Rapid aseismic moment release following the 5 December, 1997 Kronotsky, Kamchatka, earthquake

Model inversions of displacements of continuously operating GPS stations in Kamchatka show that aseismic afterslip during 2 months following the M-ome ga=7.8, 5 December, 1997 Kronotsky subduction earthquake released as much m oment as the earthquake itself. The rapidly decaying transient slip on the subduction underthrust occurred near the downdip edge of the coseismic rupt ure and extended laterally away from it, including a region of vigorous for eshock activity. A logarithmic decay function fit to the cumulative aftersl ip curve has a relaxation time of about 3 days. Rapid afterslip can contrib ute significantly to the moment release of partially coupled subduction zon es.