This paper reports a finding that marine gravity data around the Japanese Islands are inconsistent with nearby land gravity data. The comparison between land and marine gravity was made possible by the gravity measurements from the air using a helicopter-borne gravimeter (SEGAWA Model) developed by the present authors. The ground/sea truth gravity anomaly can be checked against the gravity from the air, though it is not free air gravity anomaly but gravity disturbance. The newly-developed airborne gravimeter first manufactured in 1998 shows a good performance with a 1-2 mgal average repeatability of measurement under a 90-knot flight speed. Thus we have found disagreements between ground truth and sea truth gravity anomalies on the basis of airborne gravity data in the areas in Japan where we have so far made measurements. Among them we will report the case in the area from Saitama and Ibaraki offshore to the Kashima-Nada Sea, Japan. Our conclusion about this area is that the past marine gravity data obtained by surface ship gravimeters involve systematic errors of more than 10 mgals. This kind of inconsistency between marine and land gravity is expected to be found in a number of other areas around the Japanese Islands.

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The results of GPS positioning depend on both functional and stochastic models. In most of the current GPS processing programs, however, the stochastic model that describes the statistical properties of GPS observations is usually assumed that all GPS measurements have the same accuracy and are statistically independent. Such assumptions are unrealistic. Although there were only a few studies modeling the effects on the GPS relative positioning, they are restricted to short baselines and short session lengths. In this paper, the stochastic modeling for IGS long-baseline positioning (with 24-hour session) is analyzed in the GAMIT software by modified stochastic models. Results show that any mis-specifications of stochastic model result in unreliable GPS baseline results, and the deviation of baseline estimations reaches as much as 2 cm in the height component. Using the stochastic model of satellite elevation angle-based cosine function, the precision of GPS baseline estimations can be improved, and the GPS baseline component is closest to the reference values, especially GPS height.

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The historical geodetic and teleseismic data are jointly inverted for the rupture process of the 1923 Kanto earthquake together with the strong motion data recently discovered. The resultant slip distribution shows two asperities (areas of large slips) on the fault plane with a total seismic moment of 1.1 × 10²¹ Nm (M_w 8.0). The asperity in the shallow central portion of the fault is larger with maximum slip of approximately 10 m than the one in the hypocentral region. The recovered slip functions indicate that the initial slip was abrupt in the hypocentral asperity, though it was gradual in the larger asperity. The major discrepancies between the observations and synthetics are attributed to volcanic activities and the 3-D structure of the Kanto Basin. We compare the slip and aftershock distributions and also discuss the relation of the asperities to silent earthquakes.

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Crustal configuration of the central Chugoku region with disposition of the Philippine Sea Plate (PHS) in this area are investigated through the receiver function approach using short-period Hi-net data. Images of the upper mantle discontinuities are also obtained. Restituted short-period receiver functions bring out discernible variations in average composition of the crust and its thickness in the study region. The Vp/Vs values in the study area are generally high, reaching values in excess of 1.85 at a few places. The central part of the study region showing the highest Vp/Vs values is coincidentally a subregion of least seismicity, possibly bestowed with special subsurface structure. Migrated receiver function images, both Ps and Pps images, unambiguously trace the NW subducting PHS taking a steeper plunge in the northwest part of the Chugoku region reaching depths of 70 km from its low dip disposition in the southeast. An excellent correlation of the subducting PHS with the hypocenters is also seen. We demonstrate that short-period data after restitution and application of appropriate low pass filters can indeed detect presence of the global 410-km and 660-km discontinuities and map their disposition reasonably well. Our migrated receiver functions image the deflections in the 410-km and 660-km discontinuities in an anti-correlated fashion on expected lines of Clapeyron slope predictions induced by subduction of the Pacific plate (PAC) beneath Japanese islands, though PAC itself is feebly traced but shows good correlation with slab seismicity.

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In situ measurement of Moon-originating ions picked-up in orbit round the Moon is expected to provide valuable information regarding the thin lunar atmosphere and surface. Secondary ions sputtered by the solar wind ions reflect the surface abundance. Global composition mapping of the lunar surface may be thus achieved by measuring the sputtered ions as one would perform laboratory SIMS.We studied the dynamics of picked-up lunar ions when the Moon was exposed to the solar wind. Our model's source mechanism involved photoionization of the lunar exospheric atoms, photon-stimulated ion desorption, and ion sputtering. We propose that an intense flux of picked-up lunar ions (10⁴ /cm² sec) exists at an altitude of 100 km, for nearly a quarter of the orbit. The ion flux originating from the lunar surface is mono-directional and mono-energetic, and is distinguishable from that of lunar atmospheric origin whose energy spectra correspond to their spatial distribution. Our calculation suggested that ion measurements in orbit round the Moon enable remote SIMS analyses.

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The effects of satellite ground track changes of GRACE on monthly gravity field recoveries are investigated. In the case of a gravity field recovery using a relatively short period of a month or so, the variation of ground tracks affects the precision of the gravity field solutions. It is a serious problem when the solutions are employed for detecting temporal gravity changes which are almost at their detection limits. In this study, the recoveries of four-weekly gravity fields are simulated and the relation between the recovery precision and the ground track is investigated. The result shows that the GRACE ground track of the year 2003 was in good condition for four-week gravity field recovery, but it will sometimes appear as worse cases as the orbit altitude decays. In those cases, the global standard deviations of geoid height errors will be about one order worse than the best case. From our simulation, ground tracks of around altitudes of 473, 448, 399, 350 and 337 km give insufficient spatial resolutions, even for gravity field recovery up to degree 30.

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A tsunami due to the 2004 M7.4 September 5th earthquake off of the Kii peninsula, Japan, was recorded at the GPS buoy newly designed and established in April 2004, about 13 km off of the Muroto Promontory, southwestern Japan. The tsunami arrived at the buoy about 8 minutes before its arrival to the nearest tide gauge station at the tip of the Muroto Promontory. The predicted tsunami record based on preliminary source model shows excellent agreement (rms 2.7 cm) with the observed GPS record. This demonstrates that GPS buoy observations can be used not only for a tsunami warning system, but also for precise determination of the tsunami source.

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Dynamic strain seismograms obtained by high-speed sampling include not only long-period changes, such as‘strain-step’, step change in strain, but also short period variations, such as body waves. We studied dynamic strain variations caused by the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes. Using such strain seismograms, we clarified the relation between dynamic strain and velocity. Our results will contribute greatly to seismology. We also clarified the strain-step formation process. This result and the concept of dynamic strain will bring more information to geodetics.

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The 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes (Mj7.1 and Mj7.4) occurred at the Nankai trough, on 5 September 2004. Clear strain-steps associated with these earthquakes were observed with Ishii-type borehole strainmeters and quartz-tube extensometers in the Tokai and Kinki districts. We investigated the spatial and depth distribution of the observed principal strain changes and compared the observed strain-steps and theoretical calculations at all observatories. The following results were obtained: the observed strain-steps at all observatories are generally consistent with the polarities of the theoretical values, and the observed strain-step increases with depth at the same place. As for the Togari site, the following relationships are obtained: the strain-step and the tidal strains increase with depth and increasing of the modulus of elasticity, namely, hardness of rock. We consider that the geological structure around the observatory may cause a modification of the strain field.

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We examine the spatial and temporal relationships of the sequence of strong earthquakes that occurred off the Kii Peninsula, Japan, on 5 September 2004. The first event (Mj 7.1) occurred at 10:07:08 (UTC) on a northward dipping plane within the subducting Philippine Sea plate. From 10:16 to 14:47 the seismicity shows a group of earthquakes (Mj 3.2 to 4.8) 35 km to the east which are regarded as foreshocks to the second large earthquake. At 14:57:17, a Mw 6.1 strike-slip event occurred on a northwest trending plane. Some 14 seconds later, a large (Mj 7.4) thrust earthquake started 4.2 km southeast of the initial epicenter of the second earthquake. This largest earthquake is thought to have occurred on a southward dipping plane with the strike in an east-southeastly direction. Using the geometry of faults determined in this study, calculations of the Coulomb failure function show that simple static stress changes do not provide a good explanation for the triggering of the subsequent earthquakes.

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Anomalous seismic events were observed after the occurrence of the foreshock (Mw=7.2) and the main shock (Mw=7.5) of the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes. These anomalous events are characterized by very low-frequency energy of around 10 seconds with almost no higher-frequency energy and are considered the same as the very low-frequency (VLF) earthquakes discovered by Ishihara (2003) in some places along the Nankai trough, southwest Japan. The VLF seismic activity is mainly coincident with the aftershock area of the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes; however a minor activity was also excited in the southern Kii channel area. The VLF seismograms sometimes include higher-frequency wave trains with amplitudes much smaller than that of regular aftershocks. This indicates that VLF earthquakes have different source properties from the regular earthquakes. The centroid moment tensor analysis for one of the larger events suggests that the source depth is very shallow and the focal mechanism is the reverse faulting. These features suggest that the event occurs on the well-developed reverse fault system in the large accretionary prism near the Nankai trough. The swarm activity of VLF earthquakes might be considered as a chain-like occurrence of slips on the reverse fault system and thus the signature of a dynamic deformation process in the accretionary prism.

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The 2004 off the Kii Peninsula earthquakes ruptured the subducting Philippine Sea plate near the axis of the Nankai Trough. A series of major events (the fore- and mainshocks with M_w>7) showed very peculiar rupture characteristics. The depth extent of the foreshock is around 12-23 km below the sea surface; in contrast, that of the mainshock is around 7-17 km, shallower and closer to the upper surface of the plate than the foreshock. The focal mechanism of the foreshock is almost pure reverse faulting, with a P-axis directing roughly N-S, that is rotated clockwise by 20-25° from the trough normal. In contrast, the mainshock involved a significant component of strike-slip faulting, with a similar P-axis. The OBS survey revealed a double layer of the aftershock activity and the upper NW trending layer contains aftershocks with strike-slip focal mechanisms. These features indicate that the compressional and tensional stress domains due to bending are significantly modified by tectonic stress disturbance and produced the fore- and mainshock ruptures deviated from simple reverse and normal faulting. I show that a supposed N-S compressional stress, which might be produced by the collision south of the Izu Peninsula, can rotate the principal stress axes and change the stress type, which are consistent with the P-axes of these events and the strike-slip component for the mainshock. The complex rupture mode of the mainshock might have been produced by superposition of the depth-dependent tensional bending stress in the upper half of the lithosphere and the collisional stress. This collisional stress should be comparable to the bending stresses in magnitude, which is much larger than the stress perturbation caused by nearby interplate locking.

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We made a close investigation about the initial rising slopes of the envelope waveforms of the P-wave ground motion by using data for recent earthquakes. We have found that the P-wave initial slopes decrease almost linearly with increasing epicentral distance over the wide range of distance. This linear relation looks to be independent of the earthquake magnitudes and focal depths though the dispersion of data is somewhat large. We have found that the P-wave initial slopes of the foreshock M7.1 of the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes are very sharp. To the contrary, the slope of the main shock M7.4 is quite gentle. The main shock was preceded by a small event that occurred about 6.7 seconds before the main shock. This pre-event was generated near the initiation point of the main fracture. We are speculating that the difference in the initial slope between the foreshock and main shock may reflect the difference in the time variation of the stress drop at the early stage of the fracture and that the small pre-shock may be responsible for the slow rising of the initial P-wave motion of the main shock.

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An inversion analysis has been developed to evaluate short-period radiation zones on an earthquake fault plane using seismic intensity data. It is robust and widely applicable even for historical earthquakes without ground motion, tsunami and geodetic data observed by instruments. It was applied to the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes that occurred in the Philippine Sea plate along the Nankai Trough. The short-period seismic wave radiation zone of each event during the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes from the inversion analysis was included in epicenter area of the corresponding aftershocks and slipped fault zone derived from the waveform inversion analysis as well. It may be also found that there were slip areas where little short period energy radiated. It also applied to the 1899/3/7 earthquake whose felt area was similar to that of the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes. However, it was indicated that the short-period radiation zones of the 1899 earthquake was located near the coast of the Kii peninsula and departed from that of the 2004 earthquake. The 1899 event might be an intermediate-depth earthquake in the Philippine Sea plate or a relative small interplate event at the west margin of the Tonankai earthquake source region.

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We estimated the source model for the foreshock of the 2004 off the Kii peninsula earthquakes by empirical Green's function modeling. The size and the rise time of the strong motion generation area (SMGA) were estimated to be 30 × 15 km, and 0.9 sec, respectively. The stress drop of the SMGA was calculated to be 8.3 MPa. This model could reproduce long-period ground motions following the direct S-wave observed in the Osaka basin well. Using the derived source parameters, we simulated strong motions of the hypothetical Tonankai earthquake. Distribution of the seismic intensity derived here is similar to that obtained by the previous report. We could predict long-period ground motions which last for a long duration at the basin sites.

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Two large intraplate earthquakes (M_W 7.0 and 7.3) occurred off the southeastern Kii Peninsula on September 5, 2004. We determined the centroid moment tensors of these earthquakes and their aftershocks. Earthquakes can be divided into two categories: (1) the reverse-fault type with a range in focal depth from 5 km to 20 km; and (2) earthquakes with a near-vertical nodal plane and a focal depth shallower than 5 km. Earthquakes of type (1) are distributed inside the Philippine Sea plate beneath the Nankai trough, while normal-fault events predominate in the other regions along the trough. The distribution of type (2) events shows two clear lineaments with strikes of NNW-SSE to the north and NE-SW to the west of the focal area. These lineament strikes coincide approximately with strikes at the nodal planes of such events.

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Two large earthquakes (Mw7.3 and Mw7.5) occurred off-shore of the Kii peninsula (Japan) on 5th September 2004. The insufficient station coverage in the area where the large events and their aftershocks occurred led to significant uncertainty regarding their depth location. By using a double-difference approach, we were able to determine more accurate hypocenter locations and better define the main characteristics of the aftershock distribution. The data we used in this study comprise of about 700 earthquakes recorded by the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) from 5 to 12 September 2004. We assume several depth ranges for the initial double difference earthquake locations and select the solution with the smallest rms residual. The resulting hypocenter distribution has two distinctive features: 1) on average the depths are about 20 km shallower than the initial JMA location and 2) the hypocenters are divided into two groups: one shallow (around 12 km depth) and another deep (around 27 km depth). The epicenters of the relocated events define a finer, more clustered structure compared with the epicentral distribution of JMA. The splitting of the earthquake locations into two depth groups is still observed when using a significantly different velocity structure. Our results of the two depth groups for the hypocenters resemble the independently determined hypocentral distribution from the OBS survey.

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The 2004 off the Kii Peninsula earthquake occurred on September 5, 2004. Knowing the precise aftershock distribution is important for understanding the mechanism of this earthquake. However, the hypocenter of the main shock was located more than 100 km offshore from the nearest station of the land observation network. In the three days after the main shock, we started ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) observation in order to determine the precise distribution of the aftershocks. We assumed a seismic velocity structure for the hypocenter calculation, based on the results of previous seismic refraction study. The station corrections were incorporated to locate the hypocenter precisely. The hypocenters located within an area covered by five OBSs show relatively small errors. It is found that the OBS-located hypocenters are located about 5.5 km east-southeast from those by JMA and the depth range of the aftershocks is about 5-25 km just beneath the Nankai trough axis. The aftershock hypocenters can be grouped into two clusters at different depths of about 10 km and about 20 km. It is inferred that the main shock also has a depth of 5-25 km. Since this extent of the main shock was larger than one of the oceanic crust of the Philippine Sea plate, the fault plane of the main shock extended at the upper most mantle of the Philippine Sea plate. Although we cannot assign the actual fault plane of the main shock form our observation results, it is clarified that intra-plate earthquakes occurred near the trench region. Our OBS result supports that the main shock was the earthquake not at the plate boundary but within the bending Philippine Sea plate near the trough axis.

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