2004 Chūetsu earthquake

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2004 Chūetsu earthquake
2004 Chūetsu earthquake (Niigata Prefecture)
Bullseye1.svg
date October 23, 2004
Time 17:56
Magnitude 6.8  M W
depth 16 km
epicenter 37 ° 13 '52 "  N , 138 ° 45' 11"  E Coordinates: 37 ° 13 '52 "  N , 138 ° 45' 11"  E
(10 km north of Tōkamachi )
country Japan
dead min. 40
Injured 3183


The Chūetsu earthquake of 2004 ( Japanese 平 成 16 年 (2004 年) 新潟 県 中 越 地震 , Heisei 16-nen (2004-nen) Niigata-ken Chūetsu Jishin ) was a strong earthquake with the moment magnitude (M W ) of 6.8 and occurred on October 23, 2004 at 5:56 pm local time in Chūetsu Governorate of Niigata Prefecture .

Destroyed street in Ojiya

The hypocenter was at a depth of 16 km about 10 km north of the city of Tōkamachi . Only 16 minutes later, at 6:12 p.m., an aftershock of magnitude 6.1 followed, at 7.46 p.m. one of magnitude 6.4 with a significantly higher hypocenter (10 km depth) directly below the central town of Ojiya . The quake left at least 40 dead and 3,183 injured. In Niigata Prefecture, 6,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, and a high-speed train derailed.

Shinkansen derailment

Derailed Shinkansen train in Nagaoka

During the Chuetsu earthquake occurred in 2004 to date only derailment of a Shinkansen - high-speed train in passenger service. Eight out of 10 cars of the train of the 200 series of Toki compound jumped between the stations Nagaoka and Urasa from the rails. Thanks to the automatically initiated emergency braking after the first tremors were recorded, none of the 155 passengers were harmed during the derailment.

The line remained out of service until December 27, 2004.

Web links

Commons : 2004 Chūetsu earthquake  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. 平 成 16 年 10 月 23 日 17 時 56 分 こ ろ 発 生 し た 地震 の 命名 に つ い て . (PDF; 9 kB) Japan Meteorological Agency, October 24, 2004, accessed on March 20, 2011 (Japanese).
  2. Overview page natural disasters earthquakes on the Geographixx website
  3. Magnitude 6.6 - NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN. (No longer available online.) US Geological Survey, archived from the original on December 18, 2009 ; accessed on March 20, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / earthquake.usgs.gov
  4. Significant Earthquake. National Geophysical Data Center, accessed March 20, 2011 .