Sagami Bay

The center of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 was deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay.

It devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region.

[1] The shallow nature of the seabed on the north of the bay, and the funnelling effect of tsunami and typhoon wave energy, contributed to certain parts of the Shonan coast having suffered considerable damage, including the destruction of the Kōtoku-in temple housing the Great Buddha, or Daibutsu during the massive tsunami of 1498.

[3] It is the major study site for research programs at the University of Tokyo (ORI) and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

In 2004, soil samples from Sagami Bay were found to contain radioactive contamination from the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests that took place from 1946 to 1958.