Emergency observation voyage carried out by JAMSTEC to investigate the epicenter of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake

A research team consisting of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, the Faculty of Science at Hokkaido University, the Graduate School of Science at Tohoku University, the Graduate School of Science at Chiba University, the Department of Marine Resources and Energy at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, the School of Marine Science and Technology at Tokai University, the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University, the Graduate School of Science at the University of Hyogo and the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Kagoshima University has begun an emergency observation voyage around the epicenter of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake using an academic research vessel "Hakuho Maru" owned by JAMSTEC.

The research team will conduct sailing observations such as seafloor topographic surveys in the waters around the epicenter where seismic activity persists and deploy approximately 30 Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBS) and approximately 2 Ocean Bottom Electromagnetometers (OBEM). The deployed observation instruments, with a few exceptions, will be collected approximately one month later. Data to be acquired will be analyzed in detail to clarify the actual conditions of the seismic fault responsible for the recent earthquake and the mechanism of earthquake and tsunami generation, as well as to understand the transition of seismic activity.