Active tectonics, tectonic geomorphology, and earthquake geology

I am a broadly trained geomorphologist/geologist working on active tectonics in Japan and East Asia. I am interested in how landscape and related geologic structures have evolved through time in tectonically active regions, such as how and when the Japanese mountain ranges were formed. I am also interested in active faults and seismic hazards. In this regard, I work extensively on active fault mapping and paleoseismology, the study of historical and pre-historical earthquakes based on geologic evidence recorded in landscape and stratigraphy. I employ a multidisciplinary approach, including geomorphology, Quaternary geology, structural geology, remote sensing, geochronology, and shallow subsurface geophysics. My research is highly field-oriented, and I have worked in areas, from west to east, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, and far-east Russia in collaboration with colleagues from local universities and research institutes. I am interested in working with motivated students with a strong field-based geomorphology/Quaternary geology/structural geology background. All of my former and current international students have been supported by the MEXT scholarship. Doshisha University also offers tuition waivers for qualified Ph. D. students. If you are interested in studying in my lab, please contact me at the address above.

Current research projects

• Along strike variation of the seismic behavior of the Philippine fault based on geodetic creep monitoring and trenching (funded by JSPS, 2024–2027)

Current students

• Kenta Hara (M2): River steepness indices as indicators of active tectonics in the Kinki area

• Taiki Miyasaka (M2): GPR survey across surface ruptures associated with the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake

• Takuro Noda (M1): Three-dimensional GPR survey of the Komatsu fault of the Median Tectonic Line

• Sana Shirayanagi (M1): Pattern and rate of denudation of the Japanese Islands based on dam sedimentation data

• Four undergraduate students

Former Ph. D. students

Kyoto University

• Noelynna T. Ramos (2011, Professor and Director, National Institute of Geological Sciences, University of the Philippines, Diliman)

• Daisuke Ishimura (2012, Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Chiba University)

• Shigeru Sueoka (2012, Supervising Research Scientist, Japan Atomic Energy Agency)

• Jeffrey S. Perez (ABD, Supervising Science Research Specialist, Officer-in-Charge, Geologic Disaster Awareness & Preparedness Division, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology)

Doshisha University

• Zakeria Shnizai (2020, Assistant Professor, Department of Oil and Gas Mines Engineering, Faculty of Geology and Mines, Kabul Polytechnic University, Afghanistan)

• Adi Patria (2022, Assistant Researcher, Research Center for Geological Disaster, National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia)

Current professional appointments

• Member, The Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction, Japan

• Chair, Sub-commission of active fault evaluation, the Headquarters of Earthquake Research Promotion, MEXT

• President, Japanese Society for Active Fault Studies

Brief CV

• 1996. 4–1997. 9      Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Kochi University

• 1997. 10–2003. 3   Assistant Professor, Department of Geophysics, Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

• 2003. 4–2017.3      Associate Professor, Department of Geophysics, Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

• 2017. 4–                     Professor, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University

Academic awards

• Fulbright scholar (1991–1996)

• Excellent paper award from the Seismological Society of Japan (2008)

• Koto Bunjiro award from the Geological Society of Japan (2015)

Peer-reviewed publications in the past five years

1. Ishimura, D., Tsutsumi, H., Toda, S., Fukushima, Y. Kumahara, Y., Takahashi, N., Ichihara, T. and Takada, K., 2021, Repeated triggered ruptures on a distributed secondary fault system: An example from the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, southwest Japan, Earth, Planets and Space, 73:39.

2. Patria, A., Tsutsumi, H. and Natawidjaja, D. H., 2021, Active fault mapping in the onshore northern Banda Arc, Indonesia: Implications for active tectonics and seismic potential, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 218, 104881.

3. Patria, A., Kimura, H., Kitade, Y. and Tsutsumi, H., 2022, Right-lateral offset associated with the most recent earthquake on the Ikeda fault of the Median Tectonic Line, southwest Japan, revealed by ground-penetrating radar profiling, Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40645-022-00466-7.

4. Kumamoto, T., Okumura, K., Tsukuda, E., Tsutsumi, Hideaki, Tsutsumi, Hiroyuki, Toda, S., Tokuyama, H., Onishi, K., Nishizaka, N., Ohno, Y., Sakai, T. and Kameda, H., 2022, Development of model of seismic source characteristics at the Ikata site based on guidelines for SSHAC Level 3, Journal of Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering, 22-2, 37-60. (In Japanese with English abstract) 

5. Patria, A., Natawidjaja, D. H., Daryono, M. R., Hanif, M., Puji, A. R. and Tsutsumi, H., 2023, Tectonic landform and paleoseismic events of the easternmost Matano fault in Sulawesi, Indonesia, Tectonophysics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2023.229762.

6. Tsutsumi, H., Sugito, N., Kimura, H., Kawashima, S., Nakanishi, T., Koriya, Y., Taniguchi, K. and Omata, M., 2023, Paleoseismic history and slip rate of the Obitoke fault and Tenri flexure at the northeast margin of the Nara basin, southwest Japan, Active Fault Research, 58, 1–19. (in Japanese with English abstract)

7. Kimura, H. and Tsutsumi, H., 2023, Geologic and geophysical evidence of repeated normal faulting on the Itozawa fault—the source of the Mw 6.6 Iwaki earthquake triggered by the Mw 9.0 Tohoku-oki megathrust earthquake, northeast Japan, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 113, 2492-2504, doi: 10.1785/0120230030 .

8. Nakajima, T., Sueoka, S., Nagata, M., Kohn, B. P., Ramos, N. T., Tsutsumi, H. and Tagami, T., 2023, First report of geo- and thermochronological results from the Cordillera Central, Luzon, Philippines, Earth, Planets and Space, 75:176, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-023-01927-z.

9. Shnizai, Z., Walker, R. and Tsutsumi, H., 2023, The Chaman and Paghman active faults, west of Kabul, Afghanistan: active tectonics, geomorphology, and evidence for rupture in the destructive 1505 earthquake, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 259:105925, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2023.105925.

10. Kimura, H., Tsutsumi, H., Inari, A., Taniguchi, K. and Nakanishi, T., 2024, Left-laterally deformed near-surface structures on the Tanna fault at Tashiro site, central Japan, revealed by ground penetrating radar profiling, Quaternary Research, 63, 65-75. (In Japanese with English abstract)

11. Tsutsumi, H., 2024, Active tectonics of Kyushu in light of active fault data, Active Fault Research, 60, 35–38. (in Japanese)

12. Shyu, J. B. H., Liao, J. H., Chen, C. Y., Tsutsumi, H. and Iryu, Y., 2024, Assessing the relative activity of faulting along both flanks of the Ou Backbone Range, Tohoku Region, Japan, from fluvial geomorphic analyses, Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 11:41, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40645-024-00644-9. 

13. Tsutsumi, H. and Perez, J. S., 2024, Creep rates of the Philippine fault on Leyte Island based on offset cultural features, Geoscience Letters, 11:53, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-024-00367-1.

Books in the past five years

1. Kumahara, Y., Kaneda, H. and Tsutsumi, H. (eds.), 2022, Surface Ruptures Associated with the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake Sequence in Southwest Japan, Advances in Geological Science, Springer Singapore, 241p., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1150-7.

Maps and non-peer-reviewed publications in the past five years

1. Nakanishi, T., Okuno, M., Yamasaki, K., Hong, W., Fujita, N., Nakamura, T., Horikawa, Y., Sato, E., Kimura, H. and Tsutsumi, H.,  2021, Formation process of swamp sediments of the Karako Lowland in northern Shimabara Peninsula, western Japan, The Nagoya University Chronological Research, 5, 38–43. (in Japanese with English abstract)

2. Nakanishi, T., Tsutsumi, H., Yamasaki, K., Torii, M., Bariso, E., Rivera, D. J., Lim, R., Daag, A., Hong, W. and Okuno, M., 2021, Recurrence interval of large earthquakes inferred from soft-sediment deformation structures (SSDS) of core samples from Paitan Lake in central Luzon, Philippines, Earth Monthly, Special Issue, 70, 24–31. (in Japanese)  

3. Kajii, K. and Tsutsumi, H., 2021, Late Quaternary activity of the Kikugawa fault zone based on tectonic geomorphic analyses, The Harris Science Review of Doshisha University, 62, 96–102. (in Japanese with English abstract)