The 14 December 2021 Mw 4.9 Offshore Jeju Island, Korea, Earthquake: Seismological Observation of an Intraplate Earthquake Provides Insight into Regional Seismotectonics

Abstract

The Mw 4.9 Offshore Jeju Island, Korea, earthquake of 14 December 2021 is the most significant event that occurred close to the young intraplate volcano on the continental shelf south of the Korean Peninsula. About 185 small earthquakes occurred during nine days following the mainshock. We accurately located 39 events despite limited station azimuthal coverage. We found that the mainshock ruptured along a ∼1.4 km long fault striking east–west (275°) and triggered two distinct clusters in the north–northeast direction. The mainshock is pure strike-slip faulting on the vertical plane. Its horizontal P axis strikes 50°, which differs substantially from the average trend of ∼70° for earthquakes in the southern Korean Peninsula. However, it is consistent with the P-axes orientation of shallow earthquakes in the offshore western Kyushu and along Okinawa trough. The 2021 Offshore Jeju Island earthquake may be the first significant earthquake in southern Korea–East China Sea continental shelf to date, whose causative fault is well constrained by accurate aftershock locations and detailed space–time analysis of the earthquake sequence. This earthquake may represent intraplate deformation in response to the tectonic evolution of the Philippine Sea plate, which is manifested through volcanic activities.