Spatiotemporal Evolution of Slow Slip Events at the Offshore Hikurangi
Subduction Zone in 2019 using GNSS, InSAR, and seafloor geodetic data
Abstract
Detecting crustal deformation during transient deformation events at
offshore subduction zones remains challenging. The spatiotemporal
evolution of slow slip events (SSEs) on the offshore Hikurangi
subduction zone, New Zealand, during February–July 2019, is revealed
through a time-dependent inversion of onshore and offshore geodetic data
that also account for spatially varying elastic crustal properties. Our
model is constrained by seafloor pressure time series (as a proxy for
vertical seafloor deformation), onshore continuous Global Navigation
Satellite System (GNSS) data, and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture
Radar (InSAR) displacements. Large GNSS displacements onshore and uplift
of the seafloor (10-33 mm) require peak slip during the event of 150 to
>200 mm at 6-12 km depth offshore Hawkes Bay and Gisborne,
comparable to maximum slip observed during previous seafloor pressure
deployments at north Hikurangi. The onshore and offshore data reveal a
complex evolution of the SSE, over a period of months. Seafloor pressure
data indicates the slow slip may have persisted longer near the trench
than suggested by onshore GNSS stations in both the Gisborne and Hawkes
Bay regions. Seafloor pressure data also reveal up-dip migration of SSE
slip beneath Hawke Bay occurred over a period of a few weeks. The SSE
source region appears to coincide with locations of the March 1947 Mw
7.0–7.1 tsunami earthquake offshore Gisborne and estimated Great
earthquake rupture sources from paleoseismic investigations offshore
Hawkes Bay, suggesting that the shallow megathrust at north and central
Hikurangi is capable of both seismic and aseismic rupture.