During the long periods separating large earthquakes, stress accumulates along large faults that will be released during earthquakes. This stress does not accumulate homogeneously. We imaged the spatial distribution of coupling (i.e. the ratio quantifying the locking on the different fault segments) along the north and east Anatolian faults in eastern Turkey (Bletery et al., GRL, 2020):
Interseismic coupling distribution inverted from InSAR and GPS data. Black thick arrows indicate the long‐term slip rate at depth derived from the inversion. Focal mechanisms show M > 4.8 earthquakes (colors indicate event dates). Contours delineate the approximate rupture extent of the 1939 MS 8.0 Erzincan earthquake and of the 2020 Mw 6.8 Elazığ earthquake (USGS finite fault solution). The light blue star indicates the epicenter of the Elazığ earthquake.