ISSN 1346-7328
Technical Note of NILIM No.647
ISSN 0453-4972
BRI Research Paper No.150

Technical Note of National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management
No. 647

September 2011

BRI Research Paper
No. 150

September 2011

Summary of the Field Survey and Research on“The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake”(the Great East Japan Earthquake)

National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM)
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan
Building Research Institute (BRI)
Incorporated Administrative Agency, Japan

Copyright©2011 by NILIM and BRI
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, or transmitted, ortranslated into a machine language without the written permission of thepublisher or the authors.

Preface
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the coast of Sanriku, Japan at
14:46 JST on Friday, March 11, 2011 and triggered extremely destructive
tsunami waves. The earthquake and tsunami destroyed, damaged, or washedaway a number of buildings, houses and structures in Northeast Japan,including Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, and Chiba prefectures. The
highest Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 was recorded at Kurihara city inthe northern part of Miyagi prefecture. The earthquake was named the 2011 off
the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake (the Great East Japan Earthquake) by
the Japanese government.
In order to learn lessons from the unprecedented disaster and contribute to
the improvement of disaster mitigation measures, the National Institute forLand and Infrastructure Management (NILIM) and the Building ResearchInstitute (BRI) has sent staff members to the affected regions and conducted
extensive surveys on the damage to buildings and residential lands caused by
the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent fires. The types and parts of buildingson which these surveys have been conducted include wood houses, reinforced
concrete buildings, steel buildings, residential lands, non-structuralcomponents and seismically isolated buildings. In addition, NILIM and BRI
have conducted scientific researches on the earthquake and tsunami andanalyzed the recorded earthquake motions on various sites across Japan.
This report consists of the main results from these surveys and researches.
We hope that this report will be informative in developing effective measures tomitigate damage from future earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan and otherearthquake-prone countries in the world.
Finally, we would like to express our deepest condolences to those wholost their families and those who are suffering from the disaster. In addition, wewould like to express our heartfelt appreciation to people from around theworld for their warm support and cordial friendship.
September, 2011
Juntaro Tsuru
Deputy Director-General
The National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management
Shuzo Murakami
Chief Executive
The Building Research InstituteTable of Contents
Chapter 1

Introduction .............................................................................................. 1

Chapter 2

Outline of Research and Field Survey .................................................... 32.1

Outline of Research ................................................................................ 3

2.2

Outline of Field Survey .......................................................................... 4

Chapter 3

Overview of Damage .............................................................................. 7

3.1

Distribution of JMA Seismic Intensity ................................................... 7

3.2

Casualties and Damage to Buildings and Utilities ................................. 9

3.3

Regions Affected by Tsunami ................................................................. 11

3.4

Inspections of Damaged Buildings and Residential Lands .................. 133.5Temporary Housing .............................................................................. 143.6

Building Restrictions ..........................................................................

15Chapter 4

Outline of Earthquake and Tsunami ..................................................... 17

4.1

Earthquake Mechanism ........................................................................ 17

4.2

Relocation of Earthquakes .................................................................... 18

4.3High Frequency Energy Radiation Duration of andits Corresponding Magnitude ............................................................... 194.4

Tsunami ................................................................................................ 20

Chapter 5Earthquake Motions and Strong Motion Observation in Buildings ....... 27

5.1

Distribution of Seismic Intensities ....................................................... 27

5.2

Characteristics of Earthquake Motions ................................................. 27

5.3

Results of BRI Strong Motion Observation Network .......................... 29

Chapter 6

Damage to Buildings by Earthquake Motions ...................................... 41

6.1

Policy on Earthquake Damage Investigation for Buildings ................. 41

6.2

Damage to Wood Houses ...................................................................... 43

6.3

Damage to Reinforced Concrete Buildings .......................................... 696.4

Damage to Steel Gymnasiums

6.5

Damage to Residential Land .............................................................. 101

6.6

Damage to Nonstructural Components ............................................... 109

Chapter 7............................................................ 89

Damage to Buildings in Inundation Areas Induced by Tsunami...... 119

7.1

Introduction..................................................................................

119

7.2

Classification and Discussion of Damage Patterns ............................ 119

7.3

Database for Investigated Buildings ................................................... 126

7.4

Damage to Wood Buildings .................................................................. 127

7.5

Conclusion .......................................................................................... 140

Chapter 8

Damage of Buildings, etc. due to Fire ................................................ 141

8.1

Objective of Survey ............................................................................ 141

8.2

Damage by Fire due to Tsunami ......................................................... 143

8.3

Damage by Fire due to Earthquake Motions ...................................... 146

Chapter 9

Response of Seismically Isolated Buildings ....................................... 149

9.1

Outline of Surveyed Buildings ........................................................... 149

9.2

Behavior of Seismically Isolated Buildings ....................................... 151

9.3

Results of Survey .................................................................................. 161

Chapter 10

Concluding Remarks .......................................................................... 163

List of authors
Chapter 1 : Isao Nishiyama (NILIM), Shoichi Ando (BRI)
Chapter 2 : Takashi Nagasaki (BRI), Norimitsu Ishii (BRI)
Chapter 3 : Ryou Ootake (NILIM), Yoshiyuki Shibata (NILIM), Masashi Mori (NILIM),
Satoshi Arikawa (NILIM), Shuuichi Takeya (NILIM),
Atsuhito Ooshima (NILIM), Tomohiko Sakata (NILIM), Norimitsu Ishii (BRI)
Chapter 4 : Nobuo Hurukawa (BRI), Tatsuhiko Hara (BRI), Yushiro Fujii (BRI)
Chapter 5 : Toshihide Kashima (BRI), Shin Koyama (BRI), Izuru Okawa (BRI)
Chapter 6 : Isao Nishiyama (NILIM), Takahiro Tsuchimoto (NILIM),
Takafumi Nakagawa (BRI), Yasuhiro Araki (BRI), Chihiro Tsuda (BRI),
Hiroto Kato (BRI), Hiroshi Fukuyama (BRI), Takashi Hasegawa (BRI),
Koichi Morita (BRI), Tadashi Ishihara (NILIM), Yoshihiro Iwata (NILIM),
Tsutomu Hirade (BRI), Namihiko Inoue (NILIM), Hiroshi Arai (NILIM),
Yoshio Wakiyama (BRI)
Chapter 7 : Yasuo Okuda (BRI), Takahiro Tsuchimoto (NILIM)
Chapter 8 : Koji Kagiya (NILIM), Ichiro Hagiwara (BRI), Tatsuya Iwami (NILIM),
Yoshihiko Hayashi, Junichi Suzuki (BRI), Hideki Yoshioka (NILIM)
Chapter 9 : Masanori Iiba (BRI), Taiki Saito (BRI), Namihiko Inoue (NILIM)
Chapter 10 : Isao Nishiyama (NILIM), Shoichi Ando (BRI), Tadashi Tonami (NILIM),
Atsuo Fukai (NILIM), Masanori Iiba (BRI)
Editors Izuru Okawa (BRI), Takashi Hasegawa (BRI), Koichi Morita (BRI),Hitomitsu Kikitsu (NILIM), Yoshihiro Iwata (NILIM)