Coseismic gravity and displacement changes of Japan Tohoku earthquake(Mw 9.0)

The greatest earthquake in the modern history of Japan and probably the fourth greatest in the last 100 years in the world occurred on March 11, 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku.Large tsunami and ground motions caused severe damage in wide areas, particularly many towns along the Pacific coast. So far, gravity change caused by such a great earthquake has been reported for the 1964 Alaska and the 2010 Maule events. However, the spatial-temporal resolution of the gravity data for these cases is insufficient to depict a co-seismic gravity field variation in a spatial scale of a plate subduction zone. Here, we report an unequivocal co-seismic gravity change over the Japanese Island, obtained from a hybrid gravity observation（combined absolute and relative gravity measurements）. The time interval of the observation before and after the earthquake is within 1 year at almost all the observed sites, including 13 absolute and 16 relative measurement sites, which deduced tectonic and environmental contributions to the gravity change. The observed gravity agrees well with the result calculated by a dislocation theory based on a self-gravitating and layered spherical earth model. In this computation, a co-seismic slip distribution is determined by an inversion of Global Positioning System（GPS） data. Of particular interest is that the observed gravity change in some area is negative where a remarkable subsidence is observed by GPS, which can not be explained by simple vertical movement of the crust. This indicated that the mass redistribution in the underground affects the gravity change. This result supports the result that Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） satellites detected a crustal dilatation due to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake by the terrestrial observation with a higher spatial and temporal resolution.

Measuring ground deformations caused by 2015 Mw7.8 Nepal earthquake using high-rate GPS data

The April 25, 2015 Mw7.8 Nepal earthquake was successfully recorded by Crustal Movement Observation Network of China （CMONOC） and Nepal Geodetic Array （NGA）. We processed the high-rate GPS data （1 Hz and 5 Hz） by using relative kinematic positioning and derived dynamic ground motions caused by this large earthquake. The dynamic displacements time series clearly indicated the displacement amplitude of each station was related to the rupture directivity. The stations which located in the di- rection of rupture propagation had larger displacement amplitudes than others. Also dynamic ground displacement exceeding 5 cm was detected by the GPS station that was 2000 km away from the epicenter. Permanent coseismic displacements were resolved from the near-field high-rate GPS stations with wavelet decomposition-reconstruction method and P-wave arrivals were also detected with S transform method. The results of this study can be used for earthquake rupture process and Earthquake Early Warning studies.

Quantitative analysis of the Nepal earthquake on 25 April, 2015 in the perspective of future earthquake hazard

The earthquake that occurred in Nepal on 25 April, 2015 was followed by about 256 aftershocks which continued for another 20-25 days. The Coulomb stress change due to the main shock has been estimated at depths 10 km, 15 km and 22 km which justify the occurrence of about 218 aftershocks of magnitudes 4 to 5 mostly at 10 km depth and the rest of magnitudes 5 to 7.3 mostly at 15-30 km depth. The western, southern and northern fringes of the fault plane that slipped on 25 April, 2015 show a high value of positive Coulomb stress change estimated at the above mentioned depths and yet these parts of the fault remained devoid of any aftershock epicentre and therefore must be treated as seats for possible future events. Co-seismic displacement of 5 GPS stations located in Nepal after the devastating earthquake of MwZ8 on 25 April, 2015 and its largest aftershock of MwZ3 on 12 May, 2015 have been separately estimated and analysed.

Recent advances of computing coseismic deformations in theory and applications

This paper reviews the recent advances in computing coseismic deformations,and their contributions to seismology and geodesy. At first,an overview on the history of the dislocation theory development is given in the introduction section. Then,emphasis are given on some new developments through few examples in the following sections,such as the new dislocation theory for a 3D Earth model,a new computing scheme on coseismic deflection change of vertical,the relation of dislocation Love number and the conventional Love numbers,the application of dislocation theory applied in satellite gravity observations,the coseismic deformations observed by GRACE,and a new method to determine dislocation Love numbers by GRACE. Furthermore,some advanced theoretical and cases studies are introduced to illustrate how dislocation theory is important in interpret geodetic data,or invert seismic slip for co- and post-seismic processes,using seismic and geodetic data. Final remarks are given in the last section,with discussions,conclusions,comments on existing problems,and expected methods to solve them.