Abstract
The horizontal strain rate caused by fault activity for the past several hundred thousand years was calculated using the latest active fault database. Features of fault activity at the scale of the Japanese Islands were estimated, and the results were compared with the strain rates that the pre-existing literature showed.
The strain rate required using the latest active fault database resembles the strain rate requ ired using the pre-existing data on active faults in the Quaternary period (Kaizuka and Imaizumi,1984). The distribution of the strain rate required from active fault data resembles the distribution of the strain rate required from the GPS observations (Sagiyaet al.,1999) in many regions, with the exception of the Pacific coast region. However the value of strain rate required from active faults data (10-8/year) is smaller than the value of strain rate required from the GPS data (10-7/year). In the region along the Ou Mountains, Northeast Japan, the value of strain rate required from the latest active fault data was nearly equal to the strain rate required from the geological section (Sato,1989).
