The seismic source parameters of the 1991 Costa Rica Aftershock Sequence: Evidence for a transcurrent plate boundary

Abstract

The April 22, 1991, Valle de la Estrella, Costa Rica earthquake (Ms = 7.6) was a back‐arc thrusting event associated with the underthrusting of the Caribbean plate beneath Central America. A network of three PASSCAL‐type, portable instruments was deployed to monitor the aftershock activity in southern Costa Rica 2 to 6 weeks after the main shock. The waveforms recorded on three‐component midperiod seismometers were used to recover source information for 15 small aftershocks (magnitudes between 3.2 and 4.4) with a linear moment tensor inversion method. We conducted several tests to investigate the effects of unknown structure and event mislocation on source parameter recovery. The longer‐period waveforms, in general, are less sensitive to the effects of the structural details so that the essential source information can be successfully extracted from the waveform data. The earlier part of the seismic wave‐forms has proven to be the most important carrier of the source information. A gross crustal model can be used to describe the structure for the source study. The small changes in the waveform character resulting from the mislocation of the events, or inexact Green's functions generated from the oversimplified crustal model, do not prohibit us from the recovery of the source orientation at local distances. In contrast, the determination of the focal depth is subject to uncertainty because of the lack of detailed structural information. Our focal mechanisms are generally in good agreement with P wave first‐motion fault plane solutions determined from a local short‐period network. The aftershocks show a clear spatial segmentation based on focal mechanism type. Most aftershocks near or southeast of the main shock were thrusting events with focal mechanisms similar to the main shock. In contrast, a cluster of aftershocks northwest of the main shock showed dominantly left‐lateral, strike‐slip motion on a northeasterly striking nodal plane. This suggests that a diffuse deformation zone exists in central Costa Rica and is characterized by left‐lateral strike‐slip motion. This diffuse, transcurrent deformation zone coincides with several geologic and geophysical features, and perhaps is a result of the slower subduction rate of the buoyant Cocos Ridge, than its adjacent segments along the Middle America Trench (MAT). The diffuse transcurrent boundary may intersect with the North Panama Deformed Belt (NPDB) near limon, Costa Rica, and is very likely a plate boundary for the proposed Panama block.