Robust and exploratory analysis of active mesoscale tectonic zones in Japan utilizing the nationwide GPS array

A monitoring GPS array recently developed in Japan can yield nationwide maps of active inland tectonic zones (ATZs) on a mesoscale, approximately 70 to several hundred kilometers in lateral extent. But it has been difficult to characterize ATZs in Japan, as they are in fact operational on multiple scales and our efforts are often hindered by various irregularities in the data. The key to overcoming these problems would be to gain an insight into the available data before any precise kinematic modeling is performed with indefinite assumptions. In this study, horizontal velocity fields, deduced from the nationwide GPS array, were treated with a set of techniques in robust smoothing and exploratory data analysis that brought out exceptionally powerful mesoscale ATZs, and made them easier to characterize. The resolved ATZs were then retrospectively monitored to study their regional and temporal variations, using a set of approx. 840 observation stations, about 30 km apart, for a 4-year series of fixed observation time-intervals, 810 days each. The smoothing operation involved three steps: (1) imputation of the velocity fields for the purpose of anti-aliasing, (2) robust smoothing of the velocity fields with the median operative, and (3) visualization of deformation-rate distributions in several coordinate independent parameters, and post-filtering. The geometrical resolvability of mesoscale ATZs was confirmed by calibrating the smoothing scheme against synthetic tectonic boundary models before it was applied to the case study in Japan. ATZs in Japan, which are essentially visible as systematic deviations in the velocity fields on the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) and as strain rate anomalies, were highlighted sharply along some known tectonic zones, chains of active volcanoes, and areas above low seismic velocity anomalies in the crust and upper mantle, all of which generally paralleled the offshore trench axes. The geometrical agreements among the mapped ATZs and the physical anomalies in the crust are presumably due to their common structural weakness on the mesoscale. In the four main islands of Japan, all but 30-40% of the strain rate anomalies persisted during the entire 6 years of the case study period, while the rest sporadically appeared or disappeared in a period from several months to a few years. The transient shifts in the deformation rates were remarkably synchronous with some nearby major tectonic episodes: large earthquakes and slow events. Differential plate coupling strengths along the subduction zones can also be inferred from the persistent pattern of rotational strain rate anomalies forming clockwise and counterclockwise pairs along the Pacific. Our empirical observations suggest that the first-order features of interseismic crustal deformations in Japan can be characterized as collateral processes behaving in response to fluctuations of the tectonic stresses on multiple scales, likely influenced by changes of plate coupling strengths on the contiguous subduction faults.