during past earthquakes, many instances of building damage as a result of earthquake surface fault rupture have been observed. the results of investigating a potential mitigation scheme are presented in this paper. such plan provides a wall in the soil with the aim of surface displacement localization in the narrow pre-determined location. this may reduce the risk of the future rupture downstre...

Background: The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake triggered many rapid and long runout landslides, which directly caused great loss of property and human lives and were responsible for a large percentage of total damages caused by the earthquake. It is very important for the purposes of landslide disaster prevention and mitigation to understand the earthquake triggered mechanism of initiation and motion...

Natural-hazard triggered technological accidents (natechs) at industrial facilities have been recognized as an emerging risk. Adequate preparedness, proper emergency planning, and effective response are crucial for the prevention of natechs and mitigation of the consequences. Under the conditions of a natural disaster, the limited resources, the possible unavailability of mitigation measures, a...

Damage estimates from 80 U.S. earthquakes since 1900 are “normalized” to 2005 dollars by adjusting for inflation, increases in wealth, and changes in population. Factors accounting for mitigation at 1 and 2% loss reduction per year are also considered. The earthquake damage record is incomplete, perhaps by up to 25% of total events that cause damage, but all of the most damaging events are acco...

Cities in the developing world are facing increased risk of disasters and the potential of economic and human losses from natural hazards is being exacerbated by the rate of unplanned urban expansion and influenced by the quality of urban management. Risk assessment has come to be regarded by many analysts as a critical part of the development of sustainable communities. The risk assessment fun...

The losses to supply chains from disasters such as the Tohuku earthquake in Japan and Thai floods in 2011 arise not only through direct damage at firms, but also from the interruption of normal operations due to lack of supply; that is, due to disruption cascades from suppliers in the adjacent tiers and beyond. To curtail such losses, firms can make ex ante investments in mitigation and recover...

This paper is a progress report of a MCEER research project on the development of multihazard protection technologies for critical facilities. One important component is to consider earthquake and earthquake induced hazards (e.g. fire, haz-mat leakage, power outrage, etc). This paper is concerned with earthquake and subsequent fire hazards. Records from historical earthquakes show that sometime...

The concept of plate tectonics is generally accepted in earth science and seismology. The surface of the earth is divided into rigid tectonic plates that move on the earth surface at extremely slow speed. The islands of Japan sit on the North American and Eurasian plates. The Pacific plate moves westward and the Philippines plate moves to northwest direction; both plates sink under the islands ...

■ Abstract Real-time seismology refers to a practice in which seismic data are collected and analyzed quickly after a significant seismic event, so that the results can be effectively used for postearthquake emergency response and early warning. As the technology of seismic instrumentation, telemetry, computers, and data storage facility advances, the real-time seismology for rapid postearthqua...