Coulomb stress changes in the South Iceland Seismic Zone due to two

• Main Authors: Rikke Pedersen, Gunnar B. Gudmundsson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: 1242 Geodesy and Gravity; Seismic deformations (7205; 7209 Seismology; Earthquake dynamics and mechanics; 7215 Seismology; Earthquake parameters; 7230 Seismology; Seismicity and seismotectonics; 7260 Seismology; Theory and; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.461.2381; http://www.norvol.hi.is/~rikke/Arnadottir_et_al_GRL03.pdf

largest earthquakes for 88 years in June 2000, with a MS = 6.6 event on June 17, followed by another MS = 6.6 earthquake on June 21. These events occurred on two parallel N-S striking, right-lateral strike slip faults, separated by about 17 km. We calculate the static Coulomb stress change for the June 17 and 21 earthquakes using a distributed slip model derived from joint inversion of InSAR and GPS data. We find that the static stress change caused by the June 17 event is about 0.1 MPa at the location of the June 21 hypocenter, promoting failure on the second fault. Locations of aftershocks agree well with areas of increased Coulomb failure stress. Our calculations indicate that positive stress changes due to the two earthquakes make the area west of the June 21 rupture the most likely site of the next large earthquake in South Iceland. INDEX TERMS: