The lateral (along trench axis) variation in the mode of large earthquake occurrence near the northern Japan Trench is explained by the variation in surface roughness of the subducting plate. The surface roughness of the ocean bottom near the trench is well correlated with the large-earthquake occurrence. The region where the ocean bottom is smooth is correlated with 'typical' large underthrust...

The study of the Earth’s electromagnetic fields prior to the occurrence of strong seismic events has repeatedly revealed cases were transient anomalies, often deemed as possible earthquake precursors, were observed on electromagnetic field recordings of surface, atmosphere and near space carried out measurements. In an attempt to understand the nature of such signals several models have been pr...

We have investigated the possible cause-and-effect relationship due to stress transfer between two earthquakes that occurred near Christchurch, New Zealand, in September 2010 and in February 2011. The Mw 7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) event took place along a previously unrecognized fault. The Mw 6.3 Christchurch earthquake, generated by a thrust fault, occurred approximately five months later, 6 km...

A numerical simulation study is conducted to examine the effect of a large outerrise earthquake on seismic cycle of large interplate earthquakes in a subduction zone. A model of 2D uniform elastic half-space is set up to exactly evaluate static elastic interactions. The frictional force acting on a plate interface is assumed to obey a laboratory-derived rateand state-dependent friction law. The...

The 2011 Tohoku megathrust earthquake had an unexpected size for the region. To image the earthquake rupture in detail, we applied a novel backprojection technique to waveforms from local accelerometer networks. The earthquake began as a small-size twin rupture, slowly propagating mainly updip and triggering the break of a larger-size asperity at shallower depths, resulting in up to 50 m slip a...

The residential earthquake insurance of 2002 created additional protected residential earthquake insurance plan, under which residential earthquake insurance is available to individuals from insurance industry in Taiwan. Earthquake damages that occurrence in Taiwan remain largely uninsured losses despite the efforts of governmental and private insurance programs. Spatial Econometrics has been r...

Geofluids is important for understanding volcanic and earthquake generation processes. In this study, we obtained a detailed seismic velocity structure in and around the Naruko volcano, northeastern Japan, using data from a dense seismic observation network. We found a distinct seismic low-velocity zone (LVZ) beneath the Naruko volcano, with a diameter of nearly 10 to 20 km in the lower crust. ...

The 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake is a typical subduction-zone earthquake and is the 4th largest earthquake after the beginning of instrumental observation of earthquakes in the 19th century. In fact, the 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake displaced the northeast Japan island arc horizontally and vertically. The displacement largely changed the tectonic situation of the arc from compressive to tensile. Th...

The study of the Earth’s electromagnetic fields prior to the occurrence of strong seismic events has repeatedly revealed cases were transient anomalies, often deemed as possible earthquake precursors, were observed on electromagnetic field recordings of surface, atmosphere and near space carried out measurements. In an attempt to understand the nature of such signals several models have been pr...

We show possible scenarios for the occurrence of M ~ 7 interplate earthquakes prior to and following the M ~ 9 earthquake along the Japan Trench, such as the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. One such M ~ 7 earthquake is so-called the Miyagi-ken-Oki earthquake, for which we conducted numerical simulations of earthquake generation cycles by using realistic three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the subduc...