The Boso slow slip events in 2007 and 2011 as a driving process for the accompanying earthquake swarm

Abstract

Near the Boso Peninsula, central Japan, slow slip events (SSEs) accompanied by earthquake swarms repeatedly occur every 4 to 7 years. We apply a Network Inversion Filter to tilt change and Global Navigation Satellite Systems displacement data simultaneously in order to obtain the spatiotemporal slip evolution of the Boso Peninsula SSEs in 2007 and 2011. Slip initiates on the eastern offshore area in both of the events and propagates to the northwestward in 2007, whereas the 2011 slip propagates to the west. These slip propagations correlate well both spatially and temporally with the migration of the accompanying seismicity. This indicates that the Boso slow slip is a major driving process for earthquake swarm activities, and that monitoring of interplate slip has the potential to be used in assessing the possibility of an earthquake in near real time.