Prevalence of asymmetrical rupture in small earthquakes and its effect on the estimation of stress drop: a systematic investigation in inland Japan

Abstract Stress drops of small earthquakes have been estimated under the assumption that the rupture propagates symmetrically within a circular fault. However, recent studies have observed directivity effects on seismic waves even for small earthquakes. In this study, rupture directivity was investigated systematically for small-to-moderate-sized earthquakes (M 3.5–5.5) that occurred beneath inland Japan from 2004 to April 2019. Apparent moment rate functions were determined for 1463 earthquakes, and their corner frequencies were inverted for their rupture parameters. The results indicate that most of the analyzed earthquakes (1217 of 1463) are characterized by significantly asymmetrical rupture propagation. The stress drops of the earthquakes estimated by considering asymmetrical rupture propagation were 16.8 MPa, which are almost twice the estimates based on the commonly used symmetrical rupture model. This shows the importance of recognizing the diversity of ruptures, even for small earthquakes, for extracting information about earthquake sources and the Earth’s structure. The prevailing rupture directivity can provide useful information on source parameters including the fault size, fault geometry, and rupture velocity of small earthquakes.