Coseismic slip distribution of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake deduced from dense global navigation satellite system network and interferometric synthetic aperture radar data: effect of assumed dip angle

Abstract

Abstract The Mw 7.5 Noto Peninsula earthquake, which occurred on January 1, 2024, was considerably hazardous to the peninsula and surrounding regions owing to a strong motion, large-scale crustal deformation, and subsequent tsunami. Significant surface displacement was observed by the dense global navigation satellite system (GNSS) stations, including universities and SoftBank corporation sites, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). To estimate reliable coseismic slip distribution and its uncertainties for this event, we used the dense GNSS and the line-of-sight displacements from the SAR based on the Bayesian optimization framework. Considering the listric fault structure of this source fault, we validated the fault dip angles using the grid-search approach in the slip estimation. The acquired models indicated reverse fault motion, including a right-lateral slip component, and two slip peaks were estimated in the eastern and western regions of the fault in the central peninsula, independent of the assumed dip angles. These locations correspond to regions of significant uplift and westward displacement. The dip angle assumption affects the horizontal and vertical component of the calculated displacements: a higher dip angle model (≥ 45°) well reproduces vertical components of GNSS and synthetic aperture radar displacements, whereas a lower dip angle model (< 45°) well reproduces horizontal displacements. Overall, a fault dip of 45° is plausible, although it is not consistent with the listric structure suggested by the seismic reflection survey and the aftershock distribution below the central part of the peninsula. To test such a listric fault model, we conducted a coseismic slip estimation assuming a relatively high (60°) and low (25°) dip angles for the shallow and deep sections of the fault, respectively. Even in this case, we acquired a slip model similar to that of a plain fault, which reasonably reproduced each component of the surface displacements as well as the simple plane fault models. These results suggest that listric geometry is also acceptable for the source faults of this event, although the flat geometry similarly explains the observations. Graphical Abstract

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