Investigation of damage caused by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake

- Brief report on the residential lands in Sendai City -

Abstract

The Tohoku district of Japan suffered serious damage by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake. This report describes the results of investigation carried out by the joint investigation team composed of the members in Tohoku and Kanto Branches of the Japanese Geotechnical Society. Their effort was concentrated into the investigation of damage in the residential lands in Sendai City intensively. In this report, the damage mechanism of each residential land is discussed, based on the preliminary geotechnical information such as the land development histories. In one case of residential land, several measures such as landslide prevention piles were made just after a past earthquake in 1978, and their effectiveness could be evaluated by the damage extents of houses induced by the 2011 earthquake. It is demonstrated that employing measures to restrain the deformation of the ground surface even after strong earthquakes will be advantageous for decreasing the risk for earthquake-induced damage to houses.