抄録
This paper deals with the potential of GEONET, GNSS Earth Observation Network as a tool to mitigate earthquake disasters. GEONET presents spatiotemporal information on crustal deformations due to seismic forces, thus it has possible applications to earthquake engineering both in space and time. This paper discusses, as a temporal application, the precursory behaviors of the crust found prior to the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake to enhance the actual capability of earthquake prediction from engineering viewpoints. The GEONET data also can obtain coseismic crustal deformations closely related with tsunami resulting from a huge interplate earthquake. This paper describes, as a second application, the potential use of GEONET for early warning system against tsunami propagation. The coseismic deformations of the crust also exert another influence on earthquake damage to large-scale structures as a result of spatial differential of displacements, inducing seismic strains within structural bodies. This paper finally discusses, as a third application of the GEONET data, the seismic strain characteristics of ground derived from coseismic crustal deformations, relating them with earthquake damage to civil engineering structures.
