4.7 Article

Hydrous state of the subducting Philippine Sea plate inferred from receiver function image using onshore and offshore data

Journal

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SOLID EARTH
Volume 120, Issue 12, Pages 8461-8477

Publisher

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2015JB012336

Keywords

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Funding

  1. JSPS KAKENHI [26-10221]
  2. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan
  3. Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [14J10221] Funding Source: KAKEN

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Exploring the hydrous state of subducting oceanic crust is intriguing because it is considered to affect the strength of megathrust faults that cause various types of earthquakes; however, its state beneath offshore regions remains unclear. In this study, we investigated fluid contents along the subducting Philippine Sea plate around the Kii Peninsula by receiver function (RF) analysis using data from both on-land stations and ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs). The vertical component of OBS records contains dominant water reverberations, and thus, conventional methods fail to estimate RFs correctly. We therefore developed a method to calculate RFs that removes such reverberations. The RFs calculated by our method showed considerable improvement for later phase identification, compared with those obtained using a conventional method. Resultant RF amplitudes suggest the existence of low-velocity zones directly beneath the plate interface of both onshore and offshore regions. We interpreted this as evidence of hydrous oceanic crust, which extends from 5 km to 35 km depth to the plate interface. Reduction of RF amplitudes beneath the Kii Peninsula suggests that dehydration of the oceanic crust increases the seismic velocity, and the accompanying densification makes the plate interface permeable. This permeable plate interface may characterize the location of non-volcanic tremors. This contrasts with long-term slow slip events because it is believed that they occur along the sealed plate interface. Comparison between the plate geometry and local earthquakes reveals the paucity of earthquakes in the oceanic crust below a certain depth, which provides further insight into the dehydration process in the oceanic crust.

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