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Published 1991 | public
Journal Article

Use of Tsunami Waveforms for Earthquake Source Study

Abstract

Tsunami waveforms recorded on tide gauges, like seismic waves recorded on seismograms, can be used to study earthquake source processes. The tsunami propagation can be accurately evaluated, since bathymetry is much better known than seismic velocity structure in the Earth. Using waveform inversion techniques, we can estimate the spatial distribution of coseismic slip on the fault plane from tsunami waveforms. This method has been applied to several earthquakes around Japan. Two recent earthquakes, the 1968 Tokachi-oki and 1983 Japan Sea earthquakes, are examined for calibration purposes. Both events show nonuniform slip distributions very similar to those obtained from seismic wave analyses. The use of tsunami waveforms is more useful for the study of unusual or old earthquakes. The 1984 Torishima earthquake caused unusually large tsunamis for its earthquake size. Waveform modeling of this event shows that part of the abnormal size of this tsunami is due to the propagation effect along the shallow ridge system. For old earthquakes, many tide gauge records exist with quality comparable to modern records, while there are only a few good quality seismic records. The 1944 Tonankai and 1946 Nankaido earthquakes are examined as examples of old events, and slip distributions are obtained. Such estimates are possible only using tsunami records. Since tide-gauge records are available as far back as the 1850s, use of them will provide unique and important information on long-term global seismicity.

Additional Information

© 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Received: 17 November 1989; revised: 25 May 1990. This work was partially supported by NSF grant EAR-89-15987. K.S. is supported by Fellowship for Research Abroad from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Contribution No. 4815, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023