ROLE OF GEOTECHNICS IN EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

The large earthquakes over the years have left many lessons to be learned which
are essential in putting forward countermeasures or policy to mitigate similar
calamities in future. The degree and nature of damage incurred by earthquakes
depends largely upon states of social developments of the region in which an
event occurs. The topography, ground water conditions and subsurface soil
conditions are also important factors influencing features of the damage caused
by great earthquakes. Needless to say, the most important would be the
intensity of shaking of the ground at the time of the earthquake. There are so
many factors as above to be considered that it is practically difficult to forecast
the intensity of shaking and the level of the damage resulting form an
earthquake at a given region.

Under the inherent circumstances as above, the earthquake engineering has

been developed by reflecting on bitter experiences of calamity that occurred
during past earthquakes. In this sense, the earthquake engineering could be
cited as “experience engineering”. It is thus mandatory for engineers to carefully
investigate the damage feature, exercise deep insight into causes of the incident,
come up with good ideas for mitigation and to implement them in the retrofit
works that follows. The experiences should be reflected as well on
implementation of countermeasures for existing facilities and structures and
further on in renewing the design codes and regulations in future. It is without
saying that the geotechnical engineers specializing earthquake engineering
should recognize themselves to carry this responsibility and in this sense learning
lessons from past earthquakes are the most important things assigned to our
profession.

Since individual earthquake has its own characteristics, it would be necessary to

learn new lessons as large earthquakes occur. In the development of earthquake
geotechnology, for example, Niigata Earthquake in Japan 1964 could be cited as
a milestone event in that it has first demonstrated the importance of liquefaction
in sand deposits in bringing about various kinds of damage to the ground itself
and structures thereupon. The subsequent earthquake in 1978 in Japan off Izu
peninsula triggered the breach of a tailings dam located in the mountaintop,
leading to widespread contamination of river beds downhill. The liquefaction of
sand containing silt with low plasticity fines was first identified to be of
importance as well in generating a state of liquefaction in silty sand deposits.
The Kobe Earthquake in Japan 1995 would be cited as the first event where man-
made islands suffered catastrophic damage along their periphery where quay
walls have grossly moved seaward involving large amount of soil deposits behind
them. The lateral spreading of once liquefied soils was found to exert truly
detrimental effects on the structures and facilities existing on such laterally
moving soil ground. Since then, problems related with lateral spreading have
become a subject of extensive studies and discussions in the international arena
of the earthquake geotechnics.
Performance of structures resting upon, or foundations embedded in liquefied
deposit or those undergoing lateral spreading is now one of the major issues of
consideration for which some solutions and consensus are in urgent need. The
damage by the earthquakes may be divided into two groups, structural injury
due directly to inertia force during intense shaking and indirect damage due to
liquefaction or lateral spreading of the ground. The features of these two kinds of
damage have been found different between developing and developed countries.
In the developed countries, seismic code or regulations for earthquake-resistant
design has been put forward mainly for structures and implemented in the design
of medium to large-scale buildings or facilities. Thus, the structural damage has
become less and less pronounced and implementation of anti-seismic design is
recognized to have contributed greatly for reduction of distress during
earthquakes. In contrast, in developing countries codes or regulations have not
yet been put into effect sufficiently and death tolls or property damage result
mostly from the collapse of poorly constructed houses or buildings.

With respect to the geotechnics-associated damage, mitigation measures have

not yet been implemented both in developed and developing countries to an
extent to reduce the damage. Consequently, the damage due to geotechnical
origin such as liquefaction and landslides forms a major part of the distress by
earthquakes. From considerations as above, it may be mentioned that the
ground damage due to liquefaction and landslides is still the cause of major
damage not only in developing countries but also in developed region of the
world, and there is a plenty of challenges emerging from one earthquake after
another that is worthy of notice and requires further studies before relevant
solutions become of use for mitigating the distress resulting from large
earthquakes. In this context, geotechnical engineers should be encouraged to
seek the problem areas and try to come up with some solutions in this
unexplored area.