Bad assumptions or bad luck: Tohoku’s embarrassing lessons for earthquake hazard

Watch a five 5-minute video summary presented at the 2012 UNAVCO science workshop "Bad assumptions or bad luck: Tohoku's embarrassing lessons for earthquake hazard mapping".

Scientists previously thought the faults off the northeast coast of Japan weren't capable of causing massive quakes and giant tsunamis. The area had been prepared for smaller quakes and the resulting tsunami got everybody unprepared for such cataclysmic event.

The study, "Why earthquake hazard maps often fail and what to do about it," was published by the journal Tectonophysics. First author of the study was Seth Stein of Northwestern University. Robert Geller of the University of Tokyo was co-author. Mian Liu is William H. Byler Distinguished Chair in Geological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri.