Ambient Tremor Triggered by Long-term Slow Slip Event in Bungo Channel, Southwest Japan

Abstract:

Episodic tremor and slip (ETS) is a stick-slip in the transition zone between locked and stable sliding zones on the plate interface in Southwest Japan and Cascadia. ETS episode with duration of several days usually recurs at interval of several months at each segment. On the other hand, in the Bungo channel region where is the western edge of the ETS zone in SW Japan, tremor activity continued for several months during the long-term slow slip event (SSE) in 2003 and 2010. In this paper, the relationship between long-term SSE and surrounded triggered tremor is discussed.

Tremor triggered by the long-term SSE is spatially localized in the narrow width of about 10 km at the shallowest part of the tremor zone, and at the neighboring area just downdip from the source fault of the SSE. The frequency distribution of tremor along the dip direction during the SSE period is consistent with the spatial distribution of total slip estimated for 2010 SSE. Therefore, the slip of the long-term SSE penetrated in the ETS zone may generate tremor. The daily number of the activated tremor is 12-14 during the SSE; however, it is 40-50 for regular ETS episode during the inter-SSE period. On the other hand, slip rates of the long-term SSE and ETS are typically 1 mm/d and 3 mm/d, respectively. Therefore, tremor rate may be controlled by slip rate.

After SSEs in 2003 and 2010, tremor activity seems to slightly increase in the east region within 50 km from the triggered tremor area. Such 7-year period variation in tremor activity is observed in only the shallower side of the tremor zone. Moreover, pattern of the long-term variation seems to slightly migrate to east during a few years. We interpret that a tiny transient slip after the long-term SSE slowly propagates between transition and locked zones.

Tremor activity at the shallowest part of the tremor zone in the Bungo channel continued longer than that of regular ETS in the late 2006 during the inter-SSE period. Associated tiny GPS change may suggest a minor long-term SSE. Similar tremor activity with duration longer than a few months has been observed from May 2014. However, no GPS change so far may suggest the occurrence of a very tiny SSE near the tremor zone.