Repeating earthquakes and seismic potential along the northern Longitudinal Valley fault of eastern Taiwan

[1] The northern Longitudinal Valley fault in eastern Taiwan creeps at the surface with a small rate of 1 cm/yr but slips in large earthquakes. To improve seismic hazard assessment, it is important to comprehend the slip deficit rate distribution at depth. We discovered 25 ML 2.1– 4.6 repeating earthquakes in this area and inverted GPS measurements for producing an image of the along-strike spatial distribution of deep fault slip rates. The repeating events are located at the depths of 10–22 km with 24.9– 77.5 mm/yr slip rates, which are comparable with the GPSderived slip rates of 47.5 ± 5.8 mm/yr at similar depth ranges. Based on distribution of GPS-derived slip deficits, since 1951, the northern Longitudinal Valley fault has become capable of releasing stored strain in a future Mw = 7.3 earthquake. Citation: Rau, R.-J., K. H. Chen, and K.-E. Ching (2007), Repeating earthquakes and seismic potential along the northern Longitudinal Valley fault of eastern Taiwan, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L24301, doi:10.1029/2007GL031622.