Multiscale Post-Seismic Deformation Based on cGNSS Time Series Following the 2015 Lefkas (W. Greece) Mw6.5 Earthquake

Abstract

In the present work, a multiscale post-seismic relaxation mechanism, based on the existence of a distribution in relaxation time, is presented. Assuming an Arrhenius dependence of the relaxation time with uniform distributed activation energy in a mesoscopic scale, a generic logarithmic-type relaxation in a macroscopic scale results. The model was applied in the case of the strong 2015 Lefkas Mw6.5 (W. Greece) earthquake, where continuous GNSS (cGNSS) time series were recorded in a station located in the near vicinity of the epicentral area. The application of the present approach to the Lefkas event fits the observed displacements implied by a distribution of relaxation times in the range τmin ≈ 3.5 days to τmax ≈ 350 days.