Upper Plate Response to a Sequential Elastic Rebound and Slab Acceleration During Laboratory‐Scale Subduction Megathrust Earthquakes

Abstract

An earthquake‐induced stress drop on a megathrust instigates different responses on the upper plate and slab. We mimic homogenous and heterogeneous megathrust interfaces at the laboratory scale to monitor the strain relaxation on two elastically bi‐material plates by establishing analog velocity weakening and neutral materials. A sequential elastic rebound follows the coseismic shear‐stress drop in our elastoplastic‐frictional models: a fast rebound of the upper plate and the delayed and smaller rebound on the elastic belt (model slab). A combination of the rebound of the slab and the rapid relaxation (i.e., elastic restoration) of the upper plate after an elastic overshooting may accelerate the relocking of the megathrust. This acceleration triggers/antedates the failure of a nearby asperity and enhances the early slip reversal in the rupture area. Hence, the trench‐normal landward displacement in the upper plate may reach a significant amount of the entire interseismic slip reversal and speeds up the stress build‐up on the upper plate backthrust that emerges self‐consistently at the downdip end of the seismogenic zones. Moreover, the backthrust switches its kinematic mode from a normal to reverse mechanism during the coseismic and postseismic stages, reflecting the sense of shear on the interface.