when the rupturing was going to stop.