Crustal deformation in the Kumano Basin along the Nankai Trough inferred from repeated seafloor geodetic observations

At the Nankai Trough (NT), the Philippine Sea plate (PH) subducts beneath the southwest Japan at a rate of about 4-6 cm/yr, where great interplate earthquakes have repeatedly occurred every 100-200 years. A number of researchers have investigated crustal deformation caused by subduction of the PH based on geodetic measurements as represented by GPS observation. However it is difficult to infer the plate coupling strength in offshore areas, due to the poverty of offshore geodetic data. From a viewpoint of disaster mitigation, it is important to know the updip and downdip limit of the plate locking depth. For this issue, we have conducted observations of the seafloor crustal deformations around the NT using a GPS/Acoustic technique since 2004. In this system, we estimate the position of a surveying vessel by Kinematic GPS analysis and measure the distance between the vessel and the benchmark on the sea floor by Acoustic measurements. Next we determine the location of the benchmark. For the repeatability of observation, the location of benchmark is determined within a precision of 2-3 cm at horizontal components (Tadokoro et al., 2006). In the Kumano Basin, we have two seafloor benchmarks, which are located about 60 and 80 km away from the deformation front of the NT. The observations from 2005 to 2008 have illustrated that these benchmarks are moving at rates of about 5-6 cm/yr with velocity uncertainties of 1-3 cm/yr relative to the Amurian plate. In this study, in order to estimate interplate coupling at the NT, we calculated surface deformations accompanied with plate subduction in an elastic half-space and compared them with on- and offshore GPS velocities. Then, we investigated the effect of observation for the seafloor crustal deformations on slip resolution on the plate interface. We conclude that offshore crustal deformation data provide good constraints for the estimation of fault slips at the shallower part of the plate interface, especially at the depths of 10-20 km, where slip resolution is low without using only offshore geodetic data. Future additional crustal deformation observations on the seafloor would lead to the better estimation of sea floor velocities, which help us reveal strain accumulation process in the seismogenic subduction zone during interseismic period.