Scaling relations of seismic moment, rupture area, average slip, and asperity size for M∼9 subduction-zone earthquakes

Scaling relations for seismic moment M-0, rupture area S, average slip D, and asperity size S-a were obtained for large, great, and giant (M-w=6.7-9.2) subduction-zone earthquakes. We compiled the source parameters for seven giant (M-w similar to 9) earthquakes globally for which the heterogeneous slip distributions were estimated from tsunami and geodetic data. We defined S-a for subfaults exhibiting slip greater than 1.5 times D. Adding 25 slip models of 10 great earthquakes around Japan, we recalculated regression relations for 32 slip models: S=1.34x10(-10)M(0)(2/3), D=1.66x10(-7)M(0)(1/3), S-a=2.81x10(-11)M(0)(2/3), and S-a/S=0.2, where S and S-a are in square kilometers, M-0 is in newton meters, and D is in meters. These scaling relations are very similar to those obtained by Murotani et al. (2008) for large and great earthquakes. Thus, both scaling relations can be used for future tsunami hazard assessment associated with a giant earthquake.