Abstract
Rise times of earthquake moment release influence the spectra of seismic
waves. For example, slow fault movements in tsunami earthquakes excite
larger tsunamis than expected from intensities of short-period seismic
waves. Here we compare amplitudes of two different atmospheric waves,
long-period internal gravity waves and short-period acoustic waves,
excited by coseismic vertical crustal movements. We observe them as
coseismic ionospheric disturbances by measuring ionospheric electrons
using global navigation satellite systems. Four regular megathrust
earthquakes Mw 8.0-9.0 showed that the internal gravity
waves become ten times stronger as the magnitude increases by one. We
found that the 2010 Mentawai earthquake, a typical tsunami earthquake,
excited internal gravity waves stronger than those expected by this
empirical relationship. On the other hand, amplitudes of acoustic waves
excited by tsunami earthquakes were normal. This suggests that slow
fault ruptures excite long-period atmospheric waves efficiently, leaving
a slow earthquake signature in ionospheric disturbances.