US-Japanese Internet Exchanges of Information about the 1995 South Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake

1995年1月17日，日本神户市发生7.2级地震，是日本自1923年东京大地震以来遭受的最严重的自然灾害。在地震中倒塌的1万栋建筑中，有一些是现代建筑。现代神户港口完全关闭，主要是由于码头和集装箱堆场的土壤基础大规模液化。神户的基础设施，包括铁路、新干线、高速公路和地铁都严重受损。兵库县有30多座桥梁倒塌。在神户市，包括电力、天然气和水在内的生命线都受到严重破坏。如此大规模的灾难让工程师们面临着在人口密集地区发生7级地震的破坏性影响。对神户交通系统的破坏使得进入神户变得困难。由于运输问题和神户的大规模破坏，外国侦察小组在评估地震损害方面遇到了困难。我们可以从这次地震中学到很多岩土工程方面的经验教训，这些教训可以用来避免美国发生类似的灾难。该项目的目标是与日本侦察队合作，利用现代高效的互联网通信手段，收集和发布有关南兵库县地震的岩土特征的数据。这种新的通信手段不仅加快了关键信息的传播，而且还促进了美国和日本地震工程师之间的信息交流。日本土力学与地基学会已同意与首席研究员合作，将日文报告翻译成英文，并将这些翻译后的报告放在GEOTECH互联网用户列表和南加州地震中心的马赛克服务器上。这些信息将包括数字化的强震记录、地图、航空照片和实地观测期间拍摄的照片。所有这些信息将尽快提供给美国地震工程界，以便及时通知他们，并帮助他们采取适当的研究行动，尽可能多地从南兵库县地震中学习。＊＊＊

9520977 Bardet On January 17, 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the city of Kobe in Japan, and inflicted the worst natural disaster to Japan since the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake. Some of the 10,000 buildings toppled by the quake were modern structures. The modern port of Kobe was completely shut down, mainly due to massive liquefaction of the soil foundations for its wharves and container yards. The infrastructure of Kobe, including railways, Shinkansen lines, expressways, and subways was heavily damaged. There were more than 30 bridge failures in the Hyogo Prefecture. The lifelines, including electricity, gas, and water were severely disrupted in the city of Kobe. Such a large scale disaster confronts engineers with the devastating effects of an intensity 7 earthquake in a populated area. The damage to Kobe transportation systems rendered access difficult. Owing to the transportation problems and the large scale damage to Kobe, foreign reconnaissance teams experienced difficulties in assessing the earthquake damage. There are many geotechnical lessons to learn from this earthquake which can be used to avoid similar catastrophes in the US. The objective of this project is to collaborate with the Japanese reconnaissance teams in order to collect and release data about the geotechnical features of the South Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake, using the modern and efficient means of Internet communication. This new means of communication not only speeds up the dissemination of critical information, but it also promotes the exchange of information between US and Japan earthquake engineers. The Japanese Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundations has agreed to collaborate with the principal investigator on the translation of the Japanese reports into English, and to put these translated reports on the GEOTECH Internet subscriber list and Mosaic Server of the Southern California Earthquake Center. The information will contain digitized strong motion recordings, map s, aerial photographs, and photographs taken during field observations. All this information will be made available to the US earthquake engineering community as rapidly as possible in order to inform them in a timely manner, and to help them to take appropriate research actions to learn as much as is possible from the South Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake. ***