Spatiotemporal slip distributions associated with the 2018–2019 Bungo Channel long-term slow slip event inverted from GNSS data

Abstract

Long-term slow slip events (L-SSEs) have repeatedly occurred beneath the Bungo Channel in southwestern Japan with durations of several months to a couple of years, with a recurrence interval of approximately 6 years. We estimated the spatiotemporal slip distributions of the 2018–2019 Bungo Channel L-SSE by inverting processed GNSS time series data. This event was divided into two subevents, with the first on the southwest side of the Bungo Channel from 2018.3 to 2018.7 and the second beneath the Bungo Channel from 2018.8 to 2019.4. Tectonic tremors became active on the downdip side of the L-SSE occurrence region when large slow slips took place beneath the Bungo Channel. Compared with the previous Bungo Channel L-SSEs, this spatiotemporal slip pattern and amount were similar to those of the 2002–2004 L-SSE. However, the slip expanded in the northeast and southwest directions in the latter half of the second subevent. The maximum amount of slip, the maximum slip velocity, the total released seismic moment, and the moment magnitude of the 2018–2019 L-SSE were estimated to be 28 cm, 54 cm/year, 4.4 × 10 19 Nm, and 7.0, respectively, all of which were the largest among the 1996–1998, 2002–2004, 2009–2011, and 2018–2019 L-SSEs.