Rupture velocity inferred from near-field shear strain analysis

We propose a new technique to determine the rupture velocity of large strike slip earthquakes. By means of simple numerical ground motion simulations, we show that when the rupture penetrates a shallow layer of sediment or fractured rock, shock waves propagate along the surface fault trace in the forward rupture direction. Such shock waves, which are insensitive to the complexity of slip over the fault plane, propagate at a phase velocity equal to the rupture speed. We show that those shock waves can be easily isolated in the frequency domain, and that phase velocity can then be simply obtained from shear strain.