Since dehydration embrittlement of oceanic crust and mantle in a subducting slab is considered to be responsible for the occurrence of intermediate-depth earthquakes, it is very important to know the location of these earthquakes; within the oceanic crust and/or the slab mantle. Usually in Southwest Japan, crustal earthquakes in the Philippine Sea plate (PHS) are associated with deep low frequency tremor. In order to determine the locations of intraslab earthquakes of the PHS in central and southern Kyushu, Japan, we examined existence of seismic waves guided by the oceanic crust, and we applied the Double-Difference method for relocating the interplate and intraslab earthquakes occurring in the study area. The results are as follows. (1) Throughout the study area, waveform analysis and hypocenter determination show that intraslab earthquakes occurred within the slab mantle. (2) From waveform analysis, we found that in the northern part of the study area, where no deep low frequency tremor is observed, some intraslab earthquakes occurred within the oceanic crust. (3) It is not clear whether earthquakes occurred within the oceanic crust in the southern part of the study area. Therefore, central Kyushu is unusual region in Southwest Japan, where dehydration takes place in the oceanic crust but it is not associated with deep low frequency tremor above the slab.
抄録全体を表示