Kazuro Hirahara
Commendation
For outstanding contributions to the understanding of plate motion through seismic velocity and crustal deformation and to earthquake modeling through numerical simulation
A list of five major papers
- Hirahara, K., Three-dimensional seismic structure beneath Southwest Japan: the subducting Philippine Sea plate, Tectonophysics, 79, 1-44, 1981.
- Hirose, H., K. Hirahara, F. Kimata, N. Fujii and S. Miyazaki, A slow thrust slip event following the two 1996 Hyuganada earthquakes beneath the Bungo channel, southwest Japan, Geophys.Res.Lett., 26, 3237-3240, 1999.
- Hori, T., N. Kato, K. Hirahara, T. Baba, and Y. Kaneda, A numerical simulation of earthquake cycles along the Nankai trough, southwest Japan: Lateral variation in frictional property due to the slab geometry controls the nucleation position, Earth Planet.Sci Lett., 228, 215-226, 2004.
- Tonegawa, T. K. Hirahara, T. Shibutani and N. Fujii, Lower slab boundary in the Japan subduction zone, Earth Planet.Sci.Lett., 247, 101-107, 2006.
- Hirahara, K. and K. Nishikiori, Estimation of frictional properties and slip evolution on a long-term slow slip event fault with the ensemble Kalman filter: numerical experiments, Geophys.J.Int., 219, 2074–2096, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggz415, 2019.
Major achievements
Dr. Kazuro Hirahara has led the development of seismology and geodesy in Japan, including the development of seismic velocity structures, GPS-based crustal deformation analysis, and earthquake cycle simulations. In the analysis of seismic velocity structures, he captured the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate subducting under the Japanese islands, and made a great impact on the dynamics of plate subduction. In crustal deformation analysis using GPS, he detected postseismic crustal movements after the Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake, discovered slow slip in the Bungo Channel, and confirmed a creep phenomenon on the Atotsugawa Fault. In earthquake cycle simulation, he developed a numerical model that takes into account the constitutive law of fault friction and viscoelasticity, and clarified the diversity of slip phenomena occurring at plate boundaries. He has also served as president of the Seismological Society of Japan, the Asian Seismological Society, the Japan Association for Earthquake Prediction, and the Central Disaster Prevention Council, and has devoted himself to earthquake disaster prevention in Japan and abroad. These achievements have made outstanding contributions to the development of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
[ ORCID ]
Nominator
Shoichi Yoshioka
Supporters
Kojiro Irikura, Manabu Hashimoto, Takane Hori