Source process and near-source ground motions of the 2005 West Off Fukuoka Prefecture earthquake

A large shallow crustal earthquake occurred at the western off-shore of Fukuoka Prefecture, northern Kyushu, Japan, at 10:53 on March 20, 2005 (JST). Source rupture processes of the mainshock and the largest aftershock on April 20, 2005, are estimated by the kinematic waveform inversion of strong motion seismograms. The rupture of the mainshock started with relatively small slip, and the largest slip was observed at the Southeast of the hypocenter. The inverted source models showed that both of the ruptures of the mainshock and the largest aftershock mainly propagated to southeast from the hypocenters, and the rupture area of those events did not overlap each other. Three-dimensional ground motion simulation by the finite difference method considering three-dimensional bedrock structure was also conducted to see the spatial variation of the near-source ground motion of the mainshock. The result of the simulation shows that expected groud motions are relatively large in and arround Genkai Island, Shikanoshima Island, and the center of Fukuoka City compared to the other area because of the rupture heterogeneity and the deep basin structure in Fukuoka City.