The denser oceanic Philippines Plate is being subducted beneath the lighter continental Eurasian Plate at a rate of about 10 centimetres per year. Earthquakes are very common here and happen because of the friction resulting from the two plates colliding along this destructive margin.
The great destruction which resulted from the 1995 Kobe Earthquake was due to the shallow depth of the focus which was only about 16km below the surface and the fact that the epicentre occurred close to a very heavily populated area. Seismic shockwaves travelled from Awaji Island(the epicentre) along the Nojima Fault to the cities of Kobe and Osaka. The earthquake had a "strike-slip mechanism." The resulting surface rupture had an average horizontal displacement of about 1.5 meters on the Nojima fault. This fault which runs along the northwest shore of Awaji Island.
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