Multitechnology characterization of an unusual surface rupturing intraplate earthquake: the ML 5.4 2019 Le Teil event in France

Metropolitan France is a region of slow tectonic deformation with sparse seismicity. On 11 November 2019, the M L 5.4 Le Teil earthquake became the largest seismic event recorded in the last 16 yr. This event was recorded by the national seismic networks and also by a wide variety of other geophysical techniques including infrasound and InSAR measurements. These complementary technologies offer the opportunity to investigate in detail the earthquake source characteristics and the associated ground motion attenuation. Both seismic waveform inversions and InSAR interferogram reveal a shallow rupture on a reverse fault with an associated moment magnitude of 4.8–4.9. Infrasound signals also provide fast evidences pointing towards the area of ground surface displacements, which coincides with La Rouvière fault, in the Cévennes fault system, known as a formerly active normal fault during the Oligocene. The very significant amount of seismic records also helps towards validating the GMPE laws available for the region. This multitechnology characterization documents the kinematics of this rare example of shallow intraplate fault reactivation.