Earthquakes effects and hazards

Effects of earthquakes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kmMOHPrTsg
 Effects of earthquakes
1. Damage to Man-made Structures
2. Effects on Ground
I. Shaking and ground rupture
II. Landslides and avalanches
III. Fires
IV. Soil liquefaction
3. Effects on Water
I. Tsunami
II. Floods
 Damage to Man-made Structures
• An earthquake may cause injury and loss of life, road and
bridge damage, general property damage and collapse or
destabilization (potentially leading to future collapse) of
buildings.

• The aftermath may bring disease, lack of basic necessities.

 Damage to Man-made Structures
• Description of earthquake damages includes the degree of
damage made on small weak mud-hut to modern structures.

• Masonry structures, however, have been classified into four

categories to devise the intensity scale.

• Some damages are caused by the effect of shaking not directly on

the masonry structure but on the foundation.

• Warping or fissuring can make a considerable damage even to

exceptionally strong building.
 Damage to Man-made Structures
• Other engineering structures like railways, bridges, dams etc. are
also subject to severe damage by shaking, slumping or faulting.

• Causes of most earthquake-damages are due to the horizontal

motion rather than the vertical part of the motion.

• Vertical motion operates against gravity, whereas horizontal

motion meets no such resistance.

• Earthquake effects are often evaluated exclusively in terms of

acceleration.
 Damage to Man-made Structures
• With an amplitude of one inch and a frequency of one cycle per
second, we have an acceleration of 0.1 Gal, which is considered as
damaging.

• If such motion continues only few seconds, it will not damage

ordinary structure, but if the motion continues for 15 or 20
seconds, as it may in a great earthquake, damage may be much
greater.

• Long duration, reasonably high acceleration and considerable

amplitudes are the combination which cause maximum damage in
buildings and loss of lives.
 Masonry structures
1. Masonry A. Good workmanship, mortar, and design; reinforced,
especially laterally, and bound together by using steel, concrete,
etc.; designed to resist lateral forces.

2. Masonry B. Good workmanship and mortar, reinforced, but not

designed in detail to resist lateral forces.

3. Masonry C. Ordinary workmanship and mortar; no extreme

weaknesses like failing to tie in at corners, but neither reinforced
nor designed against horizontal forces.

4. Masonry D. Weak materials, such as adobe; poor mortar; low

standards of workmanship; weak horizontally.
 Effects on Ground
• The primary effects on ground by an earthquake are regional
warping, faulting, offsets, fissures, cracks, changes in elevation or
depression, changes in coast line etc.

• The geographical extent of these macroseismic effects can be vast,

may be up to 1000 km for a great earthquake.

• Liquefaction of ground is often seen in alluvial deposits.

 Shaking and ground rupture

• Shaking and ground rupture are the main effects created by

earthquakes, principally resulting in more or less severe
damage to buildings and other rigid structures.

• The severity of the local effects depends on the earthquake

magnitude, the distance from the epicenter, and the local
geological and geomorphological conditions, which may
amplify or reduce wave propagation.

• The ground-shaking is measured by ground acceleration.

• Specific local geological, geomorphological, and geostructural
features can induce high levels of shaking on the ground
surface even from low-intensity earthquakes. This effect is
called site or local amplification.

• It is principally due to the transfer of the seismic motion from

hard deep soils to soft superficial soils.

• Ground rupture is a visible breaking and displacement of the

Earth's surface along the trace of the fault, which may be of
the order of several meters in the case of major earthquakes.

• Ground rupture is a major risk for large engineering structures

such as dams, bridges and nuclear power stations and
requires careful mapping of existing faults to identify any
which are likely to break the ground surface within the life of
the structure.
Fault trace is the intersection of a geological fault with the ground surface
• Ground Shaking
– amplitude, duration, and damage increases in
poorly consolidated rocks
 Landslides and avalanches
• Earthquakes, along with severe storms, volcanic activity,
coastal wave attack, and wildfires, can produce slope
instability leading to landslides, a major geological hazard.

• Landslide danger may persist while emergency personnel are

attempting rescue.

• Landslides occur in the form of earth slumps, earth flows and

earth avalanches are most notable.
 Fires
• Earthquakes can cause fires by damaging electrical
power or gas lines.

• In the event of water mains rupturing and a loss of

pressure, it may also become difficult to stop the
spread of a fire once it has started.

• For example, more deaths in the 1906 San Francisco

earthquake were caused by fire than by the
earthquake itself.
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 caused
90% of damage by fire.
Terrifying image of fire after the 1994 Northridge earthquake
 Soil liquefaction and subsidence
• Liquefaction of ground is often seen in alluvial deposits. Solid sand
formations, if saturated with water, are transformed into a state of
suspension during the vibration of seismic waves, and behave as a
viscous liquid.

• Soil liquefaction may cause rigid structures, like buildings and

bridges, to tilt or sink into the liquefied deposits.

• This can be a devastating effect of earthquakes causing total collapse

of structures, buildings etc.

• Subsidence can then follow as the soil recompacts. Sand blows, or

sand volcanoes, form when pressurized jets of groundwater break
through the surface.
Soil liquefaction occurs when …
San Francisco 1906
Alaska 1964
Niigata, Japan 1964
San Francisco 1989
San Francisco 1989
Izmit, Turkey 1989
Palu, Sulawesi 2018
Soil liquefaction
Ground subsidence
 Effects on Water
• oscillation in wells is produced during the passage of large long
period waves of a teleseism.

• Where plenty of groundwater is present, earthquake fountains,

spouts, geysers are produced during the strong shaking of an
earthquake.

• Seiches are produced by the earthquake waves. This is a standing

wave set up on the surface of an enclosed body of water such as
pond, lake etc.
 Effects on Water
Tsunamis
• Tsunamis are long-wavelength, long-period sea waves produced
by the sudden or abrupt movement of large volumes of water.

• Tsunamis, the long waves on the ocean, are produced by large

earthquakes.

• In the open ocean the distance between wave crests can surpass
100 kilometers (62 mi), and the wave periods can vary from five
minutes to one hour. Such tsunamis travel 600-800 kilometers
per hour (373–497 miles per hour), depending on water depth.
 Effects on Water
Tsunamis
 Effects on Water
Tsunamis
• Large waves produced by an earthquake or a submarine
landslide can overrun nearby coastal areas in a matter of
minutes.

• Tsunamis can also travel thousands of kilometers across open

ocean and cause destruction on far shores hours after the
earthquake that generated them.
• Most destructive tsunamis are caused by earthquakes of
magnitude 7.5 or more.

• The height of tsunamis, sometimes, increases greatly and they

crash down upon the shore with disastrous effects.

• A comparison of historical earthquakes and tsunamis shows

that a large tsunami washing onto a stretch of populated
coastline is likely to be much more destructive than the
shaking from all but exceptionally large earthquakes.

• The killing tsunami of the December 26, 2004 Sumatra

earthquake is the most recent example, that was generated
due to the mega thrust event (M 9.3) in the Indian ocean
subduction zone.
2011 - Japan Tsunami kills 28 000 people!
 Floods
• A flood is an overflow of any amount of water that reaches
land.

• Floods occur usually when the volume of water within a body

of water, such as a river or lake, exceeds the total capacity of
the structure, and as a result some of the water flows or sits
outside of the normal perimeter of the body.

• However, floods may be secondary effects of earthquakes, if

dams are damaged. Earthquakes may cause landslips to dam
rivers, which collapse and cause floods.
Earthquake rocks Christchurch
Seismic Wave Properties
Modes of Vibration
Building Resonance
 Good,
Poor
and Bad
Margalla Towers, Islamabad
Transamerica
Pyramid,
San Francisco

1972
48 stories
Taipei 101, Taiwan

Tuned Mass Damper

6.6 million kgs

2004
Seismic Isolation
Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Istanbul

2009

Base
Isolator
System
 Philippine Arena, Bulacan

World’s Largest Indoor Arena

2014

Foundation of Lead-Rubber
Bearings