Abstract
The magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011 near the northeast coast of Japan. The earthquake and tsunami caused enormous damage to Japan.
Immediately after the earthquake, inspection of dams was started. Generally dams performed well with minor or moderate cracking occurring at embankment dams. They withstood severe ground motion. The investigation suggests that a very long duration of ground motion and a number of subsequent strong aftershocks rendered more effects on embankment dams than on concrete dams. This paper is a report of the characteristics of seismic ground motion at dam sites during the earthquake.
