Co-seismic Coulomb stress changes on the northern Tanlu fault zone caused by the Tohoku-Oki MW9.0 earthquake*

Abstract

Based on the spherical earth dislocation theory and a fault slip model of the Tohoku-Oki MW9.0 earthquake, the co-seismic Coulomb failure stress changes (ΔCFS) on the northern Tanlu fault zone at depths of 0–40 km are calculated. By comparing two sets of results from the spherical earth dislocation theory and the semi-infinite space one, the effect of earth curvature on the calculation results is analyzed quantitatively. First, we systematically summarize previous researches related to the northern Tanlu fault zone, divide the fault zone as detailed as possible, give the geometric parameters of each segment, and establish a segmented structural model of the northern Tanlu fault zone. Second, we calculate the Coulomb stress changes on the northern Tanlu fault zone by using the spherical earth dislocation theory. The result shows the Coulomb stress changes are no more than 0.003 MPa, which proves the great earthquake did not significantly change the stress state of the fault zone. Finally, we quantitatively analyze the disparities between the results of semi-infinite space dislocation theory and the spherical earth one. The average disparity between them is about 7.7% on the northern Tanlu fault zone and is 16.8% on the Fangzheng graben, the maximum disparity on this graben reaches up to 25.5%. It indicates that the effect of earth curvature can not be ignored. So it’s necessary to use the spherical earth dislocation theory instead of the semi-infinite space one to study the Coulomb stress change in the far field.