Discovery of an exception to rare movements of active faults Active faults are faults that have experienced repeated ruptures in the past and are likely to cause earthquakes in the future. The cause of intraplate earthquakes shallow in the Earth’s crust is an abrupt rupture of such active faults. The number of active faults identified on the islands of Japan is approximately 2,000. Naturally, large intraplate earthquakes occur once per a few years somewhere in Japan. The frequency of earthqu...

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On October 21, 2018, Assistant Professor Kazuya Sugiyasu of IRIDeS and his research group jointly conducted a disaster drill for potential earthquakes and tsunamis in Tairausuiso District (hereinafter Usuiso District) of the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. I, a PR staff from IRIDeS, also attended this drill. The below is an account of my experience at the drill exercises. Usuiso District Usuiso District faces the sea. During the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, a 8.51 m ta...

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A M7.5 earthquake occurred on September 28, 2018, at 6:02 pm (7:02 pm Japan time) on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. A significant amount of damage was caused by the earthquake, subsequent tsunami, liquefaction, and landslides. On October 4–6, Prof. Fumihiko Imamura (Tsunami Engineering) of IRIDeS conducted the first field survey to investigate the damage caused by the tsunami in and around the major city of Palu in collaboration with other researchers and government officials in Indonesia...

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At the time of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the kitakukonnansha (commuters stranded because of a disaster) in the Tokyo metropolitan area garnered attention. In metropolitan areas, paralysis of the transportation network had created several issues, as many people had to give up on returning home and stayed in temporary accommodations, or even had a great struggle to walk home for a long distance.   At that time, the issue of kitakukonnansha arose not only in metropolitan cities but ...

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Professor Motoyuki Kido of IRIDeS and his team are the first in the world to elucidate the complex movements of the seafloor after the Tohoku-oki great earthquake.   On March 11, 2011, along the Japan Trench—deep in the off-Miyagi Pacific Ocean floor—the plates (bedrock covering the earth’s surface) began to move each other, causing a huge earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0. This earthquake, and the resulting tsunami, caused severe destruction, particularly in the Tohoku region. Exp...

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