Hidden magnitude-8.2 earthquake source of mysterious 2021 global tsunami

Phys.org  February 8, 2022 The 2021 August South Sandwich Island Mw 8.2 earthquake was a surprise, because it was initially reported as a magnitude 7.5 event at a deep depth (47 km) but generated a global-spreading tsunami that would only be expected for a larger and shallower event. By using seismic data researchers at Caltech revealed a hidden Mw 8.16 shallow slow event that happened between clusters of regular ruptures in the beginning and end. Although the slow event contributed 70% of the seismic moment, lasted three minutes, and ruptured a 200-km section of the plate interface, it is essentially […]