Look below the islands. Explore historical earthquakes and the plates descending beneath them.
Drag to rotate · pinch or scroll to zoom · select a point
We show reported earthquakes in our archive that fall within this area and have a known depth. This is not a catalog of every microearthquake. The count below the scene reflects the current filters and timeline position; choose a 1, 5 or 10-year period. Point size · magnitude. Symbol scale, not affected area or energy. Unknown magnitude: default size.
Start by rotating Japan or choosing the side view. Increase minimum depth to 300 km to reveal deep earthquakes. The cross-section removes the eastern part of the scene, while 2× or 3× exaggerates depth. Select a point to see its date, magnitude and source report.
An epicentre is a point on the surface. The hypocentre is where an earthquake starts at depth. Rotate the islands to discover the vertical dimension that a flat map hides.
Why does Japan have so many earthquakes? ↗Each point comes from the JISHINDESU catalog of JMA / P2PQuake reports. Colour represents depth, not danger. This is a catalog of reported events, not every small earthquake in Japan. Missing depths are excluded; reported depths and locations can be uncertain or revised.
JMA / P2PQuake ↗The translucent surfaces come from USGS Slab2 regional subduction models. They approximate the geometry of descending slabs; they are not scans of all underground layers. Model gaps remain gaps. Their proximity to a point does not establish that earthquake’s mechanism.
USGS Slab2 · CC0 ↗Land is a flat Natural Earth geographic reference, not terrain. The local map projection approximates horizontal distances; 1× uses the same kilometre scale at the centre latitude. Higher depth scales are explicitly exaggerated. The timeline replays event dates, not seismic waves or plate movement. This view does not predict earthquakes or assess building safety.
Natural Earth · Public domain ↗The latest eight matching events. Select one to highlight it, or open its report.
Visualisation by JISHINDESU. Historical reports and geological models; not EEW or a forecast.
Japan sits near the junction of four tectonic plates. Select a plate to meet its neighbours, then rotate the cross-section to discover subduction.
Colours identify plates; dashed lines are schematic boundaries. Arrows show the general motion of oceanic plates toward Japan, not speed. Shapes and boundary locations are simplified: this is a diagram of neighbours, not a geological map.
The Pacific plate approaches Japan from the east-southeast. It descends beneath the land plate in the northeast and beneath the Philippine Sea plate farther south.
We use the traditional four-plate division. More detailed models distinguish the Amur and Okhotsk plates here, among others, so names can differ between atlases.
Drag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom · keyboard: arrows, + / −
The solids explain subduction. Thickness, dip and depth are illustrative. These are two separate examples, not a continuous section through Japan or a reconstruction from measurements.
Slab2 models the upper surfaces of descending plate fragments. Our view contains three regions: Kuril–Japan and Izu–Bonin (Pacific plate), and Ryukyu–Nankai (Philippine Sea plate). These are not three entire plates. The land plates are not represented as full solids.