Earthquake Engineering

I. Introduction
Earthquake - a sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing
great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust or volcanic
action.
Urbanization - When populations of people grow, the population of a place may
spill over from city to nearby areas. This is called urbanization. Maybe tall
apartment buildings spring up on what had been the outskirts of town, bringing
more people there to live and work.
Characteristics of Urban Areas

Populated
Has different kinds of structures
Most inhabitants have non-agricultural jobs
Use of technology is more widespread

Some of the Strongest Earthquakes around the World

Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake

at Turkey
at Kobe, Japan
at Assam, Tibet
at Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
at Rat Islands, Alaska
at the Coast of Ecuador
at Offshore Maule, Chile
at Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia
near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan
at Southern Chile

Some of the Strongest Philippine Earthquakes

Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake
Earthquake

at the Northern part of Luzon

at Central Visayas
on the Off Coast of Bohol
Near the Celebes Sea

Palawan of the many islands of the Philippines, only the Palawan Island has not
been visited by destructive earthquake according to the seismic map produced by
PHIVOLCS.
The Pacific Ring of Fire (or just The Ring of Fire) - is an area where large
numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific

Ocean. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly

continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or
plate movements. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of
the world's active and dormant volcanoes. It is sometimes called the circumPacific belt or the circum-Pacific seismic belt. The Ring of Fire is a direct result of
plate tectonics and the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates.
List of Major Tectonic Plates

Eurasian Plate
Indo-Australian Plate
Pacific Plate
Cocos Plate
Nazca Plate
North American Plate
South American Plate
African Plate
Arabian Plate

The Big One - a magnitude 7.2 magnitude earthquake from the West Valley Fault
which is expected to hit Metro Manila and Quezon City.
The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in coordination with the Bureau of Fire
Protection (BFP) and other government agencies has been conducting series
of earthquake drills. This is to prepare the people for the estimated impacts
projected in the 2004 Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study
(MMEIRS). According to MMEIRS, The Big One could destroy about 40% of
residential buildings and damage 35 percent of public buildings. It could also
result to 34,000 casualties, 114,000 individuals will be seriously injured, and
the possible fire incidents that would follow could add another 18,000 deaths.
With the drills and information campaigns conducted, the authorities are
hoping that those numbers would be lessened.

II. Overview of Seismology

Seismology - Seismology is a science dealing with all aspects of earthquakes.
Multidisciplinary science, links physics with other geosciences and also avery
young science (second half of the 19th century)
Topics under Elements of Seismology

Theory of Plate Tectonics

Earthquake Faults

Theory of Plate Tectonics - PLATE TECTONICS theory is very young (1960-ies).

It provides answers to the most fundamental questions in seismology like the
occurrence of earthquakes, depth of foci and why are earthquakes epicenters are
not distributed around the world
By definition the word "plate" in geologic terms means a large slab of solid
rock. "Tectonics" is a part of the Greek root for "to build" and together the
terms define how the Earth's surface is built up of moving plates. The theory
of plate tectonics itself says that the Earth's lithosphere is made up individual
plates that are broken down into over a dozen large and small pieces of solid
rock.
Layers of the Earth

Crust (around 5-70km thick)

Mantle (upper and lower mantle has a combined thickness of around
2900km)
Core (outer and inner core has combined radius of around 3370km)

The plates interact with one another in three basic ways:

They collide
1. Collision leads to SUBDUCTION of one plate under another.
Mountain ranges may also be formed (Himalayas, Alps...).
2. It produces strong and sometimes very deep earthquakes (up to
700 km).
3. Volcanoes also occur there.
They move away from each other
1. Plates moving away from each other produce RIDGES between
them (spreading centres).
2. The earthquakes are generally weaker than in the case of
subduction.
They slide one past another
1. Plates moving past each other do so along the TRANSFORM
FAULTS.
2. The earthquakes may be very strong

Fault - Fault is a weak zone separating two geological blocks.

Fault Classes

Dip-Slip
1. Normal Fault
2. Reverse Fault
Strike-Slip

III. EARTHQUAKE RECORDS AND MEASURING

INSTRUMENTS
SEISMOGRAM - a record written by a seismometer in response to ground
motions produced by an earthquake, explosion, or other ground-motion sources.
SEISMOMETER - are instruments that measure motions of the ground, including
those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other
seismic sources
SEISMOGRAPH - An instrument that measures seismic waves caused by an
earthquake. Generally, it consists of a mass attached to a fixed base.
ACCELEROGRAPH - refers to an instrument used for recording acceleration of the
ground during an earthquake. It is used to monitor structures for earthquake
response. It is commonly called accelerometer.
SEISMOSCOPE - an instrument that gives a qualitative measure of the
oscillatory motion produced by an earthquake or other disturbance of the earth's
surface. Unlike the seismograph, it lacks a device to calibrate the time.
In 132 A.D., a Chinese inventor called Zhang Heng displayed his amazing
earthquake-detection machine, or seismoscope, at the court of the Han
Dynasty. Zhang's seismoscope was a giantbronze vessel, resembling a
samovar almost6 feet in diameter. Eight dragons snaked face-down along the
outside of the barrel, marking the primary compass directions. Ineach
dragon's mouth was a small bronze ball. Beneath the dragons sat eight
bronze toads, with their broad mouths gaping to receive the balls.

THREE MAIN DEVICES OF SEISMOGRAPH

Richter Magnitude Scale - A mathematical formula used to measure the

magnitude of an earthquake
Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale a seismic scale used for measuring
the intensity of an earthquake
Moment-Magnitude Scale - Used by seismologists to measure the size of
earthquakes in terms of the energy released. It is based on the amount of

displacement that occurred along a fault zone rather than the measurement
of ground motion at a given point.
PHIVOLCS Seismic Monitoring Network
The Philippines has a total of 65 seismic stations, 29 of which are manned,
30are unmanned, and 6 volcano stations. The central operating station is
located at PHIVOLCS Main Office, Diliman, Quezon City. All information is
received at the Data Receiving Center (DRC), which is operated 24/7 by the
Seismological Observation and Prediction Division (SOEPD).

IV. Earthquake Descriptors

Seismic Moment - The seismic moment is the product of the area of fault surface
that ruptures, the average displacement along that surface, and a constant -- a
measure of the elastic property of rock (i.e. how easily it can be stretched) called
the modulus of rigidity.
Moment Magnitude - Moment magnitude (MW) is based upon the seismic
moment, and represents a kind of bridge between the seismological and
geological views of an earthquake.
Seismic waves - are the waves of energy caused by the sudden breaking of rock
within the earth or an explosion. They are the energy that travels through the
earth and is recorded on seismographs.
Types of Seismic Waves

Body waves - Body waves can travel through the earth's inner layers.
Body waves arrive before the surface waves emitted by an earthquake.
These waves are of a higher frequency than surface waves.
Different Body Waves
P Wave - The first kind of body wave is the P
wave or primary wave. This is the fastest kind of seismic
wave, and, consequently, the first to 'arrive' at a seismic
station. The P wave can move through solid rock and
fluids, like water or the liquid layers of the earth. It pushes
and pulls the rock it moves through just like sound waves
push and pull the air.
S Wave - The second type of body wave is the S
wave or secondary wave, which is the second wave you
feel in an earthquake. An S wave is slower than a P wave
and can only move through solid rock, not through any
liquid medium. It is this property of S waves that led
seismologists to conclude that the Earth's outer core is a
liquid. S waves move rock particles up and down, or side-

to-side--perpendicular to the direction that the wave is

traveling in (the direction of wave propagation).

Surface waves - surface waves can only move along the surface of
the planet like ripples on water. Surface waves are of a lower frequency
than body waves, and are easily distinguished on a seismogram as a
result. Though they arrive after body waves, it is surface waves that
are almost entirely responsible for the damage and destruction
associated with earthquakes. This damage and the strength of the
surface waves are reduced in deeper earthquakes.
Different Surface Waves
Love Wave - The first kind of surface wave is called
a Love wave, named after A.E.H. Love, a British
mathematician who worked out the mathematical model
for this kind of wave in 1911. It's the fastest surface wave
and moves the ground from side-to-side. Confined to the
surface of the crust, Love waves produce entirely
horizontal motion.
Rayleigh wave - The other kind of surface wave is
the Rayleigh wave, named for John William Strutt, Lord
Rayleigh, who mathematically predicted the existence of
this kind of wave in 1885. A Rayleigh wave rolls along the
ground just like a wave rolls across a lake or an ocean.
Because it rolls, it moves the ground up and down, and
side-to-side in the same direction that the wave is
moving. Most of the shaking felt from an earthquake is
due to the Rayleigh wave, which can be much larger than
the other waves.

Foreshocks - Foreshocks are relatively smaller earthquakes that precede the

largest earthquake in a series, which is termed the main shock. Not all main
shocks have foreshocks.
Aftershock - is a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large
earthquake, in the same area of the main shock.
Earthquake swarms - are events where a local area experiences sequences of
many earthquakes striking in a relatively short period of time. The length of time
used to define the swarm itself varies, but may be of the order of days, weeks, or
months.
Acronyms
Office of Civil Defense (OCD)
Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)

Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study (MMEIRS)

Data Receiving Center (DRC)
Seismological Observation and Prediction Division (SOEPD)
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS)