Surface Rupture on a Secondary Fault Associated with the 8 August 2020 Mw 5.1 Sparta North Carolina Earthquake

Abstract On 8 August 2020, northwest North Carolina experienced an Mw 5.1 earthquake that caused damage to buildings and roads in the city of Sparta. A regional centroid moment tensor solution shows was result slip on a reverse fault with minor strike-slip component. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data, from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Advanced Land Observing Satellite #2 (ALOS2) satellite, reveal deformation field is more complex than expected single earthquake. The data also apparent rupture at Earth’s surface local roads. Modeling InSAR indicates associated very shallow normal faulting event equivalent about overprinted possibly occurred aseismically.