Multi‐Scale Rupture Growth With Alternating Directions in a Complex Fault Network During the 2023 South‐Eastern Türkiye and Syria Earthquake Doublet

Abstract

A devastating doublet of earthquakes with moment magnitude M_W 7.9 and M_W 7.6 earthquakes contiguously occurred in SE Türkiye near the NW border of Syria. Here we perform a potency‐density tensor inversion to simultaneously estimate rupture evolution and fault geometry for the doublet. We find the initial M_W 7.9 earthquake involved discrete episodes of supershear rupture and back‐rupture propagation, and was triggered by initial rupture along a bifurcated splay of the East Anatolian Fault. The second M_W 7.6 event was triggered by the earlier M_W 7.9 event, and it involved more extensive supershear rupture along a favorably curved fault, and was likely stopped by geometric barriers at the fault ends. Our results highlight the multi‐scale cascading rupture growth across the complex fault network that affects the diverse rupture geometries of the 2023 Türkiye earthquake doublet, contributing to the strong ground shaking and associated devastation.