Abstract
An earthquake of magnitude of 6.9 on the JMA(Japan Meteorological Agency) scale occurred on 25 March 2007 near the Noto Peninsula of Japan. The maximum acceleration of 1304 cm/s/s/ was recorded at Monzen area in Wajima City. One person was killed, 341 persons were injured. The number of totally collapsed houses was more than 600, and partially collapsed houses exceeded 1,500. The strong ground shaking caused damage to lifeline systems, road embankments, settlement of port facilities and slope failures of cliffs near the sea. Liquefaction was also occurred not only ports and harbors but also residential lands. The present paper gives an outline of the damage to highway embankments and conducts the analysis of the safety factor of failure embankments. The causes of the failure also discussed based on the results of the analysis. The analysis results show that the embankment exhibited a good performance in ordinary condition. The earthquake induced force and excess pore water pressure generated during earthquake initiate the failure of the embankments.
