New Research Project for Evaluating Seismic Linkage Around the Nankai Trough —Integration of Observation, Simulation, and Disaster Mitigation—

Abstract

Maga thrust earthquakes have occurred with an interval of 100-200 years around the Nanki trough southwestern Japan. The estimated economical damage of next mega thrust earthquakes is equivalent to the national budget. Therefore, progresses of seismological researches and new proposals of disaster mitigation for next mega thrust earthquakes are urgent and important issues for Japan. So, from 2009, the new research project of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) is starting as a five years project. This project is composed of two subprojects including researches of observations simulations and disaster mitigations. In observational researches, we will carry out seismic surveys, seismic tomography and monitoring researches. Simulation researches are including the theme such as developments of crustal deformation databases, advanced simulation methods, seismic linkage studies and recurrence cycle simulations. In disaster mitigation researches, there are prediction researches of strong motion and tsunami hazards and proposals of future risk managements. These researches are progressing in close cooperation with each other. Finally, results from this project will be integrated to improve the recurrence simulation model and advanced proposal of disaster mitigation. The collaboration and integration of scientific researches, engineering researches and social sciences of next megathrust earthquakes will lead to the practical disaster mitigation.