LESSON AND LEARNING FROM

PASSED EARTHQUAKE IN SUMATERA

Johannes Tarigan
Universitas Sumatera Utara
Departemen Teknik Sipil

Dewan Riset Daerah Sumatera Utara

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1. Background

Since December, 26th 2004 there are 6 earthquakes which killed

many peoples and destroyed many houses and buildings in Sumatra.

By Northern Sumatra/Aceh Earthquake/Tsunami December,26th

2004 with 227,898 people have been killed or were missing and many
houses, bridges were washed away.

The second earthquake is Northern Sumatra/Nias Earthquake March,

28th 2005 which are 1313 people killed, 300 buildings destroyed.

The third earthquake is West Sumatra on March 6th, 2007. In this

Earthquake nearly 15.000 buildings have been destroyed and 67
people have been died in this earthquake.

After that the fourth Earthquake is West Sumatra/Padang

th
Earthquake on September 30 , 2009. Government reports have to
date confirmed 1,115 dead, around 135,000 houses were severely
damaged, 65,000 houses were moderately damaged and 79,000
houses were slightly damaged.

The fifth Earthquake is Mentawai Earthquake/Tsunami October 25th,

2010. In this Earthquake 77 villages were destroyed and 286 people
were died.

The sixth Earthquake is Pidi Earthquake Dec 7, 2016. 104 people

died in the quake and 11.730 houses was destroyed.

How is the risk of Earthquake in Sumatra in the future? How the

building constructions look like?

According to seismic hazard map the risk is big enough. The peak
ground acceleration can be greater than 0,30 g. In the figure 1 shows
the seismic acceleration according to Indonesia Building code [SNI
1726-2002]

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 Figure 1: Indonesian Seismicity Map

2. Lesson and learning from past earthquake

Before Northern Sumatra/Aceh earthquake December 26th,2004 was

happened no body care about the dangerous of earthquake and
tsunami. The reason is that since more then 60 years there were no
big earthquake was happened in this region. But suddenly on
December 26th, 2004 everything has been changed because this
earthquake/tsunami makes a big disaster in this region. After that on
28 March 2005 Nias Earthquake was happened, so that in Northern
Sumatra there are 2 big earthquakes have been happen in three
months. Then on March 6, 2007 other Earthquake have been
happened again. This is West Sumatra Earthquake. The epicentre of
these four earthquakes have been located in around of Java Trench
(see figure 2).

In Indonesia there are three plates exist, they are Eurasian plate in
north, Indian/Australian plate in south and Pasific plate in east.

The four earthquakes were happened because the Australian Plate

has moved to the north (sub duction). According to geological studies
this Australian plate moves 5 cm to the north each year.

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 Aceh Earthquake 26.12.2004
H:30 km, M: 9.1
Nias Earthquake 28.03.2005
H:30 km, M:8.7

Pidie
Earthquake
7.12.2016
H:13 km,
M:7.6

Padang Earthquake
Padang Mentawai 30.09.2009
Earthquake Earthquake H:45 km, M:7.6
06.03.2007 25.10.2010
H:30 km, H:33 km,
M:6.4 M:7.6

epicentre H: Deep of Hypocentre

M: Magnitude

Figure 2:
Location of 6 epicentres in Sumatra

2.1 Northern Sumatera/Aceh Earthquake 26 December 2004

The Magnitude in this earthquake is 9.1 with the deep (H) of

hypocenter 30 km. Though in this earthquake more people died
because of tsunami but there also many houses destroyer before the
tsunami has come.

The typical damages in this earthquake are as follows:

• Damage to the structure by Tsunami.

Most of the building was collapse caused by tsunami waves. The

velocity of tsunami wave (v) was around of 700 km/h. The velocity of
wave is very strong like the velocity of plane. In northern Sumatra
like City of Banda Aceh and Meulaboh the tsunami has come 15
minutes after the Earthquake. The peoples didn’t know that tsunami
would be come. Therefore so many people was died caused of
tsunami, wile the high of tsunami was with high of 32 m at the beach
come to inland until 4 km. Many building, cars and people were
washed away. The velocity of wave can calculated with

v = g.h m s

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Which are v = velocity, g = gravitation, 9,81 m/s and h = the deep
of see level (m) an the epicentre.

If with this formula will be calculated with some different of h, it can

find below.

h (m) 6000 2000 200 20

v (km/h) 800 500 150 50

In the figure 3 shows that no buildings standing after tsunami in this

region. Before tsunami this region was very crowded. But after
tsunami no Building are standing anymore. Most of Buildings were
washed away, some mosques were found remaining. The reason is
assumed that the mosques constructed courteously and the layout
was like oval or circle type, so the tsunami could pass easily. Most of
people were live here as fisherman. The high of the wave at the beach
was 32 m during the tsunami in this area, like a 9 stories Building.

Tsunamie v > 700km/hr

Tsunamie high 32 m Figure 3:

This is a rural area in Banda
Aceh, after tsunami no
buildings standing there.

In the figure 4, there is a ship for Power Generator of a 7.5 MW. This
Ship swept away as far as 4 km from the beach in to inland. Before
tsunami the ship was standing at the beach.

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 Figure 4:
After tsunami this Ship has
moved 4 km from original
location at the beach.

• Damage to the roads and bridges by tsunami

Although there was the information that nearly 80 bridges fell down
on the road along the western coast from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh,
the correct figure is unknown. In figure 5 shows that the girder of one
bridges in Banda Aceh is washed a way caused by tsunami waves.
The piers are still standing.

Girder of bridges washed away by tsunami

Figure 5 : damage by bridge after Tsunami 26 Dec. 2004

According to the investigation of 42 bridges , 3 bridges fell down and

5 bridges had girder strike-slips. The bridges with shear keys which
resisted the girder strikes-slips were saved from being washed away.
On the other hand, the embankment behind the abutment of many
bridges was found eroded. As well, roads in the sections whose
ground seemed to have been vulnerable originally were eroded from
place to place.

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Note:
It is also need to think that in tsunami region to add the horizontal
load by tsunami wave.

The horizontal load by tsunami can be calculated with formula

1
H = γ I . mv 2 ,
2

v : velocity of tsunami wave

m : mass of bridge
γ I : important factor.

Until now no Building Code has been made for the building to endure
the tsunami waves.

• Damage caused by earthquake motion

Many multi-stories Building was falling down in City of Banda Aceh

before tsunami has come. The typical of damages was Sandwich
Type (see figure 6), that’s mean the column couldn’t endure the
earthquake load. The slab was falling down and after damage the
building become like sandwich. There were so many Buildings which
was collapse with type of sandwich. Those Buildings had low ductility.
This building has been designed with old building code. The
acceleration in Indonesian Building Code 1987 [SKBI, 1987] is to low
(0, 13 g) and the ductility has not available in old Building Code. In
figure 7 shows that the second mode has been happened in horizontal
direction after Earthquake. The columns of the building are still
standing even though the plasticity has happened in the column. This
Building still standing after Earthquake. Interesting case shows in
figure 8. In Indonesia there are many shop houses has been
construction in the middle of the city. In normal case the distance of
column is 4.5 m to 5 m and the high of stories between 2 until 3
stories. Because the buildings are typical the people think that no
need to calculate the structure and the government give also the
permit without static calculation. After Aceh Earthquake there are
many shop houses still standing, but in figure 8 shows that 2 shop
houses has been collapse after Earthquake and beside this shop
houses the building is still standing. Other case shows figure 9. This
building is the big supermarket with 2 stories. After Aceh Earthquake
this Building is totally collapse. In this Building the concrete quality
of structure was to low and the reinforcement was plane bar type.
The ductility of the building was to low and the live load was also to
low.

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 Figure 6: Sandwich Type of Collapse by Figure 7: The second mode
Government Building happened after Aceh
Earthquake.

Figure 8: Shop houses has been

collapse but beside this building the
shop houses still standing.

Figure 9: Supermarket Building has collapse

after Aceh Earthquake.

• Damage by Liquefaction.

By the earthquake in special soil condition there are other cases which
make damages in the building. This case it calls liquefaction.

The definition of Soil liquefaction.

Soil liquefaction describes the behavior of loose saturated
unconsolidated soils, i.e. loose sands, which go from a solid state to
have the consistency of a heavy liquid, or reach a liquefied state as a
consequence of increasing pore water pressures, and thus decreasing
effective stress, induced by their tendency to decrease in volume
when subjected to cyclic undrained loading (e.g. earthquake loading).
Liquefaction is more likely to occur in loose to moderate granular soils
with poor drainage, such as salty sands or sands and gravels capped
or containing seams of impermeable sediments. Theoretically the
damage with soil liquefaction effect shows in figure 11.

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 Figure 11:
Liquifaction by
Earthquake[Alan, 2008]

To calculate bearing capacity at foundation during Earthquake

[Robert, 2006] is

⎛W ⎞ ⎛γ ⋅ z ⎞ ⎛a ⎞
F = ma = ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟a = ⎜⎜ t ⎟⎟a max = σ vo ⎜⎜ max ⎟⎟
⎝g⎠ ⎝ g ⎠ ⎝ g ⎠

F : Earthquake load
m : Mass of soil
W : Weight of soil,
γ t : density of soil
a max : maximum acceleration of earthquake
σ vo : stress under the foundation

The shearstress at the Soil

⎛ a max ⎞
τ max = F = σ vo ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ g ⎠

By the liquefaction soil the stress σ vo equal to zero. Therefore the

shear stress τ max become zero (loss the bearing capacity). After
earthquake the foundation of the building falling down, move or tilt.

According to Seed [Robert, 2005] the potential to liquefied deep on

the value of SPT like table 1.

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 Tabel 1: Liquifaction Potensial
(N1 )60 Liquifaction Potensial
0-20 Big
20-30 Medium
>30 none

• Lower quality of the building.

Many non-engineered buildings collapse because the quality of the

material is very poor such as : the quality of concrete that is below
standard, the reinforcement still with plane bar, the stirrups that are
too small and the distance that is too long and the connection
between column and beam does not follow the Building Code. Our
University has investigated one building in Banda Aceh, see figure 13
[Tarigan, 2005].

Figure 13 :Hammer test has been conducted to one building

by Civil Engineering faculty of USU.

2.2 Northern Sumatera/Nias Earthquake March 28th, 2005

Even though the people in Northern Sumatra still have trauma with
Aceh Earthquake/tsunami December 26th, 2004 three months later
other Earthquake happen again. That was Nias Earthquake on March
28th, 2005. The epicentre of this earthquake was around 40O km
from epicentre of Aceh Earthquake in south direction. The Magnitude
of this earthquake was 8.7 and the depth of the epicentre was 30 km.
The worst damages happened in Nias Island, such as in Gunung
Sitoli, Teluk Dalam. Nias Island is around 150 km from Sumatra
Island.

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The typical causes of the damages during this earthquake are as
follows:

1. Lower quality of the building.

Many non-engineered building collapsed because the quality of the

material was very poor, people built their houses without proper
construction.

Before modernisation there were many traditional houses constructed

with timber in this region. There are a lot of high quality wood can be
found in that area. But through modernisation people consider the
construction of concrete structured house as the symbol of modern
people.

Figure 14 shows a one story building, which suffers from damages

caused by the ground shaking. The construction is masonry. A lot of
people died because their houses are not earthquake resistant.

According to site investigation from Civil Engineering Department of

University of Sumatera Utara numerous houses applied sand from
the beach as the aggregate in the concrete. The reason is because
the cost of the sand from the beach is 50 % cheaper than the sand
from the river. In principle the sand from the beach cannot be used
directly because it is too salty and in sufficiently good for the
concrete. According to Indonesian concrete standard it is not erlaut
to use sand from beach.

Another case is damages by vertical movement. This type of damages

is shown in Figure 15. It is a church with one-story building. The roof
was constructed with timber truss. During Nias Earthquake the timber
truss was falling down. However the column and wall were not
damaged during earthquake. We have analysed that the damages of
the roof construction that were caused by vertical earthquake.

Figure 16 shows the shop house has that was destroyed by Nias
Earthquake. The owner of the shop house was a rich man in this city.
But he did not know or care about his shop houses. This two-story
shop house was very famous in this region. But the houses has killed
the owner and his family during earthquake.

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2. Liquefaction.

There were many bridges that were damaged because of liquefaction

problem. The strength of the soil became lower the strength during
Earthquake. This made the soil loss the bearing capacity. One of the
bridges which has a liquefaction problem in the abutment was
displayed on Figure 17.

After the Earthquake Department of Civil Engineering of University

Sumatera Utara investigated the soil type in some of the bridges, the
discovery was in the document, there was no soil liquefaction
analysis had ever been done. After Nias earthquake, the Japan Civil
Engineer Association wrote saying a report most places in Nias Island
experience soil liquefaction. It is very important to make regulation
or mark the liquefaction area. Most of the bridges in Nias are a
damaged in their foundation.

Figure 14 : A house with low Figure 15: Vertical acceleration

quality of material.

Figure 16 : Shop houses. Figure 17: Liquefaction by bridges

bridges

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2.4. Padang/West Sumatra Earthquake March 6th, 2007

The Earthquake had a magnitude of 6.4 and struck close to the city
of Padang in the west part of the island. The Earthquake was preceded
by two tremors, magnitude 4.8 and 4.9, which caused panic. As the
result, people fled their homes and buildings, and this, in turn,
reduced the number of casualties from the main shock. The main
shock was followed by many aftershocks. The damage from the
earthquake was substantial and caused the collapse of industrial
buildings, mosques, homes, schools, and businesses. The depth of
hypocenter was 30 km.

The types of damages are shown in the figures below:

• The ductility is too low. See Figure 18. These shop houses used
framing concrete structure with 2 stories. The damage was in
soft story. This damages was typical in this region.

• In Figure 19 it is expressed that the beam column joints do not

used ductile detailing. The beam-to-column joints for the
concrete moment frames do not use ductile detailing. The
reinforcement steel does not extend sufficiently into the joint,
nor does it have adequate development length. Furthermore,
the joints are not confined and hence are susceptible to shear
failure.

Figure 18:
This structure of the building used framing. The lateral-story stiffness
and strength were significantly less for the upper floors and resulted
in a soft-story collapse of the first story.

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Figure 19:
The beam-to-column joints for the concrete moment frames do not
use ductile detailing.

1.5 Padang/West Sumatra Earthquake September 30th, 2009

Two years after the Earthquake on March 6, 2007 come another

Earthquake near Padang/West Sumatra followed. It was Sumatran
Earthquake that happened on September 30th with a Magnitude of
7.6.

The epicenter was 45 kilometres west-northwest of Padang and 220

kilometres southwest of Pekanbaru. Government reports have to date
confirmed 1,115 dead, 1,214 severely injured and 1,688 slightly
injured.

The earthquake brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls,

cut power lines and triggered landslides.

In addition, approximately 135,000 houses were severely damaged,

65,000 houses were moderately damaged and 79,000 houses were
slightly damaged. An estimated 250,000 families (1,250,000 people)
have been affected by the earthquake through the total or partial loss
of their homes and livelihoods.

Types of the damage in this Earthquake are as follows:

• Soft story of building (see Figure 20)
• Landslide
• Liqueifaction
• Etc

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Figure 20: Soft Story

2.6 Mentawai Earthquake/Tsunami October 25th, 2010

The Mentawai Earthquake was on October 25th, 2010 with a

magnitude of 7.7. The earthquake occurred on the same fault that
produced the December 26th , 2004 Northen Sumatra /Aceh
Earthquake. It was widely felt across the provinces
of Bengkulu and West Sumatera and resulted in a substantial
localized tsunami that struck the Mentawai Island, see Figure 21. The
Hypocenter of this Earthquake is 14.2 km.

Figure 21: Tsunami in Mentawai

2.7 PIDI EARTHQUAKE Dec 7, 2016

The 2016 Aceh earthquake struck the Indonesian island

of Sumatra with a Magnitude of 6.5 in Aceh on 7th December 2016,
at 05:03 WIB. The shock was reported to be at the depth of 13 km,
categorized as a strong, shallow earthquake. The epicenter was
located near the village of Reuleut in Pidie Jaya, 164 km southeast of
the province's capital, Banda Aceh 104 people died in the quake, with
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at least 1,000 people injured. It was the deadliest earthquake in Aceh
since the 2005 Nias Earthquake and the deadliest in Sumatra since
the 2010 Mentawai Earthquake. Later reports revealed that 249
structures had been damaged in the quake, including 14 mosques
and a hospital. The type of damage in this Earthquake can be viewed
in Figure 22.

Figure 22: Damage by Pidie Earthquake

3.How to construct the plan and the frame in Earthquake zone.

3.1 Non-engineered building

What is non-engineered building? It is the building the construction

of which usually has not been through the formal building permit
process [Youd, T.L., and Idriss, I.M. , 2001]. It implies that the
construction of non-engineered building has not been designed or
supervised by an architect/engineer. Such buildings are obviously
prevalent in the rural or non-urban (including urbanizing areas in the
periphery of municipal areas. However, a large percentage of the
building stock (in some case a vast majority) even urban areas of
many developing countries are non-engineered constructions.

3.2 Engineered building

These are buildings that are designed and constructed as per the
standard-engineered practices. In case of buildings, engineered
construction are those that are supposed to be designed by a
competent engineer or architect and have undergone the formal
process of regular building permit by the municipal or other pertinent
authority. The formal building permit process is supposed to require
involvement of an architect/engineer in the design and construction
for ensuring compliance to the existing building code and planning by

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laws. In most developing countries, formal building permit process is
observed only in urban areas. In developing countries, building codes
(with earthquake safety consideration) either do not exist, or not
implemented strictly.

Therefore, consideration of seismic input on building design depends

on the individual initiative of the designers, the prevalent construction
practices in the region/country, the prevalent construction practices
in the region/country, and the availability of funds. In the case that
clients require design against earthquakes in a country which does
have regulation to govern the design of strength of structures, it is a
common practice for the engineer to use the code of the country in
which he/she was trained.

Under such conditions, there is no consistency in the design of

structures. While there may be significant proportions of well
designed structures that can withstand the earthquake forces, some
percentage of engineered construction have been designed for only
vertical loads of gravity and not for the horizontal/vertical load that
an earthquake exerts on the building.

3.3 General principle to design of plan and structure of the building

in earthquake Zone.

Generally designing the of plan and the structure of the building would
be as the following :

1. If possible the plan of the building is symmetry. The plan with

L, T, U, X is very dangerous in earthquake zone area. If the
architects choose this plan, design it with dilatation , see Figure
23. If the architect has not compromised the structure must be
controlled with torsion, as far as the eccentricity still follows the
building code.

Figure 23: L, T, U and Y plan

with dilatation
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 2. If possible the structure of the Building is simple and regular.
Elevation of the beam if possibly continue and have the same
level and the column is continued from the ground level to the
top of the structure.

If the structure is irregular, the structure engineer must check

the form of the structure according to the building code. As far
as the structure still follows the building code the structure is
still safe.

3.4 Calculation of the Earthquake load

To calculate the earthquake the load can be chosen generally in 3

methods as follows:

1. Static Equivalent
2. Response Spectra
3. Time History Analysis

Generally, in the practic for symmetrical, regular, simple building

and the high of building until 10 m, 3 stories it is enough to calculate
with static equivalent. But if the structure has a high more then 10 m
and the centre of the stiffness not the same with the centre of the
mass, the calculation must me calculated with response spectra. For
very important building like nuclear plant etc, the method to calculate
the earthquake load must be with time history analysis.

3.5 Indonesian Building code for Earthquake

Horizontal Load

Generally in Indonesia, for designing earthquake loading in structure

SNI 1726-2002 will be used. The Earthquake loading will be
calculated with the formula:

C
V= I .Wt
R

V : earthquake Loading
C : acceleration according to the responses of spectra
I : importance factor of the building
R : Reduction base on ductility of the structure
Wt : Weight of the structure

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4. Conclusion and recommendation

There are 6 big Earthquakes from 2004 until 2016 that occurred in
Sumatra. Learning from the six earthquakes, it can be summarized
as follows:
• The quality of building materials is not good
• Many buildings are damaged because they are not designed by
architects/engineers
• Knowledge of earthquake resistant construction is still lacking
in the community
• Knowledge of earthquake calculations in engineering experts is
lacking
• Socialization of earthquake hazards in the community is still
lacking
• Knowledge of the manufacture of high quality concrete is still
lacking
• Knowledge of assembling reinforcement in concrete
construction is still lacking

Therefor the recommendation that can be done to the community is

as follows:
• Communities need to respond to future earthquake hazards
• Continuous socialization about earthquake hazard to society is
required.
• To the architects and engineers need to be taught about
earthquake resistant buildings
• To the builders need to be taught how to make concrete with
high quality
• To the builders need to be taught how to assemble the
reinforcement to resist earthquakes

Learning from the damage to buildings caused by the earthquakes,

presumably in the future damage to buildings becomes less

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SKBI (1987). “Petunjuk Perencanaan Beton Bertulang Dan Struktur

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