The 2018 Mw 6.8 Zakynthos, Greece, Earthquake: Dominant Strike-Slip Faulting near Subducting Slab

With different styles of faulting, the eastern Ionian Sea is an ideal natural laboratory to investigate interactions between adjacent faults during strong earthquakes. The 2018 M-w 6.8 Zakynthos earthquake, well recorded by broadband and strong-motion networks, provides an opportunity to resolve such faulting complexity. Here, we focus on waveform inversion and backprojection of strong-motion data, partly checked by coseismic Global Navigation Satellite System data. We show that the region is under subhorizontal southwest-northeast compression, enabling mixed thrust faulting and strike-slip (SS) faulting. The 2018 mainshock consisted of two fault segments: a low-dip thrust, and a dominant, moderate-dip, right-lateral SS, both in the crust. Slip vectors, oriented to southwest, are consistent with plate motion. The sequence can be explained in terms of trench-orthogonal fractures in the subducting plate and reactivated faults in the upper plate. The 2018 event, and an M-w 6.6 event of 1997, occurred near three localized swarms of 2016 and 2017. Future numerical models of the slab deformation and ocean-bottom seismometer observations may illuminate possible relations among earthquakes, swarms, and fluid paths in the region.