Hypocenter relocation of the Mw 5.9 eastern Manggarai earthquake 2022 and its aftershocks based on BMKG seismic network

Abstract

The moderate earthquake (Mw 5.9) struck eastern Manggarai and its surroundings on February 21, 2022, at 12:36:00 UTC. Although this earthquake was classified as a moderate earthquake, it produced a significant number of aftershocks. The aftershocks could be observed as the post-seismic activity, which was still well recorded until March 31, 2022. The hypocenter location of the aftershocks is updated by applying the double-difference method. The aftershock distribution is striking in west-east orientation and dipping to the south, emphasizing a geometry of faults. The strike and dip directions are consistent with the focal mechanism determined by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG). Most aftershocks after the relocation are distributed at a depth of < 25 km; the depth of the mainshock is 21.5 km. The aftershock distribution in this study shows that the earthquake sequence propagates toward the up-dip direction. The aftershock relocation also reveals that most aftershocks are situated slightly off the main fault plane in the complex splay faults. Therefore, we conjecture that the co-seismic activity may trigger the aftershocks. In addition, this study also shows that the fault system consists of several fault segments. Our study benefits earthquake disaster mitigation, especially in mapping the segment faults of the Flores backarc thrust.