Skip to main content

10 years after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake: A milestone of solid earth science

Progress in Earth and Planetary Science welcomes submissions to the special issue on '10 years after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake: A milestone of solid earth science'.
 

A number of new discoveries have been made in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, thanks to unprecedented near-field observations as well as to the earth scientific knowledge about the northeastern Japan arc that has accumulated prior to the earthquake.  The earthquake highlighted the complexity of frictional behaviors on the shallowest part of the subduction interface, previously regarded as mostly aseismic. Several pieces of evidence have been presented that illuminate the spatial correlation between the distribution of interplate faulting events of various sizes and time scales and associated structural heterogeneities. The stress re-distribution processes after the earthquake, including viscoelastic deformation and fluid remobilization, have been revealed both in the overriding and incoming plates and provide new insights in the dynamics of the subduction zone. Abundant records of the associated tsunami clarified various processes during the generation, propagation, and inundation of tsunamis. The earthquake also provides a unique opportunity to compare the fault model constrained by modern observations with those of past earthquakes based on geological records so that we can improve the reconstructed recurrence history of massive earthquakes. It is expected that a collection of research contributions regarding the Tohoku earthquake will benefit our general understanding regarding infrequent great (M > 9) subduction earthquakes.

In this special issue of SPEPS, we invite authors to contribute their latest research or reviews on the seismotectonics along the northeastern Japan margin from disciplinary and interdisciplinary viewpoints. The scope of this issue ranges across, but is not limited to, the diversity of fault behaviors along the plate boundary and its relation to structural heterogeneity of the plate boundary zone, postseismic deformation and seismicity, behavior of tsunamis, and earthquake geology and paleoseismology along the Japan trench.


Deadline for submissions

Submission start: 1 October 2021

Submission deadline:  31 August 2022

Guest Editors

Takeshi Iinuma
JAMSTEC
email: iinuma@jamstec.go.jp

Shuichi Kodaira
JAMSTEC
email: kodaira@jamstec.go.jp

Masaki Yamada
Shinshu University
email:  yamada@shinshu-u.ac.jp

Roland Bürgmann
University of California, Berkeley
email: burgmann@seismo.berkeley.edu

Toru Matsuzawa
Tohoku University, Japan
email: toru.matsuzawa.c6@tohoku.ac.jp

Ryota Hino
Tohoku University, Japan
email: hino@tohoku.ac.jp

  1. Devastating megathrust earthquakes and slow earthquakes both occur along subducting plate interfaces. These interplate seismic activities are strongly dependent on the nature of the plate interface, such as th...

    Authors: Gou Fujie, Shuichi Kodaira, Koichiro Obana, Yojiro Yamamoto, Takehi Isse, Tomoaki Yamada, Tetsuo No, Yasuyuki Nakamura and Seiichi Miura
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:50
    Content type: Review Published on:

  2. Sediment cores collected at Lake Kogare-ike, a coastal lake on the Pacific coast of central Japan, record the marine inundation history during the last 3000 years. The sediments consist mainly of organic mud, ...

    Authors: Yumi Shimada, Yuki Sawai, Dan Matsumoto, Koichiro Tanigawa, Kazumi Ito, Toru Tamura, Yuichi Namegaya, Masanobu Shishikura and Shigehiro Fujino
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:49
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. The structure of the incoming plate is an important element that is often considered to be related to the occurrence of great earthquakes in subduction zones. In the Japan Trench, where the 2011 Tohoku earthqu...

    Authors: Yasuyuki Nakamura, Shuichi Kodaira, Gou Fujie, Mikiya Yamashita, Koichiro Obana and Seiichi Miura
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:45
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. The 2011 Tohoku-Oki great earthquake increased the difficulty of evaluating the long-term probability of seismic activity along the Japan Trench because of the unknown impact of the unprecedentedly large slip....

    Authors: Ryoko Nakata, Naoki Uchida, Takane Hori and Ryota Hino
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:34
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. We investigated temperature records associated with seafloor pressure observations at eight stations that experienced the 2011 Mw 9 Tohoku earthquake near its epicenter. The temperature data were based on the tem...

    Authors: Daisuke Inazu, Yoshihiro Ito, Ryota Hino and Wataru Tanikawa
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:24
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. This paper documents the sedimentary characteristics of the widespread deposits associated with the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami on the lowlands along the Pacific coast of the Sendai and Fukushima regions, northern...

    Authors: Dan Matsumoto, Yuki Sawai, Koichiro Tanigawa, Yuichi Namegaya, Masanobu Shishikura, Kyoko Kagohara, Osamu Fujiwara and Tetsuya Shinozaki
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:23
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Previous studies of sediments recovered from the Japan Trench between 37° 25′ N and 38° 30′ N document distinctive turbidite beds induced by huge earthquakes. We studied two sediment cores at 39°N to investiga...

    Authors: Toshiya Kanamatsu, Ken Ikehara and Kan-Hsi Hsiung
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:16
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:22

  10. Since the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-oki earthquake, intra-plate normal-faulting earthquakes, including several M7-class earthquakes, have occurred in the outer trench slope area from the trench to the outer rise alon...

    Authors: Koichiro Obana, Tsutomu Takahashi, Yojiro Yamamoto, Takeshi Iinuma, Yasuyuki Nakamura, Gou Fujie, Seiichi Miura and Shuichi Kodaira
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:11
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake produced the most well-recorded postseismic deformation of any megathrust earthquake in the world. Over the last decade, researchers have used a dense and widespread geodetic n...

    Authors: Sambuddha Dhar, Jun Muto, Yusaku Ohta and Takeshi Iinuma
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:9
    Content type: Review Published on:

  12. Deep-sea turbidite has been used to determine the history of occurrence of large earthquakes. Surface-sediment remobilization is a mechanism of the generation of earthquake-induced turbidity currents. However,...

    Authors: Ken Ikehara, Kazuko Usami and Toshiya Kanamatsu
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:8
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:15

  13. Slow earthquakes are episodic slow fault slips. They form a fundamental component of interplate deformation processes, along with fast, regular earthquakes. Recent seismological and geodetic observations have ...

    Authors: Tomoaki Nishikawa, Satoshi Ide and Takuya Nishimura
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2023 10:1
    Content type: Review Published on:

  14. Long-term continuous observation of seafloor pressure is effective for detecting seafloor vertical deformations that are associated with transient tectonic phenomena such as slow slip events. Since the aseismi...

    Authors: Ryota Hino, Tatsuya Kubota, Naotaka Y. Chikasada, Yusaku Ohta and Hideto Otsuka
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:73
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. Paleotsunami deposit investigations and numerical tsunami computations have been performed to elucidate the source and size of large tsunamis along the Kuril to Japan Trenches, particularly for unusual tsunami...

    Authors: Kai Sato, Masaki Yamada, Daisuke Ishimura, Takashi Ishizawa and Toshitaka Baba
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:72
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  16. A decade after the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0), geological surveys were conducted at multiple sites along the Pacific Coast of the tsunami-inundated Tohoku region in Japan, providing thousands of years...

    Authors: Daisuke Ishimura, Takashi Ishizawa, Masaki Yamada, Kaori Aoki and Kai Sato
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:69
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  17. Temporal seismic observations from pop-up type ocean-bottom seismometers were used to detect tectonic tremors immediately following the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in the northern periphery of the aftershock ar...

    Authors: Hidenobu Takahashi, Ryota Hino, Naoki Uchida, Takanori Matsuzawa, Yusaku Ohta, Syuichi Suzuki and Masanao Shinohara
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:66
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  18. The 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake generated a surprisingly large near-trench slip, and earth scientists have devoted significant attention to understanding why. Some studies proposed special rupture mechanisms, s...

    Authors: Tatsuya Kubota, Tatsuhiko Saito and Ryota Hino
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:68
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  19. A quantitative understanding of paleotsunamis is a significant issue in tsunami sedimentology. Onshore tsunami deposits, which are geological records of tsunami inundation, are used to reconstruct paleotsunami...

    Authors: Hidetoshi Masuda, Daisuke Sugawara, Tomoya Abe and Kazuhisa Goto
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:65
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  20. The transition process from coseismic to early postseismic phenomena within a half-day remains a significant topic for understanding the slip budget and friction properties of the fault. However, the investiga...

    Authors: Yusuke Tanaka, Yusaku Ohta and Shin’ichi Miyazaki
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:55
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  22. The distributions of sandy tsunami deposits do not reflect the true extents of tsunami inundation areas, leading to underestimates of inundation by past tsunamis and thus the magnitudes of their associated tsu...

    Authors: Tetsuya Shinozaki, Yuki Sawai, Minoru Ikehara, Dan Matsumoto, Yumi Shimada, Koichiro Tanigawa and Toru Tamura
    Citation: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2022 9:29
    Content type: Research article Published on: