FUNDAMENTALS OF EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

• INTRODUCTION
• CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKE AND FAULTING
INTRODUCTION
EARTHQUAKE
EARTHQUAKES ARE BROAD-BANDED VIBRATORY GROUND MOTIONS, RESULTING FROM A NUMBER OF CAUSES
INCLUDING:
• TECTONIC GROUND MOTIONS,
• VOLCANISM,
• LANDSLIDES,
• ROCKBURSTS, AND
• MAN-MADE EXPLOSIONS.
OF THESE, NATURALLY OCCURRING TECTONIC-RELATED EARTHQUAKES ARE THE LARGEST AND MOST
IMPORTANT. THESE ARE CAUSED BY THE FRACTURE AND SLIDING OF ROCK ALONG FAULTS WITHIN THE
EARTH’S CRUST.
TYPES OF EARTHQUAKE

• TECTONIC EARTHQUAKE
- CAUSE BY THE MOVEMENT OF THE PLATES.
•VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE
- CAUSE BY A VOLCANIC ACTIVITY.
FAULT

A FAULT IS A ZONE OF THE EARTH’S CRUST WITHIN WHICH THE TWO SIDES
HAVE MOVED — FAULTS MAY BE HUNDREDS OF MILES LONG, FROM ONE TO
OVER ONE HUNDRED MILES DEEP, AND ARE SOMETIMES NOT READILY
APPARENT ON THE GROUND SURFACE.
SEISMIC HAZARD
EARTHQUAKES INITIATE A NUMBER OF PHENOMENA OR AGENTS, TERMED
SEISMIC HAZARDS, WHICH CAN CAUSE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO THE
BUILT ENVIRONMENT — THESE INCLUDE FAULT RUPTURE, VIBRATORY
GROUND MOTION (I.E., SHAKING), INUNDATION (E.G., TSUNAMI, SEICHE,
DAM FAILURE), VARIOUS KINDS OF PERMANENT GROUND FAILURE (E.G.,
LIQUEFACTION), FIRE, OR HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RELEASE.
CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES AND FAULTING
IN A GLOBAL SENSE, TECTONIC EARTHQUAKES RESULT FROM MOTION BETWEEN A NUMBER OF LARGE PLATES
COMPRISING THE EARTH’S CRUST OR LITHOSPHERE (ABOUT 15 LARGE PLATES, IN TOTAL).

(a) Global tectonic plate boundaries. (b) Global seismicity 1975–1995 (from: U.S. Geological Survey [USGS])
 PANGAEA

GERMAN METEOROLOGITS AND GEOPHYSICIST “ALL THE EARTH”

The listhosphere is broken into plates.
• PLATE TECTONICS is the theory that earth’s
outer crust (lithosphere) is divided into
several plates that glide over the plastic-
like and less ridged asthenosphere (upper
mantle).

PLATE BOUNDARY
PLATE BOUNDARIES
• DIVERGENT BOUNDARIES - Where plates move apart
- Two oceanic crusts diverge and create a mid-
ocean ridge (mountains under the ocean.)
- This process is call sea-floor spreading.
- New crust is created.
• RESULT IN DIVERGENT BOUNDARIES

• CONTINENTAL – CONTINENTAL
- RIFT VALLEY

• OCEANIC - OCEANIC
- SEA FLOOR SREADING
- MID OCEAN RIDGE
EAST AFRICAN RIFT
EAST AFRICAN RIFT VALLEY
• CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES
- Where plates collide
SUBDUCTION REFERS TO THE PLUNGING OF ONE PLATE (E.G., THE PACIFIC) BENEATH ANOTHER, INTO THE MANTLE, DUE TO
CONVERGENT MOTION, AS SHOWN IN FIGURE. SUBDUCTION ZONES ARE TYPICALLY CHARACTERIZED BY VOLCANISM, AS A
PORTION OF THE PLATE (MELTING IN THE LOWER MANTLE) RE-EMERGES AS VOLCANIC LAVA.

Schematic diagram of subduction zone, typical of west coast of South America, Pacific Northwest of United States or Japan
• SUBDUCTION ZONE

- A subduction zone is a
collision between two of Earth’s
tectonic plates, where one plate sinks
into the mantle underneath the other
plate.
• ISLAND ARC

- A subduction zone is a
collision between two of Earth’s
tectonic plates, where one plate sinks
into the mantle underneath the other
plate.
• TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES
- Occurs when plates slide past one another
TECTONIC PLATES MOVE RELATIVELY SLOWLY (5 CM PER YEAR IS RELATIVELY FAST) AND IRREGULARLY, WITH RELATIVELY
FREQUENT SMALL AND ONLY OCCASIONAL LARGE EARTHQUAKES. FORCES MAY BUILD UP FOR DECADES OR CENTURIES AT
PLATE INTERFACES UNTIL A LARGE MOVEMENT OCCURS ALL AT ONCE. THESE SUDDEN, VIOLENT MOTIONS PRODUCE THE
SHAKING THAT IS FELT AS AN EARTHQUAKE. THE SHAKING CAN CAUSE DIRECT DAMAGE TO BUILDINGS, ROADS, BRIDGES,
AND OTHER MAN-MADE STRUCTURES AS WELL AS TRIGGERING LANDSLIDES, FIRES, TIDAL WAVES (TSUNAMIS), AND
OTHER DAMAGING PHENOMENA.
WHAT IS THE REASON
WHY PLATE TECTONICS
ARE MOVING
LITHOSPHERIC PLATES
THESE PLATES ARE DRIVEN BY THE CONVECTIVE MOTION OF THE MATERIAL IN THE EARTH’S MANTLE, WHICH IN TURN IS
DRIVEN BY THE HEAT GENERATED AT THE EARTH’S CORE. RELATIVE PLATE MOTION AT THE FAULT INTERFACE IS
CONSTRAINED BY FRICTION AND/OR ASPERITIES (AREAS OF INTERLOCKING DUE TO PROTRUSIONS IN THE FAULT
SURFACES). HOWEVER, STRAIN ENERGY ACCUMULATES IN THE PLATES, EVENTUALLY OVERCOMES ANY RESISTANCE, AND
CAUSES SLIP BETWEEN THE TWO SIDES OF THE FAULT. THIS SUDDEN SLIP, TERMED ELASTIC REBOUND BY REID (1910)
BASED ON HIS STUDIES OF REGIONAL DEFORMATION FOLLOWING THE 1906 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE, RELEASES
LARGE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY, WHICH CONSTITUTES OR IS THE EARTHQUAKE.
THE LOCATION OF INITIAL RADIATION OF SEISMIC WAVES (I.E., THE FIRST LOCATION OF DYNAMIC RUPTURE) IS TERMED
THE HYPOCENTER, WHILE THE PROJECTION ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH DIRECTLY ABOVE THE HYPOCENTER IS TERMED
THE EPICENTER.
NEAR-FIELD
WITHIN ONE SOURCE DIMENSION OF THE EPICENTER, WHERE SOURCE DIMENSION REFERS TO THE WIDTH OR LENGTH OF
FAULTING, WHICHEVER IS SHORTER
*NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH NEAR-SOURCE AS USED IN THE 1997 UNIFORM BUILDING CODE, WHICH CAN BE AS MUCH AS
15 KM, DEPENDING ON TYPE OF FAULTING

FAR-FIELD
BEYOND NEAR-FIELD

MEIZOSEISMAL
THE AREA OF STRONG SHAKING AND DAMAGE
ENERGY IS RADIATED OVER A BROAD SPECTRUM OF FREQUENCIES THROUGH THE EARTH, IN BODY WAVES AND SURFACE
WAVES (BOLT 1993).
 SURFACE WAVES ARE ALSO OF TWO TYPES:
HORIZONTALLY OSCILLATING LOVE WAVES (ANALOGOUS TO S BODY WAVES)
AND VERTICALLY OSCILLATING RAYLEIGH WAVES.
FAULTS ARE THE PHYSICAL EXPRESSION OF THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN ADJACENT TECTONIC PLATES AND THUS MAY BE
HUNDREDS OF MILES LONG. IN ADDITION, THERE MAY BE THOUSANDS OF SHORTER FAULTS PARALLEL TO OR BRANCHING
OUT FROM A MAIN FAULT ZONE. GENERALLY, THE LONGER A FAULT THE LARGER THE EARTHQUAKE IT CAN GENERATE. BEYOND
THE MAIN TECTONIC PLATES, THERE ARE MANY SMALLER SUBPLATES, ‘‘PLATELETS,’’ AND SIMPLE BLOCKS OF CRUST THAT
OCCASIONALLY MOVE AND SHIFT DUE TO THE ‘‘JOSTLING’’ OF THEIR NEIGHBORS AND THE MAJOR PLATES. THE EXISTENCE
OF THESE MANY SUBPLATES MEANS THAT SMALLER BUT STILL DAMAGING EARTHQUAKES ARE POSSIBLE ALMOST
ANYWHERE, ALTHOUGH OFTEN WITH LESS LIKELIHOOD.
FAULTS ARE TYPICALLY CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THEIR SENSE OF MOTION. BASIC TERMS INCLUDE TRANSFORM OR
STRIKE SLIP (RELATIVE FAULT MOTION OCCURS IN THE HORIZONTAL PLANE, PARALLEL TO THE STRIKE OF THE FAULT,
NORMAL (DIP-SLIP MOTION, TWO SIDES IN TENSION, MOVE AWAY FROM EACH OTHER), AND REVERSE (DIP-SLIP, TWO
SIDES IN COMPRESSION, MOVE TOWARD EACH OTHER).

(a) Types of faulting

• TRANSFORM OR STRIKE SLIP
FAULT MOTION ON WHICH TWO BLOCKS SLIDE ONE ANOTHER.

• NORMAL
OCCURS WHEN THE HANGING WALL MOVES DOWN RELATIVE TO THE
FOOT WALL.

• REVERSE
(OCCURS WHEN THE HANGING WALL MOVES UP OVER THE
FOOT WAL

(a) Types of faulting

GENERALLY, EARTHQUAKES WILL BE CONCENTRATED IN THE VICINITY OF FAULTS, FAULTS THAT ARE MOVING MORE
RAPIDLY THAN OTHERS WILL TEND TO HAVE HIGHER RATES OF SEISMICITY, AND LARGER FAULTS ARE MORE LIKELY THAN
OTHERS TO PRODUCE A LARGE EVENT. MANY FAULTS ARE IDENTIFIED ON REGIONAL GEOLOGICAL MAPS, AND USEFUL
INFORMATION ON FAULT LOCATION AND DISPLACEMENT HISTORY IS AVAILABLE FROM LOCAL AND NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL
SURVEYS IN AREAS OF HIGH SEISMICITY. CONSIDERING THIS INFORMATION, AREAS OF AN EXPECTED LARGE EARTHQUAKE
IN THE NEAR FUTURE (USUALLY MEASURED IN YEARS OR DECADES) CAN, AND HAVE, BEEN IDENTIFIED. HOWEVER,
EARTHQUAKES CONTINUE TO OCCUR ON ‘‘UNKNOWN’’ OR ‘‘INACTIVE’’ FAULTS. AN IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN
THE GROWING RECOGNITION OF BLIND THRUST FAULTS, WHICH EMERGED AS A RESULT OF THE SEVERAL EARTHQUAKES IN
THE 1980S, NONE OF WHICH WERE ACCOMPANIED BY SURFACE FAULTING (STEIN AND YEATS 1989).
MEASUREMENT OF EARTHQUAKES:
MAGNITUDE
EARTHQUAKES ARE COMPLEX MULTIDIMENSIONAL PHENOMENA, THE SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF WHICH REQUIRES
MEASUREMENT. PRIOR TO THE INVENTION OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, EARTHQUAKES WERE QUALITATIVELY
MEASURED BY THEIR EFFECT OR INTENSITY, WHICH DIFFERED FROM POINT TO POINT. WITH THE DEPLOYMENT OF
SEISMOMETERS, AN INSTRUMENTAL QUANTIFICATION OF THE ENTIRE EARTHQUAKE EVENT — THE UNIQUE MAGNITUDE OF
THE EVENT — BECAME POSSIBLE. THESE ARE STILL THE TWO MOST WIDELY USED MEASURES OF AN EARTHQUAKE, AND A
NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SCALES FOR EACH HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED, WHICH ARE SOMETIMES CONFUSED. ENGINEERING
DESIGN, HOWEVER, REQUIRES MEASUREMENT OF EARTHQUAKE PHENOMENA IN UNITS SUCH AS FORCE OR
DISPLACEMENT. THIS SECTION DEFINES AND DISCUSSES EACH OF THESE MEASURES.
AN INDIVIDUAL EARTHQUAKE IS A UNIQUE RELEASE OF STRAIN ENERGY — QUANTIFICATION OF THIS ENERGY HAS FORMED THE
BASIS FOR MEASURING THE EARTHQUAKE EVENT. RICHTER (1935) WAS THE FIRST TO DEFINE EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE, AS

WHERE ML IS THE LOCAL MAGNITUDE (WHICH RICHTER ONLY DEFINED FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA), 𝐴 IS THE MAXIMUM TRACE
AMPLITUDE IN MICROMETERS RECORDED ON A STANDARD WOOD–ANDERSON SHORT-PERIOD TORSION SEISMOMETER, AT A
SITE 100 KM FROM THE EPICENTER, AND LOG 𝑙𝑜𝑔𝐴0 IS A STANDARD VALUE AS A FUNCTION OF DISTANCE FOR INSTRUMENTS
LOCATED AT DISTANCES OTHER THAN 100 KM AND LESS THAN 600 KM. SUBSEQUENTLY, A NUMBER OF OTHER MAGNITUDES
HAVE BEEN DEFINED, THE MOST IMPORTANT OF WHICH ARE SURFACE WAVE MAGNITUDE MS, BODY WAVE MAGNITUDE MB, AND
MOMENT MAGNITUDE MW. DUE TO THE FACT THAT ML WAS ONLY LOCALLY DEFINED FOR CALIFORNIA (I.E., FOR EVENTS WITHIN
ABOUT 600 KM OF THE OBSERVING STATIONS), SURFACE WAVE MAGNITUDE MS WAS DEFINED ANALOGOUSLY TO ML, USING
TELESEISMIC OBSERVATIONS OF SURFACE WAVES OF 20 S PERIOD (RICHTER 1935).
MAGNITUDE, WHICH IS DEFINED ON THE BASIS OF THE AMPLITUDE OF GROUND DISPLACEMENTS, CAN BE RELATED TO THE
TOTAL ENERGY IN THE EXPANDING WAVE FRONT GENERATED BY AN EARTHQUAKE, AND THUS TO THE TOTAL ENERGY
RELEASE — AN EMPIRICAL RELATION BY RICHTER IS

WHERE ES IS THE TOTAL ENERGY IN ERGS.4 NOTE THAT 101.5 ¼ 31.6, SO THAT AN INCREASE OF ONE MAGNITUDE UNIT IS
EQUIVALENT TO 31.6 TIMES MORE ENERGY RELEASE, TWO MAGNITUDE UNITS INCREASE EQUIVALENT TO 998.6 FFI 1000
TIMES MORE ENERGY, ETC.
SUBSEQUENTLY, DUE TO THE OBSERVATION THAT DEEP-FOCUS EARTHQUAKES COMMONLY DO NOT REGISTER
MEASURABLE SURFACE WAVES WITH PERIODS NEAR 20 S, A BODY WAVE MAGNITUDE MB WAS DEFINED (GUTENBERG
AND RICHTER 1954), WHICH CAN BE RELATED TO MS (DARRAGH ET AL. 1994):
BODY WAVE MAGNITUDES ARE MORE COMMONLY USED IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, DUE TO THE DEEPER EARTHQUAKES
THERE. A NUMBER OF OTHER MAGNITUDE SCALES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED, MOST OF WHICH TEND TO SATURATE — THAT
IS, ASYMPTOTE TO AN UPPER BOUND DUE TO LARGER EARTHQUAKES RADIATING SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF ENERGY AT
PERIODS LONGER THAN USED FOR DETERMINING THE MAGNITUDE (E.G., FOR MS, DEFINED BY MEASURING 20 S SURFACE
WAVES, SATURATION OCCURS AT ABOUT MS > 7.5). MORE RECENTLY, SEISMIC MOMENT HAS BEEN EMPLOYED TO DEFINE A
MOMENT MAGNITUDE MW (HANKS AND KANAMORI 1979; ALSO DENOTED AS BOLDFACE M), WHICH IS FINDING
INCREASED AND WIDESPREAD USE

WHERE SEISMIC MOMENT M0 (DYNE CM) IS DEFINED AS (LOMNITZ 1974)

WHERE M IS THE MATERIAL SHEAR MODULUS, A IS THE AREA OF FAULT PLANE RUPTURE, AND U IS THE MEAN RELATIVE
DISPLACEMENT BETWEEN THE TWO SIDES OF THE FAULT (THE AVERAGED FAULT SLIP). COMPARATIVELY, MW AND MS ARE
NUMERICALLY ALMOST IDENTICAL UP TO MAGNITUDE 7.5. FIGURE 1.4 INDICATES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOMENT
MAGNITUDE AND VARIOUS MAGNITUDE SCALES.

Relationship between moment magnitude and various

magnitude scales (Campbell, K.W. 1985).
FOR LAY COMMUNICATIONS, IT IS SOMETIMES CUSTOMARY TO SPEAK OF GREAT EARTHQUAKES, LARGE EARTHQUAKES,
ETC. THERE IS NO STANDARD DEFINITION FOR THESE, BUT THE FOLLOWING IS AN APPROXIMATE CATEGORIZATION:
FROM THE FOREGOING DISCUSSION, IT CAN BE SEEN THAT MAGNITUDE AND ENERGY ARE RELATED TO FAULT RUPTURE
LENGTH AND SLIP. SLEMMONS (1977) AND BONILLA ET AL. (1984) HAVE DETERMINED STATISTICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN
THESE PARAMETERS FOR WORLDWIDE AND REGIONAL DATA SETS, AGGREGATED AND SEGREGATED BY TYPE OF FAULTING
(NORMAL, REVERSE, STRIKE-SLIP). BONILLA ET AL.’S WORLDWIDE RESULTS FOR ALL TYPES OF FAULTS ARE
MEASUREMENT OF EARTHQUAKES:
INTENSITY
IN GENERAL, SEISMIC INTENSITY IS A METRIC OF THE EFFECT, OR THE STRENGTH, OF AN EARTHQUAKE HAZARD AT A SPECIFIC
LOCATION. WHILE THE TERM CAN BE GENERICALLY APPLIED TO ENGINEERING MEASURES SUCH AS PEAK GROUND ACCELERATION
(PGA), IT IS USUALLY RESERVED FOR QUALITATIVE MEASURES OF LOCATION-SPECIFIC EARTHQUAKE EFFECTS, BASED ON
OBSERVED HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. NUMEROUS INTENSITY SCALES DEVELOPED IN PREINSTRUMENTAL
TIMES — THE MOST COMMON IN USE TODAY ARE THE MODIFIED MERCALLI (MMI) (WOOD AND NEUMANN 1931), ROSSI–FOREL
(R–F), MEDVEDEV–SPONHEUR–KARNIK (MSK-64 1981; GRUNTHAL 1998) AND ITS SUCCESSOR THE EUROPEAN MACROSEISMIC
SCALE (EMS-98 1998), AND JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY (JMA) (KANAI 1983) SCALES.
MODIFIED MERCALLI INTENSITY (MMI) IS A SUBJECTIVE SCALE DEFINING THE LEVEL OF SHAKING AT SPECIFIC SITES ON A SCALE
OF I TO XII. (MMI IS EXPRESSED IN ROMAN NUMERALS, TO CONNOTE ITS APPROXIMATE NATURE.) FOR EXAMPLE, MODERATE
SHAKING THAT CAUSES FEW INSTANCES OF FALLEN PLASTER OR CRACKS IN CHIMNEYS CONSTITUTES MMI VI. IT IS DIFFICULT
TO FIND A RELIABLE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAGNITUDE, WHICH IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTHQUAKE’S TOTAL ENERGY
LEVEL, AND INTENSITY, WHICH IS A SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE LEVEL OF SHAKING OF THE EARTHQUAKE AT SPECIFIC
SITES, BECAUSE SHAKING SEVERITY CAN VARY WITH BUILDING TYPE, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES, SOIL TYPE, AND
DISTANCE FROM THE EVENT (TABLE 1.2).
NOTE THAT MMI X IS THE MAXIMUM CONSIDERED PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE DUE TO ‘‘MERE’’ SHAKING, AND THAT MMI XI AND XII
ARE CONSIDERED DUE MORE TO PERMANENT GROUND DEFORMATIONS AND OTHER GEOLOGIC EFFECTS THAN TO SHAKING.
PHIVOLCS Earthquake
Intensity Scale (PEIS)
OTHER INTENSITY SCALES ARE DEFINED ANALOGOUSLY, TABLE 1.3, WHICH ALSO CONTAINS AN APPROXIMATE
CONVERSION FROM MMI TO ACCELERATION A (PGA, IN CM/S2 OR GALS). THE CONVERSION IS DUE TO RICHTER (1935)
(OTHER CONVERSIONS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE: TRIFUNAC AND BRADY 1975; MURPHY AND O’BRIEN 1977)

INTENSITY MAPS ARE PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF DETAILED INVESTIGATION OF THE TYPE OF EFFECTS TABULATED IN TABLE
1.2, AS SHOWN IN FIGURE 1.5 FOR THE 1994 MW 6.7 NORTHRIDGE EARTHQUAKE. CORRELATIONS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED
BETWEEN THE AREA OF VARIOUS MMI INTENSITIES AND EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE, WHICH ARE OF VALUE FOR
SEISMOLOGICAL AND PLANNING PURPOSES). FIGURE 1.6, FOR EXAMPLE, CORRELATES AFELT VERSUS MW. FOR
PREINSTRUMENTAL HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKES, AFELT CAN BE ESTIMATED FROM NEWSPAPERS AND OTHER REPORTS,
WHICH THEN CAN BE USED TO ESTIMATE THE EVENT MAGNITUDE, THUS SUPPLEMENTING THE SEISMICITY CATALOG. THIS
TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN ESPECIALLY USEFUL IN REGIONS WITH A LONG HISTORICAL RECORD (AMBRAYSES AND MELVILLE
1982; WOO AND MUIRWOOD 1984).