Issues

This issue of BSSA features the Special Section on the Centennial of Great 1923 Kanto, Japan, Earthquake, comprising seven papers covering the source process, ground shaking, and resulting fires of this devastating earthquake. The cover image is one of a series of lithographs entitled Teito daishinsai gahō (Pictorial of the Imperial Capital Great Earthquake Disaster) published Oct 20, 1923 by Urashimadō gakyoku, Tokyo. This print depicts the pandemonium of people fleeing a raging conflagration that swept the area around Matsuzakaya Department Store in Ueno following Japan’s Great Kantō Earthquake. In dramatic fashion, this print illustrates the primacy of fire, spread rapidly by strong winds, as a destructive agent and cause of wide-spread alarm following the M 7.9 earthquake of 1 September 1923. Scawthorn et al. (this issue) discuss the Great Kanto Fire, its historic consequences but also implications that may still be valid today.

Image credit: artist unknown; reproduction provided by the authors.