Tsunami-generated turbidity current of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake

Effect of the tsunami from the Tōhoku earthquake on a Japanese coast. (c) German Aerospace Center, Rapid Eye

A Japanese scientific team studied relationships between tsunami and turbidity current due to the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. The article has been recently published on the journal Geology. Here below the abstract.

We show the first real-time record of a turbidity current associated with a great earthquake, the Mw 9.0, 2011 Tohoku-Oki event offshore Japan. Turbidity current deposits (turbidites) have been used to estimate earthquake recurrence intervals from geologic records. Until now, however, there has been no direct evidence for large-scale earthquakes in subduction plate margins. After the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami, an anomalous event on the seafloor consistent with a turbidity current was recorded by ocean-bottom pressure recorders and seismometers deployed off Sendai, Japan. Freshly emplaced turbidites were collected from a wide area of seafloor off the Tohoku coastal region. We analyzed these measurements and sedimentary records to determine conditions of the modern tsunamigenic turbidity current. We anticipate our discovery to be a starting point for more detailed characterization of modern tsunamigenic turbidites, and for the identification of tsunamigenic turbidites in geologic records. 

Follow this link for more information about this article: Geology, November 2013, v. 41, p. 1195-1198

Authors and affiliations:

Department of Earth Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoicho, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8522, Japan

Kazuno Arai

Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

Hajime Naruse

Nippon Marine Enterprises, Ltd., 14-1 Ogawa-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 238-0004, Japan

Ryo Miura

Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University, 1677-1 Yoshida, Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi 753-8512, Japan

Kiichiro Kawamura

Research Center for Prediction of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-6 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan

Ryota Hino, Yoshihiro Ito

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, 3-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0006, Japan

Daisuke Inazu

Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Osaka Institute of Technology, 1-79-1 Kitayama, Hirakata, Osaka 576-0196, Japan

Miwa Yokokawa

Department of Civil Engineering, Hokkaido University, Nishi 8, Kita 13, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8628, Japan

Norihiro Izumi

Center for Advanced Marine Core Research, Kochi University, B200 Monobe, Nankoku, Kochi 783-8502, Japan

Masafumi Murayama

Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 237-0061, Japan

Takafumi Kasaya