Abstract
Most large earthquakes occur along an oceanic trench, where an oceanic plate subducts beneath a continental plate. Massive earthquakes with a moment magnitude, Mw, of nine have been known to occur in only a few areas, including Chile, Alaska, Kamchatka and Sumatra. No historical records exist of a Mw = 9 earthquake along the Japan trench, where the Pacific plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk plate, with the possible exception of the ad 869 Jogan earthquake1, the magnitude of which has not been well constrained. However, the strain accumulation rate estimated there from recent geodetic observations is much higher than the average strain rate released in previous interplate earthquakes2,3,4,5,6. This finding raises the question of how such areas release the accumulated strain. A megathrust earthquake with Mw = 9.0 (hereafter referred to as the Tohoku-Oki earthquake) occurred on 11 March 2011, rupturing the plate boundary off the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan. Here we report the distributions of the coseismic slip and postseismic slip as determined from ground displacement detected using a network based on the Global Positioning System. The coseismic slip area extends approximately 400 km along the Japan trench, matching the area of the pre-seismic locked zone4. The afterslip has begun to overlap the coseismic slip area and extends into the surrounding region. In particular, the afterslip area reached a depth of approximately 100 km, with Mw = 8.3, on 25 March 2011. Because the Tohoku-Oki earthquake released the strain accumulated for several hundred years, the paradox of the strain budget imbalance may be partly resolved. This earthquake reminds us of the potential for Mw ≈ 9 earthquakes to occur along other trench systems, even if no past evidence of such events exists. Therefore, it is imperative that strain accumulation be monitored using a space geodetic technique to assess earthquake potential.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Minoura, K., Imamura, F., Sugawara, D., Kono, Y. & Iwashita, T. The 869 Jogan tsunami deposit and recurrence interval of large-scale tsunami on the Pacific coast of northeast Japan. J. Nat. Disaster Sci. 23, 83–88 (2001)
Peterson, E. T. & Seno, T. Factors affecting seismic moment release rates in subduction zones. J. Geophys. Res. 89, 10233–10248 (1984)
Pacheco, J. F., Sykes, L. R. & Scholz, C. H. Nature of seismic coupling along simple plate boundaries of the subduction type. J. Geophys. Res. 98, 14133–14159 (1993)
Nishimura, T. et al. Temporal change of interplate coupling in northeastern Japan during 1995–2002 estimated from continuous GPS observations. Geophys. J. Int. 157, 901–916 (2004)
Hashimoto, C., Noda, A., Sagiya, T. & Matsu’ura, M. Interplate seismogenic zones along the Kuril–Japan trench from GPS data inversion. Nature Geosci. 2, 141–144 (2009)
Suwa, Y., Miura, S., Hasegawa, A., Sato, T. & Tachibana, K. Interplate coupling beneath NE Japan inferred from three-dimensional displacement field. J. Geophys. Res. 111, B04402 (2006)
Sella, G. F., Dixon, T. H. & Mao, A. REVEL: a model for recent plate velocities from space geodesy. J. Geophys. Res. 107, 2081 (2002)
Apel, E. V. et al. Independent active microplate tectonics of northeast Asia from GPS velocities and block modeling. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, L11303 (2006)
Utsu, T. Chronological table of earthquakes in Japan with a moment magnitude larger than 6.0 and disastrous earthquakes from 1885 to 1980. Bull. Earthq. Res. Inst. 57, 401–463 (1983)
Heki, K., Miyazaki, S. & Tsuji, H. Silent fault slip following an interplate thrust earthquake at the Japan Trench. Nature 386, 595–597 (1997)
Sagiya, T., Miyazaki, S. & Tada, T. Continuous GPS array and present-day crustal deformation of Japan. Pure Appl. Geophys. 157, 2303–2322 (2000)
Yabuki, T. & Matsu’ura, M. Geodetic data inversion using a Bayesian information criterion for spatial distribution of fault slip. Geophys. J. Int. 109, 363–375 (1992)
Igarashi, T., Matsuzawa, T., Umino, N. & Hasegawa, A. Spatial distribution of focal mechanisms for and intraplate earthquakes associated with the subducting Pacific plate beneath the northeastern Japan arc: a triple-planed deep seismic zone. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 2177–2191 (2001)
Nakajima, J. & Matsuzawa, T. Hasegawa, A. & Zhao, D. Seismic imaging of arc magma and fluids under the central part of northeast Japan. Tectonophysics 341, 1–17 (2001)
Global CMT Web Page . Global Centroid Moment Tensor Project 〈http://www.globalcmt.org/〉 (accessed 30 March 2011).
Shearer, P. & Burgmann, R. Lessons learned from the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman megathrust rupture. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 38, 103–131 (2010)
Pollitz, F. Gravitational viscoelastic postseismic relaxation on a layered spherical earth. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 17921–17941 (1997)
Ozawa, S., Kaidzu, M., Murakami, M., Imakiire, T. & Hatanaka, Y. Coseismic and postseismic crustal deformation after the M w 8 Tokachi-oki earthquake in Japan. Earth Planets Space 56, 675–680 (2004)
Hsu, Y. et al. Frictional afterslip following the 2005 Nias-Simeulue earthquake, Sumatra. Science 312, 1921–1926 (2006)
Nishimura, T. et al. Distribution of seismic coupling on the subducting plate boundary in northeastern Japan inferred from GPS observations. Tectonophysics 323, 217–238 (2000)
Uchida, N., Matsuzawa, T., Nakajima, J. & Hasegawa, A. Subduction of a wedge-shaped Philippine Sea plate beneath Kanto, central Japan, estimated from converted waves and small repeating earthquakes. J. Geophys. Res. 115, B07309 (2010)
Moreno, M., Rosenau, M. & Oncken, O. 2010 Maule earthquake slip correlates with pre-seismic locking of Andean subduction zone. Nature 467, 198–202 (2010)
Melbourn, T. I., Webb, F. H., Stock, J. M. & Reigbar, C. Rapid postseismic transients in subduction zones from continuous GPS. J. Geophys. Res. 107, 2241 (2002)
Chlieh, M. et al. Coseismic slip and afterslip of the great M w 9.15 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake of 2004. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 97, S152–S173 (2007)
Kato, T. Secular and earthquake-related vertical crustal movements in Japan as deduced from tidal records (1951–1981). Tectonophysics 97, 183–200 (1983)
Matsu’ura, T., Furusawa, A. & Saomoto, H. Long-term and short-term vertical velocity profiles across the forearc in the NE Japan subduction zone. Quat. Res. 71, 227–238 (2009)
Suito, H. & Freymueller, J. T. A viscoelastic and afterslip postseismic deformation model for the1964 Alaska earthquake. J. Geophys. Res. 114, B11404 (2009)
Nakajima, J. & Hasegawa, A. Anomalous low-velocity zone and linear alignment of seismicity along it in the subducted Pacific slab beneath Kanto, Japan: reactivation of subducted fracture zone? Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, L16309 (2006)
Bird, P. An updated digital model of plate boundaries. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 4, 1027 (2003)
Savage, J. C. A dislocation model of strain accumulation and release at a subduction zone. J. Geophys. Res. 88, 4984–4996 (1983)
Hatanaka, Y. et al. Improvement of the analysis strategy of GEONET. Bull. Geogr. Surv. Inst. 49, 11–37 (2003)
Nakagawa, H. Development and validation of GEONET new analysis strategy (version 4) [in Japanese]. J. Geogr. Surv. Inst. 118, 1–8 (2009)
Niell, A. E. Global mapping functions for the atmosphere delay at radio wavelengths. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 3227–3246 (1996)
Altamimi, Z., Collilieux, X., Legrand, J., Garayt, B. & Boucher, C. ITRF2005: a new release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame based on time series of station positions and Earth orientation parameters. J. Geophys. Res. 112, B09401 (2007)
Ozawa, S., Murakami, M. & Tada, T. Time-dependent inversion study of the slow thrust event in the Nankai trough subduction zone, southwestern Japan. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 787–802 (2001)
Akaike, H. A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr. AC-19, 716–723 (1974)
Press, H. W., Teukolsky, S. A., Vettering, W. T. & Flannery, B. P. Numerical Recipes in Fortran 409–411 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992)
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Japan Meteorological Agency for providing us with the hypocentre data. We also thank M. Murakami, H. Munekane and Y. Hatanaka for their comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
S.O., T.N. and H.S. participated in the construction of the model and wrote the manuscript. M.T., T.I. and T.K. participated in the discussion of the results and reviewed the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
The file contains Supplementary Figures 1-9 with legends and Supplementary Tables 1-4. (PDF 15102 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ozawa, S., Nishimura, T., Suito, H. et al. Coseismic and postseismic slip of the 2011 magnitude-9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. Nature 475, 373–376 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10227
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10227
This article is cited by
-
Investigation of Atmospheric Anomalies due to the Great Tohoku Earthquake Disturbance Using NRLMSISE-00 Atmospheric Model Measurement
Pure and Applied Geophysics (2024)
-
A comparative analysis of five commonly implemented declustering algorithms
Journal of Seismology (2024)
-
Progress and application of the synthesis of trans-oceanic tsunamis
Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (2023)
-
On the use of tsunami-source data for high-resolution fault imaging of offshore earthquakes
Earth, Planets and Space (2023)
-
Progress in modeling the Tohoku-oki megathrust earthquake cycle and associated crustal deformation processes
Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (2023)