Frequent excitations of T waves by earthquakes in the South Mariana Arc

We used broadband stations in Taiwan and on the Ryukyu Arc islands to investigate T waves induced by earthquakes in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction zone. Of the 48 earthquakes that took place in 2005, 17 earthquakes exhibited T-wave signals consistent with predicted arrival times at stations. Of theses T-excited events, 13 were located in the South Mariana Arc, where the isobaths exhibit strong concave curvature, and were predominantly of normal faulting type. The energies of observed T waves were used quantitatively to evaluate the relative efficiency of receiver-side acoustic-elastic conversions by Gamma calculations. Results show that the steep slopes of offshore bathymetry together with nearly perpendicular angles of back azimuth relative to local isobaths are suitable conditions for T waves observations. In 2010, two clusters of repeated moderate earthquakes in the north and south ends of the Mariana Arc displayed stark contrasts in terms of T-wave excitations despite their normal faulting type. Examining of this discrepancy indicate that a specific curvature together with a specific radiation pattern accounts for the frequent excitations of T waves from shallow earthquakes in the South Mariana Arc.