An S-wave reflector is considered to relate to the existence of liquid in the seismogenic zone of the crust, which plays an important role in understanding the mechanism of earthquakes. We studied a distribution of S-wave reflectors in and around the hypocentral zone of the 2004 mid Niigata Prefecture Earthquake (M6.8). The earthquake was followed by several aftershocks that were greater than M6. Moreover, the aftershocks were not only located on the fault plane of the main shock but also on conjugate fault planes and on a parallel plane to that of the main shock. In order to discuss the relationship between this complex activity and the crustal heterogeneities, we analyzed the seismograms observed at the seismic stations in this region. Normal moveout processing (NMO) was applied to the data of the aftershock. Several S-wave reflectors could be identified from the NMO sections for every station. In particular, relatively strong S-wave reflectors exist in the lower crust at a depth of approximately 20-25 km in the middle part of the aftershock region. Additionally, reflectors were found beneath the fault planes of the main shock and the largest aftershock. This suggests a possibility of the correlation of the crustal heterogeneities to the occurrence of an earthquake.

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The 2004 mid Niigata prefecture earthquake with M6.8 occurred in the north of central part of Japan. It was a reverse fault by the regional compression stress field in NW-SE direction. Several aftershocks with M≥6 were occurred. The large aftershocks occurred on plural fault planes. The plane was either parallel or normal to the main shock one. We estimated three dimensional velocity structures in and around the focal area of the earthquake by using a Double Difference tomography method. The arrival time data were picked from seismograms at the deployed seismic stations settled by Kyoto and Kyushu universities in collaboration, NIED, ERI, and JMA. The velocity structure showed that a low velocity zone existed in the northwest part of the aftershock area. On the contrary, the velocity in the southeast became high. Moreover, the fault plane of the main shock inferred from the aftershock distribution was located at the velocity boundary.

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