EAST CHI N A S E A

Y E L L O W S E A

P H I L I P P I N E S E A

SOUT H

KOREA

N O RTH

K OREA

JAPAN

CHINA

R USSI A

T A I W A N

La Perouse Strait

BO 

Korea Bay

HAI

K o r e a S t r a i t

KitamiYamatu

Bank

Z

e

n

k

e

v

i

c

Y a m a t o R i s e

Y a m a t o B a n k

K i t a - Ya m a t o

B a n k

O k i R i dge

Bogor o v

Ridge

K o

r e

a

n

P l a t e a u

Tusima

Basin

Syun-Yo

Rise

J

a

p

a

n

R i s

e

Izu - Ogas awa r a

Ris e

O g a s a w a r a P l a t e a

O

g a

s

a

w

a

r

a

R i d

g

e

K

y

u

s

h

u - P

a

l

a

u

R

i

d

g

e

D a i t o R i d g e

O k i

D a i t o

R i s e

W

e

s

t

M

a

r

i

a

n

a

B

a

s

i

n

K

i

n

a

n

S

e

a

m

o

u

n

t

C h

a

i

n

A m a m i R i s e

N a n s e i - S h o t o

R i d g e

Tosa

Bank

K

u

m

a n o R i d g

e

S i t

i t

o-O

z i

m a

 R

i d

g e

N

i s h i -

S

h i

c h i t o 

R

i d

g e

N a d e z h d a B a s i

C i p a

G e i s h a

G u y o t s

M u s a s i Ba n k

J a p a n

B a s i n

Yamat o

B a s i n

i Daikoku

Oki-Daito

Terrace

M a nge t s u

B a s i n

Koho Ridge

K i t a - D a i t o B a s i n

K i k a i

B a s i n

Iturup

Kunishir

Haboma Is.

H o k k a i d o

Ogasawara-Shotō

(B

o

nin

Isla

n

ds)

Mukojima-rettō

Yome-jima

Chichijimarettō

Hahajima-rettō

Kazan-rettō

(Volcano Islands)

Kita-io-jima

Iwo-jima

Izu-Shotō

(Izu

Islands)

Tori-shima

Sumisu-shima

Aoga-shima

Hachijo-shima

Mikura-shima

Kōzu-shima Miyaki-shima

Ō-shima

Nii-shima

H o n s

h u

S hiko k u

Kyus h u

Gotō Rettō

Cheju-do

Shimono

Shima

Tsushima

Dōgo

Dōzen

Dokdo

(Admin by S. Korea)

N a n s e i - S h o t ō ( R y u

k y

u

I s

l a

n

d s )

Ya eyam a - rettō

Miyako Jima

Ishigaki Jima

Iriomote Jima

Okinawa

Tokuno Shima

Amami Ō Shima

)

P'enghu

Ch'untao

H o n s h u

K U R I L I S L A N D S

J

A

P

A

N

T

R

E

N

C

H

I

Z

U - O

G

A

S

A

W

A

R

A

T

R

E

N

C

H

T a

t a r T r o u g h

O k i n

a

w

a

T

r

o

u

g

h

N A N S E I -

S H O T O

T R

E

N

C H

K U R I

L - K A

M

C

H A

T K A

60

100

200

300

400

200

500

600

200

100

60

400

600

60

100

60

100

300

100

200

60

500

200

300

60

60

100

200

300

100

C

C'

D'

D

1910

2007

1909

1911

1914

1959

1978

1993

2000

B

B'

1960

1931

1931

1938

1938

1938 1938

1938

1940

1941

1944

1946

1951

1952

1953

1923

1961

1963

1964

1968

1968

1968

1972

1972

1973

1976

1978

1978

1978

1978

1993

1994

1995

1998

1999

1901

1969

1909

1915

1915

1920

1922

1923

1983

A

A'

Tangshan

Harbin

Changchun Jilin

Vladivostok

Sapporo

Shenyang Fushun

Ch'ongjin

Anshan

Aomori

Sinuiju

Beijing

Wonsan

Tianjin

Dalian

P'yongyang

Sendai

Kaesong

Jinan Inch`on

Ch'ungju

Taejon

Qingdao

Chonju Tokyo

Kawasaki Yokohama

Nagoya

Kyoto

Kobe

Osaka

Hiroshima

Kita Matsuyama

Kyushu Fukuoka

Nagasaki Hefei Nanjing

Shanghai

Hangzhou

Naha

Fuzhou

Taipei

T'aichung

T'ainan

Kaoshsiung

Pusan

Seoul

Kwangju

Taegu

Shimonoseki

Gifu

1973

1906

1950

1933

1958

1963

1994

2003

146° 148° 150° 152°

144°

144°

142°

142°

140°

140°

138°

138°

136°

136°

134°

134°

132°

132°

130°

130°

128°

128°

126°

126°

124°

124°

122°

122°

120°

114° 116° 118° 120°

44° 44°

42° 42°

40° 40°

38° 38°

36° 36°

34° 34°

32° 32°

30° 30°

28° 28°

26° 26°

24° 24°

22° 22°

JAPAN

SOUTH 

KOREA

NORTH

KOREA

RUSSIA CHINA

PACIFIC 

PLATE

OKHOTSK 

PLATE

PHILIPPINE SEA 

PLATE

EURASIA (AMUR) 

PLATE

63

67

90

83

56

49

39

47

51

57

53

45

70

145°

145°

140°

140°

135°

135°

130°

130°

125°

125°

120°

115° 120°

45° 45°

40° 40°

35° 35°

30° 30°

25° 25°

0 100 200 400 600 800

Kilometers

Albers Equal Area Conic Projection

SCALE 1:6 000 000 

Subduction zones at the Japanese island arcs are geologically complex and produce numerous

earthquakes from multiple sources. Deformation of the overriding plates generates shallow crustal

earthquakes, whereas slip at the interface of the plates generates interplate earthquakes that extend from

near the base of the trench to depths of 40 to 60 km. At greater depths, Japanese arc earthquakes occur

within the subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea plates and can reach depths of nearly 700 km. Since

1900, two great earthquakes occurred off Japan and three north of Hokkaido. They are the M8.4 1933

Sanriku-oki earthquake (Kawakatsu and Seno, 1983), the M8.3 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake (Miyazaki

and others, 2004), M8.4 1958 Etorofu earthquake (Fukao and Furamoto, 1979), the M8.5 1963 Kuril

earthquake (Beck and Ruff, 1987), and the M8.3 1994 Shikotan earthquake (Kikuchi and Kanamori,

1995).

Several relevant tectonic elements, plate boundaries and active volcanoes, provide a context for the

seismicity presented on the main map. The plate boundaries (Bird, 2003) are known most accurately

along the axis of the trenches and are more diffuse or speculative in the Sea of Japan, China, and Russia.

The active volcanic arcs (Siebert and Simkin, 2002) follow the Izu, Volcano, and Ryukyu island chains

and the main Japanese islands parallel to the Japan trench.

Seismicity of the Earth 1900–2007

Japan and Vicinity

Compiled by Susan Rhea, Arthur C. Tarr, Gavin Hayes, Antonio Villaseñor*, and Harley Benz *

Institute of Earth Sciences, CSIC, Lluis Solé i Sabarîs s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

OPEN-FILE REPORT 2010–1083-D

Version 1.0

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Albers Equal Area Conic Projection

Digital map database and cartography by Susan Rhea and Arthur Tarr

Manuscript approved for publication July 28, 2010

Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only

and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Although this information product, for the most part, is in 

the public domain, it also contains copyrighted materials 

as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted

items for other than personal use must be secured from 

the copyright owner.

This map was produced on request, directly from 

digital files, on an electronic plotter.

For sale by U.S. Geological Survey Information Services

Box 25286, Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225

1-888-ASK-USGS

A PDF for this map is available at 

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1083/d/

Suggested citation:

Rhea, Susan, Tarr, A.C., Hayes, Gavin, Villaseñor, 

Antonio, and Benz, H.M., 2010, Seismicity of the earth 

1900–2007, Japan and vicinity: U.S. Geological Survey

Open-File Report 2010–1083-D, scale 1:6,000,000.

1611

1677 1896

1847

1898

1897

1897

1891

1854

1854

1843

1793

1763

1707

1703

1679

1668

1604

1586

PRE-INSTRUMENTAL SEISMICITY 1500–1899

 M ≥ 7.5, tsunami, or deaths

Magnitude

0 - 7.9

8 - 8.7

PROFILE A

-1200 -1100 -1000 -900 -800 -700 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100

 -600

 -500

 -400

 -300

 -200

 -100

 0

PROFILE B

 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100

 -400

 -300

 -200

 -100

 0

PROFILE B

 -600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100

 -400

 -300

 -200

 -100

 0

PROFILE C

 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100

 -300

 -200

 -100

 0

PROFILE D

 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100

 -600

 -500

 -400

 -300

 -200

 -100

 0

SEISMIC HAZARD AND RELATIVE PLATE MOTION

TECTONIC SUMMARY

This map shows details of Japan and vicinity not visible in an earlier publication (Tarr and others, 2010).

Japan and its island possessions lie across four major tectonic plates: Pacific plate; North America plate;

Eurasia plate; and Philippine Sea plate. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, beneath Hokkaido

and northern Honshu, along the eastern margin of the Okhotsk microplate, a proposed subdivision of the

North America plate (Bird, 2003). Farther south, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath volcanic islands

along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This 2,200 km-long zone of subduction of the

Pacific plate is responsible for the creation of the deep offshore Ogasawara and Japan trenches as well as

parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of Circumpacific island arcs. Similarly, the Philippine

Sea plate is itself subducting under the Eurasia plate along a zone, extending from Taiwan to southern

Honshu, that comprises the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto trench.

DATA SOURCES

The earthquakes portrayed on the main map and the depth profiles are taken from two sources: (a) the

Centennial earthquake catalog (Engdahl and Villaseñor, 2002) and annual supplements for the interval 1900-

2007, where the magnitude floor is 5.5 globally, and (b) a catalog of earthquakes having high-quality depth

determinations for the period 1964-2002 and a magnitude range of 5.0≤M≤5.4 (Engdahl, personal comm.

2003)

The nucleation points of great earthquakes (M≥8.3) are designated with a label showing the year of

occurrence. Their rupture areas are shown as pale yellow polygons. Major earthquakes (7.5≤M≤8.2) are

labeled with the year of occurrence. Slab contours are from Hayes and Wald (2010).

The Seismic Hazard and Relative Plate Motion panel displays the generalized seismic hazard of the region

(Giardini and others, 1999) and representative relative plate motion vectors using the NUVEL-1A model

(DeMets, et.al., 1994.)

Pre-instrumental seismicity was obtained from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (2010) database

of significant earthquakes; locations are approximate, based on macro-seismic reports and field investigations.

We selected for earthquakes with associated reports of moderate to major damage, deaths, an estimated

magnitude of 7.5 or greater, or tsunami generation.

Base map data sources include GEBCO 2008, Volcanoes of the World dataset (Siebert and Simkin, 2002),

plate boundaries (Bird, 2003), Digital Chart of the World, and ESRI (2002).

REFERENCES

Be .ck, S.L., and Ruff, L.J., 1987, Rupture process of the great 1963 Kuril Islands earthquake sequence—Asperity

interaction and multiple event rupture: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 92, no. B13, p. 14123–14138.

Bird, Peter, 2003, An updated digital model of plate boundaries: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, v. 4, no. 3, 52 p.

.

DeMets, C., Gordon, R.G., Argus, D.F., and Stein, S., 1994, Effects of recent revisions to the geomagnetic time scale

on estimates of current plate motions: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 21, p. 2191–2194.

.

Engdahl, E.R., and Villaseñor, Antonio, 2002, Global seismicity 1900–1999, in Lee, W.H.K., Jennings,

.

P., Kisslinger, C., and Kanamori, H., eds, International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering

Seismology, v. 81(A), chap. 41, p. 1–26.

A A'

C C'

B B'

D D'

.

Profiles of earthquake and volcano

locations are constructed from the

mapped data. Locations of the profile

intersection with the surface are drawn

in the map and labeled to coincide with

the profile label. Box defines extent of

earthquakes included in profile. Length

of the profile graphic is the same as in

the map. Distance in kilometers from the

trench axis is indicated in the X

direction, depth in kilometers is

indicated in the Y direction. There is no

vertical exaggeration. See Explanation

at side for color key. Not all earth layers,

earthquake depths or magnitudes, are

visible on every map.

PROFILE X

TRENCH AXIS

 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

 -800

 -700

 -600

 -500

 -400

 -300

 -200

 -100

 0

DEPTH PROFILE EXPLANATION 146° Depth (km)

Distance (km)

X X'

ESRI, 2002, ESRI Data and Maps: ESRI, Redlands, CA

.

Fukao, Yoshio, and Furumoto, Muneyoshi, 1979, Stress drops, wave spectra and recurrence intervals of

.

great earthquakes—Implications of the Etorofu earthquake of 1958 November 6: Geophysical Journal

International, v. 57, p. 23–40.

.

GEBCO, 2008, The GEBCO_08_Grid, ver. 20091120, accessed January 8, 2010 at

http://www.gebco.net/.

.

Giardini, D., Grünthal, G., Shedlock, K., Zhang, P., and Global Seismic Hazards Program, 1999, Global

Seismic Hazards Map, accessed January 9, 2007 at http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP.

.

Hayes, G,. and Wald, D., 2010, Slab models for subduction zones: U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake

Hazards Program, accessed February 23, 2010 at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/data/slab/.

.

Kawakatsu, H. and Seno, Tetsuo, 1983, Triple seismic zone and the regional variation of seismicity

along the northern Honshu arc: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 88, no. B5, p. 4215–4230.

.

Kikuchi, Matsayuki, and Kanamori, Hiroo, 1995, The Shikotan earthquake of October 4, 1994—

Lithospheric earthquake: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 22, no. 9, p. 1025–1028.

.

Miyazaki, Shin-ichi, Segall, Paul, Fukuda, Junichi, and Kato, Teryyuki, 2004, Space time distribution of

.

afterslip following the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake—Implications for variations in fault zone

frictional properties: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 31, no. L06623, p. 1–4.

NO.

AA National Geophysical Data Center, 2010, : U.S. Dept of Commerce, accessed March 31, 2010

at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazards.

.

Siebert, L., and Simkin, T., 2002, Volcanoes of the world—An illustrated catalog of Holocene

.

volcanoes and their eruptions: Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital

Information series, GVP-3, http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/, last accessed January 9, 2007.

.

Tarr, A.C., Villaseñor, Antonio, Furlong, K.P., Rhea, Susan, and Benz, H.M, 2010, Seismicity of the

.

Earth 1900–2007: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3064,

scale 1:25,000,000.

FIGURE EXPLANATION

Peak ground acceleration

0–0.2 m/s2

0.2–0.4

0.4–0.8

0.8–1.6

1.6–3.2

3.2–6.4

6.4–9.8

Relative plate motion

11.0–19.9

20.0–39.9

40.0–59.9

60.0–79.9

80.0–100.0

Plate boundaries

Subduction

Transform

Divergent

Others

MAP EXPLANATION

Magnitude classes

4–5.9

6–6.4

6.5–6.9

7–7.4

7.5

7.6

7.7

7.8

7.9

8.0

8.1

8.2

Depth of focus

0–69 km

70–299 km

300–700 km

Nucleation points

Rupture zones

Active volcanoes

Mean slab depth

60 km

100

200

300

400

500

600

Plate boundaries

Subduction

Transform

Divergent

Others

Magnitude classes

4–5.9

6–6.4

6.5–6.9

7–7.4

7.5

7.6

7.7

7.8

7.9

8.0

8.1

8.2

Depth of focus

0–69 km

70–299 km

300–700 km

Nucleation points

Earth structure

Air

Crust

Upper mantle

Transition zone

Lower mantle

Active volcanoes