Structural control on the Tohoku earthquake rupture process investigated by 3D FEM, tsunami and geodetic data.

ABSTRACT: The 2011 Tohoku earthquake (Mw = 9.1) highlighted previously unobserved features for megathrust events, such as the large slip in a relatively limited area and the shallow rupture propagation. We use a Finite Element Model (FEM), taking into account the 3D geometrical and structural complexities up to the trench zone, and perform a joint inversion of tsunami and geodetic data to retrieve the earthquake slip distribution. We obtain a close spatial correlation between the main deep slip patch and the local seismic velocity anomalies, and large shallow slip extending also to the North coherently with a seismically observed low-frequency radiation. These observations suggest that the friction controlled the rupture, initially confining the deeper rupture and then driving its propagation up to

SUBMITTER: Romano F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4087921 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature