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Characteristics of landslides triggered by the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake, Northern Japan

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Abstract

On 6 September 2018, a Mj 6.7 (Mw 6.6) earthquake with a focal depth of approximately 37 km and maximum seismic intensity of 7.0 on the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) scale (corresponding to approximately X on the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale) struck the central and eastern Iburi regions of Hokkaido, Northern Japan, 1 day after the Typhoon Jebi passed through the region. Thousands of landslides were triggered and significant losses resulted from the earthquake sequence. A detailed landslide inventory map, including 5625 coseismic landslides, was delineated on the basis of 3307 published landslide sites. Most of the coseismic landslides are translational landslides of small to medium scale with high mobility and long run-out distance. Thirty-six people were killed by the landslides despite the afflicted area being sparsely populated. It is found that all the 5625 landslides spread in an elliptic area extending NNW/SSE, running approximately parallel to the strike of (active) faults in this region. The preferred aspect of the landslide-affected area is southerly, running nearly perpendicular to the NNW/SSE striking (active) faults. Most coseismic landslides are distributed in regions with seismic intensity of 7.0 to 8.0 (MMI Scale), with peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.4 to 0.7 g. Most of the coseismic landslides occurred at the elevation between 100 and 250 m, and the slope angle between 15° and 35°. Miocene sedimentary rock is the predominant bedrock type identified in the landslide area. Slope failures were triggered in stratified pyroclastic fall deposits, in the combination of strong seismic ground motion and intense antecedent precipitation. Sliding zone liquefaction phenomena were confirmed in the field investigation. The relationship between the old landslides (slope failures occurred prior to the Iburi earthquake) and the coseismic landslides is also discussed in this study.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their sincere gratitude to Tetsuya INUI for providing useful information during field investigation. The authors gratefully acknowledge Zili DAI (Shimane University, Matsue, Japan) and Prakash DHUNGANA (Shimane University, Matsue, Japan) for their kind assistance in the field work. We are grateful for the support provided by the local government. Shuai ZHANG and Ran LI also acknowledged China Scholarship Council (CSC).

Funding

This work was financed by Fundamental Research Grant (2017–2019) of Shimane University on “Development of prediction and mitigation technologies on natural disasters in subduction zone using San-in region as a research field”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, Shimane University, 1060 Nishikawatsu-cho, Matsue, Shimane, 690-8504, Japan

    Shuai Zhang, Ran Li, Fawu Wang & Akinori Iio

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  1. Shuai Zhang
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  2. Ran Li
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  3. Fawu Wang
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  4. Akinori Iio
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Correspondence to Fawu Wang.

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Zhang, S., Li, R., Wang, F. et al. Characteristics of landslides triggered by the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake, Northern Japan. Landslides 16, 1691–1708 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01207-6

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