Transient uplift after a 17th-century earthquake along the kuril subduction zone

Y. Sawai; K. Satake; T. Kamataki; H. Nasu; M. Shishikura; B.F. Atwater; B. P. Horton; H.M. Kelsey; T. Nagumo; M. Yamaguchi

doi:10.1126/science.1104895

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Transient uplift after a 17th-century earthquake along the kuril subduction zone

Y. Sawai·K. Satake·T. Kamataki·H. Nasu·M. Shishikura·B.F. Atwater·B. P. Horton·H.M. Kelsey·T. Nagumo·M. Yamaguchi

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Abstract

In eastern Hokkaido, 60 to 80 kilometers above a subducting oceanic plate, tidal mudflats changed into freshwater forests during the first decades after a 17th-century tsunami. The mudflats gradually rose by a meter, as judged from fossil diatom assemblages. Both the tsunami and the ensuing uplift exceeded any in the region's 200 years of written history, and both resulted from a shallow plate-boundary earthquake of unusually large size along the Kuril subduction zone. This earthquake probably induced more creep farther down the plate boundary than did any of the region's historical events.

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Y. Sawai, K. Satake, T. Kamataki, H. Nasu, M. Shishikura, B.F. Atwater, B. P. Horton, H.M. Kelsey, T. Nagumo, M. Yamaguchi. 2004. Transient uplift after a 17th-century earthquake along the kuril subduction zone. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1104895

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