The 2006 Kythira (Greece), Mw6.7 slab-pull event: tectonic implications and the geometry of the hellenic wadati-benioff zone
Main Article Content
Abstract
A strong (Mw=6.7) intermediate depth earthquake occurred on 8 January 2006 (11:34 UTC) in southwestern
Aegean Sea (Greece) causing limited damage to structures on the nearby islands of Kythira and Antikythira, as
well as western Crete Island. The epicentral area belongs to the SW segment of the Hellenic Arc, which is known
to be associated with the occurrence of large shallow and intermediate depth earthquakes, mainly due to the
subduction of the Eastern Mediterranean oceanic lithosphere under the Aegean microplate. The main shock occurred
on a dextral strike slip fault at a depth of 75 km, within the descending slab, as it is revealed by both, the
spatial distribution of the accurately located aftershocks and its fault plane solution determined in the present
study and implying a slab-pull event. The aftershock activity from 8 to 31 January 2006 is distributed in depths
ranging from 55 to 75 km, and being comprised in an almost rectangular and vertical plane with a length equal
to 28 km and a width of 20 km, which adequately defines the dimensions of the rupture area. The geometry of
the Wadati-Benioff zone in this area, namely the southwestern part of the Hellenic Arc, is explored by an exhaustive
analysis of all the available phase arrivals gathered from the International Seismological Centre, and the
relocation of the earthquakes occurred since 1964 in the South-West Aegean region.
Aegean Sea (Greece) causing limited damage to structures on the nearby islands of Kythira and Antikythira, as
well as western Crete Island. The epicentral area belongs to the SW segment of the Hellenic Arc, which is known
to be associated with the occurrence of large shallow and intermediate depth earthquakes, mainly due to the
subduction of the Eastern Mediterranean oceanic lithosphere under the Aegean microplate. The main shock occurred
on a dextral strike slip fault at a depth of 75 km, within the descending slab, as it is revealed by both, the
spatial distribution of the accurately located aftershocks and its fault plane solution determined in the present
study and implying a slab-pull event. The aftershock activity from 8 to 31 January 2006 is distributed in depths
ranging from 55 to 75 km, and being comprised in an almost rectangular and vertical plane with a length equal
to 28 km and a width of 20 km, which adequately defines the dimensions of the rupture area. The geometry of
the Wadati-Benioff zone in this area, namely the southwestern part of the Hellenic Arc, is explored by an exhaustive
analysis of all the available phase arrivals gathered from the International Seismological Centre, and the
relocation of the earthquakes occurred since 1964 in the South-West Aegean region.
Article Details
How to Cite
Nikolintaga, I., Karakostas, V., Papadimitriou, E. and Vallianatos, F. (2008) “The 2006 Kythira (Greece), Mw6.7 slab-pull event: tectonic implications and the geometry of the hellenic wadati-benioff zone”, Annals of Geophysics, 51(5-6), pp. 823–837. doi: 10.4401/ag-3016.
Issue
Section
OLD
Open-Access License
No Permission Required
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL) to all works we publish.
Under the CCAL, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.
In most cases, appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original article.
If the item you plan to reuse is not part of a published article (e.g., a featured issue image), then please indicate the originator of the work, and the volume, issue, and date of the journal in which the item appeared. For any reuse or redistribution of a work, you must also make clear the license terms under which the work was published.
This broad license was developed to facilitate open access to, and free use of, original works of all types. Applying this standard license to your own work will ensure your right to make your work freely and openly available. For queries about the license, please contact ann.geophys@ingv.it.