Large fault slip peaking at trench in the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake

During the 2011 magnitude 9 Tohoku-oki earthquake, very large slip occurred on the shallowest part of the subduction megathrust. Quantitative information on the shallow slip is of critical importance to distinguishing between different rupture mechanics and understanding the generation of the ensuing devastating tsunami. However, the magnitude and distribution of the shallow slip are essentially unknown due primarily to the lack of near-trench constraints, as demonstrated by a compilation of 45 rupture models derived from a large range of data sets. To quantify the shallow slip, here we model high-resolution bathymetry differences before and after the earthquake across the trench axis. The slip is determined to be about 62 m over the most near-trench 40 km of the fault with a gentle increase towards the trench. This slip distribution indicates that dramatic net weakening or strengthening of the shallow fault did not occur during the Tohoku-oki earthquake.