2000 Tottori Earthquake

• Earthquake data
  
  • Date & Time: 2000/10/06 13:30
  • Epicenter: 35.3N 133.4E
  • Depth: 10km
  • Magnitude: 7.3
  • The official name by Japan Meteorological Agency:
    In English: "The Western Tottori prefecture earthquake in 2000"
    In Japanese: ""<Heisei 12-nen (2000-nen) Tottori-ken-seibu-jishin>

• Date of Investigation: 2000/10/7 12:30 - 10/8 13:40

• Investigation Area: Yonago City and Sakaiminato City, Tottori, Japan.
  The epicenter area (such as Hino-cho and Saihaku-cho) is not included.

• Investigator: Mitsutoshi YOSHIMINE (Soil Mechanics Lab., Tokyo Metropolitan Univ.)

Photos (NEW! Click small photos to enlarge.)

1. Photos No.001-100
2. Photos No.101-200
3. Photos No.201-300
4. Photos No.301-352

Topics

• Extensive liquefaction of ground occured (Click photos to enlarge)
  

  Takeuchi Industrial Village		Sakaiminato Port	Yonago Port

• Waste material collapsed? (Click photos to enlarge)
  
  Ground failure due to liquefaction occurred around Suntopia Bridge near to the main gate of Yonago Airport. At this site garbage was seen in the clacks of the ground. The thickness ot the garbage layer was more than 50cm though total thickness is unknown. Sand volcanoes consisted of ordinal sand, therefore not the garbage but a sand layer beneath the garbage might liquefied.

• Liquefaction continued? (Click photos to enlarge)

  Evidence 1: On the road in front of Hokuyo-Reizo Co. Ltd., Showa-cho, Sakaiminato City
  7th Oct., at 13:35	7th Oct., at 13:36	-->	8th Oct., at 13:37
  Evidence 2: In Yume-Minato Park, Takeuchi Industrial Village, Sakaiminato City
  7th Oct., at 15:16	7th Oct., at 15:16	-->	8th Oct., at 13:04

  
  After 24hours (7th Oct.) from the quake, it was seen that clean water was flowing out from sand volcanoes in front of the warehouse of Hokuyo-Reizo Co. Ltd., Showa-cho, Sakaiminato City. In addition to this observation, in Yume-Minato Park, Takeuchi Industrial Village, Sakaiminato City, water was splashing out from gaps of brick pavement. If this water came from destroyed water pipes, this phenomena should continue until the pipes were repaired. However, when I visited the same sites on the next day (8th Oct.), the water flow was diminished and only oozing could be observed. The water pipes connecting the main city and Takeuchi Industrial Village was completely destroyed as shown in this photo. This fact indicates that the water supply was stopped immediately after the quake.
  According to my experience in the CANLEX Project(Canadian Liquefaction Experiment) in August 1997, when a slag deposit was liquefied by blasting, oozing of water from sand volcano condinued after 24hours of the blasting.

• Runway of Yonago Airport liquefied
  

  Photo: Mainichi Shimbun

  Photo: Nihonkai Shimbun

  Liquefaction of a runway of Yonago Airport is reported by some newspapers. It seems that the repair work of the runway was completed on the day of the earthquake (6th Oct.). It is surprising that such important earth structure liquefied.

Links

• Japanese Geotechnical Society (in Japanese): liquefaction, slope failure (click photos to enlarge)
• Konagai Laboratory, IIS, University of Tokyo
• Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Research Center
• Architectural Institute of Japan (in Japanese)
• Civil Engineering, Tottori University(in Japanese)
• Investigation team, Shimane University (in Japanese)
• Dynamics of Foundation Structures, DPRI, Kyoto University(in Japanese)
• Research Center for Earthquake Prediction, DPRI, Kyoto University
• Earthquake Research Institute, Univ. of Tokyo
• The National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention Kyoshin-Net
• OYO Corporation (in Japanese)
• Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co. Ltd.(in Japanese)
• YahooJapan 2000 Tottori Earthquake (in Japanese)
• Japanese nwes papers: Mainichi Asahi Yomiuri Kyodo Nihonkai Sanin-cyuo