Fieldwork approaches

          
The final preparations are underway before the first field season of the QuakeRecNankai project. We're heading out to south central Japan to carry out almost two months of fieldwork on sites to the west of Tokyo, at the eastern end of the Nankai Trough. 


We'll start on the Fuji Five Lakes, a crescent of lakes around the base of the iconic mountain. These lakes, Lake Motosu, Lake Shoji, Lake Sai, Lake Kawaguchi and Lake Yamanaka, formed when lava flows dammed rivers. Layers of sediment laid down over time may contain signs of intense shaking during past earthquakes. We'll be using geophysical surveying approaches and coring to investigate these sediments and uncover evidence for these earthquakes. 

The second part of our field season will see us heading to the coast of Shizuoka Prefecture and, in particular, Lake Hamana. Here we'll be looking for sediments left by tsunamis generated when great subduction zone earthquakes have displaced the sea floor. The QRN team will split into two, with one group heading out onto the lake itself and the other surveying the lowlands surrounding the lake.

Top arrow points to Fuji Five Lakes, bottom arrow to Lake Hamana

We'll be blogging our way around south central Japan; check back over the coming weeks for photos, videos and reports on our progress.