ANRV309-EA35-12 ARI 20 March 2007 15:19 Long-Term Perspectives on Giant Earthquakes and Tsunamis at Subduction Zones∗ Kenji Satake1 and Brian F. Atwater2 1Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, 305-8567, Japan; email:
[email protected] 2U.S. Geological Survey at University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1310; email:
[email protected] Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2007. 35:349–74 Key Words First published online as a Review in Advance on paleoseismology, earthquake recurrence, earthquake forecasting, January 17, 2007 Sumatra, Chile, Cascadia, Hokkaido The Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences is online at earth.annualreviews.org Abstract by Brian Atwater on 05/14/07. For personal use only. This article’s doi: Histories of earthquakes and tsunamis, inferred from geological ev- 10.1146/annurev.earth.35.031306.140302 idence, aid in anticipating future catastrophes. This natural warn- Copyright c 2007 by Annual Reviews. ! ing system now influences building codes and tsunami planning in All rights reserved the United States, Canada, and Japan, particularly where geology 0084-6597/07/0530-0349$20.00 demonstrates the past occurrence of earthquakes and tsunamis larger Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2007.35:349-374. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org ∗The U.S. Government has the right to retain a than those known from written and instrumental records. Under fa- nonexclusive, royalty-free license in and to any vorable circumstances, paleoseismology can thus provide long-term copyright covering this paper. advisories of unusually large tsunamis. The extraordinary Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 resulted from a fault rupture more than 1000 km in length that included and dwarfed fault patches that had broken historically during lesser shocks.