Dynamic triggering of earthquakes in the North Island of New Zealand following the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake

Abstract

Large earthquakes are capable of triggering microseismicity, deep tremor and slow-slip events from intermediate- to long-distance ranges. Unfortunately, earthquake catalogs are typically incomplete right after large mainshocks. Hence, mapping triggering patterns and understanding the underlying triggering mechanism are challenging. Here we present two different types of seismicity responses to dynamic stressing by passing seismic waves in the North Island of New Zealand following the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake. Based on a template matching technique, we identify up to 4-7 times more earthquakes than listed in New Zealand's GeoNet catalog. We also compute the dynamic stress perturbations in the North Island due to the Kaikōura mainshock and compare them to seismicity rate changes to identify regions with high susceptibility to dynamic stress triggering. Abundant triggered earthquakes occurred immediately following the mainshock in the shallow crust around the active Taupo Volcano Zone, likely related to activation of crustal faults/fluids associated with back-arc rifting and volcanism. Approximately 8 days after the initial dynamic stressing, an active burst of seismicity with the largest event of ML 5.55 occurred along the shallow megathrust near Porangahau on the east coast of the North Island. This burst of seismicity is likely driven by a ∼Mw 7.1 shallow slow slip event dynamically triggered by the mainshock. Our findings reveal the heterogeneous nature of dynamic triggering in a plate boundary region with recent large earthquake sequences and aseismic transient events and further highlight the difficulties in time-dependent earthquake forecasting following large mainshocks.