SeismoArchives

1964 Niigata (Japan) Earthquake Archive:
In Honor of Professor Keiiti Aki

The death toll of this earthquake was over 200.  The Niigata earthquake has been extensively studied by Japanese seismologists, and in particular, by Keiiti Aki who introduced the concept of seismic moment, estimated its value for the Niigata earthquake based on spectral analysis of  its seismic waves, and discussed the significance of seismic moment as a source parameter. This earthquake archive is created to honor Prof. Keiiti Aki for his many pioneering contributions in seismology.

We welcome contributions of digital files of materials relating to the Niigata Earthquake and financial donations to the endowment fund so that more seismograms can be scanned and made available online.  In addition, an archivist is needed to edit and maintain this Archive. If you are interested, 
please contact W.H.K. Lee at <lee@usgs.gov> (office) or  <whklee@ix.netcom.com> (home).

Archivist: A volunteer is needed.
Endowment Donors: Ru-Shan Wu (Founder), Yehuda Ben-Zion, William H. K. Lee, Peter E. Malin, John McRaney, Scott Phillips, Paul Richards, and Haruo Sato (for providing fund to scan seismograms).
Contributors of Files: Charles R. Hutt, and William H. K. Lee.

NOTE: A Mw=6.6 earthquake occurred in the Mid Niigata Prefecture on 2004 October 23 at 08:56 UTC. The hypocenter of the main shock is located at 37.3 N; 138.8E with depth of 13 km and magnitude of 6.8 determined by Japan Meteorological Agency.  A summary in htm format has been provided on their Web site by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and
Disaster Prevention (NIED); please click: Summary of 2004 Mid-Niigata Earthquake.
For more details, please visit: http://www.hinet.bosai.go.jp/topics/niigata041023/index_e.html

1. Seismograms of the 1964 Niigata (Japan) Earthquake:
    Please click the above link to view the selected seismograms of the 1964 Niigata earthquake recorded by the WWSSN stations.

link to compressed tif file directory (.gz format)

2. Selected Information about the 1964 Niigata Earthquake now Online:
Summary of 1964 Niigata Earthquake (1973): A two-page summary from the “Summary of Scientific Data of Major Earthquakes in Japan 1872-1972”, Quick Research Report, No. 9, p. 116-117, Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1973. [in Japanese with some English captions].

Aki, K. (1966a): “Generation and propagation of G waves from the Niigata earthquake of June 16, 1964: Part 1. A statistical analysis”, Bull. Earthq. Res. Inst., Univ. Tokyo, 44, 23-72.

Aki, K. (1966b): “Generation and propagation of G waves from the Niigata earthquake of June 16, 1964: Part 2.   Estimation of earthquake moment, released energy and stress drop from the G wave spectra”, Bull. Earthq. Res. Inst., Univ. Tokyo, 44, 73-88.

Kawasumi, H. (1968): “Introduction”. In General Report on the Niigata Earthquake of 1964, H. Kawasumi, Editor-in-Chief, p. 1-6, Tokyo Electrical Engineering College Press, Tokyo, Japan, 1968.

Hirono, T. (1968): “Seismometrical Features”. In General Report on the Niigata Earthquake of 1964, H. Kawasumi, Editor-in-Chief, p. 47-62, Tokyo Electrical Engineering College Press, Tokyo, Japan, 1968.

Color Plate (1968): Showing ground failure damage, from Kawasumi (1968).

3. References:
Japan Meteorological Agency  (1965). “Report on the Investigations of the 1964 Niigata Earthquake of June 16, 1964”, Technical Report No. 43. [in Japanese].
Kawasumi, H. (Editor-in-Chief) (1968): General Report on the Niigata Earthquake of 1964, Tokyo Electrical Engineering College Press, Tokyo, Japan, 550 pp. and 148 plates.


4. A Brief Note about Keiiti Aki
    Prof. Aki was educated at the University of Tokyo: B.Sc. (1952) and Ph.D. (1958), both in Geophysics.
He served as a Research Fellow, California Institute of Technology (1958-60); Associate Professor, Earthquake Research Institute., University of Tokyo (1963-66); Professor of Geophysics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1966-84); and W.M. Keck Foundation Professor of Geophysics, University of SouthernCalifornia (1984-2000).
     For photos of Prof. Aki, please click:
           (1) Kei Aki speaking at a party honoring Seiya Uyeda during the 40th Anniversary of the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC) on July 4, 2003 in Sapporo, Japan.
           (2) Kei Aki and Paul Richards at the IHFC reception on July 4, 2003 in Sapporo, Japan. 

Please click: Biographical Sketch for: Keiiti Aki for a 1-page bio-summary written by Prof. Aki himself for the “International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering Seismology”, edited by W.H.K. Lee, H. Kanamori, P.C. Jennings, and C. Kisslinger, Part B, p. 1877, Academic Press, San Diego, 2003.

Please click: Keiiti Aki's Publication List for a list of Aki's publications (compiled by Anshu Jin).