Coseismic and postseismic slip of the 2006 Kiholo Bay earthquake in Hawaii from GPS data

Abstract:

On October 15th 2006, two large earthquakes (Kiholo Bay, M­­_w = 6.7 and Mahukona, M­­_w = 6.0) occurred below the northwest coast of the Big Island of Hawaii in a region that has not been typically associated with large earthquakes. While the 2006 earthquakes occurred only ~28 km and six minutes apart in space and time, their distinct focal mechanisms and source depths (~40 km and 20 km, respectively) suggest an interesting main shock-aftershock association. These two mantle (non-volcanic) earthquakes in Hawaii provide a rare opportunity to investigate lithospheric stresses associated with long-term flexural loading. Here, we use GPS observations and a semi-analytic dislocation model to estimate the co-seismic and post-seismic slip of these two events. For the Kiholo Bay event, we find that 0.5 m of net slip, occurring between 39 - 51 km depth on a nearly 30 km east-west striking fault that dips south at 45°, fits the data well with an RMS residual of 0.87 mm (~10 % of the observed maximum surface displacement). This geodetically estimated fault attitude matches with one of the nodal planes in the Global CMT catalog. Furthermore, positive Coulomb stress changes are predicted in the Mahukona source region due to the Kiholo Bay mainshock, suggesting an elastic stress triggering relationship. GPS time-series data will be used to investigate possible postseismic viscoelastic relaxation by mantle flow in response to these coseismic stress changes.