The 2017 M W 8.2 Chiapas, Mexico Earthquake: Energetic Slab Detachment

On 8 September 2017, a great (M_w 8.2) normal faulting earthquake ruptured within the subducting Cocos Plate ~70 km landward from the Middle American Trench beneath the Tehuantepec gap. Iterative inversion and modeling of teleseismic and tsunami data and prediction of GPS displacements indicate that the steeply dipping rupture extended ~180 km to the northwest along strike toward the Oaxaca coast and from ~30 to 70 km in depth, with peak slip of ~13 m. The rupture likely broke through the entire lithosphere of the young subducted slab in response to downdip slab pull. The plate boundary region between the trench and the fault intersection with the megathrust appears to be frictionally coupled, influencing location of the detachment. Comparisons of the broadband body wave magnitude (m_B) and moment-scaled radiated energy (E_R/M_0) establish that intraslab earthquakes tend to be more energetic than interplate events, accounting for strong ground shaking observed for the 2017 event.