Like An

and 5 more

High accuracy earthquake locations are critical for understanding seismogenic structures and estimating the earthquake hazard. However, for offshore regions, especially when station coverage is sparse or unfavorable, locating earthquake hypocenters is challenging. Here we modified our newly developed earthquake location workflow and applied it to a far-offshore earthquake sequence occurred in 2023, south of Izu Peninsula, Japan, ~150 km away from the nearest shoreline, close to Hachijojima Island. The workflow provides a well constrained cluster geometry and depth, using P and S-phases, as well as pP depth-phases, recorded at land seismic stations. Our results reveal a sharp north-east dipping earthquake cluster, which agrees well with the focal mechanisms estimated by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience. The estimated high p-value of the Modified Omori Law for aftershock decay, along with the increase in the background seismicity rate revealed by the application of a non-stationary Epidemic-Type Aftershock Sequence model, may indicate the swarm character of the sequence and the presence of aseismic forcing, such as crustal fluids within the Philippine Sea Plate that promoted the earthquake activity. Coulomb stress change estimations indicate that the occurrence of the 2023 Hachijojima sequence is unlikely to have been statically triggered by previous earthquakes in the area, however the mainshock may have been triggered by a ~10 minutes preceding foreshock. The normal faults located at a depth of around 25 to 45 km, along which the sequence has occurred, can be explained by the tensional regime along the Izu-Bonin arc.