Abstract
The distribution of ground motion caused by the 2003 northern Miyagi earthquake appears to coincide with the probabilistic seismic hazard map preproducted by the Earthquake Research Committee at the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion. However, the source fault of the earthquake was minor and not estimated as one of the seismogenic faults on the map. The fact that seismic intensity reached 6 even along such minor fault highlights the significance of disaster prevention along active faults. Probabilistic seismic hazard maps often mislead to underestimate the danger near the fault. The reason should not be only the low probability of earthquake occurrence due to the longer intervals of earthquakes. Much attention should be paid on the potential danger near the fault. Effective usage of scenario seismic hazard maps is important for disaster mitigation.
