Observations on source time functions of earthquakes obtained from inversion of teleseismic body waveforms

An interesting aspect of the nucleation of large Eastern Mediterranean earthquakes is the emergent nature of their source time functions. Several large and shallow, normal, strike‐slip and thrusting events, which occurred in other parts of the world, and broke the surface for which the source time functions have been determined using the same inversion procedure, exhibit similar characteristics. These emergent source time functions may reflect a difficulty in breaking barriers, the localized region of the fault which remains unbroken at the completion of the dynamic fault process, at which ruptures nucleated, or some particular physical process (e.g. creep instability) that may commonly occur during the rupture of large earthquakes. Earthquakes in similar tectonic settings with similar source mechanisms reflect common patterns.