Nankai earthquake and Southern Tokai earthquake

Earthquakes occur in limited areas of the world. Mainly they occur along the boundary of the plates that move on the surface of the earth. There are 3 types of boundaries; a separating boundary, an approaching boundary and a passing boundary. The movement of the plates produces tremendous energy for earthquakes. Earthquakes are the evidence of a living earth and will never stop.

In Japan, we classify earthquakes into 2 categories. One is an "ocean earthquake" and the other is an "inland earthquake" that includes local city earthquakes such as the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. The Nankai earthquake is an ocean earthquake and is estimated to occur once in 200 years from the amount of sinking of the ground. In the Nankai earthquake, it is estimated that the tremors will be strong lateral and longer vibrations. In the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, there was no tsunami disaster however we have to take it into consideration in the case of the Nankai earthquake. How much we can reduce the damage in a disaster depends on sufficient preparation by both each person and the whole society.