1891 Mino–Owari earthquake: Difference between revisions

1891 Mino–Owari earthquake
濃尾地震
	Scarp at the Neodani Fault can be seen in the center of the picture
Local date	October 28, 1891
Local time	6:38 (local)
Magnitude	8.0 Ms ; 7.5 Mw
Depth	10 km (6.2 mi)
Epicenter	35°36′N 136°36′E / 35.6°N 136.6°E
Type	Oblique-slip
Areas affected	Mino Province ; Owari Province
Peak acceleration	0.41 g ; 400 gal
Landslides	~ 10,000
Casualties	7,273 dead ; 17,175 injured

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The Nōbi earthquake (濃尾地震, Nōbi Jishin) struck the Japanese provinces of Mino and Owari (present-day Gifu Prefecture) in the Nōbi Plain in the early morning of October 28 with a surface wave magnitude of 8.0 and moment magnitude of 7.5. The event, also referred to as the 1891 Mino–Owari earthquake (美濃・尾張地震, Mino-Owari Jishin), the Great Gifu earthquake (岐阜大地震, Gifu Daijishin), or the Great Nōbi earthquake (濃尾大地震, Nōbi Daijishin), is the largest known inland earthquake to have occurred in the Japanese archipelago.

The earthquake came at a time when Japan was undergoing a transformation into a more industrial nation and while advancing its scientific understanding in many fields. Damage from the event was widespread and the loss of life was significant. The many kilometers of visible fault breaks on the surface of the earth presented scientists with opportunities for field investigations that ultimately led to an improved understanding of the fault scarps that earthquakes often generate.

Preface

Records of historical earthquakes and tsunami extend further back in time in Japan than any other country that lies along the Pacific Rim (the first documented event occurred in 416 AD). These historical documents supported the date verification of the 1700 Cascadia earthquake that occurred off the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. The issue of earthquakes in Japan was made a priority following the 1854 Ansei-Nankai event that brought great destruction to the southwest portion of the country. With the onset of the Meiji period, the feudal government system was superseded by an empire that began to focus on advancing the Japanese society up to Western standards, especially in science.^[6]

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 Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, and Hokkaido lie in a convex arrangement pointing to the Pacific Ocean, while the oceanic trenches that form the western boundary of the Pacific Plate are convex in the opposite direction, toward Eurasia. The continental crust above the subduction zones had previously been associated with the Eurasian Plate, but northern Honshu and Hokkaido have more recently been treated as part of the North American Plate, due to a poorly defined plate boundary between Eastern Siberia and Alaska and a newly forming boundary at the eastern perimeter of the Sea of Japan. This portion of the crust has been known locally as the Okhotsk Plate. The southwestern border of the plate is called the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line. It is a region of faulting that traverses the width of central Honshu, but it has not generated any large earthquakes. Moving westward, though, the Atera, Miboro, Atotsugawa, and Nobi faults have all produced large events. Two of those events occurred beyond the terminus of the 1891 rupture: the 1945 Mikawa earthquake that hit near Nagoya on the Fukozu Fault and the 1948 Fukui earthquake that occurred near the Sea of Japan.^[6]

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 magma moving underground or even subterranean explosions. Bunjiro Koto, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, was so influenced by the extraordinary surface faulting that he diverged from the traditional belief and proclaimed that sudden fault slip had been the cause and not simply a secondary consequence of the event.^[5]^[8]

The earthquake was recorded on Gray-Milne-Ewing seismographs at weather observation stations at Gifu, Nagoya, Osaka, and Tokyo as well as a station housed at Tokyo Imperial University. Although the units went off scale after 8.5 seconds at Gifu and 13.5 seconds at Nagoya (probably due to an inundation of large S waves) the seismograms they produced have been beneficial for seismologists to develop an understanding of the fault rupture process. The records from the stations at Gifu and Nagoya were especially useful as they were the closest to the fault zone.^[3]^[4]

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 Asahi Shimbun gave only limited details. It stated that a new building for the Home Ministry in Tokyo lost several chimneys and that the reason for the loss of power in Yokohama was that a brick chimney had fallen at the power plant and had damaged equipment there. The following day though, the paper revealed that many homes had been lost and other industrial buildings were damaged or destroyed in Osaka, including the Naniwa cotton textile mill, a new western-style three-story brick building. On November 3, as the extent of the damage was becoming clearer, the same paper reported that more than 1,000 Japanese homes and other buildings had collapsed in Nagoya.^[9]

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]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Utsu, T. R. (2002), "A List of Deadly Earthquakes in the World: 1500–2000", International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology, Part A, Volume 81A (First ed.), Academic Press, p. 701, ISBN 978-0-12-440652-0
^ ^a ^b ^c Elnashai, A. S. (2002), "A very brief history of earthquake engineering with emphasis on developments in and from the British Isles" (PDF), Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, 13 (5): 969, Bibcode:2002CSF....13..967E, doi:10.1016/S0960-0779(01)00107-2, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-02, retrieved 2014-01-19
^ ^a ^b ^c Fukuyama, E.; Muramatu, I.; Mikumo, T. (2007), "Seismic moment of the 1891 Nobi, Japan, earthquake estimated from historical seismograms" (PDF), Earth, Planets and Space, 59 (6): 553–559, Bibcode:2007EP&S...59..553F, doi:10.1186/BF03352717
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Mikumo, T.; Ando, M. (1976), "A search into the faulting mechanism of the 1891 great Nobi earthquake", Journal of Physics of the Earth, 24: 65–67, 73, doi:10.4294/jpe1952.24.63
^ ^a ^b Bolt, B. (2005), Earthquakes: 2006 Centennial Update – The 1906 Big One (Fifth ed.), W. H. Freeman and Company, p. 59, ISBN 978-0-7167-7548-5
^ ^a ^b Yeats, R. (2012), Active Faults of the World, Cambridge University Press, pp. 395–399, 434, 435, ISBN 978-0-521-19085-5
^ Agnew, D. C. (2002), "History of Seismology" (PDF), International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology, Part A, Volume 81A (First ed.), Academic Press, pp. 5, 6, ISBN 978-0-12-440652-0
^ Yeats, R. S.; Sieh, K. E.; Allen, C. R. (1997). The Geology of Earthquakes. Oxford University Press. pp. 114, 115. ISBN 978-0-19-507827-5.
^ ^a ^b Clancey, G. (2006), Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, University of California Press, pp. 113–115, ISBN 978-0-520-24607-2

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

[Utsu-1] Utsu, T. R. (2002), "A List of Deadly Earthquakes in the World: 1500–2000", International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology, Part A, Volume 81A (First ed.), Academic Press, p. 701, ISBN 978-0-12-440652-0

[Elnashai_p969-2] Elnashai, A. S. (2002), "A very brief history of earthquake engineering with emphasis on developments in and from the British Isles" (PDF), Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, 13 (5): 969, Bibcode:2002CSF....13..967E, doi:10.1016/S0960-0779(01)00107-2, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-02, retrieved 2014-01-19

[Fukuyama-3] Fukuyama, E.; Muramatu, I.; Mikumo, T. (2007), "Seismic moment of the 1891 Nobi, Japan, earthquake estimated from historical seismograms" (PDF), Earth, Planets and Space, 59 (6): 553–559, Bibcode:2007EP&S...59..553F, doi:10.1186/BF03352717

[Mikumo-4] Mikumo, T.; Ando, M. (1976), "A search into the faulting mechanism of the 1891 great Nobi earthquake", Journal of Physics of the Earth, 24: 65–67, 73, doi:10.4294/jpe1952.24.63

[Bolt-5] Bolt, B. (2005), Earthquakes: 2006 Centennial Update – The 1906 Big One (Fifth ed.), W. H. Freeman and Company, p. 59, ISBN 978-0-7167-7548-5

[Yeats-6] Yeats, R. (2012), Active Faults of the World, Cambridge University Press, pp. 395–399, 434, 435, ISBN 978-0-521-19085-5

[7] Agnew, D. C. (2002), "History of Seismology" (PDF), International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology, Part A, Volume 81A (First ed.), Academic Press, pp. 5, 6, ISBN 978-0-12-440652-0

[8] Yeats, R. S.; Sieh, K. E.; Allen, C. R. (1997). The Geology of Earthquakes. Oxford University Press. pp. 114, 115. ISBN 978-0-19-507827-5.

[Clancey-9] Clancey, G. (2006), Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, University of California Press, pp. 113–115, ISBN 978-0-520-24607-2

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@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20140706095621/http://research.kahaku.go.jp/rikou/namazu/04nobi/noubi.html Mino Earthquake] – [[National Museum of Nature and Science]] {{in lang|ja}}
 * {{cite book|last1=Burton|first1=W.K.|last2=Ogawa|first2=K|last3=Milne|first3=John|title=Great Earthquake In Japan 1891|date=1894|publisher=Lane, Crawford & Co.|location=Yokohama, Japan|url=https://archive.org/details/GreatEarthquakeInJapan1891|oclc=3617644}}
+* [https://archivesspace.amherst.edu/repositories/2/resources/282 Photograph Albums of the Great Mino-Owari (1891) and Great Kanto (1923) Earthquakes] at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections
 {{Earthquakes in the 1890s (decade)}}

v t e Earthquakes in the 1800s
1800s	1802 Vrancea 1803 Garhwal 1804 Kisakata 1804 Almería 1805 Molise
1810s	1810 Crete 1810 North Korea 1811–1812 New Madrid 1812 Caracas 1812 San Juan Capistrano 1812 Ventura 1815 Pinglu 1815 Bali 1816 North Atlantic 1816 Guatemala 1817 Santiago del Estero 1819 Copiapó 1819 Rann of Kutch
1820s	1822 Costa Rica 1822 Aleppo 1825 Blida 1828 Sanjō 1829 Torrevieja
1830s	1830 Cixian 1833 Bihar–Nepal 1833 Kunming 1833 Sumatra 1833 Shōnai 1834 Jerusalem 1834 Java 1835 Concepción 1837 Galilee 1837 Valdivia 1838 Vrancea 1838 San Andreas 1839 Ava
1840s	1840 Ahora 1841 Kamchatka 1841 Caída da Praia 1842 Cap-Haïtien 1843 Nias 1843 Guadeloupe 1843 Wanganui 1844 Salta 1847 Zenkoji 1848 Marlborough
1850s	1850 Xichang 1851 Vulture 1852 Banda Sea 1852 Acapulco 1853 Shiraz 1854 Iga–Ueno 1854 Tōkai 1854 Nankai 1855 Wairarapa 1855 Bursa 1855 Edo 1856 Djijelli 1856 Heraklion 1857 Fort Tejon 1857 Basilicata 1858 Hietsu 1859 Erzurum 1859 Shamakhi
1860s	1861 Sumatra 1861 Mendoza 1861 Mendoza 1863 Jujuy 1863 Hawke's Bay 1863 Manila 1865 Memphis 1866 Bingöl 1867 Manhattan 1867 Java 1867 Virgin Islands 1867 Keelung 1868 Hawaii 1868 Arica 1868 Ecuador 1868 Hayward 1869 Christchurch 1869 Cachar
1870s	1870 Batang 1870 Charlevoix 1871 Lānaʻi 1871 Orán 1871–72 Quchan 1872 Hamada 1872 Owens Valley 1872 Amik 1872 North Cascades 1873 Alpago 1875 Cúcuta 1877 Iquique 1879 Bozqush 1879 Surigao 1879 Gansu
1880s	1880 Southern Luzon 1880 Zagreb 1881 Chios 1881 Nicobar Islands 1882 Panama 1883 Casamicciola 1883 Çeşme 1884 Colchester 1884 Andalusian 1885 Belovodoskoe 1886 Peloponnese 1886 Charleston 1887 Sonora 1887 Verny 1888 Ritter Island 1888 Río de la Plata 1888 North Canterbury 1889 Chilik 1889 Kumamoto
1890s	1891 Port Waikato 1891 Mino–Owari 1892 Laguna Salada 1892 Catamarca 1892 Vacaville–Winters 1893 Malatya 1893 Quchan 1894 Vlorë 1894 Atalanti 1894 Tokyo 1894 Istanbul 1894 Shōnai 1894 San Juan 1895 Quchan 1895 Ljubljana 1895 Balkan 1895 Charleston 1896 Sanriku 1896 Rikuu Assam 1897 Mindanao 1898 Balıkesir 1898 Mare Island 1898 Trilj 1899 Yakutat Bay 1899 Aydın–Denizli 1899 Ceram 1899 San Jacinto

v t e Earthquakes in Japan
Historical	679 Tsukushi 684 Hakuho 869 Jōgan 1293 Kamakura 1361 Shōhei 1498 Meiō 1586 Tenshō 1596 Fushimi 1605 Keichō 1611 Aizu 1611 Sanriku 1662 Kanbun 1662 Hyūga-nada 1677 Bōsō 1703 Genroku 1707 Hōei 1741 Kampo 1751 Takada 1771 Great Yaeyama 1792 Unzen 1804 Kisakata 1828 Sanjō 1833 Shōnai 1847 Zenkoji 1854 Iga–Ueno 1854 Nankai 1854 Tōkai 1855 Edo 1858 Hietsu 1872 Hamada 1889 Kumamoto 1891 Mino–Owari 1894 Tokyo 1894 Shōnai 1896 Sanriku 1896 Rikuu
20th century	1909 Anegawa 1911 Kikai Island 1914 Senboku 1922 Shimabara 1923 Great Kantō 1925 North Tajima 1927 North Tango 1930 North Izu 1933 Sanriku 1936 Miyagi 1939 Oga 1940 Shakotan 1941 Hyūga-nada 1943 Tottori 1944 Tōnankai 1945 Mikawa 1946 Nankai 1948 Fukui 1952 Tokachi 1961 North Mino 1963 Kuril Islands 1964 Niigata 1968 Ebino 1968 Hyūga-nada 1968 Tokachi 1973 Nemuro Peninsula 1974 Izu Peninsula 1978 Izu Ōshima 1978 Miyagi 1982 Urakawa 1983 Sea of Japan 1984 Nagano 1993 Kushiro 1993 Okushiri 1994 offshore Sanriku 1995 Hanshin 2000 Izu Islands 2000 Tottori
21st century	2001 Geiyo 2003 Miyagi 2003 Tokachi 2004 Chūetsu 2005 Fukuoka 2005 Miyagi 2006 Kuril Islands 2007 Chūetsu 2007 Kuril Islands 2007 Noto 2008 Iwate–Miyagi 2008 Iwate 2009 Shizuoka 2011 Tōhoku 2011 Nagano 2011 Shizuoka 2011 Miyagi 2011 Fukushima 2012 Chiba 2012 Sanriku 2014 Nagano 2015 Ogasawara 2016 Kumamoto 2016 Tottori 2016 Fukushima 2018 Osaka 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi 2019 Yamagata 2021 Fukushima 2021 Miyagi 2021 Chiba 2022 Fukushima 2023 Noto 2024 Noto 2024 Hyūga-nada
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