The Orphan Tsunami of 1700: Japanese Clues to a Parent Earthquake in North America

Authors

Authors THE STORY OF THE 1700 TSUNAMI draws on human history interpreted from old Japanese documents, on natural history inferred from North American sediments, trees, and native legends, and on mathematical modeling of tsunamis. The authors pooled their backgrounds in these and other fields. Below, as on the cover and title page, their names appear alphabetically. Brian F. ATWATER -:1''7-17,/ . F . 7 r r; ::t - -!7 - conceived of the book and led in its preparation. To this work he brought over a decade of experience with geologic records of the 1700 earthquake and tsunami in North America. Through field work in 1999 he also contributed to size estimates for the 1700 tsunami in Japan. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Delaware. In thirty years with the U.S. Geological Survey he has studied bay and river geology in California, ice-age floods in Washington, and geologic records of earthquakes and tsunamis in the United States, Chile, and Japan. He lives in Seattle and is based at the University of Washington. MUSUMI-ROKKAKU Satoko 7\~ ~~-T guided the transliteration and translation of the tsunami accounts. She also contributed to interviews in northeast Japan and to historical background material. Her education includes a B.A. in Humanities at Tokyo's International Christian University and an ensuing year as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Chicago, where she did graduate work in Islamic cultural history and Arabic language. Since 1979 she has coordinated the United Nations University fellowship program for Asian food scientists while teaching at Tokyo's Obirin University. She has served as an officer in the UNU Women's Association and holds an honorary professorship at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. Her travels have taken her to 33 countries. Brian Atwater, Musumi-Rokkaku Satoko, Satake Kenji, Tsuji Yoshinobu, Ueda Kazue, and David Yamaguchi. Tokyo, 2004. SATAKE Kenji ~tt iJt?'fi' estimated sizes of the 1700 tsunami in Japan and the 1700 earthquake at Cascadia. He also tracked down primary sources for accounts of the 1700 tsunami in Tsugaruishi and Nakaminato. These contributions stem from his broad interest in subduction-zone earthquakes, which he studies with instrumental, written, and geological records, and with geophysical modeling. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in geophysics from Hokkaido University and a Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Tokyo. He spent seven years in the United States, as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology and as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. Since 1995 he has worked at the Geological Survey of Japan, where he is now deputy director of the Active Fault Research Center of the National Institute ofAdvanced Industrial Science and Technology. His field work in 2005 included post-tsunami surveys in Myanmar and Thailand. He chairs the tsunami commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, serves on governmental committees that evaluate earthquake hazards in Japan, and edits "Rekishi Jishin," the journal of Japan's Society of Historical Earthquake Studies. Tsun Yoshinobu :tf~P] ~'§ identified places reached by the 1700 tsunami, computed tides for estimates of the tsunami's height, and helped transliterate and translate the tsunami accounts. From the University of Tokyo he earned a B.S. in civil engineering, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geophysics. His studies of Japan's historical earthquakes and tsunamis began in the 1970s, when he worked for the National Research Center for Disaster Prevention. In 1987 he joined the faculty of the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute. He subsequently participated in posttsunami field surveys in Nicaragua and Papua New Guinea, and he led such surveys in 2005 in Aceh and Thailand. He has also investigated storm surges and tsunami-induced damage to buildings. His second languages include Korean, Chinese, Russian, English, and Fortran. 110 THE ORPHAN TSUNAMI OF 1700 UEDA Kazue 1:EEl fO;f5Z discovered, transliterated, and translated accounts of the 1700 tsunami. She also confirmed the tsunami's misdating in Moriai-ke "Nikki Kakitome-cho" (p. 53), investigated the historical context of the tsunami's accounts, and interviewed witnesses to the 1960 tsunami. For over thirty years she has specialized in the written records of Japanese earthquakes. She entered that field eleven years after earning a B.A. in psychology at Tokyo Woman's Christian College and joining the Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo. The 21...