Earth, Planets and Space

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'Express Letter' is now a submission option in Earth, Planets and Space. This replaces the 'Letter' article type and aims at rapid publication of concise results of your new research. Click here for more information.

Design and operation of a 1500-m laser strainmeter installed at an underground site in Kamioka, Japan

A laser strainmeter with a 1500-m baseline was constructed at an underground site in Kamioka, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and has been operating since August 2016. The laser interferometer measures the change in distance between two retroreflectors housed in two vacuum chambers with a separation of 1500 m. The retroreflectors are fixed to the ground in the tunnel of the KAGRA gravitational wave telescope. A high-frequency-stabilized laser is used as a light source; it achieves an Allan variance of 3 × 10−13. Since operations began, ground motions with large amplitude and timescale variations have been detected. The recorded tidal waveform almost agrees with the theoretical waveform; however, a slight difference of ~13% in amplitude is found, likely due to a topographic effect. The strain spectrum of the observed data for the 1500-m strainmeter indicates that the lowest background noise attained is less than 10−12 in the mHz band. Seismic waves up to 6 × 10−7 in amplitude have been observed without saturation or fringe steps. The strainmeter, with its excellent resolution, dynamic range, and bandwidth performance, provides a new method for observing low-frequency ground motion on seismic, geodetic, and intermediate timescales.

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Article Processing Charges

Earth, Planets and Space is supported by the Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, the Seismological Society of Japan, the Volcanological Society of Japan, the Geodetic Society of Japan, and the Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences.

From 2016, if the author is a society member, the article-processing charge will be €540 for a Full paper/Technical report or €360 for a Letter article with the remaining charge covered by the societies. If the corresponding author is not a society member, the article-processing charge will be €900 for a Full paper/Technical report or €540 for a Letter article (using the code TC01377566) with the remaining charge covered by the societies.

The journal is partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results (251001) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Aims and scope

Earth, Planets and Space (EPS) covers scientific articles in Earth and Planetary Sciences, particularly geomagnetism, aeronomy, space science, seismology, volcanology, geodesy, and planetary science. EPS also welcomes articles in new and interdisciplinary subjects, including instrumentations. Only new and original contents will be accepted for publication. No review papers will be accepted.

EPS Young Researcher Award 2016

Michiyo Sawai wins the award as the first author of the following paper.

Frictional properties of incoming pelagic sediments at the Japan Trench: implications for large slip at a shallow plate boundary during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake
Michiyo Sawai, Takehiro Hirose, Jun Kameda

EPS Excellent Paper Award 2016

The following paper wins the award.

Tsunami source of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake

Yushiro Fujii, Kenji Satake, Shin’ichi Sakai, Masanao Shinohara, and Toshihiko Kanazawa

Special Issues accepting submissions

Recent Advances in Geo-, Paleo- and Rock-Magnetism
Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2017

Advancement of our knowledge on Aso volcano: Current activity and background
Deadline for submissions: 31 October 2017

Akatsuki at Venus: The First Year of Scientific Operation
Deadline for submissions: 30 June 2017

Towards Forecasting Phreatic Eruptions: Examples from Hakone Volcano and some Global Equivalents
Deadline for submissions: 30 September 2017

GNSS and SAR Technologies for Atmospheric Sensing
Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2017

Geospace Exploration by the ERG mission
Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2017

The spatial distribution of earthquake stress rotations following large subduction zone earthquakes

Hardebeck (2017) explores the spatial distribution of stress rotations caused by great subduction zone earthquakes. These stress rotations imply that the earthquake stress drops are of similar magnitude to the background stress, consistent with low differential stress levels in subduction zones. The largest stress rotations are consistently found just above the Moho depth of the overriding plate, a depth range where large coherent slip patches are observed in great earthquakes, and where high fluid pressures have been imaged. Both of these processes could contribute to the low background stress levels.

Proposals for Special Issues

Earth, Planets and Space welcomes proposals for new special issues on focused topics within the scope of the journal. Click here for more information on how to submit a proposal.

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