TY - JOUR
T1 - Deep slow-slip events promote seismicity in northeastern Japan megathrust
AU - Khoshmanesh, Mostafa
AU - Shirzaei, Manoochehr
AU - Uchida, Naoki
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Felipe Aron and other reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which helped to improve the manuscript. We also thank S. Ozawa for sharing the GPS data. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) earthquake catalog used in this study is available at www.jma.go.jp , subject to the policies of the JMA; Funding: This study was funded by National Science Foundation grants EAR-1357079 and EAR-1735630 , NASA Earth and Space Fellowship No. 80NSSC17K0371 , and JSPS KAKENHI grant 16H06473 and 15K05260 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s)
PY - 2020/6/15
Y1 - 2020/6/15
N2 - The sliding movement between oceanic and crustal plates in subduction zones is accommodated through both earthquakes and quasi-static or transient aseismic slip. On northeastern Japan megathrust, aseismic transients, known as slow-slip events, are suggested to precede and trigger major earthquakes in their immediate surroundings. However, the geodetic evidence for these episodic slow-slip events, as well as their link to the seismicity on neighboring locked segments of the megathrust, is missing. Here, we combine the on-shore geodetic data set with seismic observations during the interseismic period of 1996–2003 and demonstrate that episodic slow-slip events are prevalent across the down-dip portion (∼30–70 km depth) of the megathrust and the associated stress changes modulate the seismicity rate on the neighboring seismogenic zone. Consequently, small- to moderate-size earthquakes are periodically triggered, whose interaction through a domino effect might occasionally lead to major earthquakes. This observation has a profound impact on the estimation of seismic hazard in the region, introducing a new triggering mechanism that acts across the megathrust to the extent that has not been acknowledged before.
AB - The sliding movement between oceanic and crustal plates in subduction zones is accommodated through both earthquakes and quasi-static or transient aseismic slip. On northeastern Japan megathrust, aseismic transients, known as slow-slip events, are suggested to precede and trigger major earthquakes in their immediate surroundings. However, the geodetic evidence for these episodic slow-slip events, as well as their link to the seismicity on neighboring locked segments of the megathrust, is missing. Here, we combine the on-shore geodetic data set with seismic observations during the interseismic period of 1996–2003 and demonstrate that episodic slow-slip events are prevalent across the down-dip portion (∼30–70 km depth) of the megathrust and the associated stress changes modulate the seismicity rate on the neighboring seismogenic zone. Consequently, small- to moderate-size earthquakes are periodically triggered, whose interaction through a domino effect might occasionally lead to major earthquakes. This observation has a profound impact on the estimation of seismic hazard in the region, introducing a new triggering mechanism that acts across the megathrust to the extent that has not been acknowledged before.
KW - GPS
KW - Japan subduction zone
KW - earthquake triggering
KW - kinematic modeling
KW - repeating earthquakes
KW - slow-slip events
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U2 - 10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116261
DO - 10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116261
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85083714520
SN - 0012-821X
VL - 540
JO - Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters
JF - Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters
M1 - 116261
ER -