Abstract
On September 8, 2017 (UTC), a normal-fault earthquake occurred 87 km off the southeast coast of Mexico. This earthquake generated a tsunami that was recorded at coastal tide gauge and offshore buoy stations. First, we conducted a numerical tsunami simulation using a single-fault model to understand the tsunami characteristics near the rupture area, focusing on the nearby tide gauge stations. Second, the tsunami source of this event was estimated from inversion of tsunami waveforms recorded at six coastal stations and three buoys located in the deep ocean. Using the aftershock distribution within 1 day following the main shock, the fault plane orientation had a northeast dip direction (strike = 320^{circ }, dip = 77^{circ }, and rake =-92^{circ }). The results of the tsunami waveform inversion revealed that the fault area was 240 km × 90 km in size with most of the largest slip occurring on the middle and deepest segments of the fault. The maximum slip was 6.03 m from a 30 × 30 km2 segment that was 64.82 km deep at the center of the fault area. The estimated slip distribution showed that the main asperity was at the center of the fault area. The second asperity with an average slip of 5.5 m was found on the northwest-most segments. The estimated slip distribution yielded a seismic moment of 2.9 times 10^{21} Nm (Mw = 8.24), which was calculated assuming an average rigidity of 7times 10^{10} N/m2.
Highlights
On September 8, 2017, at 04:49:18 UTC (September 7, 23:49:18 local time), a magnitude 8.2 earthquake occurred 87 km off the southeast coast of Mexico according to the National Seismological Service (SSN) of Mexico located at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)
The tsunami source area mainly concentrates at the boundary of the continental shelf and the continental slope; this fact is illustrated by the aftershock distribution (Fig. 3a)
This unique configuration generates singular characteristics on the tsunami propagation (Yamazaki and Cheung 2011) that directly influence the tsunami waveforms recorded at the surrounding tide gauge stations
Summary
On September 8, 2017, at 04:49:18 UTC (September 7, 23:49:18 local time), a magnitude 8.2 earthquake occurred 87 km off the southeast coast of Mexico according to the National Seismological Service (SSN) of Mexico located at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) The epicenter of this earthquake was located at 14.85°N 94.11°W with a focal depth of 58 km (SSN). This event was located near the Tehuantepec seismic gap, an area that has been significantly quiet in terms of large earthquakes for over 100 years and where no significant earthquake has occurred since the 1993 Mw7.2 shock (Singh et al 1981, 2008) (Fig. 1).
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