Slip-partitioned surface ruptures for the Mw 7.0 16 April 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake

Abstract

An ENE-trending ~30-km-long surface rupture emerged during the Mw = 7.0 16 April 2016 Kumamoto earthquake along the previously mapped Futagawa and northern Hinagu faults. This included a previously unknown 5-km-long fault within the Aso Caldera, central Kyushu. The rupture zone is mostly composed of right-lateral slip sections, with a maximum of 2-m coseismic slip. One of the noteworthy features we observed in the field are ~10-km-long segmented normal fault scarps, dipping to the northwest, along the previously mapped Idenokuchi fault, 1.2–2.0 km south of and subparallel to the Futagawa fault. The maximum amount of coseismic throw on the Idenokuchi fault is ~2 m, which is nearly equivalent to the maximum slip on the strike-slip rupture. The locations and slip motions of the 2016 rupture are also manifested as interferogram fringe offsets in InSAR images. Together with geodetic and seismic inversions of subsurface fault slip, we present a schematic structural model where oblique motion occurred on a northwest-dipping subsurface fault and the slip is partitioned at the surface into strike-slip and normal fault scarps. Our simple dislocation model demonstrates that this bifurcation into pure strike-slip and normal faults likely occurs for optimally oriented failure near the surface. The Kumamoto case, with detailed geological observations and geophysical models, would be the second significant slip-partitioned earthquake around the globe. It provides an important insight into scale- and depth-dependent stress heterogeneity and an implication to a proper estimate of seismic hazard in complex and broad multiple fault strands. Graphical abstract .