Earthquake Ground Motions: Implications for Designing Structures and Reconciling Structural Damage

Abstract

Until recently, characteristics of strong ground motion resulting from different soil conditions were considered the dominant factor in developing design ground motions and reconciling observed damage. Interpretation of recent recordings of earthquakes by strong motion instrument arrays installed in California and Taiwan show that basic characteristics of strong motion are greatly influenced by the seismological and geological conditions. For a given soil condition, the characteristics of strong ground motion (peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, peak ground displacement, duration, spectral content, and time histories) can vary significantly whether the site is near or far from the seismic source. As local soil conditions only modify the ground motions produced by a given source, variability in ground motion due to seismologic and geologic conditions (for a given soil condition) must be considered in estimating earthquake ground motions for structural design or for estimating structural vulnerabilities to reconcile earthquake-related damage.