The 26 November 2019 Durres earthquake, Albania: coseismic displacements and occurrence of slow slip events in the year following the earthquake

Outer Albanides experienced a seismic sequence starting on 21 September 2019, with an Mw 5.6 earthquake, followed by an Mw 5.1 aftershock 10 minutes later considered as foreshocks, and culminated with the main shock Mw 6.38 on 26 November 2019, preceded by several immediate foreshocks (Mw 2.0-4.4), followed by numerous aftershocks (Mw > 5.0). We model the co-seismic slip distribution using InSAR, permanent and campaign GNSS measurements. Two hypotheses are tested: an earthquake on a thrust plane with direction N160°, and an earthquake on a backthrust. Varying the depth and dip angle for the first hypothesis and only the dip angle for the second, it is concluded that the optimal solution is a blind thrust at a depth of 15 km with an eastward dip of 40°, a maximum slip of 1.4 m and a Mw of 6.38. The GNSS time series obtained after 2020 shows two slow slip events (SSE): the first 200 days after the main shock up to about 26 days, and the second 300 days after the main shock up to about 28 days. We tested three hypotheses: SSE occurred along the basement thrust where the main shock was localised, SSE occurred along the flat formed by the detachment layer of the cover, and SSE occurred along these two faults. It has therefore been concluded that SSE has occurred along the detachment layer or along both the detachment layer and the basement thrust activated during the Mw 6.38 Durres earthquake.