Faulting of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 as Revealed by Seismological Data

Abstract

The fault parameters of the Great Kanto earthquake of September 1, 1923, are determined on the basis of the first-motion data, aftershock area, and the amplitude of surface waves at teleseismic stations. It is found that the faulting of this earthquake is a reverse right-lateral fault on a plane which dips 34° towards N20°E. The auxiliary plane has a dip of 80° towards S55°E. This means that the foot-wall side moves approximately north-west with respect to the hanging wall side. The strike of the fault plane is almost parallel to that of the Sagami trough, and the slip direction is more or less perpendicular to the trend of the Japan trench. This earthquake is therefore considered to represent a slippage between two crustal blocks bounded by the Sagami trough. A seismic moment of 7.6×1027 dyne-cm is obtained. If the fault dimension is taken to be 130×70 km2, the average slip on the fault plane and the stress drop are estimated to be 2.1m and 18 bars respectively. This slip is about 1/3 of that estimated from geodetic data. This discrepancy may indicate an existence of a pre-seismic deformation which did not contribute to the seismic wave radiation, but the evidence from other observations is not very firm.