A series of earthquakes struck Kumamoto City, Japan that began with a Mw 6.2 on the Hinagu Fault on April 14, 2016, followed by a foreshock of Mw 6.0 on the Hinagu Fault on April 15, 2016, and a larger Mw 7.0 event on the Futagawa Fault on April 16, 2016.
These events are the strongest earthquakes recorded in Kyushu during the modern instrumental era. The earthquakes resulted in substantial damage to infrastructure, buildings, cultural heritage of Kumamoto Castle, roads and highways, slopes, and river embankments. Surface fault rupture produced offset and damage to roads, buildings, river levees, and an agricultural dam. Surprisingly, given the intense ground motions, liquefaction occurred only in a few districts of Kumamoto City and in the port areas, indicating that the volcanic soils were less susceptible to liquefaction than expected given the intensity of earthquake shaking, a significant finding from this event that needs to be evaluated in future research.
In response to this extreme event, a team from the NSF-sponsored Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, in collaboration with Japanese engineers and scientists, visited the affected areas to document the geotechnical effects and the seismic performance of infrastructure.
The GEER report is available at: www.geerassociation.org
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