Abstract. Serpentinized peridotite is detected seismologically by mapping Poisson's ratio beneath the Kanto district, central Japan, because serpentinite has a higher Poisson's ratio than other rocks in the crust and upper mantle. We determine three-dimensional P and S wave velocity models using travel time tomography and then construct a threedimensional map of Poisson's ratio. The models show low velocity anomalies near the upper boundary of the slab in a depth range from 20 to 70 km. In the low velocity region, there is an area with Poisson's ratio greater than 0.3 at depths of 20-45 km, which we attribute to serpentinized peridotite. The rest of the low velocity region is interpreted as descending oceanic crust with a Poisson's ratio of about 0.25. The high Poisson's ratio area is associated with low seismicity and weak interplate coupling, which is consistent with the ductility of serpentinite.

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Japanese Islands are composed of four plates, with two oceanic plates subducting beneath the two continental plates. In 2016 the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) Seafloor Observation Network for Earthquakes and Tsunamis along the Japan Trench (S-net) started seismic observation of the offshore Hokkaido to Boso region in the Pacific Ocean, and Dense Oceanfloor Network System for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (DONET) was transferred to NIED. We add the NIED S-net and DONET datasets to NIED highsensitivity seismograph network (Hi-net) and full range seismograph network (F-net) datasets used in the previous study and obtain the three-dimensional seismic velocity structure beneath the Pacific Ocean as well as Japanese Islands. NIED S-net data dramatically improve the resolution beneath the Pacific Ocean at depths of 10-20 km because the seismic stations are located above the earthquakes and on the east side of the Japan Trench. We find a NS high-Vp zone at depths of 20-30 km. The 2018 Eastern Iburi earthquake occurred below the northern part of this high-V zone. The coseismic slip plane of the 2011 Tohokuoki earthquake has low Vp/Vs, but its large slip region has high Vp. The broad low-Vp/Vs region may play a role in large earthquake occurrence.

Megathrust earthquakes anticipated in the Nankai trough will likely cause severe damage in central and western Japan. The Dense Oceanfloor Network System for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (DONET), a network of permanent ocean-bottom seismic stations for the early detection of earthquakes and tsunamis developed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), is in place above the expected source region of such earthquakes. Data from DONET sensors are transmitted in real time to our laboratory at JAMSTEC. Intensive ongoing seismic activity is being detected off the Kii Peninsula by DONET, mainly distributed in three clusters that overlap with the aftershock distribution of the 2004 off the Kii Peninsula earthquakes (M JMA = 7.1 and 7.4), and most of them are also aftershocks of the 2004 earthquakes. Some are linearly distributed on a different trend from the strike of the 2004 foreshock and mainshock fault planes. This result implies that the 2004 events triggered seismic activity on different faults on the subducting Philippine Sea plate. We also observed changes in seismic activity caused by the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. These results could not have been obtained with on-land observations alone, which indicates the importance of DONET for monitoring seismic activity along the Nankai trough.