The northernmost coast of Sagami Bay, central Japan, is situated in the eastern part of the Izu island arc collision–subduction zone where the Philippine Sea Plate has been subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate or North American Plate since the middle Miocene. It is an area at high risk of geological disaster because it is a developed suburban area located just 50–80 km SW of the megalopolis of Tokyo. We have used our own onshore and offshore neotectonic field data to create a summary of the geological and topographical information related to geohazards over various spatial and temporal ranges, and we provide additional information from archaeological and historical disaster records. The geological hazards and disasters are reviewed on a logarithmic timescale from 10 Ma to modern times. We examine this information with respect to the Great Kanto earthquakes that have repeatedly affected the present area, as they provide a typical example of hazard history on a collision–subduction zone that is useful not only for assessing the local risk but also for providing generic risk. The results can assist in preparedness for various geological hazards, particularly earthquakes, tsunamis, and crustal movements such as uplift and subsidence, as well as active faults and folds.

This paper describes topographic and geologic features of the northern part of the Sagami Trough and surrounding areas, off central Japan, and discusses the role of the Philippine Sea plate in the development of the trough's topography and fault systems. In the study area, the Okinoyama Bank Chain, Miura Basin Chain, and several spurs are aligned NW-SE parallel to the axis of the Sagami Trough. We examine the lithological compositions of rock and piston-core samples collected from the R/V Hyper Dolphin during Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology dives 906 and 907, and rock samples dredged during Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo cruise KT88. These samples represent mainly volcaniclastic rocks derived from the volcanoes of the Izu arc and subordinate amounts of terrigenous sediment interpreted as derived from the Sagami and Sakawa Rivers. The topographic and geologic data define five fault systems in the eastern part of the northern Sagami Trough. We interpret the Okinoyama Bank Chain as an elevated outer-ridge belt developed at the landward slope of the plate boundary, which is represented by NW-SE trending right-lateral reverse faults (F1). At the northeast side of the Okinoyama Bank Chain, NW-SE trending normal faults (F2) formed and the Miura Basin Chain developed. The cutting relationship between these fault sets suggests that the collision of the Izu arc with the Honshu arc imposed a right-lateral shear stress field on the Okinoyama Bank and Miura Basin Chains. This shear stress may have led to clockwise rotation of these tectonic blocks formation of a set of NE-SW trending left-lateral reverse faults (F3). The initiation of the Izu block collision is interpreted as a turning point after which the northward motion of the Philippine Sea plate abruptly changed to NW and the Sagami Bay area came under a NW-SE compressional stress field, which resulted in the development of E-W trending right-lateral faults (F4) in the narrow shelf off the Miura Peninsula. A number of spurs subsequently developed along these faults. Finally, NNE-SSW trending right-lateral normal faults (F5) developed under an E-W extensional stress field, which caused the formation of N-S trending topographic depressions such as Tokyo Canyon and submarine highs such as Okinoyama and Oiso Spur.

Discrimination between gravity slides and tectonic fold-and-thrust belts in the geologic record has long been a challenge, as both have similar layer shortening structures resulting from single bed duplication by thrust faults of outcrop to map scales. Outcrops on uplifted benches within the Miocene to Pliocene Misaki accretionary unit of Miura-Boso accretionary prism, Miura Peninsula, central Japan, preserve good examples of various types of bedding duplication and duplex structures with multiple styles of folds. These provide a foundation for discussion of the processes, mechanisms, and tectonic implications of structure formation in shallow parts of accretionary prisms. Careful observation of 2-D or 3-D and time dimensions of attitudes allows discrimination between formative processes. The structures of gravitational slide origin develop under semi-lithified conditions existing before the sediments are incorporated into the prism at the shallow surfaces of the outward, or on the inward slopes of the trench. They are constrained within the intraformational horizons above bedding-parallel detachment faults and are unconformably covered with the superjacent beds, or are intruded by diapiric, sedimentary sill or dike intrusions associated with liquefaction or fluidization under ductile conditions. The directions of vergence are variable. On the other hand, layer shortening structure formed by tectonic deformation within the accretionary prism are characterized by more constant styles and attitudes, and by strong shear features with cataclastic textures. In these structures, the fault surfaces are oblique to the bedding, and the beds are systematically duplicated (i.e., lacking random styles of slump folds), and they are commonly associated with fault-propagation folds. Gravitational slide bodies may be further deformed at deeper levels in the prism by tectonism. Such deformed rocks with both processes constitute the whole accretionary prism at depth, and later may be deformed, exhumed to shallow levels, and exposed at the surface of the trench slope, where they may experience further deformation. These observations are not only applicable in time and space to large-scale thrust-and-fold belts of accretionary prism orogens, but to small-scale examples. If we know the total 3-D geometry of geologic bodies, including the time and scale of deformational stages, we can discriminate between gravitational slide and tectonic formation of each fold-and-thrust belt at the various scales of occurrence.