Seismic Hazards and Mitigation

Measures
CE 305 – Principles of Earthquake Engineering

Engr. Dustin Glenn Cuevas, MSCE

Assistant Program Chair
Civil Engineering Department
CHAPTER 1 BASIC SEISMOLOGY
What is Earthquake ?

Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting

from underground movement along a fault plane or from
volcanic activity

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy

in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves

An earthquake is a sudden and sometimes catastrophic

movement of a part of the Earth's surface.
Earthquake Motion: Kobe Earthquake, 1995
Types of Earthquakes
EQs can be classified by their mode of generation as follows:
Tectonic Earthquakes
oThe most common earthquakes
oProduced when rocks break suddenly in response to the
various geological (tectonic) forces
Volcanic Earthquakes
oEQs that occurs in conjunction with volcanic activity
oEQs induced by the movement (injection or withdrawal) of magma
Collapse Earthquakes
oSmall EQs occurring in regions of underground caverns and mines
oCaused by the collapse of the roof of the mine or caverns
oSometimes produced by massive landsliding
Human cause explosion earthquakes
oProduced by the explosion of chemical or nuclear devices
The Causes of Earthquakes

In ancient Japanese folklore, a giant catfish (Namazu) lives in the

mud beneath the earth. It is guarded by the god Kashima who
restrains the fish with a stone. When Kashima let his guard fall,
Namazu thrashes its body, causing violent earthquakes.
The Causes of Earthquakes
In 1891, a Japanese seismologist, Prof. B. Koto, after careful
study of the Mino-Owari earthquake noted,
“It can be confidently asserted that the sudden faulting was the
actual cause (and not the effect) of the earthquake.”

This finding was the start of

common acceptance that
fractures and faults were the
actual mechanism of the
earthquake and not its
results, and was the basis of
the development of the
seismology.
Ground Failure by Lateral Fault Movement
Kocaeli (Turkey) Earthquake (1999)
Surface rupture caused by
Fault dislocation
The Causes of Earthquakes
Shortly after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, an American
geologist, Harry Fielding Reid, investigated the geological aftermath.

He noticed that a displacement of nearly 6 meters had occurred on

certain parts of the San Andreas fault which runs under San
Francisco, and he proposed the theory that strain had been building
up over a long period of time and suddenly released in the EQ.
“It is impossible for rock to rupture without first being subjected to
elastic strains greater than it can endure. We concluded that the
crust in many parts of the earth is being slowly displaced, and the
difference between the displacements in neighboring regions set up
elastic strains, which may become larger than the rock can endure.
A rupture then take place, and the strained rock rebounds under its
own elastic stresses, until the strain is largely or wholly relieved.

When a fault ruptures, the elastic energy stored in the rock is

released, partly as heat and partly as elastic waves.

In the majority of cases, the elastic rebound on opposite sides of the

fault are in opposite directions.

This is known as the elastic rebound theory.

Animation: Elastic Rebound

Animation: Elastic Rebound
 Four basic types of faults
Fault: A fault is a fracture along
which the blocks of crust on either side
have moved relative to one another
parallel to the fracture.

Dip Slip (normal or thrust) Strike Slip (right or left lateral)

14
Strike-slip Strike-slip faults are vertical (or nearly vertical) fractures
where the blocks have mostly moved horizontally. If the
block opposite an observer looking across the fault moves
to the right, the slip style is termed right lateral; if the block
moves to the left, the motion is termed left lateral.

Normal
Dip-slip faults are inclined fractures where the blocks have
mostly shifted vertically. If the rock mass above an inclined
fault moves down, the fault is termed normal, whereas if
the rock above the fault moves up, the fault is termed
reverse (or thrust). Oblique-slip faults have significant
components of both slip styles.

Thrust
Oblique-slip faults: Oblique-slip faulting suggests both
dip-slip faulting and strike-slip faulting. It is caused by a
combination of shearing and tension or compressional
forces, e.g., left-lateral normal fault.

Oblique-slip
Earthquake Rupture

The rupture begins at the

earthquake focus within the crustal
rock and then spreads outward in
all directions in the fault plane.

The boundary of the rupture does not spread out uniformly. Its
progress is jerky and irregular because crustal rocks vary in their
physical properties and overburden pressure from place to place.

If this rupture reaches the surface (as happens in a minority of shallow

earthquakes), it produces a visible fault trace.
Rupture on a Fault

Total Slip in the M7.3 Landers Earthquake

Slip on an earthquake fault

START

Surface of the earth

Depth
Into 
the
earth 100 km (60 miles)
Distance along the fault plane
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 2.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 4.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 6.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 8.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 10.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 12.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 14.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 16.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 18.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 20.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 22.0
Slip on an earthquake fault
Second 24.0
Rupture on a Fault

Total Slip in the M7.3 Landers Earthquake

The 26
December 2004
Megathrust
Earthquake

Magnitude: 9.3

Rupture Length:
1200 km

Ishii et al., 2005

Nature
Surface Rupture: Strike-slip Fault Example
Surface Rupture: Normal Fault Example

Dixie Valley-Fairview Peaks, Nevada earthquake

December 16, 1954
Surface Rupture: Thrust Fault Example
Strong ground shaking above the rupture zone
The 1995 Kobe Earthquake
The 1995 Kobe Earthquake
Yogyakarta Earthquake (2006)

Epicenter
 Bantul, Yogyakarta

Strong Ground Shaking + Unreinforced Masonry Houses

= A Major Disaster
Continental Drift
In 1910 a German meteorologist and astronomer, Alfred Wegener,
put forward a theory:
At about 200 million years ago, the earth consisted of only one continent,
which he called Pangaea (all lands), and one ocean, Panthalassa (all seas).
Eventually, for reasons which Wegener could not explain, this mass of land
broke up in mesozoic times—about 150 million years ago—and started to
move; firstly into N-S devisions, and then into E-W ones.

He called the process

continental drift.
Continental Drift
Initially the Wegener theory was too fanciful for many, and at the
existing level of scientific knowledge it could not be proved.

Wegener was roundly condemned.

After the discovery of submarine mountain ranges and many more

evidence in later years, the Wegener theory became a widely
accepted theory.

This was also the starting point of the theory of plate tectonics.

The impact of the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift was
immense and was the great breakthrough that the earth sciences had
needed for so long.
Plate Tectonics
The basic idea of “plate tectonics” is that the earth’s outer shell (called
the lithosphere) consists of several large and fairly stable slabs of solid
rock called plates.

The thickness of each plate is about 80 km. The plate moves

horizontally, relative to neighboring plates, on a layer of softer rock.
Tectonic Plates
Earth’s 14 tectonic plates and their movements
Convergence plate boundary: subduction zone etc.
Divergence plate boundary: Plates diverges at mid-ocean ridges
Transform fault: Plates move laterally each other

47
Plate Tectonics

The rate of plate movement ranges from 1 to 10 centimeters per year.

At the plate edges where there is contact with adjoining plates,

boundary tectonic forces act on the rock causing physical and
chemical changes in them.

This is where the massive and radical geological changes (including

earthquakes) occur.
Tectonic Plates
Where do earthquakes occur ?
Tectonic Map of
SouthEast Asia
New tectonic plate is created at mid-ocean ridges by the upwelling and
cooling of magma (molten rock) from the Earth’s mantle. In order to conserve
mass, the horizontally moving plates are believed to be absorbed at the
ocean trenches where a subduction process carries the tectonic plate
downward into the Earth’s interior.

Indian Ocean

Press & Siever (1986)

 Crustal movements
and plate boundaries

An oceanic spreading ridge is the

fracture zone along the ocean bottom
where molten mantle material comes to
the surface, thus creating new crust. This
fracture can be seen beneath the ocean as
a line of ridges that form as molten rock
reaches the ocean bottom and solidifies.
An oceanic trench is a linear depression
of the sea floor caused by the subduction
53
of one plate under another.
Three types of plate
convergence

54
This plate tectonics theory has a number of implications for our understanding
of earthquakes.
First, many more earthquakes will occur along the edges of the
interacting plates (interplate earthquakes) than within the plate
boundaries (intraplate earthquakes).
Second, because the directions of forces on plates vary across them,
the mechanism of the sources of earthquakes and their size differ in
different parts of a plate.
Only about 10% of the world’s earthquakes occur along the ocean ridge
system. In contrast, earthquakes occurring where plate boundaries converge,
such as trenches, contribute about 90 %.

Third, the grand scale of the plate pattern and the steady rate of plate
spreading imply that along a plate edge the slip should, on average,
be a constant value over many years.
This idea suggests that the historical patterns of distance and time intervals
between major earthquakes along major plate boundaries provide at least
crude indication of places at which large earthquakes might occur.
Tectonic Map
Seismicity Map
Tectonic Map of SouthEast Asia Seismicity Map of SouthEast Asia
(1912-2007)

Nepal EQ (2015)
Seismic Waves
Earthquakes generate many types of seismic waves in complex patterns.

Some penetrate the earth and come to the surface in the same state, or
slightly distorted. Others are reflected, or refracted, or bent by something
or some zone of different density within the earth itself. Some travels
round the circumference of the world and do not penetrate at all.

Rays of seismic shear waves from the focus of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake through the crust
Seismic Waves
There are 3 basic types of seismic waves:
oThe primary (P) waves
oThe secondary (S) waves
oThe surface waves

P waves are compressional waves which exert a pull-push force.

The motion of a P wave is the same as that of a sound wave—as it
spreads out, it alternately pushes (compresses) and pulls (dilates) the
rock.
These P waves, just like sound waves, are able to travel through both
solid rock and liquid material (such as volcanic magma or the oceans).

S waves are shear waves.

As it propagates through the body of rock, a shear wave shears the
rock sideways at right angles to the direction of travel.
S waves cannot propagate in the liquid parts of the earth, such as the
oceans or magma.
 Body
Wave

Seismic Waves
Surface
Wave

60
Body Waves
When the body waves (the P and S waves) move through the layers of
the rock in the crust, they are reflected or refracted at the interfaces
between rock types. Also, whenever either one is reflected or
refracted, some of the energy of one type is converted to waves of the
other type.

P and S waves do not travel at the same speed, and these speeds
vary with the substance through which the waves are passing.
Broadly speaking, a P wave travels faster than an S wave.

Thus at any site, the P wave arrives first, and the S wave arrives later.

The length of time between the arrival of the P and the S wave gives
an indication of the distance an earthquake is away from an observer.
By using 3 or more seismograph stations, it is possible to pinpoint
where the earthquake occurred.
 Instrumental Record at a Seismic Station

3 km/s in crust

6 km/s in crust

Difference in arrival times between P and S waves:

measure of site-to-source distance 63
Seismic Wave Records at Several Seismic Stations
The 1995 Kobe Earthquake

P-wave
S-wave



Hypocenter

64
 Locating Earthquakes
Although it is possible to infer a general location for an event from the
records of a single station, it is most accurate to use three or more stations.
➢A measurement of the P-S time at single
station gives the distance between the
station and the event.
➢Drawing a circle on a map around the
station's location, with a radius equal to
the distance, shows all possible locations
for the event.
➢With the P-S time from a second station,
the circle around that station will narrow
the possible locations down to two points.
➢It is only with a third station's P-S time
that should identify which of the two
previous possible points is the real one.

http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/seismic-waves.html
Surface Waves
Surface waves have their motion restricted to near the ground surface.
As the depth below this surface increases, wave displacements
decrease.

Surface waves travel more slowly than body waves.

Surface waves in earthquakes can be further divided into 2 types:

Love wave and Rayleigh wave.

The motion of a Love wave is essentially the same as that of S waves

that have no vertical displacement. It moves the ground from side to
side in a horizontal plane but at right angles to the direction of
propagation. Love waves do not propagate through water.

Like rolling of ocean waves, the pieces of material disturbed by a

Rayleigh wave move both vertically and horizontally in a vertical plane
pointed in the direction in which the wave is travelling.
 Body
Wave

Seismic Waves
Surface
Wave

68
Seismoscopes

In the year A.D. 136, a Chinese

called Choko (also called Chang
Heng) invented an instrument for
indicating earthquakes.

It consisted of a spherically formed copper vessel (about 2.4 m in diameter).

In the inner part of this instrument a column was so suspended that it can
move in 8 directions.
When an earthquake occurs, the vessel is shaken, the dragon instantly drops
the ball, and the frog which receives it vibrates vigoriously; anyone watching
this instrument can easily observed earthquakes.
Once upon a time a dragon dropped its ball without any earthquake being
observed, and people therefore thought the instrument of no use, but after 2
to 3 days a notice came saying that an earthquake had taken place in
Rosei. Hearing of this, those who doubted the use of this instrument began
to believe in it again.

After this ingenious instrument had

been invented by Choko, the Chinese
government wisely appointed a
secretary to make observations on
earthquakes.
Seismographs
The earliest modern seismographs was invented by John Milne around 1880s
during when he was Professor of Geology and Mining at the Imperial College
of Engineering in Tokyo (University of Tokyo).

The principal problem for constructing precise earthquake measuring devices

during that time was how to produce a body which would remain stationary,
and detached from the world around in order to record the relative movement
of the ground on which it actually rested.

They decided to make use of the

mechanical principle of inertia—in
essence the tendency of a heavy
body to stay put.

Thus their seismographs relied on

using a freely swinging pendulum
whose movements were marked by
pin or pen on a revolving drum of
smoked glass, and later paper.
 Mechanism of Seismograph
An earthquake does not make the pendulum swing. Instead, the pendulum
remains fixed as the ground moves beneath it.

A pendulum with a short period (left) moves along with the support and
registers no motion. A pendulum with a long period (right) tends to remain
in place while the support moves.

The boundary between the two types

of behavior is the natural period of the
pendulum. Only motions faster than
the natural period will be detected;
any motion slower will not.

“Seismograph” usually refers a

displacement-type seismometer.

http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/202ovhds/quakes.htm
Seismographs
The damping of the pendulum was also added to
suppress the free vibration response and to improve
the performance of the seismographs.

The Milne seismographs employed 3 devices, one for John Milne

each component of ground motion (up-down, north-
south, east-west components).
Modern Seismographs
The general principle behind the early seismographs is still the basic idea
behind the designs of present-day seismographs.

In modern seismographs the

relative motion between the
pendulum and frame produces
an electrical signal that is
magnified electronically
thousands or even hundreds of
thousands of times before it is
recorded.

The electrical signals can be

recorded on to magnetic tapes,
papers, or converted into
equivalent digital signals and
stored in computer memory.
Modern Seismographs

Short-period Seismograph Broadband Seismograph

Natural Period = 1 sec Natural Period = 120 sec

Most seismographs around the world are designed to detect small-amplitude

motions (weak motions) and are very sensitive “ears on the world”. They can
detect and record earthquakes of small size from very great distances (>1000
km).
The IRIS Global Seismographic Network (GSN)
The goal of the GSN is to deploy 128 permanent seismic recording stations
uniformly over the earth's surface.

IRIS: Incorporated Research

Institutions for Seismology

http://www.iris.edu/
Strong-motion Seismographs
Strong-motion seismographs are specially designed to record the strong
shaking of the ground in such a way that the records obtained can be directly
read as acceleration of the ground.

They are usually capable of recording acceleration of the ground greater than
that of gravity.

Most strong-motion accelerometers

do not record continuously but are
triggered into motion by the first
waves of the earthquake to arrive.
 Strong Motion Stations in Taiwan
N

and Distribution of the JMA seismic

intensity for the 1999 Chi-Chi EQ

Instrumental Intensity
6+
6-
5+
5-
4
3

Note: JMA seismic intensity is calculated

from a three-component acceleration
record. 81
 高千穂( 2. 5gal )

北川( 3. 8gal )

20gal Strong-motion Records

0 20sec
In Yokohama, Japan
小林( 7. 4gal ) 南郷( 1. 8gal )
観測点名 最大加速度 都農( 7. 1gal ) Magnitude-5 Earthquake
December 16, 1998
小林( 7. 4gal )

西都( 12. 5gal )

Depth 32 km
綾( 7. 5gal )

宮崎( 32. 1gal )

田野( 11. 6gal )

高崎( 20. 8gal ) 都城( 24. 3gal )

日南( 16. 2gal )

地盤分類
沖積層
洪積層 串間( 52. 0gal )
シラ ス分布層
都井岬( 43. 1gal )
礫質土
岩盤
1998. 12. 16 9: 18
★ M5. 5 depth=32km
N31. 3°E131. 6°
Miyazaki, Japan
M5.5
The Size of an Earthquake
The first scientific field study of the effects of a great
earthquake was conducted by an Irish man, Robert
Mallet, who was recognized as the first true
seismologist.

In his assessment of the effects of the Neapolitan

Earthquake of 1857 in southern Italy, Mallet was using
the oldest instruments in the world: his eyes, a
compass and a measuring stick. Robert Mallet

Mallet’s method included detailed mapping and tabulation of felt reports and
damage to buildings and geological movements.

In this way he was able to measure the strength and distribution of the
earthquake ground motion.
The Size of an Earthquake
By drawing lines on a map between places of equal damage or of equal
intensity (isoseismal lines), he determined the center of the earthquake
shaking (the epicenter). Such maps are now called isoseismal maps.
Isoseismal map of the 1811 New Madrid,
Intensity is measured by means of the
Missouri, earthquake (MMI scale) degree of damage to structures of
human origin, the amount of
disturbances to the surface of the
ground, and the extent of animal and
human reaction to the shaking, not by
measuring the ground motion with
instruments.
Mallet used 4 degrees of intensity to
prepare his isoseismal map.
The patterns of isoseismal lines
also indicated to Mallet the rate at
which the shaking effects
diminished with distance and
provide him with an estimate of the
relative size of the earthquake.
Intensity Scale
The first intensity scale of modern times was developed by M. S. de Rossi of
Italy and Francois Forel of Switzerland in the 1880s. It was called the
Rossi-Forel Intensity Scale ( I — X ).

A more refined scale, with 12 values, was constructed in 1902 by the Italian
seismologist and volcanologist G. Mercalli.

A modified version of it, called the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) Scale,
was developed by H. O. Wood and Frank Neumann to fit construction
conditions in California (and most of the United States).

Alternative intensity scales have been developed and are widely used in other
countries, notably in Japan (the JMA Intensity Scale) and the central and
eastern European countries (the Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik (MSK)
Intensity Scale), where conditions differ from those in California.
Isoseismal Map of
the Mandalay
earthquake of 23
May 1912 (after
Brown, 1914)

Rossi-Forel Intensity Scale

JMA Instrumental Intensity in the 2000 Tottori EQ
Measured by National Seismic Networks

Intensity
7
6+
6-
5+
5-
4
3
2
1

90
Chinese Intensity Scale
Earthquake Magnitude
If the magnitudes of earthquakes are to be compared worldwide, a measure
is needed that does not depend (as does intensity) on the density of
population and type of construction.

Such quantitative scale was

originated in 1931 by Kiyoo Wadati
in Japan and later on developed
by Dr. Charles Richter in 1935 in
California.
Kiyoo Wadati Charles Richter

Richter defined the magnitude of an earthquake as the logarithm to base 10

of the maximum seismic-wave amplitude (in micrometer) recorded on a
standard Wood-Anderson short-period seismograph1 at a distance of 100 km
from the earthquake epicenter.
1 The instrument has a natural period of 0.8 sec, critical damping ratio 0.8, magnification 2,800.

Every time the magnitude goes up by 1 unit, the amplitude of the earthquake
waves increases 10 times.
Earthquake Magnitude
At first the scale was intended to
deal with Californian earthquakes
only, but with the cooperation of
Professor Beno Gutenberg the
scale was adapted to enable
earthquakes to be classified
worldwide.

The Richter magnitude scale is also

called Local Magnitude (ML).
Earthquake Magnitude
At the present time there are several magnitude scales. The most used
magnitude scales are surface-wave magnitude (MS), body-wave magnitude
(mb), and moment magnitude (Mw).

MS is a world-wide scale determined from the maximum amplitude of

Rayleigh waves with a period of about 20 seconds (between 18 s and 22 s)
on a standard long-period seismograph1. It is most widely used magnitude
scale for large damaging shallow earthquakes (less than 70 km deep).

It was developed in 1950s by the same researchers who developed ML

(Gutenberg and Richter) in order to improve resolution on larger earthquakes.
1 The instrument has a natural period of 15 sec.

mb is a world-wide scale determined from the maximum amplitude of the first

few cycles of the P wave motion observed on the vertical component of
seismogram. The waves measured typically have a period of about 1
second. It is widely used for characterizing deep earthquakes.
Saturation of Earthquake Magnitude
It must be noted that most
magnitude scales
saturate, or stop
increasing with increasing
earthquake size.

This occurs because each

magnitude scale is
determined using a
seismic wave of a
particular period and wave
length, which at a certain
level does not increase in
amplitude as the
earthquake source size
and energy release
increase.
Moment Magnitude
A more reliable and robust magnitude scale is moment magnitude (MW). It
was introduced by Hanks and Kanamori in 1979. It is based on the seismic
moment (Mo), which is a measure of the whole dimension of the slipped fault:

MW = (2/3). (Log10 Mo -10.7)

Where Mo is seismic moment (in N.m). Geologically Mo is a description of the

extent of deformation at the earthquake source. It is simply defined as:

Mo = mAD = 2 m ES / Ds

Where m is the shear modulus of the rock in the source region (typically 30 gigapascal)
A is the fault rupture area
D is the average dislocation or relative movement (slip) between the
opposite sides of the fault.
ES is radiated seismic energy
Ds is stress drop
The definition based on A D allows Mo to be derived from geological faulting
parameters that can be easily observed in the field for large surface-rupturing
earthquakes. The definition based on ES / Ds allows Mo to be derived from
seismological measurements.
Rupture on a Fault

Total Slip in the M7.3 Landers Earthquake