Different Depths of Near-Trench Slips of the 1896 Sanriku and 2011 Tohoku
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Satake et al. Geosci. Lett. (2017) 4:33 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-017-0099-y RESEARCH LETTER Open Access Diferent depths of near‑trench slips of the 1896 Sanriku and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes Kenji Satake1* , Yushiro Fujii2 and Shigeru Yamaki3 Abstract The 1896 Sanriku earthquake was a typical ‘tsunami earthquake’ which caused large tsunami despite its weak ground shaking. It occurred along the Japan Trench in the northern tsunami source area of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake where a delayed tsunami generation has been proposed. Hence the relation between the 1896 and 2011 tsunami sources is an important scientifc as well as societal issue. The tsunami heights along the northern and central Sanriku coasts from both earthquakes were similar, but the tsunami waveforms at regional distances in Japan were much larger in 2011. Computed tsunamis from the northeastern part of the 2011 tsunami source model roughly repro- duced the 1896 tsunami heights on the Sanriku coast, but were much larger than the recorded tsunami waveforms. Both the Sanriku tsunami heights and the waveforms were reproduced by a 200-km 50-km fault with an average × slip of 8 m, with the large (20 m) slip on a 100-km 25-km asperity. The moment magnitude Mw of this model is 8.1. During the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, slip on the 1896× asperity (at a depth of 3.5–7 km) was 3–14 m, while the shal- lower part (depth 0–3.5 km) slipped 20–36 m. Thus the large slips on the plate interface during the 1896 and 2011 earthquakes were complementary. Keywords: Tsunami earthquake, Japan Trench, 1896 Sanriku earthquake, 2011 Tohoku earthquake Background Tis enigma was explained by a delayed tsunami genera- Te 11 March 2011 Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9.0) was the tion in the northern part of tsunami source through the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in Japan and tsunami waveform analysis (Satake et al. 2013b; Tappin caused devastating tsunami damage including ~ 18,500 et al. 2014). However, the cause of the delayed tsunami casualties. Te ground shaking was felt throughout the generation is still controversial, either due to slip on shal- Japanese Islands with the maximum seismic intensity of low plate interface (Satake et al. 2013b) or submarine 7 on the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) scale, or landslide (Tappin et al. 2014). 11–12 on the Modifed Mercalli scale (Fig. 1a). Huge slip In the northern part of the 2011 tsunami source, the 15 (> 50 m) on the plate interface up to the Japan Trench June 1896 Sanriku earthquake occurred and caused the axis was estimated near the epicenter (~ 38.5°N) from worst tsunami disaster in Japan, with casualties of ~ 20, seismic waves (Ide et al. 2011), inland and submarine 000 (Shuto et al. 2007). Te 1896 Sanriku earthquake was geodetic data (Iinuma et al. 2012), and tsunami wave- a typical example of a ‘tsunami earthquake’ (Kanamori forms (Fujii et al. 2011; Satake et al. 2013b). On the con- 1972; Tanioka and Satake 1996b). Te origin time: 19 h trary, the largest tsunami heights on the Sanriku coast, 32 m (local time), the epicenter: 144°E, 39.5°N, and magni- ~ 40 m, were recorded ~ 100 km north (near 39.6°N). tude: M = 6.8 were estimated from Japanese seismological data (Utsu 1979). Te surface wave magnitude MS = 7.2 was assigned from global data (Abe 1994). Te moment *Correspondence: [email protected]‑tokyo.ac.jp magnitude Mw was estimated as 8.0–8.2, from a compari- 1 Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 1‑1‑1 Yayoi, Bunkyo‑ku, Tokyo 113‑0032, Japan son of aftershock activity with other large earthquakes Full list of author information is available at the end of the article (Utsu 1994). Te tsunami magnitude Mt was determined © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Satake et al. Geosci. Lett. (2017) 4:33 Page 2 of 10 ab11 March 2011 Tohoku (M 9.0) 15 June 1896 Sanriku (M 8.2) JMA MM 45ºN JMA MM 7 11,12 Hanasaki 6+ 10 5 8 6- 9 4 6-7 5+ 8 3 4-5 5- 7 2 3 4 6 40º 3 4-5 1 2 2 3 1 2 Ayukawa Choshi 35º 0 km 400 30º 130º 135º 140º 145ºE 130º 135º 140º 145ºE cdHanasaki 1896 2011 40.5˚ 2 1896 Sanriku N 0 Kuji −2 2011 Tohoku 40˚ 8 Ayukawa 6 Miyako 39.5˚ 4 2011 Tohoku 2 1896 Sanriku 39˚ Ofunato 0 ) −2 Choshi 38.5˚ 2 2011 Tohoku Ayukawa 0 Iki Runup 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Amplitude (m 1896 Sanriku Matsuo Inundation Tsunami height (m) −2 Yamana 0306090 120 150 180 Time (min) Fig. 1 a Epicenter (black star) and seismic intensity distribution of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, according to Japan Meteorological Agency. b Epi- center and seismic intensity distribution of the 1896 Sanriku earthquake. Locations of tide gage stations (open triangles) are also shown. c Tsunami heights on the Sanriku coast from the 1896 Sanriku tsunami (blue symbols with diferent shapes for the data source) and the 2011 Tohoku earth- quake (red symbols with diferent shapes for runup and inundation heights) from Tsuji et al. (2014). d Tsunami waveforms from the 1896 Sanriku (blue curves) and 2011 Tohoku (red curves) earthquakes recorded at the three tide gage stations Satake et al. Geosci. Lett. (2017) 4:33 Page 3 of 10 as 8.6 from global data (Abe 1979) and 8.2 from Japanese Choshi (500 km) (Fig. 1b, Honda et al. 1908; Imamura data (Abe 1981). Te ground shaking was weak (2–3 on and Moriya 1939). Tanioka and Satake (1996b) exam- the JMA seismic intensity scale, corresponding to 4–5 on ined these waveforms, estimated the clock timing errors the Modifed Mercalli scale; Fig. 1b). However, the tsu- as large as 5 min, and modeled the waveforms without nami heights on the Sanriku coast from the 2011 and 1896 timing information. Te 2011 tsunami was also recorded earthquakes were roughly similar (Fig. 1c, Tsuji et al. 2014) at these tide gage stations, although the Ayukawa record as detailed in the “Tsunami data of the 1896 earthquake.” went of-scale immediately following the frst tsunami Tsunami waveform modeling of the 1896 Sanriku arrival at ~ 30 min from the earthquake (Satake et al. earthquake has shown that slip occurred on a narrow 2013b). Comparison of the 1896 and 2011 tsunami wave- fault located near the trench axis (Tanioka and Satake forms indicates that both periods and amplitudes of the 1996b; Tanioka and Seno 2001). Tis is a common fea- 2011 waveforms are larger than those of the 1896 tsu- ture of ‘tsunami earthquakes’ such as the 1992 Nicara- nami (Fig. 1d), probably due to the diferent sizes of tsu- gua or 2010 Mentawai earthquakes (Satake and Tanioka nami source. 1999; Satake et al. 2013a). Tanioka et al. (1997) further For the 1896 tsunami heights along the Sanriku coasts, proposed that the 1896 Sanriku ‘tsunami earthquake’ at distances ranging from 170 to 250 km from the epi- occurred in a region where the ocean bottom topography center, feld surveys were made by three groups (Fig. 1c). is rough, characterized by well-developed horst and gra- Yamana (reproduced by Unohana and Ota 1988) made ben structures. Polet and Kanamori (2000) extended this a post-tsunami survey from July through September of model to global subduction zones, based on the examina- 1896 in all of the 37 villages along the Sanriku coast. Te tion of the source spectra of large (M > 7) earthquakes in largest heights of 55 m were reported at two locations. the 1990s. More recently, Lay et al. (2012) classifed the While his report contains 168 diagrams, the reliability seismogenic zone of subduction zones into four domains of his measurements has been questioned (Shuto et al. and assigned the shallowest domain (A: less than 15 km 2007). Iki (1897) made a survey in June and July of 1896 depth) as a source region of ‘tsunami earthquakes.’ along the Sanriku coast. He measured tsunami heights After the occurrence of the 2011 Tohoku earth- based on various kinds of traces and eyewitness accounts, quake and tsunami, a question arose about the relation and assigned diferent reliabilities depending on the between the 1896 and 2011 tsunami sources. Did both kind of data. Te maximum tsunami height was 24 m earthquakes rupture the same shallow plate interface at Yoshihama. In 1933, another devastating tsunami, or diferent parts? Why was the 1896 event a ‘tsunami with maximum height of 29 m and approximately 3000 earthquake’ while the 2011 earthquake was not? Tese fatalities, was caused by the 1933 Sanriku earthquake are important issues both in science of tsunami genera- (Ms 8.5). Matsuo (1933) made feld survey to measure the tion in subduction zones, particularly near the trench heights of both 1896 and 1933 tsunamis. Although the axis, and also for tsunami hazard assessment. 1896 tsunami heights were measured 37 years after the In this study, we re-estimate the slip distribution, par- occurrence based on the eyewitness accounts, the survey ticularly in depth direction, of the 1896 Sanriku ‘tsunami points were plotted on 1:50,000 maps and provided valu- earthquake’ based on both tsunami heights on the San- able information.