IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms12255.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Structure of the tsunamigenic plate boundary and low-frequency earthquakes in the southern Ryukyu Trench

Author

Listed:
  • Ryuta Arai

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Tsutomu Takahashi

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Shuichi Kodaira

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Yuka Kaiho

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Ayako Nakanishi

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Gou Fujie

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Yasuyuki Nakamura

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Yojiro Yamamoto

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Yasushi Ishihara

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Seiichi Miura

    (Research and Development Center for Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

  • Yoshiyuki Kaneda

    (Institute of Education, Research and Regional Cooperation for Crisis Management Shikoku, Kagawa University)

Abstract

It has been recognized that even weakly coupled subduction zones may cause large interplate earthquakes leading to destructive tsunamis. The Ryukyu Trench is one of the best fields to study this phenomenon, since various slow earthquakes and tsunamis have occurred; yet the fault structure and seismic activity there are poorly constrained. Here we present seismological evidence from marine observation for megathrust faults and low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs). On the basis of passive observation we find LFEs occur at 15–18 km depths along the plate interface and their distribution seems to bridge the gap between the shallow tsunamigenic zone and the deep slow slip region. This suggests that the southern Ryukyu Trench is dominated by slow earthquakes at any depths and lacks a typical locked zone. The plate interface is overlaid by a low-velocity wedge and is accompanied by polarity reversals of seismic reflections, indicating fluids exist at various depths along the plate interface.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryuta Arai & Tsutomu Takahashi & Shuichi Kodaira & Yuka Kaiho & Ayako Nakanishi & Gou Fujie & Yasuyuki Nakamura & Yojiro Yamamoto & Yasushi Ishihara & Seiichi Miura & Yoshiyuki Kaneda, 2016. "Structure of the tsunamigenic plate boundary and low-frequency earthquakes in the southern Ryukyu Trench," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12255
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12255
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12255
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms12255?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ryuta Arai & Seiichi Miura & Yasuyuki Nakamura & Gou Fujie & Shuichi Kodaira & Yuka Kaiho & Kimihiro Mochizuki & Rie Nakata & Masataka Kinoshita & Yoshitaka Hashimoto & Yohei Hamada & Kyoko Okino, 2023. "Upper-plate conduits linked to plate boundary that hosts slow earthquakes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12255. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.