Introduction to the Special Section for the Centennial of the Great 1923 Kanto, Japan, Earthquake

The 1 September 1923 $Mw$ 7.9 Great Kanto earthquake was an extremely disastrous event well known to seismologists and the public, especially in Japan (e.g., Midorikawa, 2002; Moroi and Takemura, 2002). Although the source area and magnitude are smaller than a number of other great earthquakes in Japan, including the 2011 $Mw$ 9.0 Tohoku–Oki, the 1944 $Mw$ 8.1 Toankai, and the 1946 $Mw$ 8.2 Nankai earthquakes, the proximity to Tokyo and Yokohama caused much more damage and killed many more people (nearly 105,000; Takemura, 2003; Moroi and Takemura, 2004) than other earthquakes...