Source Scaling of Inland Crustal Earthquake Sequences in Japan Using the S-Wave Coda Spectral Ratio Method

Abstract

We estimate corner frequencies and stress drops for 298 events ranging from M w 3.2–7.0 in 17 inland crustal earthquake sequences in Japan to investigate the source scaling and variation in stress drops. We obtain the source spectral ratio from observed records by the S-wave coda spectral ratio method. The advantage of using the S-wave coda is in obtaining much more stable source spectral ratios than using direct S-waves. We carefully examine the common shape of the decay of coda envelopes between event pair records. The corner frequency and stress drop are estimated by modeling the observed source spectral ratio with the omega-square source spectral model. We investigate the dependences of stress drops on some tectonic effects such as regionality, focal mechanism, and source depth. The principal findings are as follows: (1) a break in self-similar source scaling is found in our dataset. Events larger than M w 4.5 show larger stress drops than those of smaller events. (2) Stress drops of aftershocks are mostly smaller than those of mainshocks in each sequence. (3) There are no systematic differences between stress drops of events occurring inside and outside the Niigata-Kobe Tectonic Zone in Japan. (4) Clear dependence of the faulting type on stress drops cannot be seen. (5) Stress drops of aftershocks depend on their source depth. (6) The crack size obtained from the corner frequency corresponds to the total rupture area of heterogeneous slip models for large events.