Wide-angle seismic survey in the trench-outer rise region of the central Japan Trench

Dehydration process within the subducting oceanic plate and expelled water from there affect various subduction-zone processes, including arc volcanism and generation of earthquakes. This implies that the degree of hydration within the incoming oceanic plate just prior to subduction might be a key control factor on the regional variations in subduction zone processes like interplate earthquakes and arc volcanism. Recent advances in seismic structure studies in the trench-outer rise region of the Japan Trench have revealed that seismic velocities within the incoming oceanic plate become lower owing to the plate bending-related faulting, suggesting the hydration of the oceanic plate. If the degree of the oceanic plate hydration is one of key factors controlling the regional variations of the interplate earthquakes, the degree of the oceanic plate hydration just prior to subduction is expected to show the along-trench variation because the interplate seismicity in the forearc region of the Japan Trench show along-trench variations. However, we cannot discuss the along-trench variation of the incoming plate structure because seismic structure studies have been confined only to the northern Japan Trench so far.In 2014 and 2015, JAMSTEC and GEOMAR conducted wide-angle seismic surveys in the trench-outer rise region of the central Japan Trench to reveal the detailed seismic structure of the incoming oceanic plate. The western extension of our survey line corresponds to the epicenter of the 2011 M9 Tohoku earthquakes. We deployed 88 Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBSs) at intervals of 6 km and shot a tuned air-gun array of R/V Kairei at 200 m spacing. In this presentation, we will show the overview of our seismic survey and present seismic structure models obtained by the data of mainly 2014 seismic survey together with the several OBS data from 2015 survey. The preliminary results show P-wave velocity (Vp) within the oceanic crust and mantle decreases toward the trench axis beneath the area of well-developed horst and graben structure. In addition, we found a low velocity oceanic crust area which is probably not related to plate bending-related faulting, and not observed in the trench-outer rise region of the northern Japan Trench.