Implications of Surface Heat Flux for Shear Stress and Temperature on the Plate Interface Beneath Northern Honshu

Abstract

Abstract Measurements of surface heat flux from boreholes of the NIED Hi‐net network of seismometers are used to determine temperature and shear stress on the plate interface beneath northern Honshu. At the maximum depth of thrust‐faulting earthquakes, about 60 km, the temperature is 660 ± 240°C and the average shear stress during slip on the interface is 100 ± 45 MPa. The equivalent quantities from the oceanic setting of the Kermadec trench are 630 ± 140°C and 115 ± 25 MPa. The shear stresses are substantially higher than commonly assumed in models of convergent plate interfaces, but are consistent with measurements made above other convergent plate interfaces where heat flux data are more sparse. They are also consistent with the level of shear stress required to explain measurements of pressure and temperature from high‐pressure‐low‐temperature terrains that experienced metamorphism on subduction interfaces, in particular those from the Cretaceous Sanbagawa belt of SW Japan.

Keywords

• plate boundary
• shear stress
• temperature
• earthquake
• metamorphism