Characteristics of damage to forest trees along the Kamishiro fault in the 2014 Northern Nagano earthquake, central Japan

Abstract

After the 2014 Northern Nagano earthquake (Kamishiro fault earthquake), I observed cedar trees leaning or falling along a fault scarp 100 m long in Hakuba, Nagano, Japan. They existed within a 2 m range on both sides of the scarp and their proportion became higher toward both ends of the scarp. They tended to lean or fall to the left due to the left-lateral slip movement of the active fault.