The 1707 Hōei earthquake (宝永地震, Hōei jishin) struck south-central Japan at around 13:45 local time on 28 October. It was the largest earthquake in Japanese history[1] until it was surpassed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake.[4] It caused moderate-to-severe damage throughout southwestern Honshu, Shikoku and southeastern Kyūshū.[5] The earthquake, and the resulting destructive tsunami, caused more than 5,000 casualties.[3] This event ruptured all of the segments of the Nankai megathrust simultaneously, the only earthquake known to have done this, with an estimated magnitude of 8.6 ML or 8.7 Mw.[2] It possibly also triggered the last eruption of Mount Fuji 49 days later.[6][7]

1707 Hōei earthquake
Hōei earthquake intensity map in JMA scale.
1707 Hōei earthquake is located in Japan
1707 Hōei earthquake
Local date28 October 1707 (1707-10-28)
Local timearound 13:45 JST[1]
MagnitudeML 8.6
Mw 8.7[2]
Epicenter33°12′N 135°54′E / 33.2°N 135.9°E / 33.2; 135.9
FaultNankai megathrust
Areas affectedJapan: Chūbu region, Kansai region, Shikoku, Kyūshū
Max. intensityJMA 7
Tsunami25.7 m (84 ft)
Casualties4,900–21,000[1][3]

Tectonic setting

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The southern coast of Honshu runs parallel to the Nankai Trough, which marks the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate beneath the Eurasian plate. Movement on this convergent plate boundary leads to many earthquakes, some of them of megathrust type. The Nankai megathrust has five distinct segments (A-E) that can rupture independently.[8][9] The segments have ruptured either singly or together repeatedly over the last 1,300 years.[10] Megathrust earthquakes on this structure tend to occur in pairs, with a relatively short time gap between them: In addition to two events in 1854, a similar pair occurred in 1944 and 1946. In both instances, the northeastern segment ruptured before the southwestern segment.[11] In the 1707 event, the earthquakes were either simultaneous, or close enough in time to not be distinguished by historical sources.

Damage

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The earthquake caused 4,900–21,000 casualties, destroyed 29,000 houses, and triggered at least one major landslide, the Ohya slide in Shizuoka.[12] One of Japan's three largest, it buried a 1.8 km2 area under an estimated 120 million m3 of debris.[13] The Nara Basin shows evidence of event-induced liquefaction.[14]

Characteristics

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Earthquake

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The magnitude of the 1707 event exceeded that of both the 1854 Tōkai and Nankai earthquakes, based on several observations. The uplift at Cape Muroto, Kōchi is estimated at 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) in 1707 compared to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in 1854, the presence of an area of seismic intensity of 6–7 on the JMA scale in Kawachi Plain, the degree of damage and inundations heights for the corresponding tsunami and records of tsunami at distant locations, such as Nagasaki and Jeju-do, Korea.[15]

The length of the rupture has been estimated from the modelling of the observed tsunami and the location of tsunami deposits. Initial estimates of 605 km, based on four segments rupturing failed to explain tsunami deposits discovered at the western end of the trough. Including an additional area at the southwestern end, part of the so-called Hyuga-nada segment, gave a better match, with a total rupture length in the range 675–700 km.[16][17]

Aftershocks

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Approximately 16 hours after the mainshock, in the early morning of the following day at around 06:00 JST, a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 occurred with its epicenter near Fujinomiya. This earthquake was strongly felt in Edo (according to the "Diary of Archbishop Ryuko"), Toyama (as recorded in the "Yoshikawa Essays"), and Nagoya (as noted in the "Parrot Cage Records"). In the domain of the Murayama Sengen Shrine, all houses collapsed, and there were instances of temple and shrine buildings collapsing and fatalities in Fujinomiya and along the Tokaido route.[18]

On 13 February 1708, at 10:00–12:00 JST, a major aftershock with its epicenter off the coast of the Kii Peninsula, occurred. This earthquake was strongly felt in Kyoto (according to the "Diary of Miscellaneous Affairs") and Nagoya (as noted in the "Parrot Cage Records"), and it generated a tsunami. In Kii, salt fields were flooded (according to the "History of Hainan Village"), and in Ise, it affected Yamada, Fukiage-cho, and Hitotsuboki, breaking the embankment of the Miyagawa River (as recorded in the "Jingu Bunko Manuscripts").[18]

Tsunami

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Along the southwestern coast of Kōchi, run-up heights averaged 7.7 m (25 ft) with up to 10 m in places;[19] 25.7 m (84 ft) high at Kure, Nakatosa, Kōchi, and 23 m (75 ft) at Tanezaki.[20]

Eruption of Mount Fuji

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Evidence suggests that changes in stress caused by large earthquakes might be sufficient to trigger volcanic eruptions, assuming that the magma system involved is close to a critical state.[6] The 1707 earthquake might have triggered a shift in static stress that led to pressure changes in the magma chamber beneath Mount Fuji. The volcano erupted on 16 December 1707, 49 days after the earthquake.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c IISEE. "Catalog of Damaging Earthquakes in the World (Through 2016)". Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Chesley, Christine; Lafemina, Peter C.; Puskas, Christine; Kobayashi, Daisuke (2012). "The 1707 Mw8.7 Hoei earthquake triggered the largest historical eruption of Mt. Fuji". Geophysical Research Letters. 39 (24): n/a. Bibcode:2012GeoRL..3924309C. doi:10.1029/2012GL053868. S2CID 128457540.
  3. ^ a b Ando, M. (2006). "Groundwater and Coastal Phenomena Preceding the 1944 Tsunami (Tonankai Earthquake)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  4. ^ "Magnitude 8.9 – Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan 05:46:23 UTC". 11 March 2011. Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  5. ^ Miyazawa, M.; Mori J. (2005). "Historical maximum seismic intensity maps in Japan from 1586 to 2004: construction of database and application" (PDF). Ann. Disaster Prev. Res. Inst. Kyoto Univ. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  6. ^ a b Hill, D.P.; Pollitz F. & Newhall C. (2002). "Earthquake-Volcano Interactions". Physics Today. 55 (11): 41–47. Bibcode:2002PhT....55k..41H. doi:10.1063/1.1535006.
  7. ^ Chesley, Christine; LaFemina, Peter C.; Puskas, Christine; Kobayashi, Daisuke (28 December 2012). "The 1707 M w 8.7 Hoei earthquake triggered the largest historical eruption of Mt. Fuji". Geophysical Research Letters. 39 (24). doi:10.1029/2012GL053868. ISSN 0094-8276.
  8. ^ Ando, M. (1975). "Source mechanisms and tectonic significance of historical earthquakes along the nankai trough, Japan". Tectonophysics. 27 (2): 119–140. Bibcode:1975Tectp..27..119A. doi:10.1016/0040-1951(75)90102-X.
  9. ^ Ishibashi, K. (2004). "Status of historical seismology in Japan" (PDF). Annals of Geophysics. 47 (2/3): 339–368. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
  10. ^ Sieh, K.E. (1981). A Review of Geological Evidence for Recurrence Times of Large Earthquakes (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 June 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2009.
  11. ^ Kaneda, Y.; Kawaguchi, K.; Araki, E.; Matsumoto, H.; Nakamura, T.; Kamiya, S.; Hori, T.; Baba, T. (2007). "Precise real-time observatory and simulating phenomena of earthquakes and tsunamis around the Nankai Trough – Towards the understanding of mega thrust earthquakes". 2007 Symposium on Underwater Technology and Workshop on Scientific Use of Submarine Cables and Related Technologies. pp. 299–300. doi:10.1109/UT.2007.370806. ISBN 978-1-4244-1207-5. S2CID 45347574.
  12. ^ Tsuchiya, S.; Imaizumi F. (2010). "Large Sediment Movement Caused by the Catastrophic Ohya-Kuzure Landslide". Journal of Disaster Research. 5 (3): 257–263. doi:10.20965/jdr.2010.p0257.
  13. ^ "Case 2: Oya Hillside work" (PDF). Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  14. ^ Nakanashi, I. (1999). "Liquefaction Caused by the 1707 Hoei Earthquake as Observed in the Nara Basin, Central Japan". Disaster Prevention Research Institute Annuals, Kyoto University. 42 (B1): 125–127. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  15. ^ Tsuji, Y.; Namegaya Y. (2007). "The 1707 Hoei Earthquake, as an Example of a combined Gigantic Tokai-Nankai Earthquake" (PDF). Retrieved 23 December 2009.
  16. ^ Kim, S.; Saito, T.; Fukuyama, E.; Kang, T.-S. (2016). "The Nankai Trough earthquake tsunamis in Korea: numerical studies of the 1707 Hoei earthquake and physics-based scenarios" (PDF). Earth, Planets and Space. 68 (1): 64. Bibcode:2016EP&S...68...64K. doi:10.1186/s40623-016-0438-9.
  17. ^ Furumura, T.; Imai, K.; Maeda, T. (2011). "A revised tsunami source model for the 1707 Hoei earthquake and simulation of tsunami inundation of Ryujin Lake, Kyushu, Japan". Journal of Geophysical Research. 116 (B2). Bibcode:2011JGRB..116.2308F. doi:10.1029/2010JB007918.
  18. ^ a b "2011年 東北地方太平洋沖地震 過去に起きた大きな地震の余震と誘発地震". outreach.eri.u-tokyo.ac. March 2011. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  19. ^ Hatori, T. (1981). "Field investigations of the Nankaido Tsunamis in 1707 and 1854 along the South-west coast of Shikoku" (PDF). Bulletin Earthquake Research Institute (in Japanese). 56: 547–570. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2009. In Japanese.
  20. ^ Akitsune Imamura. (1938). 土佐に於ける宝永・安政両度津浪の高さ, 地震 第1輯, 10, 394–404. in Japanese.
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