Slip to the Trench for Great Subduction Earthquakes

Abstract:

The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake had the largest ever recorded fault slip (40 to 60 meters) on the shallow portion of the subduction zone close to the trench. This large displacement was largely unexpected for this region and was mainly responsible for the very large and damaging tsunami along the northeast coast of Honshu. We investigate the possibility of large slip to the trench in great earthquakes for other subduction zones around the world. Since the trench region is generally far offshore, it is often difficult to resolve the amount of slip from onshore geodetic and strong-motion data. We use a variety of observations, including slip distribution models, aftershock locations, local coastal deformation, and tsunami heights to determine which events likely had large amounts of slip close to the trench. Tsunami earthquakes, such as 1992 Nicaragua and 2006 Java likely had large shallow slip. Some typical subduction earthquakes, such as 1968 Tokachi-oki and 2003 Tokachi-oki (located in regions north of the source area of the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake) likely did not.

We will discuss possible factors that influence the slip distribution on the shallow area of subduction megathrusts. Using results from the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST) which sampled the fault in the region of large slip, we can begin to understand the conditions of very large fault slip, such as the characteristic fault zone material and level of friction on the fault.