Tsunami Simulation by Tuned Seismic Source Inversion for the Great 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

Seismic and tsunami waves were the most destructive phenomena during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Here we ask whether the same source model can be used to obtain equally good simulations of the observed strong ground motions and the tsunami waves. If so, we could use the same source modeling technique for predictions of both tsunami waves and strong ground motions. Long-period (20-200 s) strong ground motion data were inverted to determine the rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. The inverted slip distribution shows that large-slip area was extended around 150 km to north and 120 km to south from hypocenter and stretched between hypocenter and the trench. We estimated two slip models: without and with additional constraints. The first relatively rough slip model reproduced short-period tsunami wave (4-5 min). Due to better constraint by data of other kind and being relatively smooth the second model reproduces long-period tsunami wave (15-25 min), as well as keeps good fit of the short-period tsunami, although short-period tsunami becomes underestimated. We used a fully nonlinear Boussinesq water wave model to model tsunami propagation, and used the results to tune the slip model. Finally, we developed a tuned slip model that combines the features of both the first and the second slip models and reproduced both the short- and long-period tsunami waves, while maintaining good fit of the seismic waveforms.