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1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake

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The 1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake (Japanese: 三陸はるか沖地震 Sanriku Haruka Okijishin) occurred on December 28, 1994, at 12:19 UTC (21:19 local time). This was a magnitude Mw 7.7 earthquake with epicenter located in the Pacific Ocean at about 180 km east of Hachinohe, Aomori (haruka-oki means "far offshore").[2][3] The intensity reached shindo 6 in Hachinohe, Aomori, about 187.6 km from epicenter. It could be felt in Tokyo, about 632.9 km from epicenter, with shindo 2.[4] The Japanese Meteorological Agency put the magnitude at MJMA 7.5.[5] Slip associated with this earthquake continued for more than a year and it has been termed an 'ultra-slow earthquake'.[6]

1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake
JMA seismic intensity map
1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake is located in Japan
1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake
UTC time1994-12-28 12:19:23
ISC event137333
USGS-ANSSComCat
Local dateDecember 28, 1994
Local time21:19
Magnitude7.7 Mw
7.5 MJMA
Depth33 km
Epicenter40°27′04″N 143°29′28″E / 40.451°N 143.491°E / 40.451; 143.491
Areas affectedJapan
Max. intensityMMI IX (Violent)[1]

JMA 6+
Peak acceleration0.69 g
673.5 Gal
Tsunami55 cm
Casualties3 killed, 788 injured

Geology

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The northern part of Honshu and Hokkaido lie above the convergent plate boundary, where the Pacific plate is subducting beneath the Okhotsk Plate. The convergence rate across this boundary lies in the range of 7.9–9.2 cm per year.[7] The plate interface in the area of the earthquake epicenter shows an abrupt increase in dip from about 5° to about 15°, 80 km landward of the Japan Trench.[8] This part of the plate boundary has been the location of many powerful historical earthquakes, dating back to the 869 Sanriku earthquake and most recently of the devastating 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. Most of these events relate to rupture along the plate interface, but some, such as the 1933 Sanriku earthquake,[9] involved deformation within the subducting plate. According to the studies of past great earthquakes, a weak seismic coupling is suggested in the offshore Sanriku region.[10] From the distribution of past seismicity, the width of coupling at 40°N was assumed to be about 150 km.[6]

In 1999, an investigation was conducted in the source regions of the 1968 offshore Tokachi earthquake and the 1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake. It was found that the structures of crust are heterogeneous in the north and south of 40°10' N. The thickness of the crust is 21 km in the north and 15 km in the south. The P wave velocity in the north is 7% slower than that in the south.[11]

Earthquake

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This was an interplate earthquake,[12] with a low-angle reverse fault focal mechanism, which ruptured part of the plate interface. The region of the largest slip in this earthquake coincides with the region of low seismic moment release in the 1968 Offshore Tokachi earthquake on May 16, 1968, implying that the 1994 Offshore Sanriku earthquake completed the incompleted fault slip in the source region of the 1968 Offshore Tokachi earthquake.[13] The average slip of the fault was estimated to be 0.4 m and the maximal slip about 1.2 m.

The slip caused by this earthquake can be divided into a coseismic slip that occurred immediately before, during and immediately after the event, and a long period of slow post-seismic slip that continued for more than a year after the original event. The slow post-seismic slip following this earthquake had a large seismic moment compared with the coseismic slip associated with the main event. The post-seismic slip occurred in two phases; an initial faster short-term phase that lasted for about ten days, terminating with the largest aftershock, followed by a long-term slower phase. The slip area of the initial phase matches the rupture area for the main event. The second phase migrated significantly further down-dip and to the south, along the plate boundary.[7]

The main event released a seismic moment of about 3×1020 Nm, corresponding to magnitude Mw  7.59. However, the total seismic moment released by the main event and the following slow slip events up to about 1 year thereafter was about 8×1020 Nm, which corresponds to magnitude Mw  7.84.[14] The seismic moment of the earthquake was put at 4.3×1020 Nm by the USGS. The slow slip in the landward side of the source region was found to be larger than that in the trenchward side of the source region.[15]

The maximum accelerations recorded in Hachinohe were 602.3 cm/s2 in NS, 488.4 cm/s2 in EW, and 94.1 cm/s2 in UD.[4]

Tsunami

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A local tsunami was triggered by this earthquake. The recorded maximum height of the tsunami was in Miyako, which was about 55 cm.[16] In Ayukawa, Miyagi Prefecture and in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, the tsunami was about 50 cm high.[17] There was no report of damage caused by the tsunami.

Aftershocks

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The locations of the most part of the aftershocks were within a 170 km × 84 km region west of the initial break of the main shock. Most of the aftershocks occurred in the region of small slip in the main rupture.

The strongest aftershock occurred on January 6, 1995, at 22:37 UTC (January 7, 1995, at 07:37 local time) with magnitude Mw  6.9, leaving 29 people injured. It was located at 40.246 N, 142.175 E with a depth of 27 km. The intensity reached shindo 5 in Hachinohe, Aomori.[18] This aftershock could be felt in Tokyo with shindo 2.

Damage

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The felt intensity of the earthquake reached Shindo 6 in Hachinohe and Misawa, Shindo 5 at Aomori, Morioka and Mutsu and Shindo 4 at Miyako, Ofunato, Hakodate, Obihiro, Tomakomai and Urakawa. In the prefectures of Aomori and Iwate, about 69,000 households had no electricity.[19] A total of 6,229 buildings were affected, with 48 completely destroyed, 378 partially destroyed and another 5,803 suffering some damage. The total damage was estimated at 170.4 million US dollars.[3][20] Three people were reported dead and more than 200 injured;[20] 48 houses were completely destroyed. Road damage and power outages were reported. Liquefaction occurred in the Hachinohe Port area.[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS) (1972). "Significant Earthquake Database" (Data Set). National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA. doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K.
  2. ^ "Significant Earthquakes of the World 1994". United States Geological Survey. 5 January 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-07-14. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  3. ^ a b Disaster Prevention Aomori Prefecture. "Summary of earthquake" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2012-01-31. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  4. ^ a b "強震波形（三陸沖）" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
  5. ^ Sato, Y.; Ichii K.; Miyata M. Morita T. & Iai S (1997). "Strong-motion earthquake records on the 1994 Sanriku-Haruka-Oki earthquake in port areas" (PDF). Technical Note of the Port and Harbour Research Institute, Ministry of Transport, Japan. 892: 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  6. ^ a b Kawasaki, I.; Asai Y. & Tamura Y. (2001). "Space–time distribution of interplate moment release including slow earthquakes and the seismo-geodetic coupling in the Sanriku-oki region along the Japan trench" (PDF). Tectonophysics. 330 (3–4): 276–283. Bibcode:2001Tectp.330..267K. doi:10.1016/S0040-1951(00)00245-6. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  7. ^ a b Nishimura, T.; Miura S.; Tachibana K.; Hashimoto K.; Sato T.; Hori S.; Murakami E.; Kono T.; Nida K.; Mishina M.; Hirasawa T. & Miyazaki S. (2000). "Distribution of seismic coupling on the subducting plate boundary in northeastern Japan inferred from GPS observations". Tectonophysics. 323 (3–4): 217–238. Bibcode:2000Tectp.323..217N. doi:10.1016/S0040-1951(00)00108-6.
  8. ^ Ito, A.; Fujie G.; Tsuru T.; Kodaira S.; Nakanishi A. & Kaneda Y. (2004). "Fault plane geometry in the source region of the 1994 Sanriku-oki earthquake". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 223 (1–2): 163–175. Bibcode:2004E&PSL.223..163I. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2004.04.007.
  9. ^ Kanamori, H. (1971). "Seismological evidence for a lithospheric normal faulting – the Sanriku earthquake of 1933" (PDF). Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors. 4 (4): 289–300. Bibcode:1971PEPI....4..289K. doi:10.1016/0031-9201(71)90013-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  10. ^ Takahashi, N.; Kodaira S.; Tsuru T.; Park J-O.; Kaneda Y.; Suyehiro K.; Kinoshita H.; Abe S.; Nishino M. & Hino R. (2004). "Seismic structure and seismogenesis off Sanriku region, northeastern Japan". Geophysical Journal International. 159 (1): 129–145. Bibcode:2004GeoJI.159..129T. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2004.02350.x.
  11. ^ Hayakawa, Tadaaki; Kasahara, Junzo; Hino, Ryota; Sato, Toshinori; Shinohara, Masanao; Kamimura, Aya; Nishino, Minoru; Sato, Takeshi; Kanazawa, Toshihiko (2002), "Heterogeneous structure across the source regions of the 1968 Tokachi-Oki and the 1994 Sanriku-Haruka-Oki earthquakes at the Japan Trench revealed by an ocean bottom seismic survey", Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 132 (1–3): 89–104, Bibcode:2002PEPI..132...89H, doi:10.1016/S0031-9201(02)00046-8
  12. ^ Igarashi, T.; Matsuzawa T. & Hasegawa A. (2003). "Repeating earthquakes and interplate aseismic slip in the northeastern Japan subduction zone" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 108 (B5): 2249. Bibcode:2003JGRB..108.2249I. doi:10.1029/2002JB001920.
  13. ^ Nishimura, T.; Nakahara H.; Sato H. & Ohtake M. (1996). "Source Process of the 1994 Far East Off Sanriku Earthquake, Japan, as Inferred from a Broad-Band Seismogram" (PDF). Tohoku Geophysical Journal. 34 (4): 121–134. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-02. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  14. ^ Kawasaki, I. "Silent earthquake – what is the origin of slow earthquakes?" (PDF) (in Japanese). Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  15. ^ Uchida, N.; Igarashi T.; Matsuzawa T. & Hasegawa A. (2002). "Spatio-temporal distribution of afterslip of the 1994 Far-off-Sanriku earthquake, Japan, estimated from repeating earthquake analyses" (PDF). Retrieved 13 July 2011.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ "平成６年（１９９４年）三陸はるか沖地震（１９９４年１２月２８日、Ｍ７．５）". hp1039.jishin.go.jp (in Japanese).
  17. ^ NGDC. "Tsunami Event". Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  18. ^ "Significant Earthquakes of the World 1995". United States Geological Survey. 5 January 2010. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  19. ^ "今月の災害・事故 --（平成６年）1994年12月" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2011-09-19. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
  20. ^ a b NGDC. "Comments for the Significant Earthquake". Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  21. ^ Disaster Prevention Aomori Prefecture. "Summary of damage" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2011-03-24. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
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