INTRODUCTION TO EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

 In the past 3 centuries over 3 million people have died due to earthquakes
and earthquake related disasters.
 The economic losses estimated for the period 1929-2950 are in excess of US$
10 Billion.
 2/3 of the earths crust is seismically active, which means that about
1,000,000,000 people are living in areas of the world that are prone to
earthquakes.
 For more developed centuries the economic loss due to an earthquake can be
enormous even if the death toll is fairly low. E.g. Kobe earthquake (Ms 7.0,
Japan, 1995) killed 5420 people but caused US$ 150 billion economic loss.

What do we know?

 Earthquakes cannot be prevented nor accurately predicted.

 It is not ground shaking itself that causes life and economic loss but the
collapse or damage of buildings and infrastructure that are too weak to
resist the ground shaking.

What is EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING?

Earthquake Engineering can be defined as the branch of engineering devoted

to mitigating earthquake risks.

It covers the investigation and solution of the problems created by damaging

earthquakes, and consequently the work involved in the practical application of
these solutions, i.e. in planning, designing, constructing and managing
earthquake-resistant structures and facilities.

What is SEISMIC RISK?

The probability of losses occurring due to earthquakes within the lifetime of a

structure; these losses can include human lives, social and economic disruption
as well as material damage.

RISK = SEISMIC HAZARD x VULNERABILITY

 What Earthquake effects cause damage?

1. Ground Shaking
2. Surface Rupture
3. Landslides
4. Liquefaction
5. Tsunamis

The most destructive earthquakes on record

 The deadliest earthquake struck Shensi province in China in 1556 that kills
about 830,000 people.
 The New Madrid quakes of 1811-1812 hit Missouri and Arkansas; the
largest one made the Mississippi River run backward for a time.
 One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5 that
occurred on 1960 in Chile on a fault of almost 1,000 miles long which
causes death of 4,000
 In 2003, the magnitude 6.5 earthquake in Bam, Iran killed more than 40,000
people
 Almost 70,000 lost their lives in Sichuan, China in 2008, when the Zipingpu
Dam increased the pressure on a nearby fault causing a landslide.
 In Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004 was struck by 9.1 earthquake
were in 227,898 people were killed.
 In Haiti on January 12, 2010, 222,570 people were killed by a 7.0
earthquake. Moreover, 300,000 were also injured and 97,294 houses were
destroyed.

What is SEISMIC HAZARD?

It is the probability of a potentially damaging earthquake effect occurring at the

site of planned construction within its design life.

BOHOL CEBU EARTHQUAKE (2013)

CASUALTIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE DAMAGE

o The earthquake struck as the Philippines was observing the Muslim Holiday of
Eid-al-Adha. The public holiday had closed schools, some businesses and
offices which help reduces the number of casualties.
o A total of ₱2.25 billion worth of damage to public buildings, roads, bridges,
and flood controls was reported in Bohol and Cebu. A total of 671,103 families
or more than 3.2 million people were affected by the quake. Out of the total
 number of affected, 71,822 families or more than 348,000 people were
displaced.

INTENSITY REPORT

 Intensity VII – Tagbilaran City; Cebu City; Lapu Lapu City; Mandaue City;
Toledo City; Carcar City; Naga City (CEBU)
 Intensity VI – Hinigaran, Negros Occidental, Dumaguete City; Siquijor Island
 Intensity V – Iloilo City, La Carlota City, Guimaras Island; Abuyog, Leyte;
Ozamis City; Sibulan, Negros Oriental; Camiguin Island; Gingoong, Misamis
Orinetal; Cagayan De Oro City
 Intensity IV – Roxas City; Masbate City; Bulusan, Sorsogon; Hinunangan;
Tabon Tabon; San Pablo; Bato, Leyte; Patnungon, Antique; Diplog City;
Bacolod City; Naval Biliran; Bayawan City; Baybay, Southern Leyte; San Jose
Antique; Guihingan Negros Oriental; Butuan City; Tacloban City

LUZON EARTHQUAKE (1990)

CASUALTIES AND DAMAGES

o The July 16 1990 Earthquake (Ms = 7.8) produced a 125 km-long ground
rupture that stretches from Dingalan, Aurora to Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya as a
result of strike-slip movements along the NW segment of the Philippine Fault
Zone and its splay, the Digdig Fault.
o The earthquake epicentre was placed at 15˚42’N and 121˚7’E near town of
Rizal, Nueva Ecija.
o Rupture length measure maximum horizontal (6.2m) and vertical (2.5m)
displacements are within the range of values observed worldwide, for
earthquake of this magnitude.
o Two hundred seventy (270) persons were killed and 261 were injured as a
result of the earthquake.
o A six-storey building in Binondo,(Ruby Tower) Manila collapsed instantly
during the quake while several major buildings near Binondo and Escolita
area in Manila sustained varying levels of structural damages. The cost of
property damage was several million dollars.

o Liquefaction effects of the 16 July 1990 Earthquake were particularly

pronounce in the provinces of Tarlac, Pangasinan, and La Union. Theses
provinces are situated in recent sedimentary environments, four of which
exhibited characteristics vulnerability to liquefaction:
o (1) back swamps in Gerona, Pura, Paniqui and Ramos, Tarlac;
 o (2) river channels and point-bars in Dagupan City, San Carlos and Malasiqui,
Pangasinan;
o (3) sandspits in Agoo and Sto. Tomas in La Union;
o And (4) delatas in Aringay, La Union and Binmaley and Lingayen, Pangasinan.

MORO GULF EARTHQUAKE (1976)

CASUALTIES AND DAMAGES

Area Dead Missing Injured Homeless

Region 9 1,440 909 7,701 49,848
Region 12 3,351 1,379 2,227 43,534

o The major cause of the great number of casualties during the event could be
attributed to the fact that (1) the tremor happened just after midnight when
most people were sleeping; (2) a great tsunami was spawned, struck the
coasts from different directions and caught the people unaware.

OTHER EARTHQUAKES IN THE PHILIPPINES

LAOAG EARTHQUAKE – 17 AUGUST 1983
 Date of Event – August 17 1983
 Origin Time, 8:17 am (12:17 GMT)
 Epicenter, 18.281 N Latitude 120.860 E Longitude or approximately 30
aerial kilometres east-northeast of Laoag City.
 Magnitude 6.5 Ms (5.31 MI on the Richter Scale)
 Depth approximately 42km from the surface.

BOHOL EARTHQUAKE – 27 MAY 1996

 Date of Event – May 27, 1996
 Origin Time, 1:45 pm (05:45 GMT)
 Epicenter, 09.98 N Latitude 124.10 E Longitude or in between Clarin
and Inabanga, Bohol.
 Magnitude 5.6 Ms
 Depth approximately 4km from the surface.

PANAY EARTHQUAKE – 14 JUNE 1990

 On 14 June 1990, an earthquake measuring 7.1 in Richter Scale hit
Panay Island at 3:41 PM, Killing 8 and injuring 41 people. The epicentre
 was located at 11.34˚ N latitude; 122.10˚ East Longitude, In the vicinity
of Culasi, Antique. The depth was computed to be 15 kilometers.

BOHOL EARTHQUAKE – FEBRUARY 08 1990

 This shallow seated tectonic earthquake with magnitude 6.8, struck the
island of Bohol at 3:15 pm, caused panic to general public, damaged
several houses and infrastructure and presented several geologic
disturbances.

Pagaea
-‘Entire Earth’
-The supercontinent that existed 250 million years ago.

The Earth

The shape of the earth is Oblate Spheroid.

Its equatorial diameter is 12740 km.

Its polar diameter is 12700 km.

THE EARTH’S INTERIOR

Mohorovicic Discontinuity, or "Moho," is the boundary between the crust and the
mantle.
FOCAL DEPTH: The focal depth refers to the depth of an earthquake hypocentre.

FAULT PLANE: The fault plane is the planar (flat) surface along which there is slip
during an earthquake.

The hypocentre is the point within the

earth where an earthquake rupture
starts.

The epicentre is the point on the

earth’s surface vertically above the
hypocentre.

What is SEISMOLOGY?

Greek words:

seismos – earthquake
logos – science

SEISMIC WAVES

1. Body Waves – can travel through the interior of the earth

2. Surface Waves – result from the interaction between body waves and the
surface and surficial layers of the earth.
BODY WAVES
 P-waves known as primary, compressional or longitudinal waves
 S-waves known as the secondary, shear or transverse waves
SURFACE WAVES
 Rayleigh waves
 Love waves
Plate Tectonics

Plate tectonics is the theory supported by a wide range of evidence that

considers the earth’s crust and upper mantle to be composed of several large, thin,
relatively rigid plates that move relative to on another.

Continental-sized plates of the Earth’s Crust

1. African
2. American
3. Antarctic
4. Australia-Indian
5. Eurasian
6. Pacific

Fault Movements

DIP SLIP MOVEMENT

- Fault movement that occurs primarily in the direction of the dip

STRIKE-SLIP MOVEMENT
-Fault movement occurring parallel to the strike and nearly vertical that
produces large movement.

OBLIQUE FAULT MOVEMENT

-Fault movement with both dip-slip and strike-slip components.
WHAT IS AN EARTHQUAKE?

Earthquake is a term used to describe both sudden slip on a fault and the resulting
ground shaking and radiated seismic energy caused by the slip, or by volcanic or
magnetic activity, or other sudden stress changes in the earth.

SIZE OF EARTHQUAKES

Earthquake Intensity – qualitative description of the effects of the earthquake at a

particular location as evidenced by observed damage and human reactions at that
location

Earthquake magnitude – quantitative measure of the size of an earthquake

EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE

Richter Local Magnitude (ML) – made by Charles Richter in 1935 to defined

the local magnitude as the logarithm (base 10) of the maximum trace
amplitude located 100kms from the epicentre of the earthquake.
Surface Wave Magnitude (Ms) – is a worldwide magnitude scale based on the
amplitude of Rayleigh waves with a period of about 20 sec introduced by
Gutenberg and Richter in 1936:

𝑴𝒔 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑨 + 𝟏. 𝟔𝟔𝒍𝒐𝒈∆ + 𝟐. 𝟎
Where:
A = maximum ground displacement
∆ = epicentral distance of the seismometer measured in degrees

EARTHQUAKE INTENSITY

Rossi – Forel (RF)

Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA)
Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik (MSK)
Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI)
MODIFIED MERCALLI INTENSITY

LOCATION OF EARTHQUAKES

∆𝒕𝒑−𝒔
𝒅=
𝟏 𝟏
−
𝒗𝒔 𝒗𝒑
d = distance between the seismograph and the focus of the earthquake.

∆𝒕𝒑−𝒔 = difference in time between the first p and s waves.

Vp and vs = p and s waves velocities.
ELASTIC REBOUND THEORY

 The theory of elastic rebound implies that the occurrence of earthquakes

will relieve stresses along the portion of a fault on which rupture occurs
and that subsequent rupture will not occur on that segment until the
stresses have had time to build up again.
 The theory of elastic rebound also implies that tectonic environments
capable of storing different amounts of energy will produce earthquakes of
different sizes
 The theory of elastic rebound can be used to develop a useful measure of
the size of an earthquake.

𝑀𝑜 = 𝜇 𝐴 𝐷
Where,
Mo = seismic moment
𝜇 = rupture strength of the material along the fault
A = rupture area
D = the average amount of slip

1. Stress on a fault slowly accumulates

2. During an earthquake, stress on the fault is released
3. After an earthquake, stress begins to re-accumulate