MODULE 1

Introduction to
Earthquake
Engineering
Allan B. Benogsudan
 MODULE 1 MODULE 2
Introduction to Measurement of
Earthquake Engineering earthquakes
(Week 1 ) (Week 2 )

Course MODULE 3
MODULE 4

Outline Dynamics of vibration

Effects of soils on
ground motion

(CHED)
(Week 3 )
(Week 4 )

MODULE 5 MODULE 6
Earthquake effects and Effects of Building
design of structures Configurations
(Week 5 ) (Week 6 )

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 Annex III - BSCE Course Specifications OCT. 24,
2017)
Course EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING MODULES
Name
Course At the end of the course, the students must be able to:
Outcomes 1. Explain the occurrence and origin of earthquakes; 1, 2, 3, 4

2. Understand the earthquake characteristics and 4, 5, 6

discuss the response of structures to seismic
excitation;
3. Apply the latest developments in earthquake and 5,6
seismic design relevant to required codes of
practice for analysis and design.

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Outcomes of the Course

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

● Describe earthquakes, their worldwide distribution, what

causes them, their likely damage mechanisms, measuring
scales, and current efforts on the prediction of strong seismic
ground motions.

● Examine the Philippine Fault Systems

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1.1 INTRODUCTION

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1.1 INTRODUCTION

1. What are earthquakes?

2. What are the causes of earthquakes
3. Definition of commonly used terms
4. How earthquakes are measured ?
5. Distribution of Seismicity
6. How seismicity can be characterized?

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 1.1 INTRODUCTION

Characterization

● Casualties - 10,000 people

die each year
● Damage losses
● Destruction
● ground shaking

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● First step to scientific study of earthquakes - Robert Mallet , sets
out to explain ““masses of dislocated stone and mortar”
● established basic vocabulary such as seismology, hypocenter
and isoseismal.
● Explain the large amplitude-long duration shaking observed in
damaging earthquakes
● First 60 years of the century - great seismological advances
occurred in studying waves from distant earthquakes using very
sensitive seismographs.

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● Inferior seismograph - not much fundamental
work was done by seismologists on the rarer
large earthquakes of engineering importance,
● After the 1971 San Fernando earthquake -
hundreds of strong-motion records were
available for this magnitude 6.5 earthquake.

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 What are earthquakes?
Earthquakes are broad-banded
vibratory ground motions, resulting
from a number of causes including:

● tectonic ground motions

● volcanism,
● landslides,
● rockbursts, and
● man-made explosions.

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What are earthquakes?
Fault - a zone of the earth’s crust within which the two sides have moved

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1.2 SEISMICITY OF THE WORLD

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 1.2 SEISMICITY OF THE WORLD

• Seismicity is a description of the relationship of time, space,

strength and frequency of earthquake occurrence within a
certain region and its understanding is the foundation of
earthquake study.
• Since there is still no practical way to control earthquakes,
one can only try to understand and follow their nature wisely to
prepare for possible strong earthquakes through prediction,
earthquake engineering and society or governmental efforts of
disaster reduction (Bangash, 2011).
• Dowrick (2009) defined seismicity as the frequency of
occurrence of earthquakes per unit area in a given region, and is
illustrated in non-numerical terms by the seismicity map of the
world shown below.
•

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 1.2 SEISMICITY OF THE WORLD

1. The seismicity of the world is obtained from the

different seismographic observatories.
2. Dense concentrations of earthquake centers with some
as much as 680 kilometers beneath the surface also
coincide with island arcs, such as those of the Pacific and
the eastern Caribbean
3. Western side of the pacific Ocean, the whole coast

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1.2 CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES

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1.3 CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES

1. Tectonic - result from motion between a

number of large plates comprising the
earth’s crust or lithosphere
2. Explosions
3. Volcanic Earthquakes
4. Collapse Earthquakes
5. Large Reservoir-Induced Earthquakes

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 1.4 Earthquake fault sources
Faults - offsets of geological structure; may range in length from a few meters
to many kilometers and are drawn on a geological map as continuous or
broken line

1. Movement of faults
● Slow slip - produces no ground shaking
● Sudden rupture - due to earthquake, most famous is the San Andreas
fault Shallow focus earthquakes - much shorter and shows much less
offset.
● Fault rupture - majority of earthquakes does not reach the surface
● Geological mappings and geophysical work - show that faults seen at the
● surface sometimes extend to depths of tens of kilometers in the Earth’s
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crust
1.4 Earthquake
fault sources
2. Inactive faults
● Most plotted on geological maps are
now inactive faults
● New discovery are also discovered
from fresh ground breakage during an
earthquake
● Thus, Delineated by a line of cracks

3. Active faults
● Primary interest in seismology and
earthquake engineering
● Rock displacement - expected to
occur
● Exists in a well defined plate-edge
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regions of the earth
1.4 Earthquake fault
sources

4. Fault displacement
● almost entirely horizontal – San
Francisco earthquake along the San
Andreas fault
● Large vertical motion occurrence as
shown in the figure

Figure 1-9. Normal fault scarp associated with

the 1992 Landers, California, earthquake

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1. Causes of earthquakes and faulting; tectonic
plates

1. Tectonic earthquakes - cause the most significant damage to

human lives and properties.
2. Explosions -
3. Volcanic earthquakes - ay also lead to a disturbance of the
tectonic plates, causing earthquakes, which are typically much
smaller than earthquakes caused by non-volcanic sources.
4. Collapse earthquakes -
5. Large-reservoir induced earthquakes -
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 CAUSES OF
EARTHQUAKE

Tectonic earthquakes

● cause the most significant damage to

human lives and properties
● are of particular interest to the structural
engineers

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 1.2 Plate Tectonic and Inner
Structure of Earth

An earthquake is a transient violent movement of the Earth’s surface that follows a release of energy in the
Earth’s crust 24
1. Tectonic
earthquakes
• The geological explanation
of the majority of
earthquakes is in terms of
what is called plate
tectonics.
• Subduction
• Plate-edge earthquakes

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1. Tectonic
earthquakes
• Slip – produced large
earthquakes along faults
• Transform faults - in these
regions, plates slide past
each other
• continent-to-continent
collisions - collision zones are
regions of high present day
seismic activity.

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 1. Tectonic earthquakes

• Earthquake-concentrated zones
are called earthquake belts.
• 2 major earthquake belts on the
Earth (Fig. 1.2).
• Circum-Pacific belt, which is very
active, with 75% of earthquakes
concentrated on it.
• The other one is the Eurasian or
Alpide-Asiatic, with about 22% of
earthquakes occurring on it.
• Earthquakes on these two major
belts are interplate earthquakes. 29
 1. Tectonic earthquakes

• The remaining 3% of the

earthquakes occur inside
the plates and are thus
intraplate earthquakes.
• Intraplate earthquakes are
also caused by plate
movements.

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 1. Tectonic earthquakes

• Compared with interplate

earthquakes, continental
earthquakes (intraplate
earthquakes) have the following
three features:
a. They are less frequent and less
concentrated.
b. They are more dangerous to
humans.
c. The source mechanism varies and
is more complicated. 31
 1. Tectonic earthquakes

Intra‐plate earthquakes
generally fall into two groups:
• plate boundary‐related -
either in broad bands near
plate edges and are
tectonically linked to them or
in diffuse plate boundaries
• mid‐plate - are not related to
plate edges. Distribution of seismicity associated with the New Madrid Seismic
Zone (since 1974). This zone of intense earthquake activity is
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located deep within the interior of the North American plate.
 1. Tectonic earthquakes

• These intraplate earthquakes can be found on nearly every

continent. (Bolt 2008)
• intraplate earthquakes
• Have smaller rupture areas and more high frequency content than
interplate earthquakes
• lower attenuation rate observed in intraplate as compared to
interplate earthquakes .

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 1. Tectonic earthquakes

• occasional damaging intra-plate earthquakes also occur, well within

the interior of the plates that clearly are not associated with plate
boundary conditions, and so far their origins are poorly understood.
(Dowrick 2009)
• The uncertainties associated with intra-plate seismicity are much
greater than is the case for interplate regions of high seismicity.

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Tectonic Plate Positioning

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Assessment Task 1

1. What are the classification of tectonic earthquakes?

1. Earthquake type
2. Slip rate (v) (mm/year)
3. Recurrence time (year)

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 Faulting
• When two ground masses move with respect to one another, elastic strain
energy due to tectonic processes is stored and then released through the
rupture of the interface zone.
• The distorted blocks snap back towards equilibrium and an earthquake
ground motion is produced. This process is referred to as ‘elastic rebound’.
• The resulting fracture in the Earth’s crust is termed a ‘fault’.
• During the sudden rupture of the brittle crustal rock seismic waves are
generated.
• These waves travel away from the source of the earthquake along the
Earth’s outer layers. Their velocity depends on the characteristics of the
material through which they travel.
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1.3 Types of Faults

• Faults may range in length from less than a meter to many

hundreds of kilometers.
• In the field, geologists commonly find many discontinuities
in rock structures, which they interpret as faults, and these
are drawn on geological maps as continuous or broken
lines. The presence of such faults indicates that, at

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 Faulting
• Several fault mechanisms exist
depending on how the plates
move with respect to one
another (Housner, 1973).
• The most common mechanisms
of earthquake sources are
described:

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 Faulting
i. Dip‐slip faults: one block moves vertically with
respect to the other.
• If the block underlying the fault plane or ‘foot
wall’ moves up the dip and away from the block
overhanging the fault plane or ‘hanging wall’,
normal faults are obtained. Tensile forces cause
the shearing failure of normal faults.
• In turn, when the hanging wall moves upward in
relation to the foot wall the faults are reversed;
compressive forces cause the failure. Thrust faults
are reverse faults characterized by a very small dip
• EX. Mid‐oceanic ridge earthquakes are due chiefly
to normal faults. The 1971 San Fernando
earthquake in California was caused by rupture of
a reverse fault. Earthquakes along the
Circum‐Pacific seismic belt are caused by thrust
faults.
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 Faulting
ii. Strike‐slip faults: the adjacent blocks move
horizontally past one another.
• Strike‐slip can be right‐lateral or left‐lateral,
depending on the sense of the relative motion of
the blocks for an observer located on one side of
the fault line. The slip takes place along an
essentially vertical fault plane and can be caused
by either compression or tension stresses.
• They are typical of transform zones.
• An example of strike‐slip occurred in the 1906
San Francisco earthquake on the San Andreas
fault. The latter is characterized by large strike‐slip
deformations when earthquakes occur (see also
Figure 1.5): part of coastal California is sliding to
the northwest relative to the rest of North America
– Los Angeles is slowly moving towards San
Francisco.
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 Faulting
Types of fault
1) Subduction zone interface (underthrust)
faults (Figure 4.2(a)). These result from
tectonic seabed plates spreading apart
and thrusting under the adjacent
continental plates, a phenomenon
common to much of the circum-Pacific
earthquake belt.
2) Compressive, overthrust faults (Figure
4.2(b)). Compressive forces cause
shearing failure forcing the upper
portion upwards, as occurred in San
Fernando, California, in 1971 (also
called reverse or thrust faults).

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 Faulting
Types of fault
3) Extensional faults (Figure 4.2(c)). This
is the inverse of the previous type,
extensional strains pulling the upper
block down the sloping fault plane
(also called normal faults).
4) Strike-slip faults (Figure 4.2(d)).
Relative horizontal displacement of
the two sides of the fault takes place
along an essentially vertical fault
plane, such as occurred at San
Francisco in 1906 on the San Andreas
fault (also called transcurrent faults).

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 Faulting
• The ‘focus’ or ‘hypocentre’ of an earthquake is the point
under the surface where the rupture is said to have
originated.
• The projection of the focus on the surface is termed
‘epicentre’.
• The reduction of the focus to a point is the point‐source
approximation (Mallet, 1862). This approximation is used to
define the hypocentral parameters. However, the
parameters that define the focus are similar to those that
describe the fault fracture and motion.
• Foci are located by geographical coordinates, namely
latitude and longitude, the focal depth and the origin or
occurrence time.
• Figure 1.8 provides a pictorial depiction of the source
parameters, namely epicentral distance, hypocentral or focal
distance and focal depth.
• Earthquakes are generated by sudden fault slips of brittle
rocky blocks, starting at the focus depth and observed at a
site located at the epicentral distance.
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 Faulting
• Most earthquakes have focal depths in the range of 5–15 km,
while intermediate events have foci at about 20–50 km and
deep earthquakes occur at 300–700 km underground.
• The three types are also referred to as shallow, intermediate
and deep focus, respectively.
• Crustal earthquakes normally have depths of about 30 km or
less.
• For example, in central California the majority of earthquakes
have focal depths in the upper 5–10 km. Some intermediate‐
and deep‐focus earthquakes are located in Romania, the
Aegean Sea and under Spain.
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Assignment

Determine the seismicity of a Metro Manila and select a set of

appropriate ground motions that can match the seismicity of
the location.

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References

1. BOLT, B. A. 2008. Chapter 01 The nature of earthquake

ground motion. In: NAEIM, F. (ed.) The Seismic Design
Handbook. US: Springer US.
2. Elnashai, A. S., & Sarno, L. D. (2015 ). Fundamentals of
Earthquake Engineering: From Source to Fragility. (2nd
ed.).United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Thank you for listening.
Q&A

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