VENEGAS ARAVENA, PATRICIO ALEJANDRO
No
Pure Appl. Geophys.
Article
Científica
2
2
11/04/2026
1,73717E+12
2-s2.0-105035413191
The 2010 Maule earthquake (Mw 8.8) is a well-recorded megathrust event. Despite this, the role of fault's heterogeneities in shaping ground motion patterns and their consequences has not been fully characterized. In this study, we use a numerical model to simulate heterogeneous rupture under a homogeneous elastic medium. We evaluate the spatial distribution of peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground acceleration (PGA), and far-field P-wave corner frequency to investigate their association with landslides and crustal fault activation. Results indicates that rupture front accelerations lead to directivity effects that concentrate high PGV, PGA, and corner frequency values toward the seafloor and coastal areas (rays). It is found that approximately 80% of non-mountain landslides are the product of these rays and no landslides occurred where horizontal ground motion was less than 95% of the total motion, underscoring the dominant role of near-pure horizontal shaking in their initiation. While lithology and topography were not included, results suggest that seismic source alone could explain the observed landslide distribution. Finally, crustal faults appear to align with sharp transitions in corner frequency, indicating a potential structural inheritance from past similar events supporting the interpretation of the Maule earthquake as a repeating rupture process.
Heterogeneous rupture simulations; Maule 2010 Earthquake; ground-motion distribution; Doppler-like effects; landslides; corner frequency