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Rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku‐Oki mega‐thrust earthquake (M9.0) inverted from strong‐motion data
Author(s) -
Suzuki Wataru,
Aoi Shin,
Sekiguchi Haruko,
Kunugi Takashi
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl049136
Subject(s) - mega , seismology , geology , thrust , geodesy , aerospace engineering , engineering , physics , astronomy
We investigate the rupture process of the M9.0 Tohoku‐Oki mega‐thrust earthquake using the relatively low‐frequency strong‐motion records (0.01–0.125 Hz) observed at 36 K‐NET and KiK‐net stations, the epicentral distances of which range from 120 km to 400 km. The fault model is a rectangular plane, the length and width of which are 510 km along the Japan Trench and 210 km along subducting direction of the Pacific Plate, respectively. We perform the multi‐time‐window inversion analysis with a 30 × 30 km 2 subfault. The derived slip model has one large slip area. This area extends from the region around the hypocenter to the shallow part of the fault plane and further to the north and south along the trench axis, located far off southern Iwate, Miyagi, and northern Fukushima prefectures. The seismic moment is 4.42 × 10 22 Nm (M w 9.0) and the maximum slip is 48 m. The slips near the coast are relatively small, except off Miyagi prefecture, which experienced a slip greater than 5 m. The shallow large slip area, which continuously ruptured from 60 s to 100 s after the initial break, radiated seismic waves rich in very‐low‐frequency content (<0.02 Hz). The rupture after 100 s propagating to the southern fault area, contributes to the distinct phases observed for Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures. The relationship between the proposed rupture model and the feature of the acceleration waveforms is not straightforward and suggests the frequency dependency of the seismic wave radiation.