The last few years have been remarkable with respect to the number of large
underthrusting earthquakes in subduction zones that reruptured plate bound
ary segments that failed in previous great events. Availability of modern s
eismic data for two consecutive large earthquakes rupturing the same portio
n of the plate interface provides the opportunity to compare the spatial di
stribution of moment release for both events. Such comparisons have been ma
de for the plate boundary segments that failed in (1) the 1957 (M-w=8.6), 1
986 (M-w=8.0), and 1996 (M-w=7.9) Aleutian Islands earthquakes; (2) the 196
3 (M-w=8.5) and 1995 (M-w=7.9) Kuril Islands earthquakes; (3) the 1971 (M-w
=8.0) and 1995 (M-w=7.7) Solomon Islands earthquakes; and (4) the 1968 (M-w
=8.2) and 1994 (M-w=7.7) northern Honshu earthquakes. The spatial distribut
ion of moment release for all four of the initial great earthquakes and two
of the repeat events has been determined in previous studies. Here, slip d
istributions for the three most recent events are determined from inversion
of source time functions, derived by empirical Greens function analysis of
long-period surface waves and broadband body waves. Comparisons of the spa
tial distribution of moment release for sequential earthquake ruptures reve
al considerable differences in the pattern of recurrent fault slip. The 199
4 northern Honshu and 1995 Solomon Islands earthquakes primarily fill in ar
eas of slip deficit left by their preceding events rather than rerupture id
entical asperities. The 1995 Kuril Islands and the 1996 Aleutian Islands ea
rthquakes both rerupture portions of an asperity distribution defined by pr
eceding events but with variable amounts of slip. This study provides the f
irst direct evidence that recurrence of large circum-Pacific plate boundary
events is more complex than repeat rupture of dominant asperities. Recurre
nt fault slip for the four plate boundary segments studied does not support
characteristic slip models either where failure on an entire fault segment
occurs repeatedly in events with nearly identical rupture lengths, locatio
ns, and slip magnitudes or where failure of individual asperities occurs wi
th identical slip functions through consecutive earthquake cycles. These se
quential slip patterns are not consistent with physical models of earthquak
e rupture where slip complexity is exclusively controlled by invariant geom
etric and/or material heterogeneity but suggest that dynamic considerations
are also important.