Crustal deformation and fault model of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake by Tetsuro Imakiire1*, Mikio Tobita2, Shinzaburo Ozawa3, Takuya Nishimura3, Hisashi Suito4, Tomokazu Kobayahsi4 ABSTRACT Miyagi prefecture. The epicenter locates at off shore of Miyagi prefecture, where large plate This paper reports the overview of the crustal boundary earthquakes, of which magnitude is 7 deformation caused by the 2011 off the Pacific to 8 but not larger than 8.5, have occurred coast of Tohoku Earthquake (hereafter referred repeatedly. The Tohoku Earthquake generated a as "the Tohoku Earthquake"), detected by disastrous tsunami hitting the wide area of the GEONET, the GPS continuous observation Pacific coast from Hokkaido to Honshu causing system operated by GSI. We found very wide great damages. Meiji-Sanriku Earthquake area of Japanese Islands was remarkably affected (M8_1/4), which occurred in 1896 at the by the crustal deformation caused by the main neighboring area to the Tohoku Earthquake's shock of the Tohoku Earthquake, from Hokakido source region, is known as "tsunami earthquake" to Kinki district. We estimated the geometry of and caused more than 22,000 casualties. The the seismogenic fault of the Tohoku Earthquake, Tohoku Earthquake caused nearly the same as well as the slip model on the plate boundary number of dead and lost people. between the Pacific plate and the North American plate, from the crustal deformation data. The length of the fault is estimated longer 2. COSEISMIC CRUSTAL DEFORMATION than 400 km from off Iwate prefecture in the north to off Ibaraki prefecture in the south. The Significant crustal deformation caused by the largest slip estimate on the plate boundary is Tohoku Earthquake was detected by GEONET, more than 56 m at the off Miyagi region near the the continuous GPS observation network Japan trench. The postseismic crustal operated by GSI. Figure 1 shows the horizontal deformation is also observed by GEONET. movement, and Figure 2 shows the vertical This means slow postseismic slip is ongoing movement of GEONET sites in the northeastern along the plate boundary around the main fault Japan. (GSI, 2011a)[1] The maximum zone. movement is recorded at " Oshika" site in the Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture. " Oshika" KEYWORDS: Crustal Deformation, Fault horizontally moved toward southeast by east Model, GEONET, Plate Boundary, Slip about 5.3 meter, as much as vertically subsided distribution, The 2011 off The Pacific Coast of about 1.2 meter. Tohoku Earthquake Figure 3 shows the contour map of horizontal movements. (GSI, 2011b)[2] It is notable that a very wide area around the Tohoku and Kanto 1. OVERVIEW OF THE EARTHQUAKE region is affected by the crustal deformation by the Tohoku earthquake. The GEONET sites in The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Iwate prefecture at the north, Yamagata Earthquake (hereafter referred as "the Tohoku 1 Earthquake") broke out on 14:46, March 11, Principal Researcher, Geography and Crustal Dynamics Research Center, Geospatial Information Authority of 2011. It is the largest earthquake, of which Japan, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305-0811 Japan magnitude is 9.0 (by JMA), among all 2 Director of Crustal Deformation Research Division, ditto earthquakes recorded in the history of seismic 3 Senior Researcher of Crustal Deformation Research observation in Japan. The highest intensity, VII Division, ditto (JMA scale) was recorded at Kurihara City, 4 Researcher of Crustal Deformation Research Division, ditto － 70 － － 71 － prefecture at the west, and Ibaraki prefecture at released, or seismic moment based on this slip the south, moved more than 1 meter. Even in model, is 3.90 x 1022 Nm, equivalent to the Tokyo metropolitan area, about 0.2m horizontal moment magnitude (Mw) 9.0, assuming the movement is observed. rigidity as 40 GPa. This moment magnitude Figure 4 shows the contour map of vertical value is consistent to other results of the movement. (GSI, 2011b) It is remarkable that estimation based on seismic wave inversion or all places along the Pacific coast line in the tsunami inversion analysis. Tohoku and Kanto region subsided coseismically. Figure 7 shows an advanced slip distribution The Oshika peninsula, the nearest place to the model using GEONET data and seafloor crustal epicentric area, subsided more than 1 meter. deformation data observed by Japan Coast Guard. Several tens centimeter subsidence is recorded at (GSI, 2011b) The horizontal movement many sites from Miyagi to Ibaraki prefecture observed at "Miyagi-1" seafloor site is as large as coast line, where are affected by high tide after 24m, and vertical movement there is about 3 m the earthquake.. uplift. It is notable that the center of the slip area is estimated nearer to the Japan trench, or more eastward, compared with the previous 3. FAULT MODELS model. Furthermore, the estimated maximum slip is more than 56 m, much larger than We constructed a fault model using coseismic previous estimation. This extremely large slip surface displacement data observed by GEONET. means that the plate boundary around this area A preliminary fault model which consists of two has been stuck very firmly before the earthquake, rectangular faults with a uniform slip in an and has been accumulating strain energy for a elastic half-space is shown on Figure 5. The long time. parameters of these faults are estimated, based on the formula introduced by Okada (1985). [3]. This figure shows that a total major rupture 4. POSTSEISMIC CRUSTAL DEFORMATION length reaches about 380 km with a fault width of 90-130 km. (Northern segment: about 180 km GEONET reveals remarkable crustal long/ Southern segment: about 180 km long). A deformation is ongoing around the Tohoku and reverse fault motion is inferred. Slip amounts of Kanto region after the Tohoku Earthquake. northern segment and southern one are estimated Figure 8 shows the time series of the crustal to be about 25 m and about 6 m, respectively. deformation at the "Yamada" site, which locates A total moment magnitude is 8.9. (Northern on the coast of Iwate prefecture, after the Tohoku segment: Mw8.8 / Southern segment: Mw8.2) Earthquake. (GSI, 2011b) Horizontal Figure 6 shows a distributed slip model using movement toward southeast by east after the coseismic surface displacement data observed by mainshock exceeds 50 cm on the time point at GEONET. (GSI, 2011b) We assumed that the the end of June 2011. coseismic slip occurred along the plate boundary Figure 9 shows postseismic horizontal (a) and between the Pacific Plate, which is subducting vertical (b) movement vectors around from east, and the North American plate, where northeastern Japan. (GSI, 2011b) The pattern the Tohoku region locates. The slip is estimated of the horizontal movement vectors toward east by the geodetic inversion based on the method of to southeast means that crustal block on the Yabuki and Matsu'ura (1992). [4]. The slip area, North American plate, where Tohoku region where the slip estimated larger than 4 m, extends locates, is moving eastward, overriding onto the more than 400 km from north to south, or nearly Pacific plate, even after the Tohoku earthquake. 450 km in the major axis along the Japan trench, However, when we look into the detail of the as well as the width is about 200 km from west crustal movement pattern, we can note a slight to east. The largest slip, estimated at near the difference between the coseismic one and epicenter, is about 27 m. (Ozawa et al., 2011)[5] postseismic one. Although all GEONET sites Total amount of the energy coseismically subsided coseismically, several sites in Miyagi － 70 － － 71 － prefecture and certain sites around Choshi have been uplifting after the earthquake. Figure 10 shows the slip distribution model for 6. REFERENCES the postseismic crustal deformation. (GSI, 2011b) Most significant feature of this slip 1. Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, model is that the center of slipping area is Crustal deformation associated with the 2011 locating a little westward from the center of off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake on coseismic slip area. This means that March 11, 2011, postseismic slip along the plate boundary occurs http://www.gsi.go.jp/chibankansi/chikakukans mainly deeper zone compared with coseismic i40005.html, 2011a, (in Japanese) rapture zone. The geomorphological evidence, 2. Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, such as coastal terraces, shows that the coastal Crustal Movements in the Tohoku District, area of the Tohoku district has been uplifting for Rep. CCEP, Vol.86, 2011b (in press), (in the long term. However, geodetic observation Japanese) including leveling survey from one hundred 3. Okada, Y., Surface deformation due to shear years ago, tidal observation for several tens years, and tensile faults in a half-space，Bull. Seism. and GPS observation, shows that the Pacific Soc. Am.,75，1135-1154, 1985. coast of the Tohoku region has been subsiding 4. Yabuki, T. & Matsu'ura, M., Geodetic data before the Tohoku Earthquake. There was a inversion using Baysian information criterion hypothesis that a coseismic uplift caused by a for spatial distribution of fault slip. Geophys. great interplate earthquake would exceed the J. Int. 109, 363-375, 1992 inter-seismic subsidence. However, the 5. Ozawa, S., T. Nishimura, H. Suito, T. concerned area has been subsided by the Tohoku Kobayashi, M. Tobita and T. Imakiire, Earthquake. Another hypothesis explains that Coseismic and postseismic slip of the 2011 postseismic slip would widely spread into the magnitude-9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, Nature, deeper zone of plate boundary after a great 475, 373-376, doi:10.1038/nature10227., earthquake, and that postseismic slip would be 2011 the main reason of inter-seismic uplift. We would be able to decide whether this explanation is appropriate or not, following the crustal deformation observation for several years.