Great Kantō Earthquake

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake that struck Japan’s Kantō region on September 1, 1923, devastating Tokyo and Yokohama and triggering widespread fires.

1923 Great Kantō Earthquake fires: Fires that spread through Tokyo and Yokohama after the 1923 earthquake, killing many people and destroying large urban areas. Firestorms caused much of the disaster’s destruction, especially in Tokyo.
Sagami Trough: A submarine trench south of central Japan where the Philippine Sea Plate descends beneath the Okhotsk Plate. The earthquake ruptured a plate boundary associated with this offshore trench.
Plate tectonics of Japan: The interactions of tectonic plates that produce Japan’s trenches, volcanoes, and frequent earthquakes. The earthquake’s source lies within Japan’s active plate-boundary system.
Shinpei Gotō: A Japanese politician and civil servant who led Tokyo’s reconstruction planning after the 1923 earthquake. As reconstruction minister, he championed an ambitious rebuilding program.
Honjo, Tokyo: A district in eastern Tokyo where thousands died in a fire at the Army Clothing Depot after the 1923 earthquake. A mass death site there demonstrates the lethal effects of converging fires and crowding.
Kantō Massacre: The 1923 mass killings of Koreans and others in Japan amid rumors and vigilantism after the earthquake. False rumors during the catastrophe fueled mob violence and state repression.
Megathrust earthquake: A large earthquake produced when stress is released along a convergent plate boundary between colliding tectonic plates. The event was a major rupture of a subduction-zone plate boundary.
Great Kantō earthquake of 1703: A destructive earthquake that struck the Kantō region on December 31, 1703. It was an earlier major earthquake in the same region, with a different rupture history.
Fusakichi Omori: A Japanese seismologist known for research on aftershocks and earthquake damage. His scientific work helped analyze the earthquake and its aftershocks.
Yokohama port: The harbor and port facilities of Yokohama, a major Japanese commercial center. Damage to the port disrupted trade and compounded the city’s destruction.

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