Understanding the behavior of the shallow portion of the subduction zone, which generates the largest earthquakes and devastating tsunamis, is a vital step forward in earthquake geoscience. Monitoring only a fraction of a single megathrust earthquake cycle and the offshore location of the source of these earthquakes are the foremost reasons for the insufficient understanding. The frictional-elastoplastic interaction between the interface and its overlying wedge causes variable surface strain signals such that the wedge strain patterns may reveal the mechanical state of the interface. We employ Seismotectonic Scale Modeling and simplify elastoplastic megathrust subduction, generate hundreds of analog seismic cycles at laboratory scale, and monitor the surface strain signals over the model’s forearc over high to low temporal resolutions. We establish two coseismically compressional and extensional wedge configurations to explore the mechanical and kinematic interaction between the shallow wedge and the interface. Our results demonstrate that this interaction can partition the wedge into different segments such that the anlastic extensional segment overlays the seismogenic zone at depth. Moreover, the different segments of the wedge may switch their state from compression/extension to extension/compression domains. We highlight that a more segmented upper plate represents megathrust subduction that generates more characteristic and periodic events. Additionally, the strain time series reveals that the strain state may remain quasi-stable over a few seismic cycles in the coastal zone and then switch to the opposite mode. These observations are crucial for evaluating earthquake-related morphotectonic markers (i.e., marine terraces) and short-term interseismic GPS time-series onshore (coastal region).

An earthquake-induced stress drop on a megathrust instigates different responses on the upper plate and slab. We mimic homogenous and heterogeneous megathrust interfaces at the laboratory scale to monitor the strain relaxation on two elastically bi-material plates by establishing analog velocity weakening and neutral materials. A sequential elastic rebound follows the coseismic shear-stress drop in our elastoplastic-frictional models: a fast rebound of the upper plate and the delayed and smaller rebound on the elastic belt (model slab). A combination of the rebound of the slab and the rapid relaxation (i.e., elastic restoration) of the upper plate after an elastic overshooting may accelerate the relocking of the megathrust. This acceleration triggers/antedates the failure of a nearby asperity and enhances the early slip reversal in the rupture area. Hence, the trench-normal landward displacement in the upper plate may reach a significant amount of the entire interseismic slip reversal and speeds up the stress build-up on the upper plate backthrust that emerges self-consistently at the downdip end of the seismogenic zones. Moreover, the backthrust switches its kinematic mode from a normal to reverse mechanism during the coseismic and postseismic stages, reflecting the sense of shear on the interface.