The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake and its aftershocks observed by GEONET

• DOI: 10.5047/eps.2011.06.025
• Publication Date: 2011-07-01
• Authors: Hiroshi Yarai; Hiroshi Munekane; Takuya Nishimura
• Keywords: Space and Planetary Science; Geology; 16. Peace & justice; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

The large displacement induced by the 2011 M 9.0 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake was observed by GPS stations of the permanent GPS Earth Observation Network system (GEONET) in northeastern Japan. The displacement was characterized by the eastward displacement and subsidence in the Pacific coastal area. The horizontal displacement exceeded 5.3 m, which is the largest ever detected by GEONET. The mainshock was followed by a sequence of aftershocks. We processed the GPS data through a kinematic positioning strategy to clarify the deformation, including the deformation caused by the mainshock, with high temporal resolutions. The offsets calculated from the kinematic coordinates separately depict the coseismic displacements of the mainshock, the largest aftershock, and the third largest. The fault model for these earthquakes suggests that the largest (M 7.7) and third largest (M 7.3) aftershocks ruptured the southern and northern extensions of the mainshock fault, respectively.