Modeling strong ground motions from great subduction zone earthquakes is one of the great challenges of computational seismology. To separate the rupture characteristics from complexities caused by 3D sub-surface geology requires an extraordinary data set such as provided by the recent Mw9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. Here we combine deterministic inversion and dynamically guided forward simulation methods to model over one thousand high-rate GPS and strong motion observations from 0 to 0.25. Hz across the entire Honshu Island. Our results display distinct styles of rupture with a deeper generic interplate event (~Mw8.5) transitioning to a shallow tsunamigenic earthquake (~Mw9.0) at about 25. km depth in a process driven by a strong dynamic weakening mechanism, possibly thermal pressurization. This source model predicts many important features of the broad set of seismic, geodetic and seafloor observations providing a major advance in our understanding of such great natural hazards. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.
CITATION STYLE
Wei, S., Graves, R., Helmberger, D., Avouac, J. P., & Jiang, J. (2012). Sources of shaking and flooding during the Tohoku-Oki earthquake: A mixture of rupture styles. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 333–334, 91–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.04.006
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.