Seismically and geodetically determined nondouble-couple source mechanisms from the 2000 Miyakejima volcanic earthquake swarm

Abstract

The volcanic eruption on Miyakejima, Japan, in 2000 was marked by the largest earthquake swarm ever recorded in Japan, a seismicity migration accompanying a dike intrusion as the dike propagated from Miyakejima to the northwest, and formation of a caldera on Mount Oyama on Miyakejima. In this study, we propose a seismic source model which can be used to model both seismic and geodetic displacements from volcanic earthquakes. Our model, the "crack + double-couple" (CDC) model, combines tensile opening with shear slip along a single fault plane. We find that this model can fit both seismic and GPS data from the 1 July and 30 July earthquakes, the largest two in the Miyakejima sequence. The results of our GPS inversions for these two earthquakes are consistent with the seismic mechanisms and aftershock locations, and the GPS mechanisms successfully forward predict the observed regional seismograms. The 1 July earthquake, located near the northwest tip of the dike, has a large opening component and a geodetic moment about 5 times larger than that inferred from the seismic data alone. The source process for this event consists of tensile failure, which occurred quickly, and a much slower accumulation of shear slip. We apply the CDC model to 16 additional earthquakes from this sequence and find that the CDC model fits the seismic data for these earthquakes at least as well as established seismic moment tensor models.

Files

Additional details