Bouchon Michel, Vallée Martin
Université Joseph Fourier and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, Boîte postale 53, 38041 Grenoble, France.
Science. 2003 Aug 8;301(5634):824-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1086832.
The 2001 Kunlunshan earthquake was an extraordinary event that produced a 400-km-long surface rupture. Regional broadband recordings of this event provide an opportunity to accurately observe the speed at which a fault ruptures during an earthquake, which has important implications for seismic risk and for understanding earthquake physics. We determined that rupture propagated on the 400-km-long fault at an average speed of 3.7 to 3.9 km/s, which exceeds the shear velocity of the brittle part of the crust. Rupture started at sub-Rayleigh wave velocity and became supershear, probably approaching 5 km/s, after about 100 km of propagation.
2001年昆仑山地震是一次非同寻常的事件，产生了一条长达400公里的地表破裂带。该事件的区域宽带记录提供了一个机会，可精确观测地震期间断层破裂的速度，这对地震风险评估和理解地震物理学具有重要意义。我们确定，破裂在这条400公里长的断层上以平均3.7至3.9公里/秒的速度传播，这超过了地壳脆性部分的剪切速度。破裂开始时速度低于瑞利波速度，在传播约100公里后变为超剪切速度，可能接近5公里/秒。
