My name is Yasunori Sawaki (Ph.D., he/him), an assistant professor at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. I am an early-career researcher in seismology (a study of earthquakes and interior strucure of the Earth), who earned a Ph.D. (Science) from Kyoto University (in Japan) in March 2023. My current work is to estimate the detailed geometry of crustal faults and the seismological heterogeneity in crusts and subducting slabs, with the aim of advancing our understanding of seismotectonics.
Sawaki, Y., Y. Ito, K. Ohta, T. Shibutani, and T. Iwata (2021). Seismological structures on bimodal distribution of deep tectonic tremor. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL092183.
doi: 10.1029/2020GL092183
(Open Access)
Sawaki, Y., Y. Yamashita, S. Ohyanagi, E. S. M. Garcia, A. Ito, H. Sugioka, T. Takahashi, M. Shinohara, and Y. Ito (2023). Seafloor depth controls seismograph orientation uncertainty. Geophysical Journal International, 232(2), 1376–1392,
doi: 10.1093/gji/ggac397
(Open Access)
Sawaki, Y., T. Shiina, K. Sagae, Y. Sato, H. Horikawa, A. Miyakawa, K. Imanishi, and T. Uchide (2025). Fault Geometries of the 2024 Mw 7.5 Noto Peninsula Earthquake from Hypocenter-Based Hierarchical Clustering of Point-Cloud Normal Vectors. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 130(4), e2024JB030233.
doi: 10.1029/2024JB030233
(Open Access)
[SSS12-18]
“Intraslab reverse faulting adjacent to the hypocenter of the 1923 Kanto earthquake: The Mw 5.0 western Kanagawa earthquake on 9 August 2024” by Sawaki, Y., T. Shiina, and T. Uchide
[SSS06-P01]
“Mutsu Bay Seismic Cluster along the Volcanic Front in November 2024” by Sawaki, Y., K. Sagae, T. Shiina, K. Imanishi, and T. Uchide
Intraslab reverse faulting adjacent to the hypocenter of the 1923 Kanto earthquake: The Mw 5.0 western Kanagawa earthquake in eastern Japan on 9 August 2024
We have posted a new preprint on the fault geometry for the Mw 5.0 western Kanagawa earthquake in eastern Japan on 9 August 2024. This is a preprint (peer-review not completed), but feel free to check it out!
Sawaki, Y., T. Shiina, and T. Uchide. Intraslab reverse faulting adjacent to the hypocenter of the 1923 Kanto earthquake: The Mw 5.0 western Kanagawa earthquake in eastern Japan on 9 August 2024 [Preprint v1]. Research Square.
https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6353744/v1
We have estimated the fault geometry of the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake in central Japan on 1 January 2024. Our analysis reveals major and minor fault planes aligned along the coastline beneath the peninsula. Notably, we identified a more counter-clockwise rotated plane in eastern Wajima and an east-dipping plane along the west coast. These localized structural complexities suggest intricate fault slip behavior and exhibit a strong correlation with gravity anomalies and geological structures. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the formation and seismotectonics of the Noto Peninsula.
Sawaki, Y., T. Shiina, K. Sagae, Y. Sato, H. Horikawa, A. Miyakawa, K. Imanishi, and T. Uchide (2025). Fault Geometries of the 2024 Mw 7.5 Noto Peninsula Earthquake from Hypocenter-Based Hierarchical Clustering of Point-Cloud Normal Vectors. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 130, e2024JB030233.
doi: 10.1029/2024JB030233
(Open Access)
Sawaki, Y., Y. Sato, and T. Uchide (2025). FaultNVC: Earthquake Fault Plane Extractor through Point-Cloud Normal Vector Clustering for Hypocenter Distributions [Software]. Open-File Report of Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, no. 759.
https://www.gsj.jp/publications/pub/openfile/openfile0759.html
I attended the Slow-to-Fast Eq A03 & B03 Groups Meeting in Hirosaki, North Japan, from Feb. 6 to 9, 2025. The diverse generations represented among attendees contributed to a highly engaging discussion.
I participated in American Geophysics Union Annual Meeting 2024 held in Washington D.C. during 9–13 December 2024 and gave an oral talk about the fault geometry of the 2024 Mw 7.5 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. Interactions with researchers and students ignited my passion for further research.
I visited Noto Peninsula in central Japan, where M7.6 earthquake occurred on 1 Jan 2024.
I saw the great uplift on the western coast and surface rupture in the eastern area.
We imaged the slab and crustal structure of the Kii Peninsula in the Nankai subduction zone in SW Japan using a receiver-function-like analysis. Positive impedance contrasts in the forearc crust correspond to the top surface or inside Kumano pluton, which may control fluid conditions around slow-earthquake sources.
Check it out below!
Sawaki, Y., Y. Ito, E. S. M. Garcia, A. Miyakawa, and T. Shibutani (2024). Deep plutonic bodies over low-frequency earthquakes revealed from receiver-side Green’s functions. Tectonophysics, 892, 230536.
doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2024.230536
(Open Access)
I participated in
the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) Meeting 2024
, held at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, JP, from May 26 to 31. I made two presentations: one for oral and the other for poster.
[SCG50-02]
Multiscale Fault Estimation in California and Oklahoma. Sawaki, Y., D. Shelly, T. Uchide, K. Sagae, T. Shiina, Y. Sato, and H. Horikawa
[U15-P09]
Fault geometries of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake estimated by hypocenter clustering. Sawaki, Y., T. Uchide, T. Shiina, K. Sagae, H. Horikawa, and K. Imanishi
