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Stress field in the source region after the 2007 Mw 6.6 Niigataken Chuetsu-oki earthquake deduced from aftershock focal mechanisms: Implication for a pre-mainshock stress field

Earth, Planets and Space volume 61, pages 1053–1065 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Stress fields in the source region before and after the 2007 Mw 6.6 Niigataken Chuetsu-oki earthquake were investigated using aftershock focal mechanism solutions. We have attempted to determine aftershock focal mechanisms using P-wave polarity data as well as body wave amplitudes because this earthquake occurred offshore, where observation station coverage is poor. This approach enabled us to obtain 76 well-determined aftershock focal mechanisms. Although the stress field in the studied area is known to be generally characterized by a reverse-faulting regime, the application of a stress tensor inversion method to the aftershock focal mechanisms revealed that the stress field spatially varied on a scale smaller than the fault dimension of the mainshock, with a mixture of strike-slip and reverse faulting regimes. The post-mainshock stress field estimated by the stress tensor inversion was compared with the theoretical stress field computed using an observed non-uniform slip distribution of the mainshock and variously assumed pre-shock stress fields. The results of this comparison suggest that the pre-mainshock principal stress in the WNW-ESE direction was dominant and that the magnitudes of the other two principal stresses were similar.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, AIST Tsukuba Central 7, 1-1-1, Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8567, Japan

    Kazutoshi Imanishi & Yasuto Kuwahara

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  1. Kazutoshi Imanishi
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  2. Yasuto Kuwahara
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Correspondence to Kazutoshi Imanishi.

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Imanishi, K., Kuwahara, Y. Stress field in the source region after the 2007 Mw 6.6 Niigataken Chuetsu-oki earthquake deduced from aftershock focal mechanisms: Implication for a pre-mainshock stress field. Earth Planet Sp 61, 1053–1065 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352956

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Key words

  • Niigataken Chuetsu-oki earthquake
  • aftershock focal mechanisms
  • pre-shock stress field
  • stress tensor inversion