Great Kanto Earthquake
The Great Kanto earthquake struck Kanto on September 1, 1923. Its focus was located deep beneath the Izu Oshima Island and the cause was a rupture of the boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is subducting under the Okhostk Plate. The different records indicate that the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Although this might not seem devastating, it was the deadliest earthquake in Japan's history and at the time the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in that region with a magnitude of 7.9. (It was later surpassed by the Tohoku earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0.) It has been estimated that about 142,800 people died, including about 40,000 who went missing and were presumed dead - many people had also died because of the Korean massacre after the earthquake.