Abstract
Some earthquakes with focal depths exceeding 70 km possess one or more aftershocks which are well recorded by stations at teleseis-mic distances. Precise determination of relative vectors separating the aftershocks and ∼ 60 initial events finds the vector directions are distributed uniformly with respect to the nodal plane of main shock focal mechanisms. When focal mechanisms are available for both an initial event and an aftershock, the mechanisms are occasionally significantly different from one another. These results suggest that the failure process of deep earthquakes is not slip occurring along a simple, planar surface. Our results contradict several previous analyses of aftershocks because other investigators did not recognize that half of the focal sphere lies within 16° of one of the nodal planes.
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Frohlich, C., Willemann, R. Aftershocks of deep earthquakes do not occur preferentially on nodal planes of focal mechanisms . Nature 329, 41–42 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/329041a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/329041a0
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