Satoshi Itaba

Earthquake-related Changes in Groundwater Levels at the Dogo Hot Spring, Japan

The Dogo hot spring, situated in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, is one of the oldest and most famous hot springs in Japan. The groundwater level or discharge at the spring decreased four times during the past eight or nine Nankai earthquakes. These are large interplate earthquakes that have occurred repeatedly in the western part of the Nankai Trough at intervals of 100–200 years since A.D. 684. To clarify the mechanism of these earthquake-related changes in the water level at the spring, we analyzed groundwater-level data recorded at the spring immediately after the 1946 Nankai earthquake and over the period from 1985 to 2006. We detected the other nine postseismic increases in groundwater level and no decreases, except for a large decrease of 11.4 m related to the 1946 Nankai earthquake. The increases were probably caused by ground-shaking, while the decrease was caused by a change in coseismic volumetric strain. These results lead to the following explanation of the recorded earthquake-related changes in the groundwater level at the Dogo hot spring. Both coseismic changes in volumetric strain and ground-shaking can lead to postseismic changes in groundwater pressure. The increase in groundwater pressure arising from ground-shaking is generally greater than the change in pressure associated with changes in coseismic volumetric strain; however, at the time of the Nankai earthquakes, the spring experiences a large increase in coseismic volumetric strain, leading to a considerably larger decrease in the groundwater level than the increase associated with ground-shaking. Therefore, the groundwater level at the Dogo hot spring usually increases at times of relatively large earthquakes, although the groundwater level or discharge decreases in the case of the Nankai earthquakes.

Groundwater changes associated with the 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu and 2007 Chuetsu-oki earthquakes

The Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, has been monitoring groundwater in and around the Kinki and Tokai districts for earthquake prediction research. The Niigata Prefectural Office has also been observing groundwater for monitoring land subsidence in Niigata Prefecture. The 2004 Niigata-Chuetsu (MJMA 6.8) and 2007 Chuetsuoki (MJMA 6.8) earthquakes occurred in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on October 23, 2004 and July 16, 2007, respectively. The two earthquakes have a similar magnitude, epicenter, and mechanism. At many of the observation wells, we detected changes in groundwater level or pressure related to the two earthquakes, but no clear precursory changes. At all of our observation wells in Niigata Prefecture, trend changes were observed after coseismic step-like changes for both of the earthquakes. At some of the stations in and around the Kinki and Tokai districts, coseismic trend changes and/or step-like changes were observed. The pattern of the changes were almost similar for the two earthquakes. Those changes were considered to be caused not by the static crustal deformation but by the ground shaking.

Groundwater level changes related to the ground shaking of the Noto Hanto Earthquake in 2007

The Geological Survey of Japan, AIST has been monitoring groundwater using the observation network of about 40 stations in and around the Kinki and Tokai districts for earthquake prediction research. The Noto Hanto Earthquake in 2007 (MJMA 6.9) occurred in the northwestern part of the Noto Hanto Peninsula, Japan on March 25, 2007. The epicentral distance to the nearest and furthest observation well is about 100 km and 400 km, respectively. Changes in groundwater level related to the Noto Hanto Earthquake were detected at many stations. Most of these were changes in the long-term trend and/or short-term oscillation; there were a few steplike changes. The coseismic static volumetric strain changes calculated from the fault model ranged between 10−9 and 10−10 at most of the observation stations. These changes were therefore considered to be groundwater changes caused by the ground shaking because groundwater level sensitivity to crustal volumetric strain is a few centimeters to 10−8 strain at the most. We compared the coseismic groundwater level changes for the Noto Hanto Earthquake with those for five recent large earthquakes and obtained rough characteristics of the effect of the ground shaking on the groundwater level at each of the observation stations.