1891 Mino–Owari earthquake
濃尾地震 | |
Local date | October 28, 1891 |
---|---|
Local time | 6:38 (local)[1] |
Magnitude | 8.0 Ms [1][2] 7.5 Mw [3] |
Depth | 10 km (6.2 mi)[3] |
Epicenter | 35°36′N 136°36′E / 35.6°N 136.6°E[1] |
Type | Oblique-slip |
Areas affected | Mino Province Owari Province |
Peak acceleration | 0.41 g 400 gal[4] |
Landslides | ~ 10,000[5] |
Casualties | 7,273 dead[2] 17,175 injured[2] |
The 1891 Mino–Owari earthquake (美濃・尾張地震, Mino-Owari Jishin) struck the
The earthquake came at a
Preface
Records of historical earthquakes and
While the government brought in foreign experts (yatoi) during the building of the country's modern infrastructure, the high seismicity in Japan proved to be an ideal laboratory setting during the establishment of the new science of seismology. In 1876, John Milne came from England to teach at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo. Following the earthquake of February 22, 1880, Milne's attention turned to seismology as a primary area of study. That earthquake also triggered the formation of the Seismological Society of Japan, which was an organization to help foreign scientists stay coordinated in their efforts. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese had their own organization (the Japan Meteorological Agency) that had taken control of an earthquake reporting system that was initially created by Milne. Ultimately, the system and the 1891 earthquake provided data by which seismologist Fusakichi Omori developed a law of decay for aftershocks.[7]
Tectonic setting
The four main Japanese islands of
Earthquake
The October 1891 event was the largest recorded inland earthquake in Japan's history. Surface faulting stretched 80 kilometers (50 mi) with horizontal displacement up to 8 meters (26 ft) and vertical slip in the range of 2–3 m (6 ft 7 in – 9 ft 10 in). In that era, scientists believed that large shallow earthquakes were the result of
The earthquake was recorded on Gray-Milne-Ewing seismographs at weather observation stations at
Surface faulting
Within the first several decades of the event, Koto and Omori documented the comprehensive fault breaks that were visible on the surface, and a later investigation by T. Matsuda revealed that the breaks followed a general northwest-southeast trend. Matsuda's 1974 survey also documented intermittent and complementary conjugate faults that were aligned northeast-southwest and labeled the arrangement the Nobi fault system. The strike-slip breaks were described as primarily left-lateral offset of three major faults. The surface rupture did not extend over the full distance of the individual faults, but the Nukumi segment ran 20 km (12 mi) with a maximum offset of 3 m (9.8 ft). The Neodani and Umehara faults had rupture lengths of 35 km (22 mi) and 25 km (16 mi) and maximum offsets of 8 m (26 ft) and 5 m (16 ft) respectively.[4]
Damage
The shock occurred near Nagoya, and was felt throughout the country, but was the strongest in central Japan. The cities of Gifu and Ogaki experienced heavy damage, due largely to fire, but Osaka and Nagoya were also significantly affected. The earthquake was strong in Tokyo, lasting for many minutes, and knocked items off shelves and stopped clocks.[9]
The initial report of the disaster in Tokyo's
Aftershocks
More than 3,000 aftershocks were reported by the Gifu weather observatory in the 14 months following the event. According to a 1976 study by Takeshi Mikumo and Masataka Ando, three or four shocks per year were still being detected. Several university studies of the microearthquake activity were undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s and the areas southwest of the Neodani fault and near Gifu and Inuyama were found to be experiencing elevated activity.[4]
See also
- List of earthquakes in Japan
- List of historical earthquakes
- 1586 Tenshō earthquake – A similar event occurring in the same region
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-12-440652-0
- ^ doi:10.1016/S0960-0779(01)00107-2, archived from the original(PDF) on 2014-02-02, retrieved 2014-01-19
- ^ hdl:2433/193419
- ^ hdl:2433/193388
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7167-7548-5
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-19085-5
- ISBN 978-0-12-440652-0
- ISBN 978-0-19-507827-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-24607-2
Further reading
- Clancey, Gregory (2006), "The Meiji Earthquake: Nature, Nation, and the Ambiguities of Catastrophe", Modern Asian Studies, 40 (4): 909–951, S2CID 145536180
- Davison, Charles (1901). "The Great Japanese Earthquake of October 28, 1891". The Geographical Journal. 17 (6): 635–655. JSTOR 1775216.
- Fukuyama, E. (2006). "Dynamic Rupture Propagation during the 1891 Nobi, Central Japan, Earthquake: A Possible Extension to the Branched Faults". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 96 (4A): 1257–1266. S2CID 54895830.
External links
- Mino Earthquake – National Museum of Nature and Science (in Japanese)
- Burton, W.K.; Ogawa, K; Milne, John (1894). Great Earthquake In Japan 1891. Yokohama, Japan: Lane, Crawford & Co. OCLC 3617644.
- Photograph Albums of the Great Mino-Owari (1891) and Great Kanto (1923) Earthquakes at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections