1703 Genroku earthquake
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| Date | December 31, 1703 |
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| Magnitude | 8.2 Ms |
| Epicenter | 34°42′N 139°48′E / 34.7°N 139.8°ECoordinates: 34°42′N 139°48′E / 34.7°N 139.8°E |
| Areas affected | Japan, Tokyo |
| Tsunami | yes |
| Casualties | 5,233–10,000 |
The 1703 Genroku earthquake (元禄大地震 Genroku Daijishin?) occurred at 02:00 local time on December 31 (17:00 December 30 UTC). The epicenter was near Edo, the forerunner of present-day Tokyo, in the southern part of the Kantō Region, Japan. An estimated 2,300 people were killed by the shaking and subsequent fires. The earthquake triggered a major tsunami which caused many casualties, giving a total death toll of at least 5,233, possibly up to 10,000. Genroku is a Japanese era spanning from 1688 through 1704.
The Kantō Region lies at the complex triple junction, where the convergent boundaries between the subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea Plates and the overriding North American Plate meet. Earthquakes with epicenters in the Kanto region may occur within the Eurasian Plate, at the Eurasian Plate/Philippine Sea Plate interface, within the Philippine Sea Plate, at the Philippine Sea Plate/Pacific Plate interface or within the Pacific Plate. In addition to this set of major plates it has been suggested that there is also a separate 25 km thick, 100 km wide body, a fragment of Pacific Plate lithosphere. The 1703 earthquake is thought to have involved rupture of the interface between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate.
The earthquake was associated with areas of both uplift and subsidence. On both the Boso Peninsula and Miura Peninsula a clear paleo shoreline has been identified, indicating up to 5 m of uplift near Mera (about 8 km south of Tateyama) and up to 1.2 m of uplift on Miura, increasing to the south. This distribution of uplift, coupled with modelling of the tsunami, indicate that at least two and probably three fault segments ruptured during the earthquake.
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