Traveling ionospheric disturbances generated by an epicentral ground/sea surface motion, ionospheric disturbances associated with Rayleigh‐waves as well as post‐seismic 4‐minute monoperiodic atmospheric resonances and other‐period atmospheric oscillations have been observed in large earthquakes. In addition, a giant tsunami after the subduction earthquake produces an ionospheric hole which is widely a sudden depletion of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) in the hundred kilometer scale and lasts for a few tens of minutes over the tsunami source area. The tsunamigenic ionospheric hole detected by the TEC measurement with Global Position System (GPS) was found in the 2011 M9.0 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, the 2010 M8.8 Chile, and the 2004 M9.1 Sumatra earthquakes. This occurs because plasma is descending at the lower thermosphere where the recombination of ions and electrons is high through the meter‐scale downwelling of sea surface at the tsunami source area, and is highly depleted due to the chemical processes.

Integral expressions of electromagnetic (EM) field components due to a large circular loop source carrying an alternating (ac) current and placed on or above the surface of a layered earth model are transformed to such suitable forms that facilitate numerical computation of field response in quasi-static as well as non-quasi-static regions. The improper integrals occurring in expressions of EM field components are evaluated by converting these integrals into the convergent integrals using the process of subtraction or addition of an integral expression inside the integral sign and subsequently adjusting it or its equivalent analytic expression outside the integral sign. The adjusted integral expressions, in turn, are evaluated using the functional relationships described in this paper. The computation method based on this formulation takes into consideration the effects of both conduction as well as displacement currents, and is well suitable for any position of the source loop either in the air or on the surface of the model, in contrary to the earlier methods which face convergence problem. Moreover, the formulation is equally efficient for computing the EM response at any arbitrary receiver position either inside or outside the source loop. For illustrating the accuracy and applicability of the method and studying the nature of EM response of a loop source over a layered earth model, we have applied it for the computation of amplitude and phase of H z field over the various 2-layer and 3-layer models. Results show their characteristic variations, and depict good resolution for the subsurface layering. The results are in agreement with those of the published results for the quasi-static region, and are new extension of quasi-static variation in the non-quasi-static region. The agreement of computed results with published results demonstrates the accuracy of the method. Moreover, this is the initial presentation of numerical results for an arbitrary in-loop point (other than the center point) inside a large circular loop source.

We obtained an electrical transect image of the Niigata‐Kobe Tectonic Zone (NKTZ). Several major active faults are located in this zone of concentrated deformation. The main features of the final two‐dimensional model are a thick resistive block in the upper crust, with a thinned‐out portion beneath the Atotsugawa Fault, and a strong conductor in the lower crust that intrudes upward into the upper resistor. The upper crustal resistive zone corresponds well to the spatiality of the NKTZ, and relatively conductive zones sandwiching this resistor may contribute to observed changes in displacement rates. The overlapping locations of the conductor and the low‐velocity body in the lower crust indicate that the conductor represents a zone that was weakened by fluids. Given that microearthquakes are localized in the regions between the resistive and conductive zones, we suggest that the distribution of earthquakes is influenced by intrusions of fluid derived from the conductor.

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[1] Coseismic ionospheric disturbances (CIDs) associated with the 2011 Tohoku earthquake off the Pacific coast (M w 9.0, Tohoku EQ) were examined using total electron content and seismic wave data. A faster CID propagated at~3.0 km/s only in the west-southwest, while a slower CID propagated concentrically at 1.2 km/s or slower from the tsunami source area. Taking the propagation speed and oscillation cycle into account, the faster CID was associated with a Rayleigh wave, but the slower CID was associated with an acoustic or gravity wave. The north-south asymmetry of the CID associated with the Rayleigh wave suggests that the Rayleigh wave did not act as a point source of the acoustic wave because a point source propagating in all directions must produce symmetric CID in all directions. Therefore, a superimposed wave front of acoustic waves was excited by the Rayleigh wave and produced the north-south asymmetry of the faster CID due to the magnetic inclination effect, which is different from a well-known north-south asymmetry of CID excited at the epicenter. On the other hand, above and south of the tsunami source area, the CID with a period of 4 min was excited by a point source located at the tsunami source area because atmospheric waves propagating from a point source produce north-south asymmetry in the resulting CID.