Seismic structure of subducted oceanic crust near the slow-earthquake source region in the southern Ryukyu arc

Seismic tomography and receiver function analysis were carried out to investigate the relation between the slab structure in the southern Ryukyu arc region and the occurrence of slow-slip events that repeat biannually. For calculation of the receiver function, 212 teleseismic earthquakes with magnitudes larger than 6.0 were selected, and teleseismic waveforms were observed using two short-period seismometers and one broadband seismometer. Assuming that each later phase in a receiver function was a wave converted from P to S at depth, the time-domain receiver function was transformed into depth domain along each ray path using a reference velocity model. P - and S -wave arrival times, selected manually by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), were used for the analysis of seismic tomography. In all, 6,750 earthquakes from January 2002 to March 2014 were used. The results showed that a cluster of slab earthquakes is distributed about 10 km below the plate interface. This suggests that the slab earthquakes occur in the lower part of the oceanic crust near the oceanic Moho within the slab. Moreover, the fault of the slow-slip events corresponds with the plate interface. The results also showed that a low Vp and high Vp/Vs area is distributed within the subducted oceanic crust underlying the fault associated with the slow-slip events. These structures are similar to those in the Tokai district, which suggests that the thermal condition of the southern Ryukyu arc is similar to the case of a hot-slab area where slow-slip events occur.