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Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...
, Japan, at 17:56 local time (08:56 UTC) on Saturday, October 23, 2004. The
Japan Meteorological Agency The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA; ''気象庁, Kishō-chō'') is a division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism dedicated to the Scientific, scientific observation and research of natural phenomena. Headquartered ...
(JMA) named it the .震度データベース検索(地震別検索結果)
Japan Meteorological Agency(Japanese) Retrieval 2018/04/03
Niigata Prefecture is located in the
Hokuriku region The is located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan and is part of the larger Chūbu region. It is almost equivalent to the former Koshi Province (Japan), Koshi Province and Hokurikudō are ...
of
Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...
, the largest island of Japan. The initial earthquake had a magnitude of 6.6 and caused noticeable shaking across almost half of Honshu, including parts of the Tōhoku, Hokuriku, Chūbu, and
Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...
s.


Details

The first quake struck the Chuetsu area of Niigata Prefecture, Japan on the Muikamachi Fault zone, with a reading of 7 on the Japanese '' shindo'' intensity scale at Kawaguchi, Niigata. The moment magnitude of the earthquake is estimated at 6.6. For comparison, the
Great Hanshin earthquake The Great Hanshin Earthquake (, ) occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region of Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 o ...
, which devastated much of
Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...
, measured 7 on the ''shindo'' scale, with a magnitude of 7.3. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 15.8 km. The JMA gave the coordinates of the earthquake as . A second earthquake occurred at 18:11, 16 minutes after the first. This one, at a much shallower depth, had a ''shindo'' intensity of 6+ and a magnitude of 5.9. A third, at 18:34, had a ''shindo'' intensity of 6−. At 19:45, another intensity 6− earthquake occurred. Intervening and subsequent earthquakes of lesser intensity also shook the region. During the first 116 hours, 15 earthquakes with intensities of ''shindo'' 5− or higher rocked the Chuetsu region. In a press release, the Geographical Survey Institute (GSI) of the Government of Japan published preliminary estimates that a fault having a length of 22 km and a width of 17 km moved approximately 1.4 m. This was the deadliest earthquake to strike Japan since the January 1995
Great Hanshin earthquake The Great Hanshin Earthquake (, ) occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region of Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 o ...
, until the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. This was also the first time a snake robot was used at a natural disaster site. A Souryu serpentine robot was used in a house in Nagaoka City that was damaged during this earthquake.


Seismic intensity


List of major aftershocks

The following is a list of major earthquakes that have occurred in Niigata Prefecture since October 23, 2004:


Damage

As late as November 3, the 39th fatality attributable to the earthquakes occurred as perceptible aftershocks continued. 68 dead and 4,795 injuries were reported in Niigata Prefecture. Over one hundred thousand people fled their homes. The earthquakes caused houses to collapse in Ojiya and damaged thousands in the area. For the first time in its 40-year history, a
Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. It was initially built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond lon ...
train derailed while in service, the train being too close to the epicentre to be halted by the automatic UrEDAS earthquake detection system.A brief history of earthquake warnings ''IEEE Spectrum'' 2007
/ref> Eight out of ten cars of the '' Toki'' 325 service (a 200 Series Shinkansen train) derailed on the Joetsu Shinkansen line between Nagaoka Station in Nagaoka and Urasa Station in
Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...
; no injuries were reported among the 155 passengers. The railbed, bridges and tunnels were all affected.
East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...
(JR East) stopped all trains in Niigata Prefecture, including the extensively damaged Joetsu Line,
Shinetsu Main Line The is a railway line, consisting of three geographically separated sections, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. It was originally one continuous line connecting and via . Since the opening and later extension of ...
, Iiyama Line, Tadami Line and Echigo Line. Part of Nagaoka Station appeared ready to collapse as a result of an aftershock, but after a brief closure, the station reopened. The section of the Joetsu Shinkansen between Echigo-Yuzawa Station and Tsubame-Sanjo Station closed. Buses transferred passengers between the two operating sections of the line:
Tokyo Station Tōkyō Station (, ) is a major railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far ...
to Echigo-Yuzawa Station and Tsubame-Sanjo Station to Niigata Station. On December 27, 2004, service resumed on all remaining parts of the Joetsu and Iiyama Lines reopened. On December 28, 2004, the Joetsu Shinkansen also reopened, the last to do so. Japan Highways closed all expressways in Niigata Prefecture. Closures affected the Kanetsu Expressway and the Hokuriku Expressway. As of November 4, the Kanetsu Expressway remained closed between Nagaoka Interchange and Koide Interchange. This segment reopened on November 5. Landslides and other problems forced closure of two national highways, National Route 8 and National Route 17, as well as several prefectural roads. This isolated several localities, including nearly the entire
village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
of Yamakoshi, which was then a village in the district of Koshi but since merged with and became part of the city of Nagaoka. On July 22, 2005, the government lifted the nine-month-old evacuation order for 528 of the 690 affected households. The earthquakes also caused a landslide that partially buried three vehicles. A young boy was rescued from one of these vehicles, but his mother and sister died. (Recent typhoons had waterlogged the soil, making landslides more likely.) The quake broke water mains. Extensive electric power, telephone (including cellular telephone) and Internet outages were reported. The cellular telephone system suffered from direct damage to relay stations, as well as depletion of battery back-up power supplies in as little as a day.


Aftermath

On April 1, 2007, the directive to evacuate five settlements in the former village of Yamakoshi (later part of the city of Nagaoka) was lifted. Residents were permitted to return to their homes after a span of nearly two and a half years. The movie '' A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies'' was based on events that took place during this earthquake.


History

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...
has been hit by numerous earthquakes in recorded history. Notable recent ones include a large quake on June 16, 1964 that had a magnitude of 7.5, killing 28, where major
liquefaction In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of t ...
had occurred and
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
destroyed the port of Niigata city. There was also the 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake, both striking shortly after major
typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...
s passed by, causing complications.


See also

* List of earthquakes in 2004 * List of earthquakes in Japan


References


External links


GSI Press Release (in Japanese)




*
Niigata, Japan
(Publication regarding the earthquakes) –
NASA Earth Observatory NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information about the climate and the environment which are being provided by NASA for ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chuetsu Earthquake, 2004 2004 disasters in Japan Chūbu region
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a  9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
2004 earthquakes 2004 in Japan Hokuriku region History of Niigata Prefecture October 2004 in Japan Landslides in Japan Shindo 7 earthquakes