Main Results from the Program Promotion Panel for Subduction-Zone Earthquakes

抄録

Understanding the occurrence mechanism of subduction zone earthquakes scientifically is intrinsically important for not only forecast of future subduction earthquakes but also disaster mitigation for strong ground motion and tsunami accompanied by large earthquakes. The Program Promotion Panel for Subduction-zone earthquakes mainly focused on interplate megathrust earthquakes in the subduction zones and the research activity included collection and classification of historical data on earthquake phenomena, clarifying the current earthquake phenomena and occurrence environment of earthquake sources, modelling earthquake phenomena, forecast of further earthquake activity based on monitoring crustal activity and precursory phenomena, and development of observation and analysis technique. Moreover, we studied the occurrence mechanism of intraslab earthquakes within the subducting oceanic plate. Five-year observational research program actually produced enormous results for deep understanding of subduction zone earthquakes phenomena, especially in terms of slow earthquakes, infrequent huge earthquakes, and intraslab earthquakes. This paper mainly introduces results from researches on these phenomena in subduction zones.