Modeling strong‐motion recordings of the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile, earthquake with high stress‐drop subevents and background slip

Abstract

Strong‐motion recordings of the M w 8.8 Maule earthquake were modeled using a compound rupture model consisting of (1) a background slip distribution with large correlation lengths, relatively low slip velocity, and long peak rise time of slip of about 10 s and (2) high stress‐drop subevents (asperities) on the deeper portion of the rupture with moment magnitudes 7.9–8.2, high slip velocity, and rise times of slip of about 2 s. In this model, the high‐frequency energy is not produced in the same location as the peak coseismic slip, but is generated in the deeper part of the rupture zone. Using synthetic seismograms generated for a plane‐layered velocity model, I find that the high stress‐drop subevents explain the observed Fourier spectral amplitude from about 0.1 to 1.0 Hz. Broadband synthetics (0–10 Hz) were calculated by combining deterministic synthetics derived from the background slip and asperities (≤1 Hz) with stochastic synthetics generated only at the asperities (≥1 Hz). The broadband synthetics produced response spectral accelerations with low bias compared to the data, for periods of 0.1–10 s. A subevent stress drop of 200–350 bars for the high‐frequency stochastic synthetics was found to bracket the observed spectral accelerations at frequencies greater than 1 Hz. For most of the stations, the synthetics had durations of the Arias intensity similar to the observed records.