Tue. May 26, 2015 6:15 PM - 7:30 PM Convention Hall (2F)

Convener:*Hisashi Nakahara(Solid Earth Physics Laboratory, Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University), Haruo Horikawa(Active Fault and Earthquake Research Center, National Institute for Advanced Science and Technology), Tadashi Maruyama(Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)

Twenty years have passed since the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake and the great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster that caused casualties and missing of more than 6000. A part of the earthquake source fault appeared on the ground surface in the northern part of the Awaji Island, and put our focus on active faults. The Kobe earthquake also drastically changed earthquake research environments in Japan. Comprehensive and basic policies about earthquakes and disaster mitigation are planned by the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion. Nation-wide observation networks have been setup and innovated. In addition, evaluations of active faults and strong ground motions have been made. These activities have contributed to accumulation of our knowledge on the distribution and history of active faults and subsurface structure. A large amount of strong motion records during the inland earthquakes were obtained after the Kobe events. In addition, strong ground motions just above and/or close to the source faults were also recorded for several earthquakes. Researches associated with the evaluations and investigations of these records have deepened our understanding of seismic faults of inland earthquakes, active faults and strong motions. On the other hand, after an accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, new regulation has been enforced for the safety of nuclear power stations in Japan, and active faults again attract attention. Under the circumstance, we will summarize the progresses of our understanding on active faults, inland earthquakes and strong ground motion in these 20 years, and discuss future directions. We widely invite contributions about the related subjects.