Abstract
Teleseismic and GPS data were jointly inverted for the rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. The inversion results show that it is a bilateral rupture event with an average rupture velocity less than 2.0 km/s along the fault strike direction. The source rupture process consists of three sub-events, the first occurred near the hypocenter and the rest two ruptured along the up-dip direction and broke the sea bed, causing a maximum slip of about 30 m. The large-scale sea bed breakage may account for the tremendous tsunami disaster which resulted in most of the death and missing in this mega earthquake.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Brune J N (1970). Tectonic stress and the spectra of seismic shear waves from earthquakes. J Geophys Res75: 4 997–5 009.
Brune J N (1971). Correction. Tectonic stress and the spectra of seismic shear waves from earthquake. J Geophys Res76: 5 002.
Hao J L, Wang W M and Yao Z X (2011). Source process of the 2011 MW9.0 Tohuko Japan earthquake. Science in China (Series D) 54: 1 105–1 109, doi:10.1007/s11430-011-4241-y.
Hayes G (2011). Updated Result of the Mar 11, 2011 MW9.0 Earthquake Offshore Honshu, Japan. [2011-03-11] http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/finite_fault.php.
Heki K, Miyazaki S and Tsuji H (1997). Silent fault slip following an interplate thrust earthquake at the Japan Trench. Nature386: 595–598.
Kennett B L N (1983). Seismic Wave Propagation in Stratified Media. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1–339.
Kennett B L N and Engdahl E R (1991). Travel times for global earthquake location and phase identification. Geophys J Int105: 429–465.
Kim A and Dreger D S (2008). Rupture process of the 2004 Parkfield earthquake from near-fault seismic waveform and geodetic records. J Geophys Res113: B07308, doi:10.1029/2007JB005115.
Okada Y (1985). Surface deformation due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space. Bull Seismol Soc Am75(4): 1 135–1 154.
Seno T, Sakurai T and Stein S (1996). Can the Okhotsk plate be discriminated from the North American plate? J Geophys Res101: 11 305–11 3156.
Shao G, Li X, Ji C and Maeda T (2011). Focal mechanism and slip history of 2011 MW9.1 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, constrained with teleseismic body and surface waves. Earth Planets Space63(7): 559–564.
Wei S J, Anthony S and ARIA group (2011). Updated Result3/11/2011 (MW9.0), Tohoku-oki, Japan. [2011-03-12] http://tectonics.caltech.edu/slip history/2011 taiheiyooki/%20index.html.
Yagi Y (2011). The 11 March 2011 Tohoku earthquake. (in Japanese) [2011-03-12] http://www.geol.tsukuba.ac.jp/yagi-y/EQ/Tohoku/index-o.html.
Yagi Y and Fukahata Y (2011). Rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake and absolute elastic strain release. Geophys Res Lett38: L19307, doi:10.1029/2011GL048701.
Zhang Y, Feng W P, Xu L S, Zhou C H and Chen Y T (2009). Spatio-temporal rupture process of the 2008 great Wenchuan earthquake. Science in China (Series D) 52(2): 145–154.
Zhang Y, Xu L S and Chen Y T. (2011). Fast rupture process inversion of the 11 March 2011 earthquake near the east coast of Honshu, Japan. [2011-03-11] http://ddsep.ceaigp.ac.cn/rp/2011.
Zhao D, Huang Z, Umino N, Hasegawa A and Kanamori H (2011). Structural heterogeneity in the megathrust zone and mechanism of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (MW9.0). Geophys Res Lett38: L17308, doi:10.1029/2011GL048408.
Zhao D, Wang Z, Unimo N and Hasegawa A (2009). Mapping the mantle wedge and interplate thrust zone of the northeast Japan arc. Tectonophysics467: 89–106.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, Y., Xu, L. & Chen, Yt. Rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake from the joint inversion of teleseismic and GPS data. Earthq Sci 25, 129–135 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11589-012-0839-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11589-012-0839-1