Special Issue on Complex Multi-Fault Earthquakes
Recognizing the approaching 10th anniversary of the Kaikōura, New Zealand earthquake, BSSA invites contributions to a special issue on understanding, modeling and forecasting complex multi-fault earthquakes.
The Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake on 15 November 2016 was an unusually complex multi-fault earthquake, involving slip on at least 20 faults with a wide range of fault geometries, kinematics and depths. Several subsequent multi-fault ruptures, notably the 6 February 2023 Türkiye-Syria, 1 January 2024 Noto, Japan, and 5 December 2024 Mendocino, California earthquakes, have since illustrated that these types of ruptures occur in diverse tectonic settings, constitute a significant hazard locally and even regionally, and hence are of global importance. Complex multi-fault earthquakes pose numerous scientific challenges including their recognition in the paleoseismic record, interpretation and modeling of slip transfer processes, understanding the source dynamics that lead to such cascading earthquake ruptures, estimating ground motions, and developing seismic hazard models for spatially extensive fault networks.
BSSA invites special issue contributions that address the diversity of seismotectonic problems posed by complex multi-fault earthquakes, including field-based, computational, forecasting and hazard studies. Multidisciplinary contributions and those addressing secondary hazard processes such as landslides and tsunamis are particularly welcome.
Guest Editors for this Special Issue:
- Ryo Ando, University of Tokyo (ando@eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
- Zoë Mildon, University of Plymouth (zoe.mildon@plymouth.ac.uk)
- Kevin Milner, United States Geological Survey (kmilner@usgs.gov)
- Vasiliki Mouslopoulou, National Observatory of Athens (vasiliki.mouslopoulou@noa.gr)
- Andy Nicol, University of Canterbury (andy.nicol@canterbury.ac.nz)
Deadline for Submission: 1 July 2026
Articles accepted to this BSSA Special Issue will be published online soon after acceptance and collectively in print in the April 2027 issue. Papers will be reviewed as they are received and published online prior to the print issue.
In preparing manuscripts, authors must follow the BSSA author guidelines at https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/bssa-submission-guidelines.
Papers must be submitted via the BSSA online submission system (www.editorialmanager.com/bssa) under the category “Complex Multi-Fault Earthquakes.”
Please address questions about scientific issues to the guest editors or BSSA Editor-in-Chief P. Martin Mai at bssaeditor@seismosoc.org. Submission-related questions should be addressed to the BSSA Editorial Office at bssamss@seismosoc.org.