Seismology of the Sanriku coast

The nihongo|Sanriku coast|三陸海岸|Sanriku kaigan of Japan has had significant seismic activity. A major earthquake in the nineteenth century caused more than 20,000 deaths, and another in the twentieth century caused thousands more. Seismic activity continues in the twenty-first century.

Nineteenth century

Some 22,000 people were killed in the Meiji Sanriku earthquake of 1896. Most of the deaths were caused by tsunami. The disaster struck at 8:06am on the morning of August 31. The epicenter was determined to have been located at 39.500 Latitude/140.600 Longitude, but no Richter Scale magnitude can be assessed on the basis of available data. [Online "Significant Earthquake Database" -- U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC)] [http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov ...Click link for NOAA/Japan: Significant Earthquake Database]

Twentieth century

In the Showa Sanriku quake of 1933, 3,008 people died. Again, the major cause was tsunami. [ [http://www.tsunami.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/hokusai2/topics/TU-UW/2002/ippan/tsunami-e.html Reports about TSUNAMI ] ]

There was also a 1994 Sanriku-Haruka-Oki earthquake. [ [http://bssa.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/87/4/918 Slip history of the 1994 Sanriku-Haruka-Oki, Japan, earthquake deduced from strong-motion data - Nakayama and Takeo 87 (4): 918 - Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America ] ] and a 7.0 2003 Miyagi-Oki quake in the same area, injuring 171 and causing $97.3 million in damages. [ [http://www.disaster.archi.tohoku.ac.jp/eng/topicse/030526htm/030526e.htm MAY 26, 2003 MIYAGI-OKI (JAPAN) EARTHQUAKE ] ] and a July 26, 2003 quake with 676 injured persons, and 11,341 buildings were damaged with $195.4 million in damages. [ [http://www.disaster.archi.tohoku.ac.jp/eng/topicse/030726htm/030726e.htm JULY 26, 2003 NORTHERN MIYAGI (JAPAN) EARTHQUAKE ] ]

Twenty-first century

The 2005 Sanriku Japan Earthquake occurred at 6:39am Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) on November 15, 2005. It was originally recorded by the United States Geological Survey as a 7.2-magnitude earthquake on the Moment magnitude scale, but the Japan Meteorological Agency called it a magnitude 6.9 earthquake.

Almost immediately after the quake, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning. Earthquake-associated waves of between 1 and 2 feet were reported at Ofunato on the east coast of Japan.cite news | url = http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13166917.htm | title = Ofunato waves | format = link expired ] . Warnings were also issued for the northwest coast of the United States

The earthquake was centered in the Pacific Ocean about 330 miles east-northeast of Tokyo about 24 miles below the surface.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

References

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* [http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-11-14-japan-earthquake_x.htm Earthquake shakes Japan, small tsunamis measured]