CATANDUANES STATE UNIVERSITY

VIRAC, CATANDUANES

SY: 2017-2018

TECHNICAL ELECTIVE 1
(JAPAN’S TOP 10
BIGGEST EARTHQUAKE)

MARK ANTHONY F. GO
BSCE 4-A

ENGR. DEXTER TOYADO

PROFESSOR
JAPAN’S TOP 10
BIGGEST
EARTHQUAKE
10 - Great Kanto earthquake, 1923

The Great Kantō earthquake (関東大震災 Kantō daishinsai) struck the Kantō Plain on
the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday,
September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between
four and ten minutes.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw), with
its focus deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay. The cause was a rupture of part
of the convergent boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is subducting beneath
the Okhotsk Plate along the line of the Sagami Trough. This earthquake devastated Tokyo,
the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and
Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. Its force was so
great in Kamakura, over 60 km (37 mi) from the epicenter, it moved the Great Buddha statue,
which weighs about 93 short tons (84 t), almost two feet.

Estimated casualties totaled about 142,800 deaths, including about 40,000 who went
missing and were presumed dead. According to the Japanese construction company Kajima
Kobori Research's conclusive report of September 2004, 105,385 deaths were confirmed in
the 1923 quake. The damage from this natural disaster was the greatest sustained by
prewar Japan. In 1960, the government declared September 1, the anniversary of the
quake, as an annual "Disaster Prevention Day".

Because the earthquake struck at lunchtime when many people were cooking meals over
fire, many people died as a result of the many large fires that broke out. Some fires
developed into firestorms that swept across cities. Many people died when their feet became
stuck on melting tarmac.

The single greatest loss of life was caused by a fire tornado that engulfed the Rikugun
Honjo Hifukusho (formerly the Army Clothing Depot) in downtown Tokyo, where about
38,000 people were incinerated after taking shelter there following the earthquake. The
earthquake broke water mains all over the city, and putting out the fires took nearly two full
days until late in the morning of September 3.

A strong typhoon centered off the coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa
Prefecture brought high winds to Tokyo Bay at about the same time as the earthquake.
These winds caused fires to spread rapidly.

The Emperor and Empress were staying at Nikko when the earthquake struck Tokyo, and
were never in any danger. Many homes were buried or swept away by landslides in the
mountainous and hilly coastal areas in western Kanagawa Prefecture; about 800 people
died. A collapsing mountainside in the village of Nebukawa, west of Odawara, pushed the
entire village and a passenger train carrying over 100 passengers, along with the railway
station, into the sea.

A tsunami with waves up to 10 m (33 ft) high struck the coast of Sagami Bay, Bōsō
Peninsula, Izu Islands, and the east coast of Izu Peninsula within minutes. The tsunami
caused many deaths, including about 100 people along Yui-ga-hama Beach
in Kamakura and an estimated 50 people on the Enoshima causeway. Over 570,000 homes
were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million homeless. Evacuees were transported by
ship from Kanto to as far as Kobe in Kansai. The damage is estimated to have exceeded
US$1 billion (or about $14 billion today). There were 57 aftershocks recorded.
9 - Genroku earthquake, 1703

Japan has had two earthquakes with staggering death tolls of more than 100,000 people.
The Genroku earthquake of 1703 was only a magnitude 8.0, but along with its tsunami it
killed more than 108,000 people. Genroku refers to the Japanese era spanning 1688 to
1704.

The quake actually struck in Sagami Bay, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of
Tokyo. It ruptured in the middle of a tectonic plate, unlike Japan's most recent quake, which
struck where two plates ram together.

The 1703 Genroku earthquake (元禄大地震 Genroku Daijishin) occurred at 02:00 local
time on December 31 (17:00 December 30 UTC). The epicenter was near Edo, the
forerunner of present-day Tokyo, in the southern part of the Kantō region, Japan.

An estimated 2,300 people were killed by the shaking and subsequent fires. The
earthquake triggered a major tsunami which caused many casualties, giving a total death
toll of at least 5,233, possibly up to 10,000. Genroku is a Japanese era spanning from 1688
through 1704.

The Kantō Region lies at the complex triple junction, where the convergent
boundaries between the subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea Plates and the
overriding North American Plate meet. Earthquakes with epicenters in the Kanto region may
occur within the Eurasian Plate, at the Eurasian Plate/Philippine Sea Plate interface, within
the Philippine Sea Plate, at the Philippine Sea Plate/Pacific Plate interface or within the
Pacific Plate.

In addition to this set of major plates it has been suggested that there is also a separate
25 km thick, 100 km wide body, a fragment of Pacific Plate lithosphere. The 1703
earthquake is thought to have involved rupture of the interface between the Eurasian Plate
and the Philippine Sea Plate.

The earthquake was associated with areas of both uplift and subsidence. On both the
Boso Peninsula and Miura Peninsula a clear paleo shoreline has been identified, indicating
up to 5 m of uplift near Mera (about 8 km south of Tateyama) and up to 1.2 m of uplift on
Miura, increasing to the south. This distribution of uplift, coupled with modelling of the
tsunami, indicate that at least two and probably three fault segments ruptured during the
earthquake.

The area of greatest damage due to the earthquake shaking was in Kanagawa Prefecture,
although Shizuoka Prefecture was also affected. The earthquake caused many large fires,
particularly at Odawara, increasing both the degree of damage and the number of deaths.
A total of 8,007 houses were destroyed by the shaking and a further 563 houses by the
fires, causing 2,291 deaths.

About 400 km of coastline was severely affected by the tsunami, with deaths being caused
from Shimoda on the east coast of the Izu Peninsula in the west to Isumi on the east side
of the Bōsō Peninsula to the east. There was also a single death on the island of Hachijō-
jima about 180 km south of the earthquake's epicentre, where the tsunami was 3 m
high. The total number of casualties from earthquake, fires and tsunami has been reported
as 5,233. Other estimates are higher, with 10,000 in total, and one source that gives
200,000.
8 - Nankaido earthquake, 1946

The 1498 Nankai earthquake (明応地震 Meiō Jishin) occurred off the coast of Nankaidō,
Japan, at about 08:00 local time on 20 September 1498.[1] It had a magnitude estimated at
8.6 Ms and triggered a large tsunami.

The death toll associated with this event is uncertain, but between 5,000 and 41,000
casualties were reported. A tsunami caused by the Meiō Nankaidō earthquake washed
away the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura.

The southern coast of Honshū runs parallel to the Nankai Trough, which marks
the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate. Movement on
this convergent plate boundary leads to many earthquakes, some of them of megathrust
type.

The Nankai megathrust has five distinct segments (A-E) that can rupture
independently, the segments have ruptured either singly or together repeatedly over the last
1,300 years. Megathrust earthquakes on this structure tend to occur in pairs, with a
relatively short time gap between them. In addition to the two events in 1854, there were
similar earthquakes in 1944 and 1946.
 In each case, the northeastern segment ruptured before the southwestern segment. In the
1498 event, the earthquake is thought to have ruptured segments C, D and E and possibly
A and B. If both parts of the megathrust ruptured, the events were either simultaneous, or
close enough in time, to not be distinguished by historical sources.

Severe shaking caused by this earthquake was recorded from Bōsō Peninsula in the
northeast to Kii Peninsula in the southwest. A tsunami was recorded in Suruga Bay and
at Kamakura, where it destroyed the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha
at Kōtoku-in.

There is also evidence of severe shaking from records of ground liquefaction in

the Nankai area. Tsunami deposits attributed to this earthquake have been described from
the coastal plains around the Sagami Trough and the Izu Peninsula.
Uplift of the seafloor of up to 4 m has been estimated for this earthquake, with a much
smaller subsidence near the coast. Lake Hamana became a brackish lake because the
tsunami broke through low-lying land between the lake and the Pacific Ocean (Enshū
Nada).

The tsunami also washed away the building that was housing the Great Buddha statue
at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, although the statue itself survived and has remained outdoors
ever since.
7- Aomori earthquake, 1968

The 1968 Tokachi earthquake (1968年十勝沖地震 Sen-kyūhyaku-rokujūhachi-nen

Tokachi-oki Jishin) occurred on May 16 at 0:49 UTC (09:49 local time) in the area
offshore Aomori and Hokkaido. The magnitude of this earthquake was put at Mw 8.3. The
intensity of the earthquake reached shindo 5 in Aomori, Aomori and Hakodate, Hokkaido.

This earthquake was located near the junction of the Kuril Trench and the Japan Trench.
It is an interplate earthquake. The focal mechanism of this earthquake shows movement on
a thrust fault with a considerable slip-strike component. The sum of interplate seismic
moment release by seismic and aseismic faulting in this earthquake is about 28×10 20 N m.
The 1960s was noted as one of the peak periods of interplate seismic moment release in
the offshore Sanriku region.

Heavy rain occurred due to a low pressure day before the earthquake and aggravated the
damage. In Hokkaido, building damage was reported. A 4-story RC building of Hakodate
University collapsed. In Aomori Prefecture, there was damage to railroads and highways in
more than 200 places caused by collapses of artificial embankments.

In Hachinohe, there was damage to buildings, water pipes, and gas pipes. The 3-story
building of Hachinohe Technical College suffered severe damage. The communication
between Honshu and Hokkaido was cut off. A tsunami was triggered by the earthquake,
with a maximum height of about 6 m (20 ft). A tsunami of 11 cm was recorded in Tahiti. In
Japan, the tsunami caused flooding and damage to the aquaculture.
6 - Kuril Islands earthquake, 2006

The 2006 Kuril Islands earthquake occurred on November 15 at 8:14:16 pm JST with
a moment magnitude of 8.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IV (Light).
This megathrust earthquake was the largest event in the central Kuril Islands since 1915
and generated a small tsunami that affected the northern Japanese coast.

The tsunami crossed the Pacific Ocean and damaged the harbor at Crescent City,
California. Post-tsunami surveys indicate that the local tsunami in the central Kuril Islands
reached runup of 15 metres (49 ft) or more. The earthquake is considered a doublet
earthquake, with the second quake occurring in January 2007.

At about 11:45 UTC, tsunami warnings were issued in Japan for the north coasts
of Hokkaidō and Honshū, and a number of towns in this area were very quickly evacuated.
Tsunami warnings, advisories and watches were also issued for the coastal areas
of Alaska, Hawaii, parts of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. JMA
initially estimated tsunami waves to be as tall as 2 metres when it hit the Japanese northern
and eastern coasts, but it turned out to be merely 40 centimetres when it reached Hanasaki
Ko, Nemuro, Nemuro, Hokkaidō at 9:29 pm local time.

The tsunami also hit the rest of Hokkaidō and Tōhoku Region. The tallest wave recorded
in Japan was at Tsubota, Miyakejima (三宅島) in the Izu Shotō of the Tokyo To, at 84
centimetres. Tsunami also hit as far as Anami in Kagoshima Prefecture and Naha
in Okinawa Prefecture, and reached the Hawaiian and California coasts. A 176-centimetre
wave in the harbor at Crescent City, California caused an estimated $10 million in damage
to the docks there. The United States authorities had issued warnings for the Russian Far
East, Japan, Wake Island and Midway Atoll.

The nearfield tsunami struck islands with no current inhabitants. However, geologists and
archaeologists had visited these islands the previous summer, and returned in the summers
of 2007 and 2008. Because there were two central Kurils tsunamis in the winter of
2006/2007 (see 2007 Kuril Islands earthquake), the specific effects of each tsunami are
difficult to determine; evidence is that the 2006 tsunami was the larger on all islands in the
Kurils except Matua and parts of Rasshua.
5 - Sanriku earthquake, 1933

The 1933 Sanriku earthquake (昭和三陸地震 Shōwa Sanriku Jishin) occurred on

the Sanriku coast of the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan on March 2 with a moment
magnitude of 8.4. The associated tsunami caused widespread damage.

The epicenter was located offshore, 290 kilometres (180 mi) east of the city of Kamaishi,
Iwate. The main shock occurred at 02:31 AM local time on March 3, 1933 (17:31 UTC March
2, 1933) and measured 8.4 on the moment magnitude scale.[2] It was in approximately the
same location as the 1896 Sanriku earthquake and it occurred far enough away from the
town that shaking did little damage.

Approximately three hours after the main shock was a magnitude 6.8 aftershock, followed
by 76 more aftershocks (with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater) over a period of six months. This
was an intraplate event that occurred within the Pacific Plate, and the focal mechanism
showed normal faulting.

Although little damage was produced from the shock, the tsunami, which was recorded to
reach the height of 28.7 metres (94 ft) at Ōfunato, Iwate, caused extensive damage, and
destroyed many homes and caused numerous casualties. The tsunami destroyed over
7,000 homes along the northern Japanese coastline, of which over 4,885 were washed
away.

The tsunami was also recorded in Hawaii with a height of 9.5 feet (2.9 m), and also
resulted in slight damage. The death toll came to 1,522 people confirmed dead, 1,542
missing, and 12,053 injured. Hardest hit was the town of Tarō, Iwate (now part of Miyako
city), with 98% of its houses destroyed and 42% of its population killed.
4 - Ansei-Nankai earthquake, 1854

Japan has been hit by several other 8.4 magnitude earthquakes. The Ansei-Nankai
earthquake killed 10,000 people on the island of Kyushu, making it the deadliest of its size.
At the time, the quake was blamed on a giant catfish, called Namazu, thrashing in the
waters, according to a 2006 article in the Journal of Social History.

Ansei is the name for the Japanese era spanning from 1854 to 1860. Nankai is the name
of the trough where the earthquake ruptured, south of Honshu.This quake hit just one day
after similarly sized Ansei-Tokai earthquake, which killed 2,000 people. One year later, the
Ansei Edo quake, a 6.9 magnitude, would kill 6,600 people.

The 1854 Nankai earthquake occurred at about 16:00 local time on 24 December. It
had a magnitude of 8.4 and caused a damaging tsunami. More than 30,000 buildings were
completely destroyed and there were at least 3,000 casualties. It was the second of the
three Ansei great earthquakes; the 1854 Tōkai earthquake of similar size had hit the area
the previous morning.

The southern coast of Honshu runs parallel to the Nankai Trough, which marks
the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate. Movement on
this convergent plate boundary leads to many earthquakes, some of them of megathrust
type.

The Nankai megathrust has five distinct segments (A–E) that can rupture independently,
the segments have ruptured either singly or together repeatedly over the last 1300 years.
Megathrust earthquakes on this structure tend to occur in pairs, with a relatively short time
gap between them. In addition to the two events in 1854, there were similar earthquakes in
1944 and 1946. In each case the northeastern segment ruptured before the southwestern
segment.

The damage due to the earthquake was severe with 5,000 houses being destroyed and
40,000 houses badly damaged. A further 6,000 homes were damaged by fire. The tsunami
washed away a further 15,000 houses and a total of 3,000 people died from either the
earthquake or the tsunami. The death toll associated with the tsunami was less than would
be expected in comparison to the 1707 tsunami, because many people had left the coastal
area following the large earthquake the previous day. In Hiro (now Hirogawa), Goryo
Hamaguchi set fires using rice straw to help guide villagers to safety. This story was turned
into "A living god" by the Greek-born writer Lafcadio Hearn.
3 - Meiji-Sanriku earthquake, 1896

The 1896 Sanriku earthquake was one of the most destructive seismic events in
Japanese history. The 8.5 magnitude earthquake occurred at 19:32 (local time) on June 15,
1896, approximately 166 kilometres (103 mi) off the coast of Iwate Prefecture, Honshu. It
resulted in two tsunamis which destroyed about 9,000 homes and caused at least 22,000
deaths.

The waves reached a record height of 38.2 metres (125 ft); more than a meter lower than
those created after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake which triggered the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear disaster.

Seismologists have discovered the tsunami's magnitude (Mt = 8.2 was much greater than
expected for the estimated seismic magnitude. This earthquake is now regarded as being
part of a distinct class of seismic events, the tsunami earthquake.

On the evening of June 15, 1896, communities along the Sanriku coast in northern
Japan were celebrating a Shinto holiday and the return of soldiers from the First Sino-
Japanese War. After a small earthquake, there was little concern because it was so weak
and many small tremors had also been felt in the previous few months. However 35
minutes later the first tsunami wave struck the coast, followed by a second a few minutes
later.

Damage was particularly severe because the tsunamis coincided with high tides. Most
deaths occurred in Iwate and Miyagi although casualties were also recorded
from Aomori and Hokkaido.

The power of the tsunami was great: large numbers of victims were found with broken
bodies or missing limbs.[2] As was their normal practice each evening, the local fishing
fleets were all at sea when the tsunamis struck. In the deep water the wave went
unnoticed. Only when they returned the next morning did they discover the debris and
bodies. Wave heights of up to 9 meters (30 ft) were also measured in Hawaii. They
destroyed wharves and swept several houses away.
2 - Hoei earthquake, 1707

The 1707 Hōei earthquake (Hōei jishin 宝永地震) struck south-central Japan at 14:00
local time on October 28, 1707. It was the largest earthquake in Japanese history until
the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake[4] surpassed it. It caused moderate to severe damage
throughout southwestern Honshu, Shikoku and southeastern Kyūshū.

The earthquake, and the resulting destructive tsunami, caused more than 5,000
casualties. This event ruptured all of the segments of the Nankai
megathrust simultaneously, the only earthquake known to have done this, with an
estimated magnitude of 8.6 ML. It might also have triggered the last eruption of Mount
Fuji 49 days later.

The southern coast of Honshu runs parallel to the Nankai Trough, which marks
the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate. Movement on
this convergent plate boundary leads to many earthquakes, some of them of megathrust
type. The Nankai megathrust has five distinct segments (A-E) that can rupture
independently.

The segments have ruptured either singly or together repeatedly over the last 1,300 years.
Megathrust earthquakes on this structure tend to occur in pairs, with a relatively short time
gap between them. In addition to the two events in 1854, there were similar earthquakes in
1944 and 1946.

In each case, the northeastern segment ruptured before the southwestern segment. In the
1707 event, the earthquakes were either simultaneous, or close enough in time to not be
distinguished by historical sources.

There were 29,000 houses destroyed and there were more than 5,000 casualties. At least
one major landslide was triggered by the earthquake, the Ohya slide in Shizuoka. This
landslide, one of the three largest in Japan, involved an area of 1.8 km2, with an estimated
volume of 120 million m3. The Nara Basin shows evidence of liquefaction caused by this
event.
1 - Tohoku earthquake, 2011

The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku (東北地方太平洋沖地震 Tōhoku-
chihō Taiheiyō Oki Jishin) was a magnitude9.0–9.1 (Mw) undersea megathrust
earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday 11
March 2011, with the epicentre approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of the Oshika
Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of approximately 29 km
(18 mi). The earthquake is often referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan
Earthquake (東日本大震災 Higashi nihon daishinsai) and is also known as the 2011
Tōhoku earthquake, and the 3.11 earthquake.

It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful
earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake
triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 metres (133 ft)
in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, traveled up to 10 km
(6 mi) inland.

The earthquake moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) 2.4 m (8 ft) east, shifted the
Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in), increased earth's
rotational speed by 1.8µs per day, and generated infrasound waves detected in
perturbations of the low-orbiting GOCE satellite.

Initially, the earthquake caused sinking of part of Honshu's Pacific coast by up to roughly
a metre, but after about three years, the coast rose back and kept on rising to exceed the
original height of the coast.

The latest report from the Japanese National Police Agency report confirms 15,894
deaths, 6,156 injured, and 2,546 people missing across twenty prefectures, and a report
from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either
temporary housing or due to permanent relocation. A 10 February 2014 agency report listed
127,290 buildings totally collapsed, with a further 272,788 buildings "half collapsed", and
another 747,989 buildings partially damaged.
 The earthquake and tsunami also caused extensive and severe structural damage in
north-eastern Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many
areas, and a dam collapse. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after
the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." Around
4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million
without water.

The tsunami caused nuclear accidents, primarily the level 7 meltdowns at three reactors
in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plantcomplex, and the associated evacuation
zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. Many electrical generators were taken
down, and at least three nuclear reactors suffered explosions due to hydrogen gas that had
built up within their outer containment buildings after cooling system failure resulting from
the loss of electrical power.

Residents within a 20 km (12 mi) radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
and a 10 km (6.2 mi) radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated.
Early estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone at US$14.5 to
$34.6 billion. The Bank of Japan offered ¥15 trillion (US$183 billion) to the banking system
on 14 March in an effort to normalize market conditions. The World Bank's estimated
economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in history.