Measuring Earthquake Seismic Load On Structural Foundations

Over more than 50 decades there has been multiple earthquakes that have been caused by the activity that takes place beneath and above the surface of the earth. For every earthquake there are various effects and consequences, these are generally not preventable but teachable moments. As we study and explore landforms we learn and better understand how today 's structures came about, what took place decades ago and where do we go from here. Thanks to the technology and inquiring minds we are able to study past events like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1964 Alaska earthquake. In comparing these two events we can get an overview of what happened and better prepare ourselves for something like that in the future.

A ‘hazard’ can be defined as a geophysical process operating within the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere or biosphere which could potentially lead to the loss of human life or property. However, an earthquake only becomes hazardous and therefore needs management if it occurs within close proximity to a vulnerable population. To some extent, any human settlement around the world situated close to or on top of an area of seismic activity is vulnerable. However, not all nations suffer equal devastation.

This land assessment will recommend which community would be the best and safest place to live. Hazard City is made of up of five communities. Riverside is a mobile home community with most of the current homes located upon the sandy soils of the floodplain. Downtown consists nearly of one-to-three story buildings constructed of unreinforced brick and masonry. Ralston contains mostly large wood-framed, single family, Victorian-style homes built in the late 1800's. Hickory Estates contains of single-family, multi-story, wood-frame homes that were all built before World War II. Walnut Heights is a planned, gated residential community of single-family homes founded in 1981.

An earthquake also causes the ground to shake. Which some buildings can’t take the intensity

A hazard can best be defined as a 'situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property or the environment.' The overall impact of earthquakes as a natural hazard varies greatly from one place and timeframe to another. As do the types of hazards, which are categorised into primary and secondary. Primary hazards are created by the direct seismic energy of an earthquake; this could include liquefaction, slope failure and tsunamis. These primary hazards can in turn trigger secondary hazards such as floods, fires, disease and destabilisation of infrastructure. A number of factors play a part in determining the severity

Earthquakes are common environmental catastrophes which occur as a result of overwhelming stress being released within the earth. The location of the San Francisco Bay Area is extremely vulnerable to megathrust earthquakes

Earthquakes have been recorded throughout history for thousands of years. Even before seismographs in early times, there are records and accounts of mysterious ground shaking. Earthquakes occur when rocks break along an underground fault (UPSeis, 2007). This, in return, causes vibrations through the earth which causes ground shaking. The magnitude of the shaking varies depending on how great the movement along the fault is; the greater the movement, the bigger the earthquake. Some earthquakes are huge and cause significant damage, while others are small and cause little or no damage what-so-ever. Earthquakes are unpredictable, and can happen at any time. It is uncertain where an earthquake will strike, but there is a greater risk

It is not that strong compared to the S- wave, but it does wreck anything that is really stiff or not flexible enough to stand it, but do note that there is barely any building that can escape an earthquake not scattered except if it levitates. This can move anything that's hanging on the wall or knock down furniture. P-waves are much faster than S -waves and it is really weak compared to the other waves. It the shaking that you feel before the building collapse like when you press medium vibration on a massage chair. But mostly they are meant to weaken the structure of the base or crack the ground to prepare for the bigger

Earthquakes are sudden trembling or shaking vibrations. Earthquakes are large spinning spiral winds, that comes together by rocks underground breaks along the fault. There are two types of earthquakes, there is the body waves and the surface waves. Body waves travel at 7/8 km. The body wave is the fastest of the two waves. The surface waves act as a gravity waves that are between two fluids with different density. Unlike hurricanes,

Building collapse has been proposed as the most important risk factor for fatality in building bombings [87], and residents and responders are at risk following an incident. When the twin towers of the WTC collapsed, over 400 emergency responders lost their

This transportation system is an iconic rail network that services the area of the San Francisco Peninsula which then connects to Oakland on the East Bay side. From Oakland, the rail lines branch out in multiple directions, some going up north to Richmond/Pittsburg and down south to the Dublin/Fremont areas. After the Loma Prieta earthquake, retrofitting the BART infrastructure was carefully considered and the Earthquake Safety Program (ESP) was created. A Seismic Vulnerability Study was held to estimate the level of vulnerability of the BART infrastructure as described in [3]. G&E Engineering Systems Inc. (G&E) conducted the analysis with the use of the System Earthquake Risk Assessment (SERA) software. The SERA model ran 100 possible outcomes after modeling 15,078 components of the BART system [3]. Each of the 100 outcomes were influenced by various earthquake scenarios. In the model, four of the seven major earthquake faults were used to provide a realistic analysis. These included The Hayward fault with a 7.0 Mw, San Andreas Fault with an 8.0 Mw, Calaveras Fault with a 6.8 Mw, and the Concord Fault with a 6.8 Mw [3]. G&E concludes that the aerial structures were at a high risk if a major seismic activity is to occur similar to the

Earthquake Hazards occur when there are adverse effects on human activities. This can include surface faulting, ground shaking and liquefaction. In this essay I will be discussing the factors that affect earthquakes, whether human such as population density, urbanisation and earthquake mitigation or physical such as liquefaction, magnitude, landslides and proximity to the focus.

I have diligently worked on all these projects to attain something new in Structural & Earthquake Engineering. Currently, all that is on my mind is Structural Engineering, and finding a new strategy to increase Structures’ capacity and their stability under different conditions. To improve their seismic performance, to decrease their damages when they are subjected to natural disasters, to decrease the cost of their damages, and their construction, to reach the most effective approach to construct, maintain and rehabilitate different structures, I have so much on my mind, so much to experience, and numerous approaches to try; A complete list of my research interests is enumerated on my

0 The foundation should safely sustain and transmit to the ground the combined dead and imposed loads of the building without resulting in any settlement or other movement of the building or any adjoining works.

In the U.S. alone, the average annual cost to repair damage caused by earthquakes is $4.4 billion USD. The worldwide figure is much larger than this but unquantifiable due to poorer countries unable to accurately determine the amount of damage that occurred. Year after year the cost of damages barely fluctuates from these ridiculously high figures and money must be pumped into repairing the damage done. Although a lot is being learnt about earthquakes and the fact that humans are now normally able to be alerted in time to evacuate the area the earthquake will affect, there have been no breakthroughs into reducing the amount of damage earthquakes cause to buildings and infrastructures.