Tectonics in Japan

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Based on the accumulated data within the previous chapter the following results are evident:
1. Within the “Ring of Fire”, Japan is located on top of three major tectonic plates, where four oceanic or continental plates meet. Unfortunately, Japan’s topology is mostly mountainous and only 25% of the grounds provide areas for settlement and industrial complexes; this leads to extremely high densities in small areas, which makes Japan one of the most volatile places on earth.
2. Especially during the last decade the globe and especially Japan has seen increased occurrences of volcano eruptions, landslides, floods, droughts, cyclones, windstorms, tidal waves and landslides and earthquakes. Adding more dynamics to the overall natural hazard risks are the potential outcomes of climate change.
3. Obviously, natural hazards only turn into natural disasters where amassing population numbers reside in areas of enhanced natural hazards risks. Besides the theoretical possibility to abandon such zones, the goal – not just for Japan, but for other regions as well – should be to predict, forecast or at least warn from imminent risks.
4. In regards to the natural hazard by earthquakes, nearly 1,500 earthquakes per year shake Japan and magnitudes larger than M 4 are routine; Japan was hit by 20 % of the most powerful earthquakes in known history. Currently almost 2,000 active faults are monitored in Japan, but, as previous earthquakes unfortunately proved, there must be many other, so far unknown, active faults in the region!
5. Earthquakes in Japan can be divided into earthquakes close to or within tectonic plate boundaries (subduction zone earthquakes and tectonic plate earthquakes) and earthquakes on land or in coastal regions (mostly in fault...

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...the other hand, better technologies (e.g. better global elevation models) as well as additional knowledge of historical earthquakes will further broaden the data basis.
For the time being, and even tough highly criticised by some scientists, Japan’s approach based on GSHAP principles seems to be valid. At least it will provide some hints in which areas to focus risk reduction measures.
Today and based on the currently available model, I think, Japan (and the rest of the pragmatic scientists) are on the right path, by concentrating mainly on five areas including the Tokai region (southwest region of Tokyo) and Tokyo itself; nevertheless, the scientific community needs to be very cautious about how they communicate in a socially adapted manner. But, the urgency to improve matters doesn’t decline as the figure of earthquake occurrences for the last month illustrates.

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