The Sharpsburg, Kentucky, earthquake of 27 July 1980

The Sharpsburg, Kentucky, earthquake was the second largest earthquake to have occurred in the United States, east of the Continental Divide, in the past 20 yr, having a seismic moment of 4.1 × 1023 dyne-cm. A surface-wave focal mechanism study defines a nodal plane striking N30°E, dipping 50°SE, and a nearly vertical nodal plane striking N60°W. P -wave first motion data indicate right-lateral motion on the nodal plane striking N30°E, with the pressure axes oriented east-west. These angles can be varied by ±10° without affecting the fit to the surface-wave data. The surface-wave solution is reinforced by a modeling of long-period seismograms at regional distances. The P, pP , and sP polarities and amplitudes from the short-period vertical component array stack at NORSAR are used together with six unambiguous short-period P -wave first motions recorded in North America to test whether it is possible to constrain focal mechanism solutions with such data. These solutions are compatible with the surface-wave solution. Waveform modeling of the NORSAR data suggests a source pulse duration of 1.0 sec and constrains the depth to 12.0 km. To match mb estimates from NORSAR and Canadian stations, t *, for teleseismic P , must be 0.7 and 0.5, respectively, when the synthetics are scaled using the surface-wave seismic moment. In spite of extensive coverage of the epicentral zone, fewer than 70 aftershocks were recorded. The largest aftershock and an mbLg = 2.2. Aftershock locations suggest that the nodal plane striking N30°E is the fault plane. An aftershock area of 30 to 50 km2 implies a stress drop of 2.8 to 6 bars and a dislocation of 2.0 to 3.4 cm. Because of the variety of studies performed, this earthquake is presently the best-studied eastern North American seismic event with well-constrained estimates of focal depth, focal mechanism and seismic moment, and indications of the duration of the source time function and upper mantle P -wave t *.