Far-field coseismic displacements associated with the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake in Japan observed by Global Positioning System

Abstract

Analysis of GEONET observations covering the entire territory of Japan shows that the great Tohoku-oki earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 off the east coast of Honshu in Japan caused an eastward movement of the northern part of the island by as much as 5.3 m. The GPS data from TEONET in China were used to derive far-field coseismic displacements and to assess the impact of the Tohoku-oki earthquake on crustal deformation in eastern China. The results reveal that the coseismic horizontal displacements induced by the earthquake are the level of millimeters to centimeters in North and Northeast China, with a maximum of 35 mm. Strain analysis also indicates that the earthquake resulted in an increase in the tensile strain on the north-northeast trending faults in North and Northeast China. The tensile strain imposed on the Yilan-Yitong and Dunhua-Mishan faults is more significant than that imposed on the faults in North China; the maximum normal strain reaches about 40 nano-strain. Considering that the static Coulomb stress loaded on the faults is limited, its effect on the regional seismic activity may not be significant.