Did Short‐Term Preseismic Crustal Deformation Precede the 2011 Great Tohoku‐Oki Earthquake? An Examination of Stacked Tilt Records

Abstract The detection of preslip, occurring hours to days before a large earthquake, using geodetic measurements has been a major focus in earthquake prediction research. A recent study claims to have detected a preseismic signal interpreted as accelerating slip near the hypocenter of the 2011 grea...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hitoshi Hirose, Aitaro Kato, Takeshi Kimura
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-06-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109384
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Summary:Abstract The detection of preslip, occurring hours to days before a large earthquake, using geodetic measurements has been a major focus in earthquake prediction research. A recent study claims to have detected a preseismic signal interpreted as accelerating slip near the hypocenter of the 2011 great Tohoku‐oki earthquake, starting approximately 2 hr before the mainshock. This claim is based on a stacking procedure using GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) data. However, a follow‐up study demonstrated that the signal disappeared when specific GNSS noise was corrected. Here we utilize tiltmeter records, independent on GNSS, to check whether the claimed preseismic signal is detected using a similar stacking procedure. Our results show no acceleration‐like deformation from 2 hr before the mainshock. This indicates that no precursory slip exceeded the noise level of the tilt data, and if any preslip occurred, it was less than 5.0 × 1018 Nm in seismic moment.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007