• The 5th International Geotechnical Symposium-Incheon, 22-24, May, 2013 •

Seismic impact in Peninsular Malaysia

Aminaton Marto
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.aminaton@utm.my

Tan Choy Soon

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor,
Malaysia.cstan8@live.utm.my

Fauziah Kasim
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.

Nor Zurairahetty Mohd Yunus

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT: This article reviews the seismic impact by discussing the previous related studies on
earthquake engineering in Peninsular Malaysia. The development on seismic sources and seismic hazard
assessment has been considered. Considered earthquakes which affected Peninsular Malaysia were
originated from Sumatra, particularly from the Sumatra Subduction Zone and the Sumatra Transform
Zone. The reactivation of ancient inactive faults within Peninsular Malaysia must be taken into
consideration especially after the initiation of local originating earthquake. In lieu with this, the Mentawai
segment, where is likely to be ruptured within the next few decades, has gained growing literature
attention.

Keywords: Seismic hazard assessment, Attenuation function, Peak ground acceleration, Earthquake
engineering, Peninsular Malaysia

1. INTRODUCTION many others look into the potential of future earthquake

trends through reliable scientific investigation.
There is a growing trend in research on earthquake
There is still lacking of quantitative review to
engineering in Malaysia due to the historical
emphasize the impotency of regional seismic
evidences. The drastic change of past case histories
assessment. Hence, based on these statements, the
is contrary to the common belief that Malaysia is
review of seismic impact in Peninsular Malaysia
seismic free. Although numerous conducted studies
perspective has become the catalyst in providing
have explained that it seems to be natural for
the recommendations for future developments of
significant damages of an earthquake to be within
local seismic design code in Malaysia.
100-200km radius from epicenter, a high intensity
earthquake could give impact up to 700 km, as
what had happened in Mexico 1985 (Megawati et
2. SEISMIC SITUATION OF MALAYSIA
al, 2005). Malaysia is underlain by a tectonically
stable crust, Indosina-Sundaland and surrounded The tectonic framework for the whole of Malaysia
by active seismically zone which is at least 350 covers between longitudes 90 E to 140 E and
km away. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that latitudes of 12 S to 20 N (MMD and ASM, 2009).
Peninsular Malaysia is positive towards seismic risk Malaysia is considered to have the low seismicity
under these circumstances. profile and it is located on the Eurasian plate, and
Several concrete historical evidences in the following closer to the two interpolate boundaries which are
section show that Peninsular Malaysia is not forever the Australian Plates in the west and the Philippines
immune to seismic risk. A number of researchers Plate in the east.
discussed the regional tectonic setting out while

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To date, more evidences are clearly showing that 26 May 1991 by earthquake with Mw 5.3 (MMD,
the early assumption Malaysia is free from earthquake 2011).
is misleading. It is worth mentioning that one of
the most significant regional earthquakes which
brought catastrophic impacts is the 2004 Indian- 2. TECTONIC SETTING OF PENINSULAR
Ocean Earthquake with the magnitude of Mw 9.1. MALAYSIA
This colossal earthquake which caused an unexpected,
The tectonic features that have affected Peninsular
vast and devastating tsunami had violently killed
Malaysia can be divided into two; the far field
68 lives in Malaysia and thousands others in
earthquakes and the near field earthquakes. There
Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand (Komoo and
are two active seismic features of the far field
Mazlan, 2005).
earthquakes for the region. The first feature is the
Not only this massive and extraordinary geological
Sumatra Subduction Zone where most of gigantic
event had caused deaths and destructions, it had
earthquakes that have affected Peninsular Malaysia
also disturbed the surrounding plate and deformed originated from here. The second feature is the
the core of the sunda-land. The entire Peninsular 1900 km long Sumatra fault that is running through
has been displaced toward west southwest. The the entire Sumatra Island. The summary of all
quake caused both co-seismic and post-seismic cases of earthquakes in Peninsular which originated
deformations for the whole of Southeast Asia. from this area is presented in Table 1.
Observation of Omar and Jhonny (2009) has
indicated that Peninsular Malaysia has experienced Table 1. Earthquakes that affected Peninsular Malaysia
the worse deformation than others. Hence, Peninsular (after JMG, 2008)
Malaysia is now closer to the epicenter and will
Date Epicenter Mag Effect on Malaysia
experience greater impact in future quakes. Geologist
have concluded that the initiation of local origin 1984/08/27 Northern 5.2 Kuala Lumpur, Penang
Sumatera
earthquake within Peninsular Malaysia is a
1987/04/25 Northern 6.3 Kuala Lumpur
symptom of reactivation of inactive ancient faults Sumatera
caused by reformation of the sunda-land core as 1990/11/15 Northern 6.9 Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur,
illustrated in Figure 1. Sumatera Pinang, Taiping
1994/10/11 Southern 6.5 Southern Malaysia and
Sumatera Singapore
1997/08/20 Northern 6.0 Alor Setar, Petaling
Sumatera Jaya, Penang
1998/04/01 Padang 6.9 Kuala Lumpur
2000/05/04 Sulawesi 7.4 Tawau
2000/06/04 Southern 7.7 Johor bahry, Kuala
Sumatera Lumour , Petaling Jaya
2002/11/02 Simeulue 7.4 Kuala Lumpur, Port
Kelang
2004/07/25 Southern 7.3 Sourthern Johor,
Sumatera Singapore
2004/12/26 Northern 9.0 68 people killed in
Sumatera Penang, Langkawi,
Kedah
2005/02/12 Sulawesi 7.0 Kota Kinabalu
Fig. 1. Earthquake-prone region of Malaysia (Tjia, 2010). 2005/03/28 Northern 8.6 West coast Peninsular
Sumatera Malaysis
2005/04/10 Mentawai 6.7 Kuala Lumpur,
However, a different scenario has been observed
Singapore
in the East Malaysia. There have been 21 earthquake 2005/04/10 Mentawai 6.5 Kuala Lumour
cases detected in Sarawak and 94 cases in Sabah
since 1874. Among the significant cases which
have caused considerable damages are the 1976
Lahad Datu Earthquake, the 1991 Ranau Earthquake
and the 2004 Miri Earthquake. The first earthquake
induced landslide triggered is in Ranau Sabah on

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Table 1 (cont). Earthquakes that affected Peninsular Malaysia Numerous researchers tried to quantify the maximum
(after JMG, 2008) credible earthquakes for the region. First, Megawati
Date Epicenter Mag Effect on Malaysia and Pan (2002) have underestimated the maximum
2005/05/19 Nias 6.9 Penang, Kula Lumpur, credible earthquake for this region to be lower
Sungai Ara, Tanjung than 2004 Indian-Ocean Earthquake. Later, Balendra
Tokong and Li (2008) have predicted that the worst
2005/07/05 Nias 6.7 Kelang, Kuala
scenario originated from this subduction zone will
Lumopur, Petaling
Jaya, Sungai Ara be of Mw about 9.5. Sun and Pan (1995) have
2005/07/24 Nicobar 7.2 George Town indicated that recurrence period for earthquake of
Islands Mw 8.5 and above for the Sumatra active zone is
2005/11/19 Simeulue 6.5 Ayer Itam 340 years which corresponds to 14% probability
2006/12/17 Northern 5.8 Kuala Lumpur, of exceedance within 50 years.
Sumatera Singapore Chlieh et al (2008) have commented that Mentawai
2007/03/06 Southern 6.4 Johor Bahru, Kuala segment (between 0.5S to 4S) is very likely to be
Sumatera Lumpur, Port Dickson,
Skudai ruptured within next few decades. Pan et al (2011)
2007/08/08 Jawa 7.5 Kuala Lumour, highlighted that the sequences of big earthquakes
Petaling Jaya, Sungai caused Mentawai segments to be able to accumulate
Ara the interseismic strain. The investigation results of
2007/09/12 Southern 8.4 Setapak, Cheras,Pudu, Megawati and Pan (2009) has showed that ground
Sumatera Langkawi, Johor bahru, motion produced by Mentawai segment is able to
Melacca
2007/09/20 Mentawai 6.7 Singapore
generate ground motion which could yield damages
2009/08/16 Southern 6.3 Kuala Lumour, Penang, to the whole of the Southeast Asia region.
Sumatera Johor The Sumatra Transform Zone is located about 400
2009/09/30 Padang 7.9 Kuala Lumpur, km away from Peninsular Malaysia. As one of the
Putrajaya, George great dextral strike slip on Earth, the Great Sumatra
Town, Johor Bahru Fault accommodates larger plate motion of the
2010/05/09 Northern 7.2 Sungai Dua, Penang oblique convergence of the Sumatra Subduction
Sumatera
(Natawidjaja and Triyoso, 2007). This transform
2011/06/14 Northern 5.6 Selangor, Melacca,
Sumatera Perak, Putrajaya, zone could only store limited amount of energy by
Negeri Sembilan shear interlock; thus, the earthquake intensity will
2012/04/11 Northern 8.2 Penang, Kuala Lumpur be lower compared to the Sumatra subduction
Sumatera zone (Irsyam, 2008). Sieh and Natawidjaja (2000)
2012/06/24 Northern 6.5 Kedah, Perak, have stated that this fault comprises of 19
Sumatera Selangor, Negeri segments and it moves to the west at the rate of 6
Sembilan, Putrajaya
2012/07/25 Northern 6.6 West coast Peninsular
– 27 mm annually. The largest earthquake recorded
Sumatera Malaysia in the Sumatran fault is lower than Mw of 8.0.
Similarly, Balendra et al (2002) have investigated
Sumatra Subduction Zone is situated where the the long distance earthquake and estimated that
Indian plate is sliding approximately northward the maximum magnitude originated at this fault
beneath Sumatra and Java at oceanic at a convergence may not exceed Mw of 7.8. Bellier et al (1997)
direction of N10oE. The overall rate convergence have conducted paleoseismological study to
is 7-cm yearly (Huchon and Le Pichon, 1984). estimate the recurrence interval for earthquake
The convergence is nearly perpendicular to arc of Mw 7.7 and the return period is 160 years, 31%
Java trench and oblique near Sumatra trench. This probability of exceedance within 50 years in other
feature allows Sumatra subduction zone to become words.
one of the most active plate tectonic margins The near field earthquakes are the local originated
globally. The subduction zone could be divided earthquake within Peninsular Malaysia. These
into two categories based on the focal depth and earthquakes started to occur since 2007 as presented
the dip angle. First, the interplate zone (megathrust) in Table 2. Shuib (2009) has commented that
is for the shallow focal depth which is up to 50km reactivations of ancient inactive fault are believed
and second, the intraplate zone (benioff) is for to be result of the intraplate stress built up after e
depth up to 200 km. t2004 Mega quake. The main active seismic

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feature that lay within Peninsular Malaysia is earthquake in the assessment. The inherent parameter
Bentong Fault Zone which comprises of the Bukit uncertainties of local site condition are critical and
Tinggi Fault and the Kuala Lumpur Fault. The must be considered. Several researchers are able to
Chaiman of Working Group in designing Building predict the ground motion in several cities of
code in Malaysia, Jeffrey Chiang (2008) has stated Peninsular which are shown in Table 3. However,
that near field earthquake especially withinthe the analysis does not cover all cities in Peninsular
vicinity of 80km long Bentong Fault should be Malaysia and now it is crucial for the ground
given considerate attention. The studies on focal response analysis to be carried out in the current
mechanisms of Bukit Tinggi earthquakes are developing cities such as Iskandar Malaysia Region
important to identify the seismic pattern and fault in the state of Johor. This area has experienced
behavior. tremendous development of superstructures,
infrastructures, utility services. Besides, it is also
Table 2. Local earthquake occurrences in Peninsular Malaysia experiencing the expected precedence growth and
(After Alexander, 2011) rapid increases of population. Thus, with all these
Date Case Location Magnitude and the seismic changed that Peninsular Malaysia
2007- 24 Bukit Tinggi, Kuala 24 facing, the risk of the urban seismic is heightened
2009 Lumpur in this region.
2009 4 Kuala Pilah, Perak 4
2009 1 Jerantut, Pahang 1 Table 3 Ground Motion Prediction in Peninsular Malaysia
2009 1 Manjung, Perak 1
2010 1 Kenyir Dam, 1 Percentage of
Terengganu Researchers Cities Exceedance (gals)
2012 1 Mersing, Johor 1 2% 10 %
Pan and Kuala
55.1 29.5
Kusnowidjaja Lumpur
(2002) Singapore 24.3 12.7
3. PROBABILITY SEISMIC HAZARD Adnan et al Kuala
ASSESSMENT OF MALAYSIA (2006) Lumpur
149 74
Marto et al
There are numerous researchers (McCue, 1999; Putrajaya 220-340 130-190
(2007)
Petersen et al, 2004) who have developed the Kuala
seismic hazard models for the Southeast Asia Marto et al 180-340 90-190
Lumpur
(2011)
region. Others have looked into the possibilities of Putrajaya 220-340 130-190
local scale production (Adnan and Yusof, 2001). Delfebriyadi Kuala
- 80
The results of deterministic seismic hazard assessment (2011) Lumpur
(Adnan et al, 2002) that has been performed for
Peninsular Malaysia has shown general agreement
to probability seismic hazard assessment (Adnan 4. CONCLUSION
et al, 2005). For other region, Irsyam et al (2010) This article has outlined the seismic impacts in
has revised the Indonesia Seismic Hazard Map Peninsular Malaysia post 20th century. The current
while Balendra and Li (2008) have focused their seismic environment of Malaysia, particularly
research in Singapore. within Peninsular Malaysia has been reviewed.
Azlan and Suhatril (2009) have been using the There is a long standing interest in investigating
regression analysis to develop new attenuation far field earthquakes effect on Malaysia. The
relationship for the subduction mechanism which reactivation of ancient inactive faults within
is able to cover up to 400km away from epicenter. Peninsular Malaysia must be taken into future
The development has utilized the Southeast Asia consideration. Thus, more related research of near
strong motion earthquake data for the derivation. field earthquakes experiences is needed. The
Sooria et al (2010) have investigated four different developments of seismic sources and seismic
types of distant earthquake attenuation relationship hazard assessment are also included in this article.
to select the Dahle function as the most appropriate Based on the current literature review, it seems
model for Peninsular Malaysia’s condition. reasonable to further investigate the potential of
However, there is a growing need to implicitly Mentawai segment as a positive seismic source in
take into account the recent local originated the next few decades. The review on seismic

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impacts in Peninsular Malaysia has highlighted
the importance of regional seismic assessment
through literature recommendation. All inherent
parameter uncertainties of local site condition are
critical and must be included in the methodology
of ground response analysis. Microzonation study
should be conducted for current developing cities
which will experience an expected precedence
growth and rapid increases of population.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia and ZAMALAH UTM for the
financial support.
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