History of EPRC
- Details of Establishment
- Researches as International Frontier Research Group on Earthquakes
- Present Researches
Details of Establishment
More than 30 years have passed since the announce of "Tokai Earthquake" in central Japan. Now, it is widely accepted that Shizuoka prefecture takes advantage of anti earthquake disasters. However, it is true that what protects human life is "short-term earthquake prediction".
Although Shizuoka prefecture locates the center of the expected area of "Tokai Earthquake", there was unfortunately no station to research for earthquake predictions in this prefecture.
At that time, Tatsuro Matsumae (the chairperson of directors of Tokai Univ.) thought that inhabitants of Shizuoka prefecture should research to improve the possibility of short-term earthquake predictions. Based on this faith, it was decided that the Earthquake Prediction Research Cener was established at Shimizu campus of Tokai University at the end of 1994.
Although seismologists have spent time for short-term earthquake prediction, it is not yet materialized. However, there are recently many reports on electromagnetic phenomena prior to earthquakes. This fact indicates the rise of a new science on earthquake prediction.
We consider earthquakes as fracturing phenomenon due to the concentration of stress in earth's crust. The purpose of this center's researches is to understand electromagnetic phenomena with wide frequency occurring before earthquakes and to clarify mechanisms of these phenomena.
Researches as International Frontier Research Group on Earthquakes
The Science and Technology Agency (STA) of Japan initialized "Earthquake Frontier Programs" after the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake disaster in 1995. RIKEN affiliated with STA initialized "International Frontier Research Group on Earthquakes (IFREQ)" at the beginning of 1996. We, in RIKEN, started basic researches on earthquake predictions by means of electromagnetic methods in cooperation with "Earthquake Remote Sensing Frontier Research" of NASDAQ.
Here (under construction) is part of our researches at that time.
RIKEN IFREQ received out-standing evaluations twice during 5.5-year researching. Our researches ranked very high in both evaluations. However, we broke up in March 2001 due partially to the times of Special Corporation conversion in Japan at that time.
Present Researches
We promote researches on earthquake predictions by means of mainly electromagnetic methods in cooperation with domestic and foreign universities and institutes. Concretely speaking, we (1) focus on "Tokai Earthquake" expected to occur in the near future in Tokai region in central Japan, (2) observe geomagnetic field and earth's currents in mainly Tokai-Kanto region, and (3) try understanding their mechanisms based on laboratory experiments.
In addition to researches on earthquake predictions, we conduct researches on the electric conductivity structure of the earth's crust, developments of electromagnetic survey tools for hydrothermal ores under sea floor, and so on.
