Abstract
The western region of the Aso Caldera is well known to display the considerable activity of earthquakes. Then, the seismic observation was carried out during three months from June to August of 1973. The purpose of this observation was to analyze the nature of earthquakes and to get information on the tectonic structure at the western caldera rim. The 21 hypocenters were located below the western region and the central cone of the Aso Caldera, and the focal mechanism solutions were determined from the P wave first motions. The distribution of epicenters was distinguished into two zones, one was the zone striking from the Tateno Valley to the west and another was the zone striking north to south along the western rim of caldera. These two zones intersect each other at the Tateno Valley where the caldera wall is breached. The hypocentral depths of earthquakes occurring in the former zone were deeper than in the latter zone. The focal mechanism solutions implied that the direction of maximum compressive stress was northwest-southeast for the earthquakes occurring in the former zone, on the other hand, for the earthquakes occurring in the latter zone the direction of maximum compressive stress was northeast-southwest. These appearances were suggesting that these zones were undoubtedly equal to the tectonic lines and that the right lateral strike slip was occurred at each zone.
