Analysis on the source characteristics of three earthquakes nearby the Gyeongju area of the South Korea in 1999

Three earthquakes with local magnitude () greater than 3.0 occurred on April 24, June 2 and September 12 in 1999 nearby the Gyeongju area. Redetermined epicenters were located within the radius of 1 km. We carried out waveform inversion analysis to estimate focal mechanism of June 2 event, and P and S wave polarity and their amplitude ratio analysis to estimate focal mechanisms of April 24 and September 12 events. June 2 and September 12 events had similar fault plane solutions each other. The fault plane solution of April 24 event included those of other 2 events, but its distribution range was relatively broad. Focal mechanisms of those events had a strike slip faulting with a small normal component. P-axes of those events were ENE-WSW which were similar to previous studies on the P-axis of the Korean Peninsula. Considering distances between epicenters, similarities of seismic waves and sameness of polarities of seismic data recorded at common seismic stations, these events might occurred at the same fault. The seismic moment of June 2 event was estimated to be and this value corresponded to the moment magnitude () 3.7. The moment magnitude estimated by spectral analysis was 3.8, which was similar to that estimated by waveform inversion analysis. The average stress drop was estimated to be 7.5 MPa. Moment magnitudes of April 24 and September 12 events were estimated to be 3.2 and 3.4 by comparing the spectrum of those events recorded at common single seismic station.