The M 7 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, Earthquake: 3‐D Deformation Along the Fault and Within the Damage Zone Constrained From Differential Lidar Topography

Three‐dimensional near‐fault coseismic deformation fields from high‐resolution differential topography provide new information on the behavior of the shallow fault zone in large surface‐rupturing earthquakes. Our work focuses on the 16 April 2016 M w 7.0 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake, which ruptured ~40 km of the Futagawa‐Hinagu Fault Zone on Kyushu Island with an oblique strike‐slip mechanism and surface offset exceeding 2 m. Our differential lidar analysis constrains the structural style of strain accommodation along the primary fault trace and the surrounding damage zone. We show that 36 ± 29% and 62 ± 32% of the horizontal and vertical deformation, respectively, was accommodated off the principal fault trace. The horizontal strains of up to 0.03 suggest that the approximate elastic strain limit was exceeded over a ~250 m width in many locations along the rupture. The inelastic deformation of the fault volume produced the observed distributed deformation at the Earth's surface. We demonstrate a novel approach for calculating 3‐D displacement uncertainties, indicating errors of centimeters to a few decimeters for displacements computed over 50 m horizontal windows. Errors correlate with land cover and relief, with flatter agricultural land associated with the highest displacement uncertainty. These advances provide a framework for future analyses of shallow earthquake behavior using differential topography. Three‐dimensional coseismic displacements constrained from differential lidar topography reveal complexity in the on‐ and off‐fault deformation The 36 ± 29% and 62 ± 32% of the horizontal and vertical deformation, respectively, was accommodated off the principal fault The off‐fault deformation suggests that the elastic strain limit is exceeded over an ~250 m width in many places along the rupture