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Seismic moment of the 1891 Nobi, Japan, earthquake estimated from historical seismograms

Earth, Planets and Space volume 59, pages 553–559 (2007)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 20 June 2014

Abstract

The seismic moment of the 1891 Nobi, Japan, earthquake has been evaluated from the historical seismogram recorded at the Central Meteorological Observatory in Tokyo. For this purpose, synthetic seismograms from point and finite source models with various fault parameters have been calculated by a discrete wave-number method, incorporating the instrumental response of the Gray-Milne-Ewing seismograph, and then compared with the original records. Our estimate of the seismic moment (Mo) is 1.8×1020 N m corresponding to a moment magnitude (Mw) 7.5. This is significantly smaller than the previous estimates from the distribution of damage, but is consistent with that inferred from geological field survey (Matsuda, 1974) of the surface faults.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Institute of Earth Sciences and Disaster Prevention, Tsukuba, 305-0006, Japan

    Eiichi Fukuyama

  2. Emeritus professor of Gifu University, Gifu, 2435-62, Japan

    Ikuei Muramatu

  3. Instituto de Geofisica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico D.F., 04510, Mexico

    Takeshi Mikumo

Authors
  1. Eiichi Fukuyama
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  2. Ikuei Muramatu
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  3. Takeshi Mikumo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eiichi Fukuyama.

Additional information

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/BF03352038.

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Fukuyama, E., Muramatu, I. & Mikumo, T. Seismic moment of the 1891 Nobi, Japan, earthquake estimated from historical seismograms. Earth Planet Sp 59, 553–559 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352717

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352717

Key words

  • Seismic moment
  • historical seismograms
  • the 1891 Nobi earthquake