Fault intersections control short period intraplate start-stop seismicity in the Korean Peninsula

After the devastating Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Mw 9.0, 2011) in Japan, the Korean Peninsula has experienced a higher number of large, plus Mw 5.0, earthquakes than recorded in the preceding half century of modern monitoring. In addition, seismicity has dramatically increased along with seismic waves arriving later than prior to the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, suggesting that the Korean crust has notably been perturbed. South Korea is densely populated, hence knowledge about active faults and earthquake mechanisms is of great relevance for public safety and risk mitigations. Quaternary faults, including the Chugaryeong crustal-scale fault, run through the Seoul metropolitan area and recent seismicity studies suggest that these faults are active. Based on two reflection seismic profiles, we provide compelling evidence that the depth clustered seismicity along the Chugaryeong fault is associated with the intersections of other fault systems. The two seismicity clusters, observed at two depth intervals of approximately 4.5–5 and 8–9 km, can be linked with two moderately-to-steeply-dipping bands of reflectivity interpreted to be splay faults and terminating at the Chugaryeong sub-vertical fault. We suggest that stress builds up at these fault intersections and is then released via strike-slip ruptures along the Chugaryeong fault. Time-clustered seismic events at the fault intersections support this hypothesis, indicating a start-stop mechanism is controlling the seismicity in the region at least based on nearly one decade of seismicity observations. The start-stop seismicity behaviour can possibly be used for forecasting earthquakes and their switching depth along the Chugaryeong fault.