Improving the constraint on the Mw 7.1 2016 off-Fukushima shallow
normal-faulting earthquake with the high azimuthal coverage tsunami data
from the S-net wide and dense network: Implication for the stress regime
in the Tohoku overriding plate
Abstract
Tsunamis with maximum amplitudes of up to 40 cm, related to the
Mw 7.1 normal-faulting earthquake off Fukushima,
Japan, on November 21, 2016 (UTC), were clearly recorded by a new
offshore wide and dense ocean bottom pressure gauge network, S-net, with
high azimuthal coverage located closer to the focal area. We processed
the S-net data and found that some stations included the
tsunami-irrelevant drift and step signals. We then analyzed the S-net
data to infer the tsunami source distribution. A subsidence region with
a narrow spatial extent (~40 km) and a large peak
(~200 cm) was obtained. The other near-coastal waveforms
not used for the inversion analysis were also reproduced very well. Our
fault model suggests that the stress drop of this earthquake is
~10 MPa, whereas the shear stress increase along the
fault caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake was only ~2
MPa. Past studies have suggested that horizontal compressional stress
around this region switched to horizontal extensional stress after the
Tohoku earthquake due to the stress change.The present result, however,
suggests that the horizontal extensional stress was locally predominant
at the shallowest surface around this region even before the 2011 Tohoku
earthquake. The present study demonstrates that the S-net
high-azimuthal-coverage pressure data provides a significant constraint
on the fault modeling, which enables us to discuss the stress regime
within the overriding plate around the offshore region. Our analysis
provides an implication for the crustal stress state, which is important
for understanding the generation mechanisms of the intraplate
earthquake.