Causse M., Cornou Cécile, Maufroy E., Grasso J. R., Baillet L., El Haber E. (2021). Exceptional ground motion during the shallow M-w 4.9 2019 Le Teil earthquake, France. Communications Earth and Environment, 2 (1), 14 [9 p.].
Titre du document
Exceptional ground motion during the shallow M-w 4.9 2019 Le Teil earthquake, France
Causse M., Cornou Cécile, Maufroy E., Grasso J. R., Baillet L., El Haber E.
Source
Communications Earth and Environment, 2021,
2 (1), 14 [9 p.]
An unusually damaging Mw 4.9 earthquake occurred on November 11, 2019 in the south east of France within the lower Rhone river valley, an industrial region that hosts several operating nuclear power plants. The hypocentre of this event occurred at an exceptionally shallow depth of about 1km. Here we use far-field seismological observations to demonstrate that the rupture properties are consistent with those commonly observed for large deeper earthquakes. In the absence of strong motion sensors in the fault vicinity, we perform numerical predictions of the ground acceleration on a virtual array of near-fault stations. These predictions are in agreement with independent quantitative estimations of ground acceleration from in-situ observations of displaced objects. Both numerical and in-situ analyses converge toward estimates of an exceptional level of ground acceleration in the fault vicinity, that locally exceeded gravity, and explain the unexpectedly significant damage. The 2019 Le Teil earthquake caused shaking and ground acceleration exceeding gravity and far greater than the levels expected for such a moderate sized earthquake, according to a combination of numerical predictions and in-situ observations.
