Journal of Geography (Chigaku Zasshi)

A new fault, herein named the Kaminada fault, has recently been discovered near Kaminada, Futaumi-cho, Iyo-gun, Ehime Prefecture in Western Shikoku, Japan. The fault lies within the zone of the Median dislocation line, and where seen in outcrop, shows rocks of the Sanbagawa metamorphic complex thrust northward over rocks of the Upper Cretaceous Izumi group. From this relationship the presumption is made that the primary tectonic movement of the Median dislocation line of Southwest Japan in Shikoku took place after the deposition of the Upper Cretaceous Izumi group and before the deposition of the Eocene Kuma group.
Those metamorphic rocks which make up the resulting klippen have been named the Futaumi Formation of the Sanbagawa metamorphic complex and are considered to be of Paleozoic age.
A second new fault, herein designated as the Konokawa fault, extends along the northern foot of Mt. Myojin from Koami to Karakawa where it joins the fault of the Tobe phase of the Median dislocation line of Southwest Japan. This fault shows rocks of the Izumi group to be thrust southward to overlie those of the Futaumi formation.
The westernmost portion of the fault of the Tobe phase which extends from Karakawa via Inuyose to Kaminada is herein designated as the Inuyose fault.
Since the area under discussion here is located at the easternmost apex of the so-called Nagasaki triangle of Kyushu, and since there has been much discussion as to whether or not the rocks of the Nagasaki triangle should belong to the Inner zone or the Outer zone of Southwest Japan, it is very interesting to note that within the area lying between the Konokawa and Inuyose faults, one can see outcrops of both the Izumi group, which belongs to the Inner zone, and the Sanbagawa metamorphics, which belong to the Outer zone.

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Sagami Bay is structurally active area through the geological history, and also the epicenter of the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) was here. To make clear the features of the topography and geological structure of the active area, it seems to be fundamental step for the earthquake predication today.
In April to May 1968, the surveying ship Meiyo of the Japanese Hydrographic Office carried out the sea bottom surveys of Sagami Bay with echo-sounder, seismic profiler and proton-geomagnetometer, including the dredge and coring operation, and took the data from about 3000 kilometers of her traverses.
The ship's position was mainly determined by an auto-tape system with the estimated accuracy of ±2 meters. The simultaneous measurement of magnetic intensity, bathymetry and submarine geological structure by air-gun system allows direct comparison of the measurements. Figure 1 is the track chart of the Meiyo and figures 2 and 3 are some profiles based on the collected data.
From the analyses of the collected data mentioned above, the topography and geological structure and magnetic anomaly of Sagami Bay can be summarized as follows.
1. Topography
Figure 4 shows the bathymetric chart of Sagami Bay. In the eastern part of the bay, many banks and small basins range from NW to SE. Many submarine canyons cross the topography mentioned above and incise deeply, so that especially small basins do not keep their complete shape.
The central part of the bay is called Sagami Trough, which is deeper than 1 kilometer. The floor of the trough generally shows low relief with the exception of the eastern part of the trough, which submarine canyons flow into, and gentle slope with the trend of NS at the central part, facing east and reflecting the fault topographically.
In the western part of the bay, continental shelf and slope are monotonous, comparing with its eastern part. There are several conical banks between the Izu Peninsula and O Shima Island.
2. Geological structure
Geological structure based on the seismic profiler is shown in Figure 5. The area surrounded Sagami Bay is relatively uplifted zone in contrast with the trough showing the relative subsidence. Acoustic basement rock outcrops on the uplifted zone and may probably be composed of the Hayama group (Lower Miocene) and partly the lower part of the Miura group (Middle Miocene).
The large part of the thinly layered sediment at the upper part of sediment body in Sagami Trough is younger than the age of uplifted zone mentioned above. The layered sediment is wholly tilted to the axis of the trough, and is found the folding in the margin of the trough and also the active fault near surface. Its maximum thickness is found at the northern part of the trough, and is over about 1 second in the reflection time approximately.
The area along the Izu Peninsula and around O Shima Island is extensively covered with the volcanic products. Small banks between the Izu Peninsula and O Shima Island are volcanic cones of the effusive body which pierced through the layers probably composed of the Shirahama group (Middle to Upper Miocene).
3. Geomagnetism
The resultant magnetic chart, contoured at intervals of 100 gammas, was in Figure 6. The results of the magnetic surveys revealed that there were many magnetic anomalies of about 500 to 800 gammas off shore along the Izu Peninsula in Sagami Bay and a pair of remarkable positive and negative magnetic anomalies of about 1800 gammas in the sea area along the west side of O Shima Island.
On the other hand, it was found that there was no remarkable magnetic anomaly in the central part and eastern part of Sagami Bay.
From the results of magnetic surveys and submarine geological structure, it can be concluded that the sea area off shore along the Izu Peninsula and around O Shima Island are composed of volcanic rocks of higher magnetic susceptibility, such as basalt or andesite.

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