Module 2

CE 82 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

1. Title of the Module

Chapter 2 – Earthquakes

2. Introduction

Earthquake is the vibration of earth’s surface caused by waves coming from a source of
disturbance inside the earth (refer Figure 1.14). Most earthquakes of engineering significance are
of tectonic origin and is caused by slip along geological faults.

The typical characteristics of earthquake depends on

1. Stress drop during the slip
2. Total fault displacement
3. Size of slipped area
4. Roughness of the slipping process
5. Fault shape (Normal fault, Reverse fault, Strike slip fault)
6. Proximity of the slipped area to the ground surface
7. Soil condition

As the waves radiate from the fault, they undergo geometric spreading and attenuation
due to loss of energy in the rocks. Since the interior of the earth consists of heterogeneous
formations, the waves undergo multiple reflections, retraction, dispersion and attenuation as they
travel. The seismic waves arriving at a site on the surface of the earth are a result of complex
superposition giving rise to irregular motion.
3. Learning Outcomes

At the end of this module, the students must be able to:

 Identify the different earthquake waves
 Familiarize with the earthquake terminologies
 Understand the difference between intensity and magnitude
 Recognize the relationship between intensity and magnitude
 Compute intensity and magnitude

4. Learning Content

2.1 Earthquake Waves

Earthquake vibrations originate from the point of initiation of rupture and propagates in
all directions. These vibrations travel through the rocks in the form of elastic waves. Mainly
there are three types of waves associated with propagation of an elastic stress wave generated
by an earthquake. These are primary (P) waves, secondary (S) waves and surface waves. In
addition, there are sub varieties among them. The important characteristics of these three kinds
of waves are as follows:

2.1.1 Primary (P) Waves

These are known as primary waves, push-pull waves, longitudinal waves, compressional
waves, etc. These waves propagate by longitudinal or compressive action, which mean that the
ground is alternately compressed and dilated in the direction of propagation, Figure 1.15. P waves
are the fastest among the seismic waves and travel as fast as 8 to 13 km per second. Therefore,
when an earthquake occurs, these are the first waves to reach any seismic station and hence the
first to be recorded. The P
waves resemble sound waves
because these too are
compressional or longitudinal
waves in nature. Hence, the
particles vibrate to and fro in
the direction of propagation
(i.e. longitudinal particle
motion). These waves are
capable of traveling through
solids, liquids and gases.

The P-waves propagates radial to the source of the energy release and the velocity is
expressed by

where E is the Young’s modulus; n is the Poisson’s ratio (0.25); and r is the density.
 2.1.2 Secondary (S) Waves

These are also called shear waves, secondary waves, transverse waves, etc. Compared to
P waves, these are relatively slow. These are transverse or shear waves, which mean that the
ground is displaced perpendicularly to the direction of propagation, Figure 1.16. In nature, these
are like light waves, i.e., the waves move perpendicular to the direction of propagation. Hence,
transverse particle motion is characteristic of these waves. These waves are capable of traveling
only through solids. If the particle motion is parallel to prominent planes in the medium they are
called SH waves. On the other hand, if the particle motion is vertical, they are called SV waves.
The shear wave velocity is given by

They travel at the rate of 5 to 7 km per second. For this reason these waves are always
recorded after P waves in a seismic station.

2.1.3 Surface Waves

When the vibratory wave energy is propagating near the surface of the earth rather
than deep in the interior, two other types of waves known a Rayleigh and Love waves can be
identified. These are called surface waves because their journey is confined to the surface
layers of the earth only. Surface waves travel through the earth crust and does not propagate
into the interior of earth unlike P or S waves.

Surface waves are the slowest among the seismic waves. Therefore, these are the last to
be recorded in the seismic station at the time of occurrence of the earthquake. They travel at the
rate of 4 to 5 km per second. Complex and elliptical particle motion is characteristic of these
waves. These waves are capable of travelling through solids and liquids. They are complex in
nature and are said to be of two kinds, namely, Raleigh waves and Love waves.
 The Rayleigh surface waves are tension-compression waves similar to the P-waves expect
that their amplitude diminishes with distance below the surface of the ground. Similarly, the Love
waves are the counterpart of the “S” body waves; they are shear waves that diminishes rapidly
with distance below surface, Figure 1.17.

The damage and destruction associated with earthquakes can be mainly attributed to
surface waves. This damage potential and the strength of the surface waves reduce with increase
in depth of earthquakes.

2.2 Earthquake Terminology

The motion of plates results in stress buildup along plate boundaries as well as in interior
domain of the plate. Depending on the state of buildup of stress and amount of resistance offered
by the fault strata, rupture is initiated as stress exceeds the capacity of the strata. Generally, the
rupture causing earthquakes initiates from a point, termed as hypocenter or focus, which
subsequently spreads over to a large area. Depending on the characteristics of strata where
rupture occurs, the shape of the ruptured area could be highly irregular and the amount of
interface slip along the ruptured surface could also vary. Several terms associated with
earthquake
 The place of origin of the earthquake in the interior of the earth is known as focus or
origin or centre or hypocenter (refer Fig. 1.18). The place on the earth's surface, which lies exactly
above the centre of the earthquake, is known as the 'epicenter'. For obvious reasons, the
destruction caused by the earthquake at this place will always be maximum and with an increasing
distance from this point, the intensity of destruction also decreases. The point on earth's surface
diametrically opposite to the epicenter is called the anti-center. An imaginary line which joins the
points at which the earthquake waves have arrived at the earth's surface at the same time is
called a 'co-seismal'. In homogeneous grounds with plain surfaces, the iso-seismals and
coseismals coincide. Of course, in many cases due to surface and subsurface irregularities, such
coincidence may not occur.

2.3 Recording Earthquakes

The vibratory motion produced during an earthquake could be measured in terms of

displacement, velocity or acceleration. A seismologist is interested in even small amplitude ground
motions (in terms of displacement) that provides insight into the wave propagation characteristics
and enables him to estimate the associated earthquake parameters.

As accelerations are the causative phenomena for forces that damage structures (Force
= mass x acceleration), engineers are more concerned with the earthquake causing structural
damage, hence are interested in acceleration measurement.

The instruments measure the ground displacements and are called seismographs. The
record obtained from a seismograph is called a seismogram.

The seismograph has three components – the sensor, the recorder and the timer. The
principle on which it works is simple and is explicitly reflected in the early seismograph – a pen
attached at the tip of an oscillating simple pendulum (a mass hung by a string from a support)
marks on a chart paper that is held on a drum rotating at a constant speed. A magnet around
the string provides required damping to control the amplitude of oscillations. The pendulum mass,
string, magnet and support together constitute the sensor; the drum, pen and chart paper
constitutes the recorder; and the motor that rotates the drum at constant speed forms the timer,
Figure 1.19. By varying the characteristics of equipment one could record displacement, velocity
or acceleration during an earthquake

The devises that measure the ground accelerations are called accelerometer. The
accelerometers register the accelerations of the soil and the record obtained is called an
accelerogram.

2.4 Determination of Hypocenter or Earthquake Focus

Seismologists use the elapsed time between the arrival of a P-waves and S-waves at a
given site to assist them in estimating the distance from the site to the center of energy release.
The distance of focus from the observation station is determined by the relative arrival times of
the P and S waves. The distance from hypocenter to observation point is given by

where, T=difference in time of arrival of P and S waves at an observation point; S= distance from
hypocenter to observation point; and Vp and Vs are the velocity of P and S waves, respectively.
The time T can be taken as the time of duration of the initial tremor to it built-up while
Vp and Vs are geological properties for a given locations. Thus, the distance from the hypocenter
to the observation point is approximately proportional to the time of duration of the initial tremor;
the coefficient of proportionality is about 8 km/sec. When S has been determined for each of
three observation points the hypocenter is located as the point of intersection of these spheres.

2.5 Size of Earthquakes

The size of earthquake could be related to the damage caused or parameters like
magnitude. These two useful definitions of the size of earthquakes are sometimes confused.

2.5.1 Intensity of Earthquakes

The intensity of an earthquake refers to the degree of destruction caused by it. In other
words, intensity of an earthquake is a measure of severity of the shaking of ground and its
attendant damage. This, of course, is empirical to some extent because the extent of destruction
or damage that takes place to a construction at a given place depends on many factors. Some of
these factors are: (i) distance from the epicenter, (ii) compactness of the underlying ground, (iii)
type of construction (iv) magnitude of the earthquake (v) duration of the earthquake and (vi)
depth of the focus. Intensity is the oldest measure of earthquake.

The seismic intensity scale consists of a series of certain key responses such as people
awakening, movement of furniture, damage to chimneys, and finally – total destruction.
Numerous intensity scales have been developed over the last several hundred years to evaluate
the effects of earthquakes, the most popular is the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) Scale. This
scale, composed of 12 increasing levels of intensity that range from imperceptible shaking to
catastrophic destruction, is designated by Roman numerals. It does not have a mathematical
basis; instead it is an arbitrary ranking based on observed effects. The lower numbers of the
intensity scale generally deal with the manner in which the earthquake is felt by people. The
higher numbers of the scale are based on observed structural damage. In the Philippines, we use
the PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS) which composed of 10 increasing levels of
intensity.

Another intensity scale is Mendvedev-Spoonheuer-Karnik scale (MSK 64). This scale is

more comprehensive and describes the intensity of earthquake more precisely. Indian seismic
zones were categorized on the basis of MSK 64 scale.

Some of the other intensity scales used are Rossi-Forel (RF) scale, Japanese
Meteorological Agency (JMA) intensity scale, etc.

An imaginary line joining the points of same intensity of the earthquake is called an 'iso-
seismal'. In plan, the different iso-seismals will appear more or less as concentric circles over a
plain, homogeneous ground if the focus of the earthquake is a point. On the other hand, if the
focus happens to be a linear tract, the iso-seismals will occur elongated. Naturally, the areas or
zones enclosed by any two successive isoseismals would have suffered the same extent of
destruction.

Figure 1.20 PEIS (PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale)

 Over the years, researchers have tried to develop more quantitative ways for estimating
earthquake intensity. One of such relationships correlating earthquake intensity to peak ground
velocity is given by

where Vg is the peak ground velocity in cm/sec.

Another such relation reported by Wald et.al, (1999) based on Californian earthquake
database is

In addition to peak ground velocity, empirical relationships correlating peak ground

acceleration to MMI has also been reported. For e.g.,

2.5.2 Magnitude of Earthquake

The magnitude of an earthquake is related to the amount of energy released by the

geological rupture causing it, and is therefore a measure of the absolute size of the earthquake,
without reference to distance from the epicenter. While earthquake intensity is depicted in Roman
numerals and is always a whole number, magnitude is depicted in Arabic numerals and need not
be a whole number. Similar to intensity scales, over the years, a number of approaches for
measurement of magnitude of an earthquake have come into existence.

2.5.2.1 Richter Magnitude, ML

A workable definition of magnitude was first proposed by C.F. Richter. He based on the
data from Californian earthquakes, defined the earthquake magnitude as the logarithm to the
base 10 of the largest displacement of a standard seismograph (called Wood-Anderson
Seismograph with properties T=0.8 sec; m=2800; and damping nearly critical ≈ 0.8) situated
100 km from the focus.

where A denotes the amplitude in micron (10-6m) recorded by the instrument located at
an epicentral distance of 100 km; and M is the magnitude of the earthquake.

When the distance from the epicenter at which an observation is obtained other than 100
km, a correction is introduced to the equation as follows:

where M is the magnitude of the earthquake; Δ=distance from epicenter (km), MΔ=
magnitude of the earthquake calculated for earthquake using the values measured at a distance
Δ from the epicenter. The graphical form of this procedure is given in Figure 1.21.
Figure 1.21 A graphical form of the estimation of Gutenberg – Richer magnitude
[From Lay and Wallace, 1995].

Because of the logarithmic nature of the definition a difference of 1.0 in the magnitude
represents a difference of 10 in the seismograph amplitude. Magnitude observations by different
recording stations usually differ quite widely, often by as much as one magnitude, which is later
corrected taking into account the recordings from a large number of instruments.

2.5.2.2 Moment magnitude

Over the years, scientists observed that different magnitude scales had saturation points
and the magnitudes estimated by different approaches did not point to a unique value of
earthquake size The Richter magnitude saturates at about 6.8, and the surface wave magnitude
at about 7.8. In addition, these magnitude estimates did not have a linear relation with the energy
released due to earthquake rupture. To address these short falls, Hanks and Kanamori, in 1979
proposed a magnitude scale, termed as ‘moment magnitude’, based on the seismic moment due
to earthquake rupture. The moment magnitude is given by

where Mw is the moment magnitude, M0 is the seismic moment in N-m.

In addition to the magnitude scales as discussed, Surface wave magnitude, Ms, based on
the amplitude of Rayleigh waves having a period of about 20 seconds, body wave magnitude, Mb
based on the amplitude of first few P wave cycles are also being used.

A comparison of various magnitude scales are given in Figure 1.22. It can be noted from
Figure that the moment magnitude does not saturate.
 2.6 Energy of an Earthquake

An approximate relationship between surface wave magnitude, Ms, and the energy
released by an earthquake, E, is given by

where E is measured in joules. Thus the ratio of energies released by two earthquakes
differing by 1 is magnitude is equal to 31.6. The ratio is 1000 for earthquakes differing by 2 in
magnitude, Table 1.2. Comparisons have been made between natural forces and nuclear
weapons. The energy released by a 1 megaton hydrogen bomb is roughly equivalent to a
magnitude 7.4 earthquake. Figure 1.23 shows the variation of the energy released against the
magnitude.

2.7 Comparison of Magnitude and Intensity

Comparisons between magnitude and intensity are fraught with difficulty. Firstly, intensity
varies with distance from the epicentre. Secondly, a large earthquake may occur away from
inhabited areas and therefore cause little apparent damage. Focal depth, ground conditions and
quality of building construction can have a considerable effect on subjective assessments of
damage. Magnitude-intensity relationships are not favoured for engineering purposes. However,
intensity could be the only information available for large historical earthquakes and the inputs
from intensity measurements would be necessary in estimating the maximum earthquake
potential of the region.
 In 1956, Richter proposed a simple relationship between magnitude and epicentral
intensity given by

The equation was derived by comparison of magnitude and epicentral intensity data of
Californian earthquakes.

This relationship could vary from region to region. For e.g., Street and Turcotte in 1977
proposed a magnitude intensity relation specific to North-eastern North America, given by

However, it is found that correlations between intensity and magnitude are not particularly
accurate for estimation of earthquake magnitude. In addition to epicentral intensity, researchers
have attempted to associate other intensity related parameters like log of area with intensity
greater than IV; log of felt area, fall off intensity, etc., with varying levels of success. Figure 1.24
shows a comparison of magnitudes estimated from intensity using different approaches as
mentioned above.
5. Teaching and Learning Activities

Exercises

1. Calculate the moment magnitude of an earthquake with the rupture area dimensions of length
35km, width 15km and slip 1meter. Assume modulus of rigidity, mu = 3.5 x 1010 N/m2.

2. At a recording station a difference in time of arrival between P waves and S waves was
observed to be 1.5 seconds. What is the approximate distance from the station at which the event
occurred? Assume P wave velocity as 4 km/sec and S wave velocity as 2 km/sec.

3. During an earthquake the maximum amplitude recorded at a site by Wood-Anderson

Seismograph is 20 cm. The maximum ground velocity recorded was 25 cm/sec. The site was
found to be 75 km away from the epicenter. Determine the Magnitude and Intensity of the
occurred earthquake.

4. The epicentral intensity of an earthquake that occurred in 1870 is estimated to be IX in MMI

scale. Estimate the approximate magnitude of the earthquake.

5. Estimate the moment magnitude of an event with rupture length of 100km, rupture width of
45km and slip of average fault slip of 3m. Take modulus of rigidity, mu as 3.5 x 1010 N/m2.

6. Recommended Learning Materials and Resources for Supplementary Reading

National Structural Code of the Philippines 2015

Articles and data from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology
Any seismology-related readings and materials
7. Flexible Teaching Learning Modality (FTLM) Adopted

Online (synchronous)
TelEducation moodle, Facebook messenger, Zoom, Google Classroom, etc..

Remote (asynchronous)
module, essay activities, etc…