SCOPE OF THE SYMPOSIUM

The Great East Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011 was an Mw9.0 earthquake extending 500km north-south and 250km east-west, the 4th largest earthquake ever recorded in the world. The earthquake resulted in extensive damage in wide areas along the Pacific coast including the Tokyo Metropolitan area. The number of victims and missing people was nearly 20,000. This was much larger than the number of victims in the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Damage occurred due to ground motion, tsunami, liquefaction and fire. Ground motion induced damage was generally less because of the past seismic measures, but there are a number of lessons for the further enhancement of seismic design. Tsunami-induced damage and liquefaction-induced damage were extensive. A serious accident at a nuclear power plant made the problem complex. Since various types of damage occurred, there are a number of lessons learned from this earthquake.

Furthermore the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, 2010 Maule earthquake, 2011 Christchurch earthquake and 2011 Van earthquake occurred recently. It is extremely important to share information among researchers and practitioners for mitigating earthquake risk in earthquake prone countries.