A unified source model for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

Kazuki Koketsu; Yusuke Yokota; Naoki Nishimura; Yuji Yagi; Shin'ichi Miyazaki; Kenji Satake; Yushiro Fujii; Hiroe Miyake; Shin'ichi Sakai; Yoshiko Yamanaka; Tomomi Okada

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.009

A unified source model for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

Kazuki Koketsu, Yusuke Yokota, Naoki Nishimura, Yuji Yagi, Shin'ichi Miyazaki, Kenji Satake, Yushiro Fujii, Hiroe Miyake, Shin'ichi Sakai, Yoshiko Yamanaka, Tomomi Okada

SCI - Research Center for Prediction of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions (RCPEVE)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

203 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake was observed by dense networks of geophysical instruments. A unified source model was constructed through joint inversion of teleseismic, strong motion, and geodetic datasets. The result indicates that the earthquake consists of three main ruptures. After small rupture in the initial 50. s, the first rupture expanded at a slow speed of 1.8. km/s to the northeast and east. The second rupture began 20. s later at the slowest speed of 1.5. km/s and became dominant with the largest slip of 36. m. The third rupture then played the leading role, propagating southward at a speed of 2.5. km/s. Only the tsunami inversion requires an extension of the source fault to a shallow part between the first rupture area and the Japan Trench, recovering tsunamigenic slips larger than 40. m. The slow rupture speed and tsunamigenic slips can explain the features of the disaster by the earthquake.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	480-487
Number of pages	8
Journal	Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Volume	310
Issue number	3-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.009
Publication status	Published - 2011 Oct 15

Keywords

Joint inversion
Rupture velocity
Source model
Tohoku earthquake
Tsunami

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
Geochemistry and Petrology
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.009

Cite this

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title = "A unified source model for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake",

abstract = "The devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake was observed by dense networks of geophysical instruments. A unified source model was constructed through joint inversion of teleseismic, strong motion, and geodetic datasets. The result indicates that the earthquake consists of three main ruptures. After small rupture in the initial 50. s, the first rupture expanded at a slow speed of 1.8. km/s to the northeast and east. The second rupture began 20. s later at the slowest speed of 1.5. km/s and became dominant with the largest slip of 36. m. The third rupture then played the leading role, propagating southward at a speed of 2.5. km/s. Only the tsunami inversion requires an extension of the source fault to a shallow part between the first rupture area and the Japan Trench, recovering tsunamigenic slips larger than 40. m. The slow rupture speed and tsunamigenic slips can explain the features of the disaster by the earthquake.",

keywords = "Joint inversion, Rupture velocity, Source model, Tohoku earthquake, Tsunami",

author = "Kazuki Koketsu and Yusuke Yokota and Naoki Nishimura and Yuji Yagi and Shin'ichi Miyazaki and Kenji Satake and Yushiro Fujii and Hiroe Miyake and Shin'ichi Sakai and Yoshiko Yamanaka and Tomomi Okada",

note = "Funding Information: We thank two anonymous reviewers and editor Peter Shearer for helpful comments. We also thank the JMA, GSN, IRIS, NIED, GSI, Japan Coast Guard, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and Nationwide Ocean Wave Information Network for Ports and Harbors for providing data. John G. Anderson kindly reviewed our manuscript. We used GMT for drawing the figures. This study was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 22900002 from MEXT . ",

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doi = "10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.009",

language = "English",

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journal = "Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - A unified source model for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

AU - Koketsu, Kazuki

AU - Yokota, Yusuke

AU - Nishimura, Naoki

AU - Yagi, Yuji

AU - Miyazaki, Shin'ichi

AU - Satake, Kenji

AU - Fujii, Yushiro

AU - Miyake, Hiroe

AU - Sakai, Shin'ichi

AU - Yamanaka, Yoshiko

AU - Okada, Tomomi

N1 - Funding Information: We thank two anonymous reviewers and editor Peter Shearer for helpful comments. We also thank the JMA, GSN, IRIS, NIED, GSI, Japan Coast Guard, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and Nationwide Ocean Wave Information Network for Ports and Harbors for providing data. John G. Anderson kindly reviewed our manuscript. We used GMT for drawing the figures. This study was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 22900002 from MEXT .

PY - 2011/10/15

Y1 - 2011/10/15

N2 - The devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake was observed by dense networks of geophysical instruments. A unified source model was constructed through joint inversion of teleseismic, strong motion, and geodetic datasets. The result indicates that the earthquake consists of three main ruptures. After small rupture in the initial 50. s, the first rupture expanded at a slow speed of 1.8. km/s to the northeast and east. The second rupture began 20. s later at the slowest speed of 1.5. km/s and became dominant with the largest slip of 36. m. The third rupture then played the leading role, propagating southward at a speed of 2.5. km/s. Only the tsunami inversion requires an extension of the source fault to a shallow part between the first rupture area and the Japan Trench, recovering tsunamigenic slips larger than 40. m. The slow rupture speed and tsunamigenic slips can explain the features of the disaster by the earthquake.

AB - The devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake was observed by dense networks of geophysical instruments. A unified source model was constructed through joint inversion of teleseismic, strong motion, and geodetic datasets. The result indicates that the earthquake consists of three main ruptures. After small rupture in the initial 50. s, the first rupture expanded at a slow speed of 1.8. km/s to the northeast and east. The second rupture began 20. s later at the slowest speed of 1.5. km/s and became dominant with the largest slip of 36. m. The third rupture then played the leading role, propagating southward at a speed of 2.5. km/s. Only the tsunami inversion requires an extension of the source fault to a shallow part between the first rupture area and the Japan Trench, recovering tsunamigenic slips larger than 40. m. The slow rupture speed and tsunamigenic slips can explain the features of the disaster by the earthquake.

KW - Joint inversion

KW - Rupture velocity

KW - Source model

KW - Tohoku earthquake

KW - Tsunami

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JO - Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters

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ER -

A unified source model for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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