Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2022

Presentation information

[J] Oral

M (Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary) » M-IS Intersection

[M-IS22] History X Earth and Planetary Science

Fri. May 27, 2022 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM 202 (International Conference Hall, Makuhari Messe)

convener:Yasuyuki Kano(Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo), convener:Kei Yoshimura(Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo), kiyomi iwahashi(kokugakuin university), convener:Harufumi Tamazawa(Kyoto City University of Arts), Chairperson:Yasuyuki Kano(Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo), Harufumi Tamazawa(Kyoto City University of Arts)

4:30 PM - 4:45 PM

[MIS22-09] Earthquakes felt in Hokkaido, Japan for the early modern period: Earthquakes recorded in Meteorological Observations at the Russian Consulate in Hakodate (1859-1863)

*Kentaro Hattori1, Ichiro Nakanishi1 (1.Kyoto Univ.)

Keywords:Russian record, the nineteenth century, Hokkaido

Records of historical earthquakes in Japan have been collected and published. An example is the volumes of “New collection of historical materials on earthquakes in Japan”. Regardless of the efforts of previous studies, the records of historical earthquakes in Hokkaido are far less than in other islands of Japan, because Hokkaido’s written history is brief.

In view of overcoming the above problem, the present study investigates the records of foreign meteorological observers. In the mid-nineteenth century, foreign residents started conducting meteorological observation in various areas of Japan [Horiuchi and Nemoto (1975)].

In this study, we pay special attention to records of the Russian Empire (hereafter, Russian) meteorological observations made by Albrecht (1860, 1863, 1864, 1865), a physician attached to the Russian consulate in Hakodate near the end of the Edo period, from 1859 to 1863. His works have been used in historical climatology [Zaiki et al. 2014]. Although Albrecht's earthquake records were cited in French catalogues of the time [e.g. Perrey (1861, 1865, 1866)], they have not been used in Japan yet.

We investigated the earthquake records accompanying the meteorological records in Hakodate from 1859 to 1863. We found approximately 50 days of records with earthquakes felt in Hakodate, which may be used as a newly found data set of historical earthquakes in Hokkaido and the surrounding area.