Search

We calculated stress drops for 2875 small intraslab earthquakes at intermediate depths beneath Tohoku, Japan. We applied an S-coda-wave spectral ratio method to almost 900,000 event pairs. Detailed velocity values for the oceanic crust (OC) were adopted from previous observational studies. The median stress drops in the OC are about half those in the oceanic mantle (OM). The median stress drop for earthquakes in the OC decreases from depths of 70 to 120 km and increases from 120 to 170 km. Our preferred interpretation is that the rigidity in the OC decreases and then increases with depth due to combined effects of the dehydration associated with the eclogite formation and the increasing temperature with depth. These depth variations are consistent with results of a similar study beneath Hokkaido. The median stress drops in the oceanic plate beneath Tohoku are generally smaller than those beneath Hokkaido. Previous studies imaging the seismic structure at shallow depths and b-value analyses of intraslab earthquakes indicate that the near-trench region of the oceanic plate off Tohoku is more hydrated than that off Hokkaido. Taken together, these results suggest that differences in the degree of hydration of the oceanic plate in the near-trench regions could produce the different behaviors of stress drops of intermediate-depth earthquakes observed in Tohoku and Hokkaido. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a Bayesian approach for jointly determining the locations of earthquake hypocentres and velocity structures in a region divided by a structural boundary, such as a fault zone. To accommodate the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method in a region containing lateral velocity contrast, we incorporated a data-driven station clustering scheme when estimating earthquake hypocentre locations, a 1-D velocity model assigned to each cluster and station corrections for traveltimes. The proposed method realizes the clustering of stations reflecting velocity structures beneath the station network in the framework of the MCMC method. We verified the performances of the proposed method using numerical experiments with different distributions of earthquake hypocentres relative to the structural boundary. The results demonstrated that the proposed method reconstructed earthquake hypocentre locations and velocity structures involving lateral contrast robustly to earthquake distributions. Additionally, the number of 1-D velocity models (the number of station clusters) was optimized by comparing resultant posterior probability proportional to distances between the observed and theoretical traveltimes. We also applied the proposed method to estimate the earthquake hypocentre locations and velocity structures around the source area of the 2004 Mid-Niigata prefecture earthquake, Japan, to examine the applicability of the proposed method to real observation data. The stations were divided into east and west clusters, coinciding with the lateral velocity variation related to the geological setting. Therefore, the proposed method accurately determines earthquake hypocentres in a region divided by a structural boundary without any knowledge regarding the geological structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crustal stress is a crucial parameter for understanding tectonics and assessing the occurrence of large earthquakes. Stress at seismogenic depths over a wide area has been inferred from focal mechanism solutions. The existence of focal mechanism solutions determines the area that can be potentially studied. Therefore, we studied the crustal stress orientations in Japan from focal mechanism solutions of small earthquakes. First, we obtained about 220,000 focal mechanisms using the P‐wave first‐motion polarities picked by a deep learning model. Next, we performed a linearized inversion on the nationwide stress orientation model at a grid of 0.2‐degree intervals. The estimation errors reflect the quality and quantity of focal mechanism solutions. Overall, the results indicate that Japanese islands are under an east–west compressional stress, whereas some areas along the Pacific coast of northeast Japan are under east–west extensional stress. A closer look shows the spatial trends of stress orientation may vary near the geological borders, including the Hinagu and Futagawa faults in Kumamoto Prefecture (Kyushu Island) and the Median Tectonic Line in Shikoku Island. Our stress model also revealed the existence of stress anomalies around Cape Shionomisaki in the Kii peninsula. Most of the active faults are at approximately optimal orientation for the derived stress orientation and stress ratio, although uncertainties in the fault geometry, particularly the dip angle, substantially affect this evaluation. The stress map helps understand the overall vision of the crustal stress in Japan and further study the local stress distribution. Plain Language Summary: Stress, an internal force of the Earth, causes earthquakes and crustal deformation and forms characteristic landforms. Therefore, stress is a key to understanding the dynamics of the Earth. This study uses one of the features of earthquakes caused by crustal stress as an indicator. This feature is the "focal mechanism" corresponding to the orientation of the fault plane and slip direction on the fault. First, we derived numerous focal mechanism solutions for small earthquakes in Japan. The massive seismic waveform data processing was supported by a deep learning model we previously developed. The stress orientations consistent with the focal mechanism solutions were then estimated. The high‐resolution (about 20 km) nationwide stress map shows a general compression trend in the east–west direction, but in some spots around the Pacific coastal area of northeastern Japan, the compression trend is in the north‐south direction. In addition, it was found that the stress orientation changes along geological boundaries such as active faults and major tectonic lines. Furthermore, spots where the stress orientation differs from the surrounding area were identified. This stress map will be indispensable for future earthquake assessments and understanding of the formation mechanism of the Japanese islands. Key Points: We generated a nationwide crustal stress map with 0.2‐degree grids from focal mechanism solutions of about 220,000 microearthquakesWe observed a stress anomaly spot and stress orientation changes along geological borders, such as faults and tectonic linesMost of the active faults are almost optimally oriented to the estimated stress field [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crustal fluids play an essential role in the activity of crustal earthquakes. The north Ibaraki area in northeastern Japan has shown intense crustal seismicity after the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. In this area, it is discussed that crustal fluids are supplied from the deep part of the Earth's crust and contribute to the genesis of these crustal earthquakes. To investigate the distribution of crustal fluids in this area, we focused on reflected S-waves, which are highly sensitive to the presence of crustal fluids. We developed an approach based on the Markov chain Monte Carlo method to precisely and quantitatively estimate the location of the crustal reflector and its geometry. The obtained results showed that the crustal reflector was located at depths of 15–25 km and dipped shallowly to the northwest. The crustal reflector was positioned above the region characterized by low seismic wave velocity and electrical resistivity anomalies in the lower crust, suggesting that the crustal reflector is the uppermost boundary of a fluid-rich zone. The distribution of the fluid-rich zone closely corresponded to the cutoff depths of crustal earthquakes. This fluid-rich zone was likely the source of the fluid that enhanced seismicity in the shallow part of the crust in the target area. In contrast, the fluid-rich zone itself may have suppressed the genesis of crustal earthquakes. We hypothesized that hydrothermal fluids might affect the shallowing of these cutoff depths. If the hydrothermal fluid was contained in the fluid-rich zone, it could induce a shallow brittle-ductile transition by increasing the temperature of the surrounding rocks. • Reflected S-waves revealed a crustal reflector in the north Ibaraki area, Japan. • The reflector represented the top boundary of a fluid-rich zone in the lower crust. • Shallower cutoff depths of crustal seismicity were detected around the reflector. • Crustal fluid in the lower crust may affect the shallower cutoff depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a local earthquake tomography method that applies a structured regularization technique to determine sharp changes in Earth's seismic velocity structure using arrival time data of direct waves. Our approach focuses on the ability to better image two common features that are observed in Earth's seismic velocity structure: sharp changes in velocities that correspond to material boundaries, such as the Conrad and Moho discontinuities; and gradual changes in velocity that are associated with pressure and temperature distributions in the crust and mantle. We employ different penalty terms in the vertical and horizontal directions to refine the earthquake tomography. We utilize a vertical-direction (depth) penalty that takes the form of the l 1 -sum of the l 2 -norms of the second-order differences of the horizontal units in the vertical direction. This penalty is intended to represent sharp velocity changes caused by discontinuities by creating a piecewise linear depth profile of seismic velocity. We set a horizontal-direction penalty term on the basis of the l 2 -norm to express gradual velocity tendencies in the horizontal direction, which has been often used in conventional tomography methods. We use a synthetic data set to demonstrate that our method provides significant improvements over velocity structures estimated using conventional methods by obtaining stable estimates of both steep and gradual changes in velocity. We also demonstrate that our proposed method is robust to variations in the amplitude of the velocity jump, the initial velocity model, and the number of observed arrival times, compared with conventional approaches, and verify the adaptability of the proposed method to dipping discontinuities. Furthermore, we apply our proposed method to real seismic data in central Japan and present the potential of our method for detecting velocity discontinuities using the observed arrival times from a small number of local earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distinct later phases of waves with rich high-frequency (> 8 Hz) components were observed for intraslab earthquakes that occurred at intermediate depths, particularly at depths exceeding 100 km, in the northeastern (NE) Japan subduction zone. These high-frequency later phases (HFLPs) showed anomalously large peak-amplitude delays, up to ~ 50 s after direct S-wave arrivals at stations in the backarc region. Using a source-scanning algorithm, we investigated the locations of passing points affecting the propagation of HFLPs. The passing points were estimated to be in the forearc region in the entire NE Japan, indicating that HFLPs are scattered waves that pass through the forearc region. The propagating HFLPs seem to bypass the backarc mantle wedge, as a consequence of the distinct attenuation contrast in the mantle wedge across the volcanic front in NE Japan. These HFLP observations suggest that the high-attenuation zone in the backarc mantle wedge controls propagations of the high-frequency waves of intraslab earthquakes, in addition to the scatterers possibly locate in the forearc region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate S-wave attenuation (Qs) structure in and around Hokkaido, Japan, including the source area of the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake (M 6.7) and its aftershocks. From the strong-motion seismograms recorded in the nationwide seismograph network in Japan, we compute spectrum amplitude at 1–10 Hz with every 1 Hz and then estimate Qs structure by adopting tomographic inversion technique. The obtained Qs structure suggests that lateral variations of Qs are remarkably formed in the study areas. The low-Qs anomalies distributing north to south are imaged in both sides of the Hidaka mountain range which is built in the central Hokkaido. These characteristics structures of Qs are extended from the ground surface to depths by about 50 km, indicating that heterogeneous structures resulted from the collision of the Kuril and northeastern Japan arcs develop at the depth ranges. Around the source area of the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake, the abrupt changes of Qs values are identified. The 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake and its aftershocks seem to be arraigned on the high-Qs zones, whereas the low-Qs anomalies are also imaged next to the high-Qs zones. The boundary of the low- and high-Qs zones lies with near vertical, corresponding to aftershock distributions of the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake. This agreement would propose that the heterogeneities formed due to the arc–arc collision would characterize faulting processes in the main shock of the Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake and the activities of its aftershocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]