Constraint on the recurrence of great outer-rise earthquakes from seafloor bathymetry

Abstract

Great outer rise earthquakes are a tsunami hazard as they occur on steeply dipping faults (Lay et al., 2009). The largest instrumentally recorded of these events are the 1933 Sanriku Japan earthquake (Mw = 8.4) and 1977 Sumba Indonesia earthquake (Mw = 8.3) (Lay et al., 2009). Seafloor bathymetry (Kobayashi et ai, 1998) and plate kinematics indicate a great M w ≥ 8 outer rise earthquake on the zone of the great Tohoku M w 9 event can occur at most once in 7 megathrust cycles. © The Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences (SGEPSS); The Seismological Society of Japan; The Volcanological Society of Japan; The Geodetic Society of Japan; The Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences; TERRAPUB.