PUBLICATIONS Geophysical Research Letters RESEARCH LETTER Characteristics on fault coupling along the Solomon 10.1002/2016GL070188 megathrust based on GPS observations Key Points: from 2011 to 2014 • We deployed the first continuous GPS network at the Western Solomon Yu-Ting Kuo1, Chin-Shang Ku1,2, Yue-Gau Chen1, Yu Wang3, Yu-Nung Nina Lin4, Ray Y. Chuang5, Islands since 2011 2 6 2 1,2 • GPS record reveals significantly Ya-Ju Hsu , Frederick W. Taylor , Bor-Shouh Huang , and Hsin Tung different interseismic coupling ratios 1 2 between two adjacent segments on Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, the Solomon megathrust Taipei, Taiwan, 3Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 4CGG, Singapore, • We identify a semipermanent asperity 5Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 6Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at and a potential barrier to rupture, Austin, Austin, Texas, USA each corresponding to the subduction of geological features Abstract The Solomon megathrust along the western Solomon arc generated two megathrust earthquakes Supporting Information: in the past decade (Mw 8.1 in 2007 and Mw 7.1 in 2010). To investigate the interseismic deformation and • Supporting Information S1 inferred coupling on the megathrust, we deployed the first continuous GPS network in the Western Solomon Islands. Our 2011–2014 GPS data and the back slip inversion model show coupling ratio as high as 73% along Correspondence to: the southeastern 2007 rupture segment but only 10% on average along the segment of 2010 event. Based on Y.-G. Chen,
[email protected] the spatial distribution of coseismic slip, aftershock clusters, derived coupling pattern, and paleogeodetic records, we discovered the former as a semipermanent asperity and the latter as a potential megathrust barrier.