Short-Term Interaction between Silent and Devastating Earthquakes in Mexico

Abstract Triggering of large earthquakes on a fault that hosts aseismic slip or, conversely, triggering of slow slip events (SSE) by passing seismic waves involves seismological questions with major hazard implications. Just a few observations plausibly suggest that such interactions actually happen in nature. In this study we show that three recent devastating earthquakes in Mexico are likely related to SSEs, describing a cascade of events interacting with each other on a regional scale via quasi-static and/or dynamic perturbations. Such interaction seems to be conditioned by the transient memory of Earth materials subject to the “traumatic” stressing produced by the seismic waves of the great Mw8.2 Tehuantepec earthquake, which strongly disturbed the aseismic beating over a 650 km long segment of the subduction plate interface. Our results imply that seismic hazard in large populated areas is a short-term evolving function of seismotectonic processes that are often observable.