| Abstract: | The Hellenic arc is the most active seismic region of the transition zone between the African and Eurasian plates. In this rapidly deforming region, the physical state of the crust and upper mantle may vary laterally and vertically. However, a detailed 3D model of the region is lacking. The reliable determination of fault plane solutions is crucial if such a model is to be produced. On this basis, fault plane solutions have been determined from recent microearthquakes and small events to assess their reliability for use in tectonic interpretation. A search algorithm on first motion data and amplitude ratios and also a waveform-matching scheme were employed on data from our temporal network, operated on the western part of the island of Crete. There, a network of 47 three-component digital stations with an aperture of 60 km and an average station spacing of 5 km was operated in 1997. The majority of the shallow microearthquakes under Crete for which fault plane solutions were determined have a near horizontal T-axis oriented essentially E–W. Differences between well determined fault plane solutions from the search algorithm and the waveform-matching technique were significant (strike up to 45°, dip up to 10°, and slip up to 50°). Second, data of small events within the Hellenic subduction zone were obtained from recently installed broadband stations at local and regional distances and inverted for a deviatoric seismic moment tensor. Available solutions from other sources such as the Harvard group, EMSC, or SED show drastic differences in part. Owing to still limited azimuthal station coverage, the resulting fault plane solutions of small events have generally not been well constrained. The observed large variation of fault plane solutions for micoearthquakes and small events poses a caveat to tectonic interpretation in case of using data from a few stations only. |
