The relationship between seismic velocity structure and the seismic coupling in the Hyuga-nada region, southwest Japan, deduced from onshore and offshore seismic observations

In Hyuga-nada region, the Philippine Sea (PHS) plate is subducting beneath the Eurasian (EU) plate (the southwest Japan arc) along the Nankai trough at a rate of about 5 cm per year. Big earthquakes (M7 class) have occurred in the north region from latitude 31.6 degrees north, but it has not occurred in the south region from latitude 31.6 degrees north. The largest earthquake ever recorded in Hyuga-nada region is the 1968 Hyuga-nada earthquake (Mw 7.5). And microseismicity varies spatially. There are non-seismic slip events in Hyuga-nada region. For example, the after-slips associated with events for 19 October 1996 and 3 December 1996 were observed (Yagi et al., 2001), and in the same region, the slow-slip events were also observed by GPS measurements (GSI, 2011). We performed extraordinary seismic observations for 75 days from April to July 2006, for 73 days from April to July 2008, and for 77 days from April to July 2009. About 25 pop-up type ocean-bottom seismometers were deployed above hypocentral region in Hyuga-nada using Nagasaki-maru. And three data loggers were deployed on land in order to compensate a regular seismic network. We used these data and permanent stations for this analysis. In order to obtain precise hypocenter distribution, focal mechanisms, and a 3D seismic velocity structure around the Hyuga-nada region, we used Double-Difference (DD) Tomography method developed by Zhang and Thurber (2003). In northern part of Hyuga-nada, Vp/Vs ratio is high along the upper part of PHS slab, and this layer is interpreted as the subducting oceanic crust. On the other hand, Vp/Vs ratio is about 1.73 in southern part of Hyuga-nada, and this is interpreted as the subducted Kyushu-Palau Ridge, old island arc, which is made by granitic rock. More over, there is a difference of Poisson's ratio at mantle wedge. This value is high (> 0.3) in northern part of Hyuga-nada. The high Poisson's mantle wedge is suggesting that the zone probably corresponds to a serpentinized wedge mantle. This region correlates with that of the after-slips and slow-slip events. This results is consistent with weak plate coupling. In southern part of Hyuga-nada, Poisson's ratio at mantle wedge is about 0.25. Uehira et al. (2007) was estimated that plate coupling is strong in southern part of Hyuga-nada, so, this result is consistent with this estimation.