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Volume 54 Supplement 11

Special Issue: Slip and Flow Processes in and below the Seismogenic Region

Tectonic evolution and deep to shallow geometry of Nagamachi-Rifu Active Fault System, NE Japan

Earth, Planets and Space volume 54, pages 1039–1043 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

The Nagamachi-Rifu fault is an active reverse fault which trends NE-SW across the central part of Sendai City for over 21 km distance. The fault does not emerge at the surface and, accompanied with the Dainenji-yama fault, shows wedge thrusting in the Tertiary sediments. The amount of net slip of the master part of the Nagamachi-Rifu fault is estimated to be one mm/year. Seismic reflection profiles across the fault plus a gravity anomaly reveal the thicker Neogene sediments on the hanging wall rather than on the footwall. The Neogene sedimentary basin was formed by normal faulting in early Miocene under an extensional stress regime associated with the formation of the northern Honshu rift system. Due to shortening deformation since the Pliocene, this Miocene normal fault reactivated as a reverse fault. Judging from the CMP deep seismic reflection profile and location of the 1998 M5.0 Sendai earthquake, the deep geometry of the Nagamachi-Rifu fault is listric.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earthquake Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-0032, Japan

    Hiroshi Sato

  2. Department of Geography, Yamanashi University, Kofu, 400-8510, Japan

    Toshifumi Imaizumi

  3. Institute of Mineralogy, Petrology and Economic Geology, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    Takeyoshi Yoshida

  4. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, 305-8576, Japan

    Hisao Ito

  5. Research Center for Prediction of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruption, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    Akira Hasegawa

Authors
  1. Hiroshi Sato
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  2. Toshifumi Imaizumi
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  3. Takeyoshi Yoshida
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  4. Hisao Ito
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  5. Akira Hasegawa
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Correspondence to Hiroshi Sato.

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Sato, H., Imaizumi, T., Yoshida, T. et al. Tectonic evolution and deep to shallow geometry of Nagamachi-Rifu Active Fault System, NE Japan. Earth Planet Sp 54, 1039–1043 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353298

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353298

Keywords

  • Miocene
  • Footwall
  • Hanging Wall
  • Bouguer Anomaly
  • Seismic Line