Fig. 3From: Normal-faulting stress state associated with low differential stress in an overriding plate in northeast Japan prior to the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquakeMisfit angles of the 12 highlighted earthquakes in Fig. 1 for crustal stresses around Iwaki City prior to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Red and blue bars indicate the misfit angles for stresses A and B, respectively. A stress with a misfit angle less than 30° (shaded region) is considered compatible with a focal mechanism determination (Gephart and Forsyth 1984; Michael 1991). Triangles indicate earthquakes compatible with either stress regime A (red triangles) or stress regime B (blue triangles) based on the approach of Otsubo et al. (2008, 2013). This approach ensures a robust result when based on the misfits of only four earthquakesBack to article page