Depth-varying structural characters in the rupture zone of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake

• Published in: Geosphere (Boulder, Colo.) Colo.), 2017-10, Vol.13 (5), p.1408-1424
• Main Authors: Kodaira, Shuichi, Nakamura, Yasuyuki, Yamamoto, Yojiro, Obana, Koichiro, Fujie, Gou, No, Tetsuo, Kaiho, Yuka, Sato, Takeshi, Miura, Seiichi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: accretionary wedges; applied (geophysical surveys & methods); Asia; common-depth-point method; crust; earthquakes; Far East; focus; geophysical methods; geophysical profiles; geophysical surveys; Geophysics; Honshu; Japan; marine sediments; oceanic crust; plate boundaries; plate tectonics; reflection methods; rupture; sediments; seismic methods; seismic profiles; seismicity; Seismology; solid Earth (tectonophysics); subduction zones; surveys; Tohoku-Oki earthquake 2011
• ISSN: 1553-040X; 1553-040X
• DOI: 10.1130/GES01489.1

Seismic, geodetic, and tsunami data of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (offshore Japan; moment magnitude, Mw 9.0) have revealed that large coseismic slip reached the trench axis. Moreover, a clear, depth-dependent variation in the source location between high- and low-frequency seismic energy radiation was observed. However, depth-varying structural features in the rupture zone have not been well examined. We therefore processed seismic reflection data acquired along five profiles in the rupture zone and examined depth-varying structural characteristics. In the resultant seismic images were interpreted a low-velocity frontal prism, a reflective zone at the trenchward tip of the continental block, and subducted horst and graben structures. The frontal prism, which was imaged as a low-velocity (Vp 2.0-3.5 km/s) wedge-shaped unit with seafloor widths of 13.5-18 km north of 37.5°N, changed abruptly to an elongate sedimentary unit south of 37.5°N. Landward of the frontal prism, 30-80 km from the trench axis, a reflective zone was imaged above the subducted oceanic basement. Subducted horst and graben structures were clearly imaged beneath the frontal prism and the reflective zone, and they could be found to a depth of 25 km. The throws of the normal faults delineating the horst and graben structures become larger landward to as much as 2 km. Comparison of the seismic images, earthquake seismicity, and slip behaviors showed that slips of tsunami earthquakes occur along the plate interface where the frontal prism is well developed. Background seismicity along the plate interface may extend downward to the landward end of the frontal prism and it becomes active around 25 km depth extending down the subduction zone.