This paper compares base shears computed from floor accelerations (inertial base shear) and column shears (structural base shear) for two mid-rise, multi­ story buildings due to a suite of 30 earthquake ground motions. The presented results demonstrate that the inertial base shear exceeds the structural base shear in the median by 10% to 20% and may exceed the structural base shear by as much a...

This paper examines the observed directionality of ground motions in the Christchurch urban area during the 2010–2011 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquakes. A dataset of ground motions recorded at 20 strong motion stations over 10 different earthquake events is utilized to examine the ratios of various response spectral directionality definitions and the orientation of the maximum direction. Beca...

S U M M A R Y The 1909 April 14 Taiwan earthquake caused significant damage in Taipei. Most of the information on this earthquake available until now is from the written reports on its macro-seismic effects and from seismic station bulletins. In view of the importance of this event for assessing the shaking hazard in the present-day Taipei, we collected historical seismograms and station bullet...

The 26 March 1872 Owens Valley earthquake is among the largest historical earthquakes in California. The felt area and maximum fault displacements have long been regarded as comparable to, if not greater than, those of the great San Andreas fault earthquakes of 1857 and 1906, but mapped surface ruptures of the latter two events were 2–3 times longer than that inferred for the 1872 rupture. The ...

near-fault ground motions have caused very much damage in the vicinity of seismic sources during recent earthquakes. it is well known that under specific circumstances, intensive ground shakings near fault ruptures may be characterized by short-duration impulsive motions. this pulse-type motion is generally particular to the forward direction, where the fault rupture propagates towards the site...

We performed simulations of ground motions in Mexico City expected for large earthquakes in the Guerrero seismic gap in Mexico. The simulation method uses as empirical Green's functions the accelerograms recorded in Mexico City during four small to moderate earthquakes (8 Feb. 1988, M s = 5.8; 25 April 1989, M w = 6.9; 11 May 1990, M w = 5.5; and 31 May 1990, Mw = 6.0) in the Guerrero gap. Beca...

Seismic fragility analysis, a part of seismic probabilistic risk assessment (SPRA), is commonly used to establish the relationship between representative property earthquakes and failure probability structure, component, or system. Current guidelines on SPRA nuclear power plants (NPPs) worldwide mainly reflect earthquake characteristics western United States. However, different may have signifi...

We performed simulations of ground motions in Mexico City expected for large earthquakes in the Guerrero seismic gap in Mexico. The simulation method uses as empirical Green's functions the accelerograms recorded in Mexico City during four small to moderate earthquakes (8 Feb. 1988, M s = 5.8; 25 April 1989, M w = 6.9; 11 May 1990, M w = 5.5; and 31 May 1990, Mw = 6.0) in the Guerrero gap. Beca...