Repeating earthquakes and quasi-static slip on the plate boundary east off northern Honshu, Japan

• Matsuzawa Toru

  Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University

• Uchida Naoki

  Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University

• Igarashi Toshihiro

  Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo

• Okada Tomomi

  Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University

• Hasegawa Akira

  Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University

Abstract

We have investigated spatio-temporal variation in small repeating earthquake activity in the 1989 earthquake swarm and used them to infer quasi-static slip distribution on the plate boundary off Sanriku, northern Honshu, Japan. Seismicity and inferred quasi-static slip accelerations propagated to the west and to the south during the swarm activity to trigger the occurrence of the largest earthquake (M7.1). To explain the migration of the seismicity and inferred quasi-static slip acceleration, we propose a conceptual model named the ‘chain reaction model’ in which large earthquakes generate large afterslips and then the afterslips accelerate the ruptures of the nearby asperities to generate the next earthquakes which are also followed by large afterslips, and so on. The model is applicable to a plate boundary where asperities are located sparsely but the afterslip associated with the rupture of an asperity can reach nearby asperities. Aftershock area expansion, which is conspicuous off Sanriku, is also explained by the model. If we can evaluate the slip deficit of a large asperity correctly, we will be able to issue a warning of large earthquake occurrence in some areas when we detect the acceleration of quasi-static slip near the asperity although the prediction is inevitably probabilistic.

Journal

• Earth, Planets and Space

  Earth, Planets and Space 56 (8), 803-811, 2004

  Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, The Seismological Society of Japan, The Volcanological Society of Japan , The Geodetic Society of Japan , The Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences

Keywords

• Space and Planetary Science
• Geology

Details

• CRID: 1390001206513467136
• NII Article ID: 10017465365
• NII Book ID: AA11211921
• DOI: 10.1186/bf03353087
• ISSN: 18805981
• ISSN: 13438832
• ISSN: http://id.crossref.org/issn/13438832
• NDL BIB ID: 7079283
• Web Site: https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R000000004-I7079283
• Web Site: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/BF03353087.pdf
• Web Site: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/BF03353087/fulltext.html
• Web Site: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/BF03353087
• Text Lang: en
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • NDL
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed