The focal mechanism of the earthquake indicates right-lateral strike-slip faulting on a vertical fault striking slightly east of northeast, parallel to the strike of the mapped faults.
This seismicity contains a sequence of earthquakes between 1891 and 1948 that includes the magnitude 8 Nobi earthquake of 1891, the magnitude 7.3 Tango earthquake of 1927, the magnitude 7.2 Tottori earthquake of 1943, and the magnitude 7.1 Fukui earthquake of 1948 [Kanamori, 1973].
Kobe is located on a narrow strip of land between Osaka Bay to the southeast and the Rokko mountains to the northwest.
It is often possible to measure the displacement and length of the exposed fault rupture to estimate the slip and area of the subsurface fault, providing an independent estimate of the earthquake's magnitude.
Most of the damage done by earthquakes is due to their secondary effects, those not directly caused by fault movement, but resulting instead from the propagation of seismic waves away from the fault rupture.
The Kobe port, having been constructed on two artificial islands made of relatively loose fill, and always water saturated, suffered widespread liquefaction and settlement, and was incapacitated for two months.
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