Three-dimensional image of the anisotropic bodies beneath central Honshu, Japan

Shear-wave splitting from local deep earthquakes is investigated to clarify the volume and the location of two anisotropic bodies in the mantle wedge beneath central Honshu, Japan. We observe a spatial variation in splitting parameters depending on the combination of sources and receivers, nearly N–S fast in the northern region, nearly E–W fast in the southern region and small time delays in the eastern region. Using forward modelling, two models with 30 and 10 per cent anisotropy are tested by means of a global search for the locations of anisotropic bodies with various volumes. The optimum model is obtained for 30 per cent anisotropy, which means a 5 per cent velocity difference between fast and slow polarized waves. The northern anisotropic body has a volume of 1.00° (longitude) × 0.5° (latitude) × 75 km (depth), with the orientation of the symmetry axis being N20°E. The southern anisotropic body has a volume of 1.25° × 1.25° × 100 km with the symmetry axis along N95°E. Our results show that the anisotropic bodies are located in low-velocity and low- Q regions of the mantle. This, together with petrological data and the location of volcanoes in the arc, suggests that the possible cause of the anisotropy is the preferred alignment of cracks filled with melt.     

Coda-Q before and after the 1983 Misasa earthquake of M 6.2, Tottori Prefecture,Japan

To detect any temporal change in coda-Q associated with an earthquake of M 6.2, digitized data from analog magnetic records of microearthquakes for a small confined region just around its hypocenter have been processed, with special attention to measuring errors. The M 6.2 earthquake took place at the Misasa town, Tottori Prefecture, in southwest Japan with preceding anomalous seismicity changes. TheQ values were elevated 20% around three years before the M 6.2 event for frequencies of 5 to 20 Hz, and tended to decrease around two years before. Data with high quality show undulated temporal variation with a period of 5–6 years before the earthquake, which is correlated with the regional seismic activity. There is a possibility that the observedQ change stands for precursory effect of the medium-scale earthquake. The aftershock sequence also shows an undulated temporal variation ofQ with a period of 150 days for around 10Hz, correlating also with the seismic activity. The fracturing processes by numerous microearthquakes may be responsible for the attenuation property of randomly scattered seismic waves.