SEVERITY OF MORTALITY IN THE 2011 GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE: AGE DEPENDENCY IN COMPARISON WITH PAST MAJOR EARTHQUAKES

Abstract

This paper aims at determining who is most vulnerable in disasters such as an attack by an inland or oceanic earthquake. We found two major patterns (types U and J, represented by English capital letters) when we introduced two-dimensional coordinates having the X axis as the age group and the Y axis as age-specific mortality. We also found two additional patterns of age independence: an initial case with the lowest mortality near zero, and a case with extremely high mortality.