Iterative deconvolution of teleseismic P waves from the Thessaloniki (N. Greece) earthquake of June 20, 1978

Teleseismic long-period P waves from the June 20, 1978, Thessaloniki (N. Greece) earthquake (M _s=6.4) were modeled in an attempt to extract information about asperities or barriers on the fault plane. The analysis is based on the inversion method of complex P waves developed by Kikuchi and Kanamori (1982). A far-field source time function with a rise time of 2 sec and a process time of 5 sec is inferred, corresponding to a source dimension of about 10 km when a rupture velocity of 2 km/sec is assumed.The source depth of this shock, estimated by matching synthetic seismograms to observations, is found to be 8 km. The sum of the seismic moments of the individual subevents amounts to 3.3×10²⁵ dyn-cm.