What shaped the Noto Peninsula’s current landscape? Following the devastation from the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, researchers have proposed a theory.
Typically, land formations develop slowly over extensive timeframes, but occasionally a single event can significantly alter them. On January 1, 2024, a catastrophic earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula, transforming the area.
A team of researchers aimed to investigate how this earthquake, along with similar events in the past, influenced the topography of the Noto Peninsula. They discovered evidence that the region’s main land features—like the steep cliffs in the north and the gentler slopes in the south—are likely the result of recurring earthquakes similar to the one that hit on January 1. This insight might also assist in predicting the effects of future seismic events.
The research team, which included experts from Tohoku University, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Oita University, and the German Research Center for Geosciences, conducted an interdisciplinary study combining aspects of geodesy, seismology, and geomorphology.
Using satellite radar data from the ALOS-2 satellite managed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the geodesy specialists created maps illustrating the three-dimensional shifts caused by the earthquake in the Noto Peninsula. The findings revealed over 4 meters of uplift, the emergence of new terraces along the northern coastline, westward shifts of the entire North Noto area, and displacements in hilly regions. Certain factors, such as extensive landslides covering several kilometers, could only be fully observed through satellite radar image analyses.
“To complement the satellite observation data, we had a geomorphology team carry out fieldwork to directly measure the uplift,” says Yo Fukushima. “They visited 52 locations along a 120-kilometer stretch of coastline.”
This approach enabled the team to validate their field observations against the satellite data. The uplift patterns they recorded aligned with the satellite findings, confirming their reliability. This data was then utilized by the geodesy and seismology teams to create a fault-slip model aimed at elucidating the uplift and westward movement patterns.
The correlation between the peninsula’s land features and the earthquake-related deformations indicates that large earthquakes similar to the 2024 event have likely contributed to the region’s landscape formation over time. The discoveries from this study offer novel insights that deepen our understanding of how earthquakes can radically reshape the Earth’s surface.
The results of this research were published in Science Advances on December 4, 2024.
