The 1889 Kumamoto earthquake occurred at 11.40 p.m local time on 28 July in the western part of

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

, Japan. It was also called the Kinpozan earthquake (or Kinbozan earthquake, since its epicenter was the southern-eastern foot of

Mount Kinpu , or is a mountain and the main peak in the Okuchichibu Mountains, Okuchichibu Range in Kantō Mountains in the Akaishi Mountains, South Japan Alps. It is located in Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park

) and its magnitude was 6.3. Twenty people died (5 in Kumamoto City and 15 in Akita Gun,

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture to ...

) and hundreds of houses and parts of

Kumamoto Castle is a hilltop Japanese castle located in Chūō-ku, Kumamoto, in Kumamoto Prefecture. It was a large and well fortified castle. The is a concrete reconstruction built in 1960, but several ancillary wooden buildings remain of the original castle ...

were destroyed. The earthquake was the first major one after the establishment of the

Seismological Society of Japan The or SSJ is a learned society (professional association) with the goal of advancing the understanding of earthquakes and other seismic phenomena. History John Milne joined James Alfred Ewing, Thomas Lomar Gray and Thomas Corwin Mendenhall in ...

(in 1880), and its waves were recorded as far as

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, Germany. Few houses were affected by fire since the quake occurred at midnight. Aftershocks occurred for five months, and some people had to sleep outdoors. According to Tadao Shimoma,Shozo Oda (2000). ''On earthquakes'', numbers 4 and 5, Shiso, pp. 143. (Original : Kumamotoken Chiboshi, by Tadao Shimoma (1932).) the earthquake was a combination of the Tatsuda fault and unsuccessful volcanic activities, since there were injections of

aerosol An aerosol is a suspension (chemistry), suspension of fine solid particles or liquid Drop (liquid), droplets in air or another gas. Aerosols can be natural or Human impact on the environment, anthropogenic. Examples of natural aerosols are fog o ...

into the air at many places around Mt. Kinpo, Ninotake and Sannotake. He claimed the Kinpo mountains (now showing no volcanic activities) are similar to Mt. Unzen in

petrology Petrology () is the branch of geology that studies rocks and the conditions under which they form. Petrology has three subdivisions: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology. Igneous and metamorphic petrology are commonly taught together ...

. The photographs were considered the earliest earthquake damage photos in Japan.

References

External links

Photographs of the effects of the earthquake with text
{{Earthquakes in Japan Earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture 1889 earthquakes 1889 in Japan July 1889 events Earthquakes of the Meiji period 1889 disasters in Japan

See also

References

External links