Japan has more measurable earthquakes than any other country and has over 100 active volcanoes. These both result from Japan being wedged among four major tectonic plates. The tectonics are complicated, but in this animation we attempt to look at the basic mechanics of the region as we focus on two famous earthquakes: the 1995 Kobe (Great Hanshin) earthquake) and the 2011 TohokuOki earthquake.
It is necessarily simplified to depict basic processes.
We appreciate that there are many published faultdisplacement models derived from fitting different sets of observations (teleseismic waveforms, tsunami heights, GPS displacements, seafloor deformation, etc.).
There is considerable disagreement between those faultdisplacement models. For a variety of reasons, the animation group decided to illustrate the faultdisplacement model of Jiang and Simons, 2016, Journal of Geophysical research, 10.1002/2016JB013760.

Written & directed by Dr. Robert F. Butler, University of Portland
Animation & graphics by Jenda Johnson, Earth Sciences Animated
Narrated by Wendy Bohon, Informal Education Specialist, IRIS
Scientific review:
Dr. Hiroyuki Tsutsumi, Doshisha University (堤　浩之, 同志社大)
Dr. Chris Goldfinger, Oregon State University
Dr. Lori Dengler, Humboldt State University