Episodic subsidence and active deformation of the forearc slope along the Japan Trench near the epicenter of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

Abstract

To investigate the present-day geological deformation occurring off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, Japan, we obtained high-resolution multichannel seismic reflection and bathymetric data in 2007. The study area is located along the Japan Trench near the epicenter of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. The seismic profiles do not show active structures indicative of compressional stress on the forearc slope. Instead, recent tectonic deformation is characterized by extensional subsidence and the occurrence of normal faults within a series of small basins on the slope to a water depth of ∼3000 m. These isolated basins are thickest (∼525 m, ∼0.7 s two-way travel time) in regions underlying areas of flat bathymetry. The isolated basins range in width from several to 40 km and are covered by stratified sediments onlapping at the termination of concave-down reflectors. The seismic units below the basins show continuous, subparallel internal reflectors, suggesting that the subsidence-related deformation started abruptly and recently. The thickness of sediments overlying the unconformity at the top of the Cretaceous is roughly constant in the upper slope area. However, lenticular internal reflection patterns occur locally. The lenticular sedimentary units are similar to the isolated basins in terms of their widths and internal reflection patterns. We infer that episodes of extensional deformation of the overriding plate, in the form of isolated basins, have occurred over geological time. We suggest that the geological structures of the forearc slope along the Japan Trench are typical of those resulting from subduction erosion and propose that the episodic subsidence accompanied by normal faulting is the most recent deformation.