QuakeRecNankai is a Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) BRAIN-be funded project investigating earthquakes and tsunamis in south central Japan.
The East coast of Japan is prone to devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, as tragically demonstrated on 11 March 2011 by the Tohoku-oki earthquake (magnitude 9.0) and tsunami. The Nankai subduction zone, to the southwest of the area affected by the Tohoku-oki disaster and facing the densely populated and heavily industrialized eastern coastline of Central and West Japan, is expected to generate another earthquake and tsunami in the near future. In response to the 2011 earthquake, the Cabinet Office of the Japanese central government proposed new guidelines for assessing the risk of similar earthquakes affecting the Nankai subduction zone. These guidelines call for the largest possible magnitude of earthquake to be taken into account.
The QuakeRecNankai project aims to reconstruct past earthquakes along the Nankai subduction zone. The project combines fieldwork in coastal plain areas and lakes, advanced sedimentological and geochemical analyses, innovative dating techniques, tsunami inundation modelling and risk and hazard assessment, with government policy support and public outreach.
The project unites a consortium of international experts, including three Belgian teams with expertise in paleo-tsunami and paleoseismological research, two Japanese teams with expertise in paleo-tsunami and limnogeological research, and one German team with expertise in tsunami-deposit dating.
External collaborators
- Marc De Batist (coordinator), Universiteit Gent
- Evelien Boes, Universiteit Gent
- Aurélia Hubert-Ferrari, Université de Liège
- Laura Lamair, Université de Liège
- Helmut Bruckner, Universität zu Köln
- Martin Seeliger, Universität zu Köln
- Svenja Riedesel, Universität zu Köln
- Osamu Fujiwara, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan
- Mansanobu Shishikura, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan
- Yoshiki Sato, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan
- Yuichi Namegaya, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan
- Yusuke Yokoyama, University of Tokyo
- Yousuku Miyairi, University of Tokyo
