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Groundwater changes associated with the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu and 2007 Chuetsu-oki earthquakes

Earth, Planets and Space volume 60, pages 1161–1168 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, has been monitoring groundwater in and around the Kinki and Tokai districts for earthquake prediction research. The Niigata Prefectural Office has also been observing groundwater for monitoring land subsidence in Niigata Prefecture. The 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu (MJMA 6.8) and 2007 Chuetsuoki (MJMA 6.8) earthquakes occurred in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on October 23, 2004 and July 16, 2007, respectively. The two earthquakes have a similar magnitude, epicenter, and mechanism. At many of the observation wells, we detected changes in groundwater level or pressure related to the two earthquakes, but no clear precursory changes. At all of our observation wells in Niigata Prefecture, trend changes were observed after coseismic step-like changes for both of the earthquakes. At some of the stations in and around the Kinki and Tokai districts, coseismic trend changes and/or step-like changes were observed. The pattern of the changes were almost similar for the two earthquakes. Those changes were considered to be caused not by the static crustal deformation but by the ground shaking.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Satoshi Itaba & Naoji Koizumi

  2. Graduate School of Science and Technology Earth Science, Niigata University, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Toyoshima

  3. Niigata Prefectural Government, Japan

    Masashi Kaneko & Kazuyoshi Sekiya

  4. Disaster Prevention Bureau, Shizuoka Prefectural Government, Japan

    Kunio Ozawa

Authors
  1. Satoshi Itaba
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  2. Naoji Koizumi
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  3. Tsuyoshi Toyoshima
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  4. Masashi Kaneko
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  5. Kazuyoshi Sekiya
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  6. Kunio Ozawa
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Correspondence to Satoshi Itaba.

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Itaba, S., Koizumi, N., Toyoshima, T. et al. Groundwater changes associated with the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu and 2007 Chuetsu-oki earthquakes. Earth Planet Sp 60, 1161–1168 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352873

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352873

Key words

  • Groundwater
  • strain
  • coseismic change
  • ground shaking
  • 2007 Chuetsu-oki earthquake
  • 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake
  • long-term stability of groundwater