The 2016 Capellades earthquake and its seismic sequence: Expression of strike-slip faulting in the volcanic arc of Costa Rica
Published 2018-06-05
Keywords
- Liebres Fault,
- seismic sequence,
- focal mechanisms,
- tectonic in volcanoes,
- Turrialba Volcano
How to Cite
Altmetrics
Abstract
On 30 November 2016 at 18:25 (1 st December at 00:25, UTC time) a Mw 5 5 earthquake occurred at 2.7 km depth, 4 km north of the town Capellades de Alvarado, Costa Rica. It was the main shock of an earthquake sequence including foreshocks and aftershocks, located 5 km from the active Irazú and Turrialba volcanoes. This is the most recent of a series of damaging earthquakes originated in the faults crossing the Central Volcanic Range, which constitutes the northern boundary of the most populated area of the country. Using mainly the seismic records from the National Seismological Network (RSN), we present in this study a seismological analysis of the earthquake sequence and the location and characteristics of the fault that originated this seismicity. Additionally, we describe the geotectonic context of the fault and the Capellades earthquake effects. The earthquake sequence shows a clear 8-km long alignment striking nor-northwest between Irazú and Turrialba volcanoes. The joint interpretation of the earthquake relocation, the main-shock moment tensor solution, and the focal mechanisms of 17 events allows for determining the source in a nearly vertical strike-slip fault, in agreement with regional active fault systems. This structure had not been recognized previously and has been named Liebres Fault in this study. The main shock was felt in most of the country, with a maximum intensity of VI+. This earthquake has been the largest in the eastern part of the Central Volcanic Range since the 1952 Patillos earthquake (Ms 5.9) and the fist Mw > 5.0 earthquake recorded by the RSN in the Turrialba volcano edifie. Despite the proximity to this active volcano, which has been erupting periodically since 2010, there were no immediate eruptive effects.
Downloads
References
Alvarado, G., Vega, E., Chaves, J., y Vásquez, M. (2004). Los grandes deslizamientos (volcánicos y no volcánicos) de tipo Debris Avalanche en Costa Rica. Revista Geológica de América Central, 30, 83-99. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i30.7260.
Alvarado, G.E., Carr, M.J., Turrin, B.D., Swisher III, C.C., Schmincke, H.U., and Hudnut, K.W. (2006). Recent volcanic history of Irazú volcano, Costa Rica: Alternation and mixing of two magma batches, and pervasive mixing. In: W.I. Rose, G.J.S. Bluth, M.J. Carr, J.W. Ewert, L.C. Patino, and J.W. Vallance (Ed.). Volcanic hazards in Central America (pp. 259-276). Geological Society of America Special Paper, 412.
Barquero, R., Soto, G., y Lesage, P. (1992). Volcán Irazú, informe vulcanológico período enero 1991 - mayo 1992. Informe interno Ofiina de Sismología y Vulcanología del Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, San José.
Barquero, R., Lesage, P., Metaxian, J.P., Creusot, A., y Fernández, M. (1995). La crisis sísmica en el volcán Irazú en 1991 (Costa Rica). Revista Geológica de América Central, 18, 5-18. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i18.13494.
Denyer, P., Montero, W., y Alvarado, G. (2003). Atlas Tectónico de Costa Rica. San José: Universidad de Costa Rica.
Ekström, G., Nettles, M., and Dziewonski, A.M. (2012). The global CMT project 2004-2010: Centroidmoment tensors for 13,017 earthquakes. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 200-201, 1-9, doi: 10.1016/j.pepi.2012.04.002.
Fan, G., Beck, S.L., and Wallace, T.C. (1993). The seismic source parameters of the 1991 Costa Rica Aftershock Sequence: Evidence for a transcurrent plate boundary. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 98(B9), 15759-15778. doi:10.1029/93JB01557.
Fernández, M., Mora, M., y Barquero, R. (1998). Los procesos sísmicos en el volcán Irazú (Costa Rica). Revista Geológica de América Central, 21, 47-59. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i21.8600.
Global CMT Catalog. (2017). The Global CentroidMoment-Tensor (CMT) Project. Consultado el 1 de agosto del 2017. http://www.globalcmt.org/CMTsearch html.
Goes, S., Velasco, A., Schwartz, S., and Lay, T. (1993). The April 22, 1991, Valle de la Estrella, Costa Rica (MW = 7.7) earthquake and its tectonic implications. A broadband seismic study. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 98(B5), 8127-8142. doi:10.1029/93JB00019.
Johnson, C.E., Bittenbinder, A., Bogaert, B., Dietz, L., and Kohler, W. (1995). Earthworm: A flexible approach to seismic network processing. IRIS Newsletter, 14(2), 1-4.
Krushensky, R. (1972). Geology of the Istarú Quadrangle, Costa Rica. Washington: USGS Bulletin 1358.
Lienert, B.R., and Havskov, J. (1995). A computer program for locating earthquakes both locally and globally. Seismological Research Letters, 66(5), 26-36. doi: 10.1785/gssrl.66.5.26.
Linkimer, L. (2003). Neotectónica del extremo oriental del cinturón deformado del centro de Costa Rica. Tesis de Licenciatura, Escuela Centroamericana de Geología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica.
Linkimer, L., y Soto, G. (2016). El Sismo de Capellades del 30 de noviembre del 2016. Consultado el 1 de agosto del 2017. http://www rsn.ucr.ac.cr/actividadsismica/reportes-sismicos/7989-16-12-16-informepreliminar-sismo-capellades.
Lücke, O.H., and Arroyo, I.G. (2015). Density structure and geometry of the Costa Rican subduction zone from 3-D gravity modeling and local earthquake data. Solid Earth, 6, 1169-1183. doi: 10.5194/se-6-1169-2015.
Lücke, O.H., Götze, H.J., and Alvarado, G.E. (2010). A constrained 3D density model of the upper crust from gravity data interpretation for Central Costa Rica. International Journal of Geophysics, 2010, 1-9. doi: 10.1155/2010/860902.
McNutt, S., and Roman, D. (2015). Volcanic Seismicity. In: H. Sigurdsson (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (pp. 1011-1034). Amsterdan, Netherlands: Academic Press.
Marshall, J., Fisher, D., and Gardner, T. (2000). Central Costa Rica deformed belt: Kinematics of diffuse faulting across the western Panama block. Tectonics, 19(3), 468-492. doi: 10.1029/1999TC001136.
Matumoto, T., Ohtake, M., Latham, G., and Umana, J. (1977). Crustal structure in Southern Central America. Bulletin of Seismological Society of America, 67(1), 121-133.
Montero, W., y Miyamura, S. (1981). Distribución de intensidades y estimación de los parámetros focales de los terremotos de Cartago de 1910, Costa Rica, América Central. Informe Semanal Instituto Geográfio Nacional, San José, pp. 9-34.
Montero, W. (1994). Neotectonics and related stress distribution in a subduction collisional zone: Costa Rica. In: H. Seyfried, and W. Hellmann (Eds.). Geology of an Evolving Island Arc. The Isthmus of Southern Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Western Panamá, Profi 7 (pp. 125–141) Stuttgart, Germany: Institut fuer Geologie und Palaeontologie der Universitaet Stuttgart.
Montero, W., y Alvarado, G. (1995). El terremoto de Patillos del 30 de diciembre de 1952 (Ms= 5,9) y el contexto geotectónico de la región del volcán Irazú, Costa Rica. Revista Geológica de América Central, 18: 25-42. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i18.13522.
Montero, W. (2001). Neotectónica de la región central de Costa Rica: frontera oeste de la microplaca de Panamá. Revista Geológica de América Central, 24: 29-56. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i24.8551.
Montero, W. (2003). El sistema de falla Atirro-Río Sucio y la cuenca de tracción de Turrialba-Irazú: Indentación tectónica relacionada con la colisión del levantamiento del Coco. Revista Geológica de América Central, 28: 5-29. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i28.7781.
Montero, W. (2010). El Terremoto de Cartago del 4 de mayo de 1910: Aspectos sismológicos y neotectónicos. En: G. Peraldo, y B. Acevedo (Ed.). Efemérides de la destrucción de Cartago cien años después (1910-2010) (pp. 37-47). San José: Ediciones Perro Azul.
Montero, W., Soto, G., Alvarado, G., y Rojas, W. (2010). División del deslizamiento tectónico y transtensión en el macizo del volcán Poás (Costa Rica), basado en estudios neotectónicos y de sismicidad histórica. Revista Geológica de América Central, 43, 13-36. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i43.3456.
Montero, W., Rojas, W., y Linkimer, L. (2013a). Neotectónica de las fallas Ochomogo y Capellades y su relación con el sistema de falla Aguacaliente, falda sur macizo Irazú-Turrilaba, Costa Rica. Revista Geológica de América Central, 48, 119-139. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v0i48.12239.
Montero, W., Lewis, J., Marshall, J., Kruse, S., and Wetmore, P. (2013b). Neotectonic faulting and forearc sliver motion along the Atirro–Río Sucio fault system, Costa Rica, Central America. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 125(5-6), 857-876. doi: 10.1130/B30471.1.
Montero, W., Linkimer, L., y Rojas, W. (2016). El sistema de Falla Navarro: desplazamientos izquierdos a lo largo del Cinturón Deformado del Centro de Costa Rica. Revista Geológica de América Central, 55, 71-100. doi: 10.15517/rgac.v55i0.27062.
Mora, M., Taylor, W., y Soto, G. (2012). Sismicidad inducida y otros efectos causados en el arco magmático. En: L. Linkimer, y G. Soto (Ed.). El Terremoto de Sámara del 5 de septiembre de 2012 (pp. 62-78). Red Sismológica Nacional (ICEUCR).
Ottemöller, L., Voss, P., and Havskov, J. (2011). SEISAN: the Earthquake Analysis Software for Windows, Solaris, LINUX, and MACOSX, version 9.0.1. University of Bergen, Norway, 361p.
Ruiz, P., Turrin, B., Soto, G., del Potro, R., Gagnevin, D., Gazel, E., Mora, M., Carr, M., and Swisher, C. (2010). Unveiling Turrialba (Costa Rica) volcano’s latest geological evolution through new 40Ar/39Ar, ages. AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA.
Snoke, J., Munsey, J., Teague, A., and Bollinger, G. (1984). A program for focal mechanism determination by combined use of polarity and Sv-P amplitude ratio data. Earthquake Notes, 55, 15-20.
Soto, G. (1988a). Estructuras volcano-tectónicas del volcán Turrialba, Costa Rica, América Central. Actas V Congreso Geológico Chileno. Santiago, Chile.
Soto, G. (1988b). Geología y vulcanología del volcán Turrialba, Costa Rica. Costa Rican Volcanism Workshop. Washington, D.C., USA.
Soto, G. (1994). Volcanología Física. En: P. Denyer, y S. Kussmaul (Ed.). Atlas Geológico Gran Área Metropolitana, Costa Rica: (San José) (pp. 131-146). San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Tecnológica de Costa Rica.
Soto, G., del Potro, R., Mora, M., Gagnevin, D., Ruiz, P., y Gazel, E. (2010). Estudio de la evolución geológica y petrológica del volcán Turrialba: implicaciones para la evolución volcánica de Costa Rica y prevención de riesgos volcánicos. Proyecto CONARE 2009-2010, Informe fial, San José, 29p.
Wald, D., Quitoriano, V., Heaton, T., Kanamori, H., Scrivner, C., and Worden, C. (1999). TriNet “ShakeMaps”: Rapid generation of peak ground motion and intensity maps for earthquakes in southern California. Earthquake Spectra, 15(3): 537-555.
Waldhauser, F., and Ellsworth, W. (2000). A doubledifference earthquake location algorithm: Method and application to the Northern Hayward fault, California. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 90(6), 1353-1368. doi: 10.1785/0120000006.
Waldhauser, F. (2001). hypoDD -- A program to compute double-difference hypocenter locations. Open-File Rep. U. S. Geological Survey, 25: 1-113.
Weber, B., Becker, J., Hanka, W., Heinloo, A., Hoffmann, M., Kraft, T., Pahlke, D., Reinhardt, J., and Thoms, H. (2007). SeisComP3 - automatic and interactive real time data processing. Geophysical Research Abstracts 9, General Assembly European Geosciences Union, Vienna, Austria, 15-20 April.
Zhao, J.X., Zhang, J., Asano, A., Ohno, Y., Oouchi, T., Takahashi, T., Ogawa, H., Irikura, K., Thio, H., Somerville, P., Fukushima, Y., and Fukushima, Y. (2006). Attenuation relations of strong ground motion in Japan using site classification based on predominant period. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 96(3), 898-913. doi: 10.1785/0120050122.