Investigation of topographical effects on rupture dynamics and resultant ground motions

In this work, we investigate the effect of irregular topography on the dynamic rupture and resultant ground motions using the curved grid finite-difference method. The research is based on spontaneous dynamic rupture on vertical strike-slip faults by varying the shapes and relative locations of irregular topography to the critical supershear transition distance. The results show that seismic energy of a supershear earthquake can be transmitted farther with large amplitudes. However, its ground motion near the fault is weaker than that caused by a subshear (namely the sub-Rayleigh) rupture. Whether the irregular topography exhibits stronger ground motion overall depends on the irregular topography's ability to prevent the subshear-to-supershear transition. Finally, we also discuss the effects of the strength parameter S and a larger size of the irregular topography on the resultant ground motion. The modellings of San Andreas Fault with real and inverted topographical surfaces show the implications of the topographical effects from the real earthquake.