Morphological characteristics of the earthquake surface ruptures on Awaji Island, associated with the 1995 Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake

Abstract The earthquake surface ruptures on the northern side of Awaji Island accompanying the 1995 Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake in Japan consist of three earthquake surface rupture zones called the Nojima, Matsuho, and Kusumoto Earthquake Surface Rupture Zones. The Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone is - 18 km long and was formed from Awaji-cho at the northern end of Awaji Island to Ichinomiya-cho. It occurred along the pre-existing Nojima geological fault in the northern segment and as a new fault in the southern segment. The northern segment of the Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone is composed of some subparallel shear faults showing a right-step en echelon form and many extensional cracks showing a left-step en echelon form. The southern segment consists of some discontinuous surface ruptures which are concentrated in a narrow zone a few tens of meters in width. This surface rupture zone shows a general trend striking north 30°-60° east, and dipping 75°-85° east. The deformational topographies and striations on the fault plane generated during the co-seismic displacement show that the Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip fault with some reverse component. Displacements measured at many of the outcrops are generally 100-200 em horizontally and 50-100 em vertically in the northern segment and a few em to 20 em both horizontally and vertically in the southern segment. The largest displacements are 180 em horizontally, 130 em vertically, and 215 em in netslip measured at the Hirabayashi fault scarp. The Matsuho Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone striking north 40°-60° west was also found along the coastline trending northwest-southeast in Awaji-cho for ～1 km at the northern end of Awaji Island. The Kusumoto Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone occurred along the pre-existing Kusumoto geological fault for ～ 1.5 km near the northeastern coastline, generally striking north 35°-60° east, dipping 60°-70° west. From the morphological and geomorphological characteristics, the Nojima Earthquake Surface Rupture Zone can be divided into four segments which form a right-step en echelon formation. The geological and geomorphological evidence and the aftershock epicenter distributions show clearly that the distributions and geometry of these four segments are controlled by the pre-existing geological structures.