Separating rapid relocking, afterslip, and viscoelastic relaxation: An application of the postseismic straightening method to the Maule 2010 cGPS

Abstract

AbstractThe postseismic deformation captured with continuous Global Positioning System (cGPS) monitoring following many recent megathrust events has been shown to be a signal composed of two dominant processes: afterslip on the plate interface and viscoelastic relaxation of the continental and oceanic mantles in response to the coseismic stress perturbation. Following the south central Chile 2010 Maule Mw 8.8 earthquake, the time series from the regional cGPS network show a distinct curvature in the pathway of the horizontal motion that is not easily fit by a stationary decaying pattern of afterslip in combination with viscoelastic relaxation. Here we show that with realistic assumptions about the long‐term decay of the afterslip signal, the postseismic signal can be decomposed into three first‐order contributing processes: plate interface relocking, plate interface afterslip, and mantle viscoelastic relaxation. From our analyses we conclude that the plate interface recovers its interseismic locking state rapidly (model space ranges between an instant recovery and a period of 1 year), a finding that supports laboratory experimental evidence as well as some recent studies of aftershocks and postseismic surface deformation. Furthermore, relocking is the main cause of the curvature in the cGPS signal, and this study presents a plausible range of geodetic relocking rates following a megathrust earthquake.