Minor fault, major disaster

摘要

Kobe's devastating earthquake was unleashed by a break along a fault system where no large quake has struck for at least a thousand years, and which scientists had not considered a major hazard. Although an infrequent player in Japan's violent geology, the fault system caused such death and destruction because it lies so close to a major city. But from a seismologist's point of view the quake was unremarkable.