Journal of Natural Disaster Science

INTERPRETATION OF DAMAGE TO HOUSES AND CASUALTIES RELIED ON A PRECISE EVALUATION OF EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTIONS IN THE EPICENTRAL REGION　-THE 1945 MIKAWA EARTHQUAKE-

Hitoshi TANIGUCHI
Research Associate, Faculty of Engineering, Aichi Institute of Technology
Fusanori MIURA
Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Yamaguchi University
Toshio MOCHIZUKI
Professor, Center For Urban Studies, Tokyo Metropolitan University
and
Osamu INADA
Assistant Manager, Chubu Electric Power CO., INC.

(Received 2 May, 1988 and in revised form 1 August, 1988)

Abstract

Although about two thousand people were killed by the 1945 Mikawa earthquake, a clear description of the entire event has yet to be given because the earthquake took place just before the end of World War II. In order to describe what happened in the epicentral region during this earthquake, the authors estimated the ground motion and investigated the damage done to houses the casualties caused by the earthquake.

The ground motion was estimated by a nonlinear finite element method, in which modified joint elements were adopted to model the fault plane. The seismic intensity in the area near the fault was estimated from the calculated maximum velocity. The damage done to houses and the casualties caused were investigated by questionnaire. The destruction of houses was compared in detail to the number of casualties. The type of damage is discussed in relation to the estimated ground motion.

Key words

Mikawa earthquake, Nonlinear dynamic analysis, rupture mechanism, liquefaction, damage of wooden houses