2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake
 |
|
| Date | July 16, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | 6.6 Mw |
| Depth | 10 km |
| Areas affected | Japan |
| Peak acceleration | 1.01 g |
| Casualties | 11 dead, over 1120 injured |
Coordinates: 37°57′N 138°44′E / 37.950°N 138.733°E
The Chūetsu Offshore earthquake (Japanese: 平成19 年（2007 年）新潟県中越沖地震) was a powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake that occurred 10:13 local time (01:13 UTC) on July 16, 2007, in the northwest Niigata region of Japan. The earthquake, which occurred at a previously unknown offshore fault shook Niigata and neighbouring prefectures. The city of Kashiwazaki and the villages of Iizuna and Kariwa registered the highest seismic intensity of a strong 6 on Japan's shindo scale, and the quake was felt as far away as Tokyo. Eleven deaths and at least 1000 injuries were reported, and 342 buildings were completely destroyed, mostly older wooden structures. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe broke off from his election campaign in Southern Japan to visit Kashiwazaki and promised to "make every effort towards rescue and also to restore services such as gas and electricity".
This magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurred approximately 17 km off the west coast of Honshū, Japan, in a zone of compressional deformation that is associated with the boundary between the Amur plate and the Okhotsk plate. At this latitude, the Okhotsk Plate is converging to the west-northwest towards the Amur Plate with a velocity of about 9 mm/yr and a maximum convergence rate of 24 mm/yr. The Amur and Okhotsk plate are themselves relatively small plates that lie between the Eurasian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Pacific plate converges west-northwest towards the Eurasia plate at over 90 mm/yr. Most of the relative motion between the Pacific plate and the Eurasia plate is accommodated approximately 400 km to the east-southeast of the epicenter of the earthquake, where the Pacific plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk plate.
...
Wikipedia