Abstract
The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake of 11 March 2011 occurred along the subduction zone plate boundary between the Pacific and North American plates along the Japan Trench. This earthquake caused the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster. In this study, we try to estimate the source model by a forward-modeling approach based on the characterized source model using the empirical Green's function method. Based on the results, we proposed a source model composed of five strong motion generation areas (SMGAs) along the subduction zone plate boundary. The SMGAs were located in the sea off Miyagi Prefecture, south Iwate, Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures. Comparing synthetic waveforms calculated by the empirical Green's function method and the observed waveforms, it can be seen that the observed waveforms are well reproduced at each observation station. The total seismic moment of SMGAs is 5% of the seismic moment determined by the Japan Meteorological Agency.
