Magnitudes of the 1923 Kanto Earthquake and its Major Aftershocks

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  • 関東地震のマグニチュード
  • カントウ ジシン ノ マグニチュード

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Abstract

Magnitudes for the 1923 Kanto earthquake and its major aftershocks were determined in JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) scale. The original definition of the JMA magnitude is a magnitude that is calculated by the Tsuboi's formula from the maximum amplitudes in horizontal components of seismograms obtained by the regional observation network of JMA. The used seismograms were recorded by standard seismographs, which were the displacement type with the natural period of about 5s and damping ratio of about 8. However, the seismometers had not been yet standardized before 1925 and various types had been used whose instrumental responses were quite different from those of the standard seismographs. The purpose of the present study was that the JMA magnitudes of the 1923 Kanto earthquake and its major 3 aftershocks were determined in consideration of the difference of the instrumental responses. Fortunately, unsaturated seismograms by the Imamura's type strong motion seismographs (displacement type) have been preserved at 7 stations of JMA. The natural period and damping ratio of each seismograph have been evaluated from the free oscillation records preserved at each station. The records for the main shock and aftershocks were digitized and corrected in the instrumental responses to calculate the seismograms with the instrumental response of the standard seismograph of JMA. After that, the maximum amplitudes were measured on the corrected records and the magnitude was determined for each earthquake following the definition of the JMA magnitude. The determined JMA magnitude was 8.1±0.2 for the main shock. All the results were consistent within the difference of 0.2 with the customary results, which were determined from the uncorrected amplitude and seismic intensity data. The standard deviations were smaller than 0.2 for all the events, which shows higher reliability of the present results, comparing with the past ones.

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