Intermediate Depth Earthquakes in Middle America: Fault Reactivation or Formation?

Intermediate-depth earthquakes are often attributed to dehydration embrittlement reactivating pre-existing weak zones. The orientations of pre-subduction faults are particularly well known offshore of Middle America, where seismic reflection profiles show outer-rise faults dipping towards the trench and extending >20~km into the lithosphere. If water is transported along these faults and incorporated into hydrous minerals, the faults may be reactivated later when the minerals dehydrate. In this case, the fault orientations should be the same in the outer rise and at depth, after accounting for the angle of subduction. To test this hypothesis, we analyze the directivity of 54 large (M_W > 5.7) earthquakes between 40--220~km depth in the Middle America Trench. For 15 of these earthquakes, the directivity vector allows us to confidently distinguish the fault plane of the earthquake. Between 40--85~km depth, we observe both subhorizontal and subvertical fault planes. The subvertical fault planes are consistent with the reactivation of outer rise faults, whereas the subhorizontal fault planes suggest the formation of new faults. Deeper than 85~km, we only observe subhorizontal faults, indicating that the outer rise faults are no longer reactivated. The occurrence of only subhorizontal faults may be due to unbending stresses preferentially creating horizontal faults, or an isobaric rupture process.