TY - JOUR
T1 - Upper and lower plate controls on the great 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake
AU - Liu, Xin
AU - Zhao, Dapeng
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Hi-net data center and the Japan Meteorological Agency Unified Earthquake Catalog for providing the high-quality arrival-time data used in this study (www.hinet.bosai.go.jp). We thank D. Bassett for sharing his residual topography and gravity data. We appreciate the helpful discussions with Z. Huang, S. Zhao, and L. Guo. We are very grateful to M. Ritzwoller (the Editor) and two anonymous referees who provided thoughtful review comments and suggestions that have improved this paper. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Plan of China (grant no. 2017YFC0601401), grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41602207) and the National Program on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction, State Oceanic Administration (GASI-GEOGE-01) to X.L., as well as grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Kiban-S 23224012) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (26106005) to D.Z.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2018 The Authors.
PY - 2018/6/20
Y1 - 2018/6/20
N2 - The great 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake [moment magnitude (Mw) 9.0)] is the best-documented megathrust earthquake in the world, but its causal mechanism is still in controversy because of the poor state of knowledge on the nature of the megathrust zone. We constrain the structure of the Tohoku forearc using seismic tomography, residual topography, and gravity data, which reveal a close relationship between structural heterogeneities in and around the megathrust zone and rupture processes of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. Its mainshock nucleated in an area with high seismic velocity, low seismic attenuation, and strong seismic coupling, probably indicating a large asperity (or a cluster of asperities) in the megathrust zone. Strong coseismic high-frequency radiations also occurred in high-velocity patches, whereas large afterslips took plate in low-velocity areas, differences that may reflect changes in fault friction and lithological variations. These structural heterogeneities in and around the Tohoku megathrust originate from both the overriding and subducting plates, which controlled the nucleation and rupture processes of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake.
AB - The great 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake [moment magnitude (Mw) 9.0)] is the best-documented megathrust earthquake in the world, but its causal mechanism is still in controversy because of the poor state of knowledge on the nature of the megathrust zone. We constrain the structure of the Tohoku forearc using seismic tomography, residual topography, and gravity data, which reveal a close relationship between structural heterogeneities in and around the megathrust zone and rupture processes of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. Its mainshock nucleated in an area with high seismic velocity, low seismic attenuation, and strong seismic coupling, probably indicating a large asperity (or a cluster of asperities) in the megathrust zone. Strong coseismic high-frequency radiations also occurred in high-velocity patches, whereas large afterslips took plate in low-velocity areas, differences that may reflect changes in fault friction and lithological variations. These structural heterogeneities in and around the Tohoku megathrust originate from both the overriding and subducting plates, which controlled the nucleation and rupture processes of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake.
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U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.aat4396
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aat4396
M3 - Article
C2 - 29938226
AN - SCOPUS:85049195400
VL - 4
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
SN - 2375-2548
IS - 6
M1 - eaat4396
ER -