Title: Block Motion Changes in Japan Triggered by the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake,
Abstract: Plate motions are governed by equilibrium between basal and edge forces.
Great earthquakes may induce differential static stress changes across tectonic
plates, enabling a new equilibrium state. Here we consider the torque balance
for idealized circular plates and find a simple scalar relationship for changes
in relative plate speed as a function of its size, upper mantle viscosity, and
coseismic stress changes. Applied to Japan, the 2011
$\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{W}}=9.0$ Tohoku earthquake generated coseismic stresses of
$10^2-10^5$~Pa that could have induced changes in motion of small (radius
$\sim100$~km) crustal blocks within Honshu. Analysis of time-dependent GPS
velocities, with corrections for earthquake cycle effects, reveals that plate
speeds may have changed by up to $\sim3$ mm/yr between $\sim3.75$-year epochs
bracketing this earthquake, consistent with an upper mantle viscosity of $\sim
5\times10^{18}$Pa$\cdot$s, suggesting that great earthquakes may modulate
motions of proximal crustal blocks at frequencies as high as $10^-8$~Hz.