2-4 Types of earthquakes in the Japanese archipelago
In the preceding section, we described how earthquakes in the Japanese archipelago and the surrounding areas could be roughly divided into two types. The first type comprises those earthquakes at or extremely close to plate boundaries in trenches and other locations. The second type comprises those earthquakes that occur some distance away, in shallow locations on land. Today, earthquakes are classified not only based on their distribution, but also on the geological characteristics at the site of the earthquake. A breakdown follows of the types of large earthquakes that occur in the Japanese archipelago and the surrounding areas (Fig.2-18).