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Dynamic earthquake rupture modeling considering regional crustal stress conditions in southeastern Korea

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Abstract

The Korean Peninsula is located in a low-seismicity zone at the eastern margin of the Eurasian plate. However, the 2016 Gyeongju and 2017 Pohang earthquakes, which occurred in southeastern Korea, highlight the importance of advanced seismic hazard assessment and mitigation in this region. We successfully performed spontaneous dynamic rupture modeling by considering the crustal stress field in southeastern Korea, constrained by earthquake focal mechanism data, to better understand the seismic hazard in the region. We found that the geologically recognized Yangsan fault trace near the location of the Gyeongju earthquake is not aligned well with the favorable shear rupture directions, given the current crustal stress field in the region. The fault needs to be very weak (i.e., have a low static friction coefficient) to initiate a large earthquake rupture. However, our dynamic model results show that the fault plane constrained by the focal mechanism solution of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake is more favorably aligned for shear rupture under the current stress condition and that it may be able to produce a relatively large earthquake if the extension of the fault is quite long (~60 km). This type of dynamic rupture modeling study may help to more accurately elucidate the seismic hazard in a low-seismicity zone such as southeastern Korea.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their thoughtful review comments, which helped to improve our manuscript significantly. This work was supported by the Basic Research Project (GP2020-027) of KIGAM (Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources), funded by the Korean government (MSIT: Ministry of Science and ICT), and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant (No. NRF-2018R1A4A1059956), funded by the Korea government (MSIT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earthquake Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, 124 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34132, Republic of Korea

    Seok Goo Song

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Republic of Korea

    Chandong Chang

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  1. Seok Goo Song
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Song, S.G., Chang, C. Dynamic earthquake rupture modeling considering regional crustal stress conditions in southeastern Korea. Geosci J 25, 211–222 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-020-0015-x

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