Vertical crustal movements Kyushu during the past about 130 thousand years that utilized upper limit of the marine formations at the Shimosueyoshi Period as a standard of the displacement

日本西部九州岛沿岸古代海岸线的数据表明，根据过去12.5万年的地壳垂直运动模式，九州岛可以划分为几个区域。利用软体动物、化石和沉积构造等古深度指标确定了古海岸线的高度。沉积物的年代学和构造事件的年代学是从日本南部有充分文献记载的火山灰事件（火山地层学）中推断出来的。在过去的12.5万年里，岛上最隆起的地区和最下沉的地区之间的差异约为190米。虽然以前认为整个九州岛在这段时间内都是一个隆起的地区，但目前的研究表明，有明显的差异运动。九州北部和西南部是稳定的沉降区，但在岛的南部局部发生了快速的上升。一个沉降轴（saeki -仙台沉降轴）以NE-SW走向横贯全岛，九州中部发育一个E-W走向的构造坳陷（别府-岛原地堑）。该岛现今的海岸地貌与过去15万5千年来发生的不同构造运动之间存在明显的相关性。

Data from the ancient shorelines along the present-day coastline of Kyushu Island, Western Japan, show that the island can be divided into several regions on the basis of modes of vertical crustal movements during the past 125,000 years. The heights of the ancient shorelines have been dectermined using paleodepth indicators such as molluscan faunas, trace fossils and sedimentary structures. The chronology of the sediments and of the tectonic events have been deduced from the well-documented history of volcanic ash events (tePhrostratigraphy) of southern Japan.The difference between the most uplifted and subsided areas in the island during the past 125,000 years is about l90 meters. Although it was previously thought that the whole of Kyushu Island was an uplifting region throughout this time, the present work has shown that there were marked differential movemcnts. North and south west Kyushu Were steadily subsiding areas, but rapid uplift occurred locally in the southern part of the island. A subsiding axis (the Saeki-Sendai Subsiding Axis) crosses the island with a NE-SW trend, and an E-W trending structural depression (the Beppu-Shimabara Graben) is present in central Kyushu.There is a clear correlation between the present-day coastal landform of the island and the differential tectonic movements that have occurred during the past l25,000 years.