Skip to main content
Earth, Planets and Space
Download PDF

Preparatory process reflected in seismicity-pattern change preceding the M=7 earthquakes off Miyagi prefecture, Japan

Earth, Planets and Space volume 58, pages 1581–1586 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Two M=7 interplate earthquakes recently occurred off Miyagi prefecture, northeastern Japan. These belong to a new sequence of earthquake series. The occurrence of this sequence was forewarned by the government, based primarily on a statistical approach utilizing historical records. Such a process, however, does not account for the present on-going status in the assessment. During the stage when stress approaches a critical level, there is a possibility of stress redistribution caused by a quasi-static slip, which will be reflected in a temporal change in seismic activity. Delineating a spatial map of the seismic-activity rate changes in the seismogenic zone off Miyagi prefecture, we found that there was an activation of microseismicity in the rupture zones several months prior to both M=7 earthquakes. This was interpreted as evidence of a preparatory process preceding each M=7 earthquake, during which a quasi-static slip progressed, driving stress redistribution and resulting in stress concentration on asperities of these earthquakes.

References

  • Dieterich, J., A constitutive law for rate of earthquake production and its application to earthquake clustering, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 2601–2618, 1994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Earthquake Research Committee, Reports on probabilistic evaluation map for seismic ground motion in Japan, 213 pp, 2005a (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Earthquake Research Committee, Earthquake off-shore of Miyagi prefecture on August 16, 2005, http://www.jishin.go.jp/main/index-html, 2005b.

    Google Scholar 

  • Igarashi, T., T. Matsuzawa, and A. Hasegawa, Repeating earthquakes and interplate aseismic slip in the northeastern Japan subduction zone, J. Geophys. Res., 108(B5), 2249, doi:10.1029/2002JB001920, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Japan Meteorological Agency, Earthquake of M6.8 off Fukushima prefecture on October 31, 2003, Rep. Coord. Comm. Earthq. Pred., 71, 246–251, 2004 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Japan Meteorological Agency, An outlook of seismic activity in Japan, 2005/8-2005/9, Newslet. Seismol. Soc. Jpn., 17, 19–23, 2005 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jimenez, A., K. F. Tiampo, S. Levin, and A. M. Posadas, Testing the persistence in earthquake catalogs: The Iberian Peninsula, Europhys. Lett., 73, 171–177, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsumura, S., Why does the precursory change of seismicity rate tend to be quiescence?, Zisin, 57, 441–444, 2005a (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsumura, S., Seismic activity changes progressing simultaneously with slow-slip in the Tokai area, Tectonophysics, 417, 5–15, 2005b.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuzawa, T., N. Uchida, T. Igarashi, T. Okada, and A. Hasegawa, Repeating earthquakes and quasistatic slip on the plate boundary east off northern Honshu, Japan, Earth Planets Space, 56, 803–811, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogata, Y., Detection of anomalous seismicity as a stress change sensor, J. Geophys. Res., 110, B05S06, doi:10.1029/2004JB003245, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruina, A., Slip instability and state variable friction laws, J. Geophys. Res., 88, 10359–10370, 1983.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seno, T., On the earthquake expected off the Miyagi prefecture, Rep. Coord. Comm. Earthq. Pred., 21, 38–41, 1979 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, R. S., The role of stress transfer in earthquake occurrence, Nature, 402, 605–609, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiampo, K. F., J. B. Rundle, S. McGinnis, and S. J. Gross, Eigenpatterns in southern California seismicity, J. Geophys. Res., 107(B12), 2354, doi:10.1029/2001JB000562, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toda, S., R. S. Stein, and T. Sagiya, Evidences from the AD 2000 Izu islands earthquake swarm that stressing rate governs seismicity, Nature, 419, 6902, 58–61, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wessel, P. and W. H. F. Smith, New version of the Generic Mapping Tools released, Eos Trans. AGU, 76, 329, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiemer, S., A software package to analyze seismicity: ZMAP, Seism. Res. Lett., 72, 374–383, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiemer, S. and M. Wyss, Seismic quiescence before the Landers (M=7.5) and Big Bear (M=6.5) 1992 earthquakes, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 84, 900–916, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiemer, S. and M. Wyss, Mapping the frequency-magnitude distribution in asperities: An improved technique to calculate recurrence times?, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 15115–15128, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wyss, M., Seismic quiescence precursor to the 1983 Kaoiki (Ms=6.6), Hawaii, earthquake, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 76, 785–800, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyss, M. and R. E. Habermann, Precursory quiescence before the August 1982 Stone Canyon, San Andreas fault, earthquakes, Pageophysics, 126, 333–356, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyss, M., F. W. Klein, and A. C. Johnston, Precursors to the Kalapana M=7.2 earthquake, J. Geophys. Res., 86, 3881–3900, 1981.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamanaka, K. and M. Kikuchi, Asperity map along the subduction zone in northern Japan inferred from regional seismic data, J. Geophys. Res., 109, B07307, doi:10,1029/2003JB002683, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, Tennodai 3-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0006, Japan

    Shozo Matsumura

Authors
  1. Shozo Matsumura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shozo Matsumura.

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Matsumura, S. Preparatory process reflected in seismicity-pattern change preceding the M=7 earthquakes off Miyagi prefecture, Japan. Earth Planet Sp 58, 1581–1586 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352665

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352665

Key words