Invited Talk
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Speaker:Dr. Masashi Kawamura 
(Post-doctoral Research Fellow),National Taiwan University

Title:Migration pattern of anomalous seismic activity prior to the 2011 Tohoku, Japan earthquake 

Abstract: 

An improved pattern informatics (PI) method was applied to the earthquake data maintained by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) for broader region including northeastern inland Japan and the source area of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, to reveal the preparatory process of the earthquake. The spatial distribution and migration pattern of PI hotspots which highlight the areas of anomalous seismic activity were focused on in the present study. Application of the improved PI method indicated that PI hotspots had been approaching the epicenter of the Tohoku earthquake from 2000 until the occurrence time of the earthquake. The comparison of the migration pattern with some previous studies on the slip-deficit rate distribution on the plate boundary and the P-wave velocity distribution above the upper boundary of the subducting plate shows that the region toward which PI hotspots migrated coincide zones of high slip-deficit rate and high P-wave velocity. This supports the hypothesis that the migration of PI hotspots reflects the preparatory stress accumulation process of the Tohoku earthquake.

Time : 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Friday, Sep 27th, 2013
Location :  Room 213, Department of Geosciences
Colloquium chair:  Dr. Yih-Min Wu