- Letter
- Open access
- Published:
The March 25, 1998 Antarctic Earthquake: Great earthquake caused by postglacial rebound
Earth, Planets and Space volume 52, pages 133–136 (2000)
Abstract
A large Mw = 8.1 earthquake occurred off southeast coast of Antarctica near the Balleny Island region on March 25, 1998. We inverted teleseismic body-wave records to determine the rupture pattern using an iterative deconvolution method. The source parameters obtained are: the centroid depth=20km, (strike, dip, rake)= (282, 83, −1), the seismic moment M0 = 1.6 × 1021 Nm (Mw = 8.1), the length L = 200 km, and the average slip D = 4.4 m. This earthquake occurred in the mid-plate but there has been no reports of such large earthquakes in this region. Furthermore, the source mechanism cannot be related to the plate motion inferred from the nearby transform faults. Therefore this earthquake is not a usual tectonic event. Here we show that the compressional axis of our source mechanism coincides with the horizontal crustal motion predicted by the Earth’s response to present-day and past ice mass changes in Antarctica. Our result suggests that the 1998 Antarctica earthquake is caused by the postglacial rebound in the Antarctica.
References
Arvidsson, R., Fennoscandian earthquakes: Whole crustal rupturing related to postglacial rebound, Science, 274, 744–746, 1996.
Denton, G. H. and T. J. Hughes, The Last Great Ice Sheets, 484 pp., John Wiley & sons, New York, 1981.
Denton, G. H., M. L. Prentice, and L. H. Burckle, Cainozoic history of the Antarctic ice sheet, in Geology of Antarctica, edited by R. J. Tingey, pp. 365–433, Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1991.
Dziewonski, A. M., T. -A. Chou, and J. H. Woodhouse, Determination of earthquake source parameters from waveform data for studies of global and regional seismicity, J. Geophys. Res., 86, 2825–2852, 1981.
Hunt, A. G. and P. E. Malin, Possible triggering of Heinrich events by ice-load-induced earthquakes, Nature, 393, 155–158, 1998.
James, T. S. and E. R. Ivins, Present-day Antarctic ice mass changes and crustal motion, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 973–976, 1995.
James, T. S. and E. R. Ivins, Predictions of Antarctic crustal motions driven by present-day ice sheet evolution and by isostatic memory of the Last Glacial Maximum, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 4993–5017, 1998.
Johnston, A. C., A wave in the Earth, Science, 274, 735, 1996.
Kaminuma, K., Seismic activity in and around the Antarctic continent, Terra Antartica, 1, 423–426. 1994.
Kaminuma, K. and J. Akamatsu, Intermittent micro-seismic activity in the vicinity of Syowa station, east Antarctica, in Recent Progress in Antarctic Earth Science, edited by Y. Yoshida et al., pp. 493–497, Terrapub, 1992.
Kawakatsu, H., Automated near-realtime CMT inversion, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 2569–2572, 1995.
Kikuchi, M. and H. Kanamori, Inversion of complex body waves-III, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 81, 2335–2350, 1991.
Kikuchi, M. and H. Kanamori, The Shikotan earthquake of October 4, 1994: Lithospheric earthquake, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 1025–1028, 1995.
Stein, S., S. Cloetingh, N. H. Sleep, and R. Wortel, Passive margin earthquakes, stresses, and rheology, in Earthquakes at North-Atlantic passive margins, edited by S. Gregersen and P. W. Basham, pp. 231–259, Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, 1989.
Wahr, J. H., H. DaZhong, and A. Trupin, Predictions ofvertical uplift caused by changing polar ice volumesona viscoelastic earth, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 977–980, 1995.
Wiens, D., M. E. Wysession, and L. Lawver, Recent oceanic intraplate earthquake in Balleny Sea was largest ever detected, Eos Trans. AGU, 79(30), 353–354, 1998.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Now at Faculty of Science, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tsuboi, S., Kikuchi, M., Yamanaka, Y. et al. The March 25, 1998 Antarctic Earthquake: Great earthquake caused by postglacial rebound. Earth Planet Sp 52, 133–136 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351621
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351621