Abstract
In geodetic inversions such as estimation of coseismic slip and/or afterslip distribution on faults, the displacements on the surface calculated under an assumption of homogeneous elastic half space have been mostly used as the Green’s functions (GF’s). However, this seems not adequate for better estimations of such slip distribution, because the subsurface structures are more or less inhomogeneous, especially those in and around Japan where the structure must be much complicated. In this study, to examine how much the inhomogeneous subsurface structure affects on the surface displacements, we conduct some 3-D finite element calculations with a grid for the region of 1400 km (EW) × 1200 km (NS) × 200 km (depth) including the Tohoku and Hokkaido, northeastern Japan. Assuming homogeneous and inhomogeneous elastic models with various values for the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, we calculated the surface displacements due to a dip-slip type dislocation of 1 m on many cell-like subfaults assumed on the interface between the Pacific and land side plates. Comparing the results, we find a large discrepancy in the surface displacements between the homogeneous and inhomogeneous elastic models and less dependency of the surface displacements on the Poisson’s ratio. The discrepancy is found to be more than 20% and can be as large as ~40% in some cases. Such a large discrepancy indicates that the surface displacements calculated for inhomogeneous elastic medium with realistic subsurface structure, unlike as in usual cases, should be used as the GF’s for better geodetic inversions.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baba, T., K. Hirata, T. Hori, and H. Sakaguchi, Offshore geodetic data conductive to the estimation of the afterslip distribution following the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 241, 281–292, 2006.
Dambara, T. and Y. Tomoda, Geodesy and Geophysics, 286pp, Kyoritsu-shuppan, Tokyo, 1969 (in Japanese).
Hagiwara, Y., Effects of the Pacific and Philippine-Sea plates on the gravity field in central Japan, J. Geod. Soc. Japan, 32, 12–22, 1986 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Hashimoto, M., Finite element modeling of deformations of the lithosphere at an arc-arc junction: The Hokkaido corner, Japan, J. Phys. Earth, 32, 373–398, 1984.
Hashimoto, M., Finite element modeling of the three-dimensional tectonic flow and stress field beneath the Kyushu island, Japan, J. Phys. Earth, 33, 191–226, 1985.
Heki, K., S. Miyazaki, and H. Tsuji, Silent fault slip following an interplate thrust earthquake at the Japan Trench, Nature, 386, 595–598, 1997.
Hirata, K., M. Aoyagi, H. Mikada, K. Kawaguchi, Y. Kaiho, R. Iwase, S. Morita, I. Fujisawa, H. Sugioka, K. Mitsuzawa, K. Suyehiro, H. Kinoshita, and N. Fujiwara, Real-time geophysical measurements on the deep seafloor using submarine cable in the southern Kurile subduction zone, IEEE J. Oceanic Eng., 27, 170–181, 2002.
Hyodo, M. and K. Hirahara, GeoFEM kinematic earthquake cycle simulation in southwest Japan, Pure Appl. Geophys., 161, 2069–2090, 2004.
Iizuka, M., D. Sekita, H. Suito, M. Hyodo, K. Hirahara, D. Place, P. Mora, O. Hazama, and H. Okuda, Parallel simulation system for earthquake generation: fault analysis modules and parallel coupling analysis, Concurrency Computat.: Pract. Exper., 14, 499–519, 2002.
Kanai, T., A. Makinouchi, and A. Nakagawa, Tectonic CAD system and the construction of 3D solid models of tectonic structures, 1999 Japan Earth and Planet. Sci. Joint Meeting, Dg-021, 1999 (in Japanese).
Kanai, T., A. Makinouchi, and Y. Oishi, Development of tectonic CAD/database systems, Int. Workshop on Solid Earth Simulation and ACES WG Meeting, 2000.
Kanai, T., Y. Oishi, A. Makinouchi, T. Homma, and T. Miyamura, CHIKAKU modeling system—Tectonic database/CAD software for predictions of earthquake generation and wave propagation—, Seismol. Soc. Japan 2005 Fall Meeting, P099, 2001 (in Japanese).
Katsumata, K., N. Wada, and M. Kasahara, Newly imaged shape of the deep seismic zone within the subducting Pacific plate beneath the Hokkaido corner, Japan-Kurile arc-arc junction, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 2565, doi:10.1029/2002JB002175, 2003.
Kawachi, T. and K. Miyashita, 3-dimensional finite element modeling of the subduction and collision of the northernmost part of the Philippine Sea plate, Zisin (J. Seismol. Soc. Japan), 50, 229–240, 1997 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Liu, H.-P., The structure of the Kurile trench-Hokkaido rise system computed by an elastic time-dependent plastic plate model incorporating rock deformation data, J. Geophys. Res., 85, 901–912, 1980.
Masterlark, T., Finite element model predictions of static deformation from dislocation sources in a subduction zone: Sensitivities to homogeneous, isotropic, Poisson-solid, and half-space assumptions, J. Geophys. Res., 108(B11), 2540, doi:10.1029/2002JB002296, 2003.
Masterlark, T., C. DeMets, and H. F. Wang, Homogeneous vs heterogeneous subduction zone models: Coseismic and postseismic deformation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 4047–4050, 2001.
Miura, S., Y. Suwa, A. Hasegawa, and T. Nishimura, The 2003 M8.0 Tokachi-Oki earthquake—How much has the great event paid back slip debts?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, doi:10.1029/2003GL019021, 2004.
Miyamura, T., T. Kanai, Y. Oishi, K. Hirahara, T. Hori, M. Hyodo, A. Higashida, T. Hirayama, N. Kato, and A. Makinouchi, Mesh generation of crust structures of southwest Japan by using CHIKAKU system, Proc. Computat. Eng. Conf. of Japan Soc. Computat. Eng. Sci., 9, 521–524, 2004 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Miyazaki, S., T. Sato, M. Sasaki, Y. Hatanaka, and Y. Iimura, Expansion of GSI’s GPS array, Bull. Geogr. Surv. Inst., 43, 23–36, 1997.
Miyazaki, S., K. M. Larson, K. Choi, K. Hikima, K. Koketsu, P. Bodin, J. Haase, G. Emore, and A. Yamagiwa, Modeling the rupture process of the 2003 September 25 Tokachi-Oki (Hokkaido) earthquake using 1-Hz GPS data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, doi:10.1029/2004GL021457, 2004a.
Miyazaki, S., P. Segall, J. Fukuda, and T. Kato, Space time distribution of afterslip following the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake: Implications for variations in fault zone frictional properties, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, doi:10.1029/2003GL019410, 2004b.
Nakajima, J., T. Matsuzawa, A. Hasegawa, and D. Zhao, Seismic imaging of arc magma and fluids under the central part of northeast Japan, Tectonophysics, 341, 1–17, 2001.
Oishi, Y., T. Miyamura, T. Kanai, K. Hirahara, T. Hori, and M. Hyodo, Hexahedral mesh generation of crust structure of south west Japan, 2004 Japan Earth and Planet. Sci. Joint Meeting, S044–P008, 2004 (in Japanese).
Ozawa, S., M. Kaidzu, M. Murakami, T. Imakiire, and Y. Hatanaka, Co-seismic and postseismic crustal deformation after the Mw 8 Tokachi-oki earthquake in Japan, Earth Planets Space, 56, 675–680, 2004.
Sato, K., Stress and displacement fields in the northeastern Japan island arc as evaluated with three-dimensional finite element method and their tectonic interpretations, Sci. Rep. Tohoku Univ., Ser. 5, 31, 57–99, 1988.
Sato, K., Numerical experiments on strain migration, J. Geod. Soc. Japan, 35, 27–36, 1989 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Sato, K., H. Ishii, and A. Takagi, Characteristics of crustal stress and crustal movements in the northeastern Japan arc I: Based on the computation considering the crustal structure, Zisin (J. Seismol. Soc. Japan), 34, 551–563, 1981 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Sato, K., S. C. Bhatia, and H. K. Guputa, Three-dimensional numerical modeling of deformation and stress in the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau with a simple geometry, J. Phys. Earth, 44, 227–254, 1996.
Suito, H. and K. Hirahara, Simulation of post-seismic deformations caused by the 1896 Riku-u earthquake, northeast Japan: Re-evaluation of the viscosity in the upper mantle, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 2561–2564, 1999.
Wald, D. J. and R. W. Graves, Resolution analysis of finite fault source inversion using one- and three-dimensional Green’s functions 2. Combining seismic and geodetic data, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 8767–8788, 2001.
Wessel, P. and W. H. F. Smith, New, improved version of generic mapping tools released, EOS Trans., 79, 579, 1998.
Yoshioka, S. and M. Hashimoto, The stress field induced from the occurrence of the 1944 Tonankai and the 1946 Nankaido earthquakes, and their relation to impending earthquakes, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 56, 349–370, 1989a.
Yoshioka, S. and M. Hashimoto, A quantitative interpretation on possible correlations between intraplate seismic activity and interplate great earthquakes along the Nankai trough, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter., 58, 173–191, 1989b.
Yoshioka, S. and H. Suzuki, Effects of three-dimensional inhomogeneous viscoelastic structures on quasi-static strain and stress fields associated with dislocation on a rectangular fault, Zisin (J. Seismol. Soc. Japan), 50, 277–289, 1997 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Yoshioka, S., M. Hashimoto, and K. Hirahara, Displacement fields due to the 1946 Nankaido earthquake in a laterally inhomogeneous structure with the subducting Philippine sea plate—a three-dimensional finite element approach, Tectonophysics, 159, 121–136, 1989.
Zhao, D., S. Horiuchi, and A. Hasegawa, Seismic velocity structure of the crust beneath the Japan islands, Tectonophysics, 212, 289–301, 1992.
Zhao, D., A. Hasegawa, and H. Kanamori, Deep structure of Japan subduction zone as derived from local, regional and teleseismic events, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 22313–22329, 1994.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Sato, K., Minagawa, N., Hyodo, M. et al. Effect of elastic inhomogeneity on the surface displacements in the northeastern Japan: Based on three-dimensional numerical modeling. Earth Planet Sp 59, 1083–1093 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352051
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352051