Abstract
The Banda Sea earthquake of November 4, 1963 is one of the largest ( M w = 8.3) intraplate events. It involved oblique thrusting at an intermediate depth within the subducted lithosphere near the abrupt bend in the southeastern Banda arc (6.86° S, 129.58° E). To better understand the tectonic significance of this earthquake, the detailed source process of the Banda Sea event was determined by body wave analysis. The rupture history was established by deconvolving source time functions from long-period P wave seismograms, using both individual station and multi-station time-domain deconvolution methods. The seismic moment release occurred within the first 50 s of rupture, initiating at a depth near 120 km and expanding laterally and downdip over a vertical extent of about 50 km. Slip and moment release were concentrated in one main region near the hypocenter, at depths between 110 and 130 km. The along-strike rupture length was only about 100 km, so it is difficult to resolve any horizontal directivity. The compressional stress orientation inferred from the focal mechanism parallels the strike of the slab, and reflects the importance of contortion of the lithosphere in this region. The Banda Sea event may be part of a major detachment at the leading edge of the subducted Australian continental shelf.
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