A simple dynamic model for the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake

Abstract

We investigate the dynamic rupture process of the 16 January 1995 Kobe earthquake (Mw 6.9) by spontaneous rupture modeling of a 3‐D dynamic shear crack that reproduces the slip distribution found from kinematic waveform inversion of strong motion data. We find that using the heterogeneous initial stress field obtained from the kinematic slip model and relatively uniform fracture energy distribution, successfully generates a dynamic model with slip and rupture time distributions that are consistent with the kinematic source inversion. Our results suggest that we may be able to produce realistic dynamic rupture models with simpler assumptions for dynamic source parameters, such as the fracture energy, than have been used in most dynamic rupture models to date.