Seismic and Geodetic Monitoring Along the Manila Trench and the Philippine Fault II

The Manila subduction zone connects both Taiwan and the Philippines, itsearthquake potential and the possible resulted tsunamis closely relate to thehuman life of both countries. The Philippine Fault, on the other hand, is one of themajor strike-slip faults in the world, its creeping-locked fault behavior hasimportant implications on fault properties and the resulted earthquake potential tothe other strike-slip faults in the world and the Longitudinal Valley Fault in easternTaiwan. We plan to use the broadband seismometers and geodetic techniques tomonitor the earthquake activities and assess the earthquake potential along theManila subduction zone and the Philippine Fault. This project includes five subproposals. 1. Seismic monitoring and hazard assessment for Luzon and Taiwan.Deployment of the broadband stations in Luzon will improve the ability ofearthquake monitoring between Taiwan and Philippines. 2. Deployments ofbroadband linear array in central Luzon and ZLand array in Mindoro. Beside the10 seismic stations coincident with the Philippine fault, about 50 ZLand threecomponent sensors in Mindoro for about a month will also help mitigateearthquake hazards from the fault. 3. Crustal deformation in Luzon and tsunamihazard assessment in Luzon and Taiwan. We will use the collected GPS data toinvestigate fault slip behaviors at Manila subduction zone, fault coupling on thePhilippine fault, and regional tectonics associated with the termination of thesouthern Manila subduction zone. 4. Creeping segment of the Philippine fault andits seismic hazard assessment. 5. GPS observations and earthquake potential ofcentral Philippine Fault. The central Philippine Fault from north to south containsthe Guinayangan Fault, the Masbate Fault, and the Leyte Fault. The Leyte Faultis creeping aseismically at a rate of at least 26 mm/yr to the south, while theGuinyangan Fault is locked interseismically to the north. The Masbate Faultbetween the Leyte and the Guinyangan faults is a transition zone from creep to lock. Understanding the kinematics of creeping and locked faults can help us torealize the friction property of the faults and to estimate the earthquake potentialof the central part of the Philippine Fault.