Biggs, J. and Nissen, E. and Craig, T. J. and Jackson, J. and Robinson, D. P. (2010) Breaking up the hanging wall of a rift-border fault: The 2009 Karonga earthquakes, Malawi. Geophysical Research Letters, 37. L11305. DOI https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL043179
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Abstract
The southern East African Rift has an unusually large seismogenic thickness (35–40 km), which is responsible for wide tilted basins and extremely long faults with the potential for M7-8 normal-faulting earthquakes. From 6–19 December 2009, a shallow earthquake sequence (four of Mw > 5.5) hit the Karonga region of northern Lake Malawi. The location is 50 km west of the rift-bounding Livingstone Fault, within the hanging-wall. We used seismology and InSAR to obtain source parameters and combined this with information on rift structure from geomorphology and seismic profiles. The deformation is consistent with rupture of a shallow, west-dipping fault, with no evidence for the involvement of magmatic fluids. Although the Livingstone Fault dominates local geomorphology, the Karonga earthquakes demonstrate that the hanging-wall block is actively breaking up, reflecting temporal and spatial migration of activity or the release of stresses within it.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | NCEO: National Centre for Earth Observation |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | 2010AREP; IA60; |
| Subjects: | 02 - Geodynamics, Geophysics and Tectonics |
| Divisions: | 02 - Geodynamics, Geophysics and Tectonics |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Geophysical Research Letters |
| Volume: | 37 |
| Page Range: | L11305 |
| Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL043179 |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Humbert |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Jun 2010 08:25 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jul 2013 09:57 |
| URI: | http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/1411 |
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