This is a list of earthquakes in Japan with either a magnitude greater than or equal to 7.0 or which caused significant damage or casualties. As indicated below, magnitude is measured on the Richter scale (ML) or the moment magnitude scale (Mw), or the surface wave magnitude scale (Ms) for very old earthquakes. The present list is not exhaustive, and furthermore reliable and precise magnitude data is scarce for earthquakes that occurred before the development of modern measuring instruments.
Map of earthquakes in Japan since 1900, with magnitudes. Click for date and details. (map data)
Earthquakes M5.5+ around Japan (1900–2016) M7.0–7.9=163 EQs, M8.0+=14 EQs.[1]
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History
Although there is mention of an earthquake in Yamato in what is now Nara Prefecture on August 23, 416, the first earthquake to be reliably documented took place in Nara prefecture on May 28, 599 during the reign of Empress Suiko, destroying buildings throughout Yamato province.[2][3][4] Many historical records of Japanese earthquakes exist. The Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee was created in 1892 to conduct a systematic collation of the available historical data, published in 1899 as the Catalogue of Historical Data on Japanese Earthquakes.[4]
Following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, the Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee was superseded by the Earthquake Research Institute in 1925.[3] In modern times, the catalogues compiled by Tatsuo Usami(ja) are considered to provide the most authoritative source of information on historic earthquakes, with the 2003 edition detailing 486 that took place between 416 and 1888.[3]
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Earthquake measurement
In Japan, the Shindo scale is commonly used to measure earthquakes by seismic intensity instead of magnitude. This is similar to the Modified Mercalli intensity scale used in the United States, the Liedu scale used in China or the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS), meaning that the scale measures the intensity of an earthquake at a given location instead of measuring an energy source an earthquake releases at its epicenter (its magnitude) as the Richter scale does.[5]
Unlike other seismic intensity scales, which normally have twelve levels of intensity, shindo (震度; seismic intensity, literally "degree of shaking") as used by the Japan Meteorological Agency is a unit with ten levels, ranging from shindo zero, a very light tremor, to shindo seven, a severe earthquake.[5] Intermediate levels for earthquakes with shindo five and six are "weak" or "strong", according to the degree of destruction they cause. Earthquakes measured at shindo four and lower are considered to be weak to mild, while those measured at five and above can cause heavy damage to furniture, wall tiles, wooden houses, reinforced concrete buildings, roads, gas and water pipes.[5]
Changes to the Ariake Sea coastline, in the center of Mount Unzen, Kumamoto Prefecture (right) and the Amakusa Islands (see below) were affected by the tsunami An earthquake caused by volcanic activity of Mount Unzen (in the Shimabara Peninsula Nagasaki, Japan). It killed 15,000 people altogether, due in large part to a tsunami that was triggered by the collapse of nearby Mount Mayuyama's southern flank into the bay. The incident is also referred to with the phrase 'Shimabara erupted, Higo affected' (島原大変肥後迷惑), as many people in Higo, (Kumamoto, located 20km (12mi) away across the Ariake Sea) were also killed by the resulting tsunami, which then bounced back to hit Shimabara again.[13]
According to the official confirmed report, 21,134 houses and buildings were damaged, and 1,204 of them burned down. There were 1,559 human fatalities, and 2,666 injured people in the affected area.
Minor damage from shaking but many buildings swept away by the tsunami. 45 people died at Akkeshi on Hokkaido and a further 46 at Taro on the Sanriku coast of Honshu.
In the central area of Nagano, many buildings collapsed, including Zenkōji temple. The earthquake triggered a complex variety of resulting disasters, which included fires, landslides, and flooding due to the formation and subsequent collapse of a "dam" made of debris from the collapsed buildings. According to the confirmed official report, the death toll throughout the region reached at least 8,600. 21,000 houses were damaged and 3,400 burned, and an additional 44,000 homes were damaged by the landslides in the area.
According to the official confirmed report, 4506 houses were damaged by the earthquake, 230 houses were burned, 551 people were killed, and landslides destroyed 6567 homes in the affected area. This quake occurred at 16:40 local time.
According to the official confirmed report, 14,118 houses and buildings were damaged and 2,148 were burned. There were 726 human fatalities and 8,403 people injured in the damaged area. A large-scale fire broke out in Sakata, and around the Shonai plain area, many instances of cracked earth, sinking ground, sand boils, and fountains were observed.
This quake occurred off the coast of Sanriku in Iwate Prefecture, which caused a tsunami of 25m (82ft) to strike 35 minutes after the quake, destroying hundreds of houses and killed over 22,000 people. Tsunami were also observed as far away as Hawaii and in California.[18][19]
According to the Japanese government's official report, there were 428 human fatalities, 1,016 people injured, 7,863 buildings destroyed, and 45,659 houses damaged by collapse or fire. This quake caused extensive damage to the town of Toyooka and the Maruyama River area. Just before the shaking could be felt, a sound like a cannon was reportedly heard intermittently from the direction of the estuary near the Maruyama River. During the earthquake, the ground in the town of Tokyooka experienced strong seismic vibrations for 16 seconds. As most of the buildings of the time were wooden, many of them were destroyed at once during the initial earthquake. In the fire that broke out subsequently, half of Toyooka was burned down, with many deaths resulting (a reported 8% of the town's population.) 272 deaths were confirmed to have occurred in the Kinosaki area.
This earthquake occurred on Dec. 7, 1944, at 13:35 local time (04:35 UTC). Its moment magnitude was 8.1 and it was felt with a maximum intensity of 5 on the Shindo scale (or VII, "Severe", on the Mercalli intensity scale). It struck the provinces along the coast of the Tōkai region, causing serious damage and triggering a tsunami. The earthquake and tsunami combined killed 1,223 people, with injuries reported to have affected 20,000 people or more.[23]
The 1952 Hokkaido earthquake took place around March 4, 1952 in the sea east of Hokkaido. On the Moment magnitude scale, it measured 8.1. Casualties occurred due to the earthquake.[26]
The earthquake caused widespread soil liquefaction in the city of Niigata, resulting in unusually high levels of damage to buildings for the felt intensity.[29]
This earthquake struck off the coast of Honshu Island, near Misawa Japan, Aomori Prefecture, and was followed by a significant tsunami. The earthquake and ensuing tsunami claimed 52 lives and resulted in significant material damage in Northern Japan.[31][32]
Rising up to 9.1m (30ft) above the coastline, the tsunami created by this earthquake was observed throughout a wide area along the Sea of Japan's coast and caused damage from Tsuruoka to Goshogawara. 100 people lost their lives to the tsunami, including seawall construction workers and beachgoers. In total, 104 people were killed. Soil liquification was widely observed through the affected area.
Damage in Kobe An earthquake in Japan that occurred on Tuesday January 17, 1995 at 05:46 JST in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture. It measured Mw 6.8 on the Moment magnitude scale (USGS),[37] and Mj7.3 on the revised (7.2 on the old) JMA magnitude scale.[38] The tremors lasted for approximately 20 seconds. The hypocenter of the earthquake was located 16km (9.9mi) beneath its epicenter,[38] on the northern end of Awaji Island, 20km (12mi) away from the city of Kobe.
An earthquake occurring in Hokkaido on September 25, 2003. It measured 8.3 on the Moment magnitude scale and caused extensive damage to roads all around Hokkaido, several power outages, and landslides which resulted in further damage.[40]
Occurred at 5:56p.m. (local time) on Saturday, October 23, 2004. The initial earthquake caused noticeable shaking across almost half of Honshū, including parts of the Tohoku, Hokuriku, Chūbu, and Kantō regions.
The earthquake happened at 1:23p.m. JST (04:23 UTC) and resulted in a tsunami warning but did not cause significant damage.[41] The epicentre was located 95km to the south east of the 2006 Kuril Islands earthquake that struck a few weeks earlier.
Niigata Prefectureabout 29km (18mi) west of Niigata
The earthquake[42]) was a powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake[43][44] that occurred 10:13a.m. local time (01:13 UTC) on July 16, 2007, in the northwest Niigata region of Japan.[43] Eleven deaths and at least 1,000 injuries have been reported, and 342 buildings were completely destroyed, mostly older wooden structures.[43][45][46]
The earthquake injured 41 people and affected the entire Chubu region. The quake also generated many surface ruptures, mostly near Hakuba Village.[64][65]
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