Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Slow earthquakes triggered by typhoons

Nature volume 459, pages 833–836 (2009)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 09 July 2009

This article has been updated

Abstract

The first reports1,2 on a slow earthquake were for an event in the Izu peninsula, Japan, on an intraplate, seismically active fault. Since then, many slow earthquakes have been detected3,4,5,6,7,8. It has been suggested9 that the slow events may trigger ordinary earthquakes (in a context supported by numerical modelling10), but their broader significance in terms of earthquake occurrence remains unclear. Triggering of earthquakes has received much attention: strain diffusion from large regional earthquakes has been shown to influence large earthquake activity11,12, and earthquakes may be triggered during the passage of teleseismic waves13, a phenomenon now recognized as being common14,15,16,17. Here we show that, in eastern Taiwan, slow earthquakes can be triggered by typhoons. We model the largest of these earthquakes as repeated episodes of slow slip on a reverse fault just under land and dipping to the west; the characteristics of all events are sufficiently similar that they can be modelled with minor variations of the model parameters. Lower pressure results in a very small unclamping of the fault that must be close to the failure condition for the typhoon to act as a trigger. This area experiences very high compressional deformation but has a paucity of large earthquakes; repeating slow events may be segmenting the stressed area and thus inhibiting large earthquakes, which require a long, continuous seismic rupture.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Topographic map of Taiwan showing collision with Philippine Sea plate.
Figure 2: Strain data for the largest slow event recorded, together with pressure record showing passage of typhoon.
Figure 3: Data for the same event as in Fig. 2 but after removal of tidal frequencies and atmospheric pressure-induced changes.
Figure 4: Amplitudes of the strain signals as a function of pressure drop in the site area as a result of typhoons.

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 15 June 2009

    Address 1 was changed on 15 June 2009.

References

  1. Sacks, I. S., Suyehiro, S., Linde, A. T. & Snoke, J. A. Slow earthquakes and stress redistribution. Nature 275, 599–602 (1978)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sacks, I. S., Suyehiro, S., Linde, A. T. & Snoke, J. A. Stress redistribution and slow earthquakes. Tectonophysics 81, 311–318 (1982)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Gladwin, M. T., Gwyther, R. L., Hart, R. H. G. & Brechenridge, K. S. Measurements of the strain field associated with episodic creep events on the San Andreas fault at San Juan Bautista, California. J. Geophys. Res. 99, 4559–4564 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Linde, A. T., Gladwin, M. T., Johnston, M. J. S., Gwyther, R. L. & Bilham, R. G. A slow earthquake sequence on the San Andreas fault. Nature 383, 65–68 (1996)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Heki, K., Miyazaki, S. & Tsuji, H. Silent fault slip following an interplate thrust earthquake at the Japan Trench. Nature 386, 595–598 (1997)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Crescentini, L., Amoruso, A. & Scarpa, R. Constraints on slow earthquake dynamics from a swarm in central Italy. Science 286, 2132–2134 (1999)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Dragert, H., Wang, K. & Rogers, G. Geodetic and seismic signatures of episodic tremor and slip in the northern Cascadia subduction zone. Earth Planets Space 56, 1143–1150 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ito, Y., Obara, K., Shiomi, K., Sekine, S. & Hirose, H. Slow earthquakes coincident with episodic tremors and slow slip events. Science 26, 503–506 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Linde, A. T. & Sacks, I. S. Slow earthquakes and great earthquakes along the Nankai trough. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 203, 265–275 (2002)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Kato, N. A possible model for large preseismic slip on a deeper extension of a seismic rupture plane. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 216, 17–25 (2003)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Rydelek, P. A. & Sacks, I. S. Asthenospheric viscosity inferred from correlated land–sea earthquakes in north-east Japan. Nature 336, 234–237 (1988)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Pollitz, F. F. & Sacks, I. S. Consequences of stress changes following the 1891 Nobi earthquake, Japan. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 85, 796–807 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hill, D. P. et al. Seismicity remotely triggered by the magnitude 7.3 Landers, California, earthquake. Science 250, 1617–1623 (1993)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Brodsky, E., Karakostas, V. & Kanamori, H. A new observation of dynamically triggered regional seismicity: earthquakes in Greece following the August, 1999 Izmut, Turkey earthquake. Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 2742–2744 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Gomberg, J., Bodin, P., Larson, K. & Dragert, H. Earthquake nucleation by transient deformations caused by the M = 7.9 Denali, Alaska, earthquake. Nature 427, 621–624 (2004)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. West, M., Sánchez, J. J. & McNutt, S. R. Periodically triggered seismicity at Mount Wrangell, Alaska, after the Sumatra earthquake. Science 308, 1144–1146 (2005)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Miyazawa, M. & Mori, J. Detection of triggered deep low-frequency events from the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32 10.1029/2005GL022539 (2005)

  18. Suppe, J. Kinematics of arc-continent collision, flipping of subduction, and back-arc spreading near Taiwan. Mem. Geol. Soc. China 6, 21–23 (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Tsai, Y. B. Seismotectonics of Taiwan. Tectonophysics 125, 17–38 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Ho, C. S. An Introduction to the Geology of Taiwan: Explanatory Text of the Geologic Map of Taiwan 2nd edn (Central Geological Survey, Taiwan, 1986)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Chi, W. R., Namson, J. & Suppe, J. Stratigraphic record of plate interactions in the Coastal Range of Eastern Taiwan. Mem. Geol. Soc. China 4, 155–194 (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Liu, C. C. & Yu, S. B. Vertical crustal movement in eastern Taiwan and its tectonic implications. Tectonophysics 183, 111–119 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Hseih, M. L., Liu, P. M. & Hsu, M. Y. Holocene tectonic uplift on the Hua-Tung coast, Eastern Taiwan. Quaternary Int. 115–116, 47–70 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Yu, S. B. & Liu, C. C. Fault creep on the central segment of the Longitudinal Valley fault, Eastern Taiwan. Proc. Geol. Soc. China 32, 209–231 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Lee, J. C., Angelier, J., Chu, H. T., Hu, J. C. & Jeng, F. S. Continuous monitoring of an active fault in a plate suture zone: a creepmeter study of the Chihshang Fault, eastern Taiwan. Tectonophysics 333, 219–240 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Sacks, I. S., Suyehiro, S. & Evertson, D. W. Sacks-Evertson strainmeter, its installation in Japan and some preliminary results concerning strain steps. Proc. Jpn Acad. 47, 707–712 (1971)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kim, K. H. et al. Three-dimensional V P and V S structural models associated with the active subduction and collision tectonics in the Taiwan region. Geophys. J. Int. 162, 204–220 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Okada, Y. Internal deformation due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 82, 1018–1040 (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Gao, S., Silver, P. G., Linde, A. T. & Sacks, I. S. Annual modulation of triggered seismicity following the 1992 Landers earthquake in California. Nature 406, 500–504 (2000)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Shelly, D. R., Beroza, G. C., Ide, S. & Nakamula, S. Low-frequency earthquakes in Shikoku, Japan, and their relationship to episodic tremor and slip. Nature 442, 188–191 (2006)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank T. Lee for critically important work in initiating this project. M. Lee’s expertise was valuable in site selection. J.-C. Rau and T.-S. Lee gave access to their property for borehole sites. H. M. Lee managed the archiving of data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Earth Sciences, Academica Sinica, 128 Sinica Road, Sec. 2, Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan,

    ChiChing Liu

  2. Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington DC 20015, USA,

    Alan T. Linde & I. Selwyn Sacks

Authors
  1. ChiChing Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alan T. Linde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. I. Selwyn Sacks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to ChiChing Liu.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Figures S1-S12 with Notes Legends and 2 Supplementary Tables. (PDF 3078 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Liu, C., Linde, A. & Sacks, I. Slow earthquakes triggered by typhoons. Nature 459, 833–836 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08042

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08042

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing