Characteristics of seismicity in the southern Okinawa Trough and their relation to back-arc rifting processes

Abstract The southern part of the Okinawa Trough forms a narrow back-arc rift basin where evidence for submarine volcanoes and active hydrothermal venting is observed. The region is also known to cause large crustal earthquakes frequently which often accompany a rapid increase in seismicity rate. Although such swarm-like activities are common in active volcanic regions and are considered to be primarily induced by crustal fluid flows, potential interactions between tectonic, magmatic and hydrologic processes have been poorly examined in the southern Okinawa Trough despite these processes happening in the proximity. Here, I report the spatial and statistical characteristics of seismic activity in the southern Okinawa Trough and discuss their relation to other rifting-related phenomena. Most of the earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5 are localized around the rift axes (the Yaeyama Rift and the Yonaguni Rift) where seismic reflection data indicated the presence of solidified magmatic intrusions into the shallow sedimentary layers. I found the areas around the rift axes show low b values of 1.2) are found around the Ishigaki Knoll and the Hatoma Knoll. These two areas are located between the rift axes and the Ryukyu Islands and correspond to potential submarine volcanoes proposed by seafloor bathymetry and seismic reflection images. This result may constrain the location of the volcanic front in the region.