High Fidelity Elastic Green's Functions for Subduction Zone Models Consistent With the Global Standard Geodetic Reference System

Abstract Green's functions (GFs) for elastic deformation due to unit slip on the fault plane comprise an essential tool for estimating earthquake rupture and underground preparation processes. These estimation results are often applied to generate important information for public such as seismic and tsunami hazard assessments. So, it is important to minimize the distortion of the estimation results on the numerical models used for calculating GFs to guarantee assessment reliability. For this purpose, we here calculated GFs based on a numerical model that is of high delity to obtain realistic topography and subsurface structural models of the Earth. We targeted two well-known subduction zones in Japan, the Nankai Trough and the Japan Trench. For these subduction zones, databases for realistic topography and subsurface structural models of the Earth are available in the \Japan integrated velocity structure model version 1", which was proposed for earthquake hazard assessments conducted by the Japanese government.Furthermore, in order to eliminate inconsistencies in data processing of the calculated and observed response, we used the same coordinate systems for processing GFs as those adopted widely to process space geodetic observation data for surface displacements. The ellipsoidal shape of the Earth, which is often approximated with a projected plane or a spherical shape, was also incorporated by faithfully following the denitions of the coordinate systems in Geodetic Reference System 1980, which is the global standard for space geodesy. To calculate elastic GFs based on such high delity subduction zone databases with the ellipsoidal shape of the Earth, we introduced the nite element (FE) method. In the FE meshes, the resolution of the topography and subsurface structure is the same as that of the original databases. Recent development of the state-of-the-art computation techniques for the rapid calculation of crustal deformation using large-scale FE models allows for GF calculation based on such a high delity model. However, it is generally not easy to perform such calculations. Thus, we released a library for the GFs calculated in this study to the geoscience community on a web server, aiming to contribute more reliable seismic and tsunami hazard assessment.