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Cee 385 - 4
Cee 385 - 4
Lecture on
CEE 385
EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
Lecturer
Email: sourav.cEEsust@gmail.com
Faults
The term fault is used to describe a discontinuity within rock mass,
along which movement had happened in the past. Plate boundary is also
a type of fault.
Faults represent pre-existing zones of weakness in the earth‟s curst,
zones along which movement will tend to be accommodated.
Or when two groundmasses move with respect to one another, elastic
strain energy due to tectonic processes is stored and then released
through the rupture of the interface zone.
The resulting fracture in the Earth‟s crust is termed a „fault‟.
Movement along a fault may be gradual or sometimes sudden thus,
generating an earthquake.
The hanging wall of a fault refers to the upper rock surface along which
displacement has occurred, whereas the foot wall is the term given to
that below.
Classification:
Faults are classified according to their sense of motion.
1. Dip-Slip Faults: In a dip-slip fault, the slippage occurred along the
dip of the fault, Figure – (a) and (b).
a) Normal Fault- In a normal fault, the block above the fault moves
down relative to the block below the fault (Fig 4.7).
This fault motion is caused by tensional forces and results in extension.
[Other names: normal-slip fault, tensional fault or gravity fault]
b) Reverse Fault - In a reverse fault, the block above the fault moves
up relative to the block below the fault (Fig 4.8).
This fault motion is caused by compressional forces and results in
shortening.
A reverse fault is called a thrust fault if the dip of the fault plane is
small. [Other names: thrust fault, reverse-slip fault or compressional
fault]
2. Strike-Slip Fault
In a strike-slip fault, the movement of blocks along a fault is horizontal.
3. Oblique-Slip Fault
Oblique-slip faulting suggests both dip-slip faulting and strike-slip
faulting (Fig 4.10).
It is caused by a combination of shearing and tension of compressional
forces.
Earthquake history
2 December 26, 2004 Off west coast northern Sumatra, Indonesia 9.3
January 23,
1 "Shaanxi" Shaanxi, China 830,000 8.0
1556
655,000.
Death toll
disputed as first
October mention of
4 "Aleppo" Aleppo, Syria 230,000 8.5
11, 1138 230,000 dead was
in the 15th
century.
December
"Damghan" Damghan, Iran 200,000
22, 856
5
December Ningxia-Gansu, 200,000 - Major fractures,
"Gansu" 7.8 or 8.5
16, 1920 China 240,000 landslides.
March 23,
7 "Ardabil" Ardabil, Iran 150,000
893+
October 6, Ashgabat,
9 "Ashgabat" 110,000 7.3
1948 Turkmenistan
100,000
India & 3.5 million people
October 8, (estimated),
10 "Kashmir" N.W.F.P, 7.6 or 7.8 homeless, 100,000
2005 80,000
Pakistan feared dead
(official)
Source: USGS
Earthquake in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world. Specialists
are expecting a severe earthquake in this area in near future, which will cause a
serious human casualty, damages of infrastructure and other losses.
Although Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to seismic activity, the nature and
the level of this activity is yet to be defined. In Bangladesh complete earthquake
monitoring facilities are not available. The Meteorological Department of
Bangladesh established a seismic observatory at Chittagong in 1954. This remains
the only observatory in the country.
Seismic sources
Since the whole Indian subcontinent is situated on the junction of Indo- Australian
plate and Eurasian plate, the tectonic evaluation of Bangladesh can be explained as
a result of collision of the north moving Indo- Australian plate with the Eurasian
plate.
Besides, there are several fault zones active in this junction area, which are the
sources of earthquake. Four major sources of earthquakes in and around
Bangladesh were identified by Bolt (1987): i) Assam fault zone ii) Tripura fault
zone iii) Sub Dauki fault zone and iv) Bogra fault zone. Our study area Sylhet is
situated in the Sub Dauki fault zone. The magnitudes of earthquake suggested by
Bolt are given in the table 1 and the fault zones are shown in the figure 2.
Table 1: Seismic sources
Probable magnitude in Bangladesh (in
Location
Richter scale)
Status of earthquakes
I n t h e ge n e ra l i s e d t e c t o n i c ma p o f Ba n g l a d e s h t he distribution of
epicentres is found to be linear along the D a uk i Fa u l t s ys t e m a n d ra n d o m
i n o t he r re g i o n s o f B a n g l a d e s h .
Most of the events are of moderate rank (magnitude 4-6) and lie at a shallow depth,
which suggests that the recent mo v e me n t s o c c u r re d i n t h e sediments
o ve r l y i n g t h e basement rocks.
Earthquake history
Reliable historical data for seismic activity affecting Bangladesh is available only
for the last 450 years (Gupta et al., 1982). Recently developed earthquake
catalogue for Bangladesh and surrounding area (Sharfuddin, 2001) shows 765
earthquakes with Ms≥4.0 have occurred from 1865 to 1999 within a 300 km radius
of Sylhet City. Among these, there are 28 earthquakes with Ms≥6.0.
Before the coming of the Europeans, there was no definite record of earthquakes.
Following (Table-2) is a chronology of important earthquakes from 1548.
1663 Severe earthquake in ASSAM, which continued for half an hour and
Sylhet district was not free from its shock.
1762 The great earthquake of April 2, which raised the coast of Foul
island by 2.74m and the northwest coast of Chedua island by 6.71m
above sea level and also caused a permanent submergence of 155.40
sq km near Chittagong. The earthquake proved very violent in Dhaka
and along the eastern bank of the MEGHNA as far as Chittagong. In
Dhaka 500 persons lost their lives, the RIVERs and JHEELs were
agitated and rose high above their usual levels and when they
receded their banks were strewn with dead fish. A large river dried
up, a tract of land sank and 200 people with all their CATTLE were
lost. Two volcanoes were said to have opened in the Sitakunda hills.
1775 Severe earthquake in Dhaka around April 10, but no loss of life.
winter 1865 Terrible shock was felt, during the second earthquake occurred in the
winter of 1865, although no serious damage occurred.
church was shattered, the walls of the courthouse and the circuit
bungalow cracked and in the eastern part of the district the banks of
many rivers caved in. The tremor was felt all over the country. The
magnitude is estimated to be 7.5 in the Richter scale. The earthquake
is classified as a heavy destruction event with a focal depth of about
56-Km. Epicenter distance from Dhaka was 250 km. The isoseismal
map of this earthquake is shown in Fig. 7.
12 June Known as the Great India Earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 and
epicentre at Shillong Plateau. The great earthquake occurred on 12
1897
June at 5.15 pm, caused serious damage to masonry buildings in
Sylhet town where the death toll rose to 545. This was due to the
collapse of the masonry buildings. The area over which the shock
Great
Indian was felt amounted to not less than 31,20,000 Sq. Km. The tremor
Earthquake was felt throughout Bengal, from the south Lushai Hills on the east
to Shahbad on the west. In Mymensingh, many public buildings of
the district town, including the Justice House, were wrecked and
very few of the two-storied brick-built houses belonging to
ZAMINDARs survived. Heavy damage was done to the bridges on the
Dhaka-Mymensingh railway and traffic was suspended for about a
fortnight. The river communication of the district was seriously
affected (BRAHMAPUTRA). A total of 1542 persons were killed out of
which 545 persons were killed in Sylhet district. Loss of life was not
great, but loss of property was estimated at five million Rupees.
Rajshahi suffered severe shocks, especially on the eastern side, and
15 persons died. In Dhaka damage to property was heavy. In Tippera
masonry buildings and old temples suffered a lot and the total
damage was estimated at Rs 9,000. Epicenter distance from Dhaka
was 230 km. The isoseismal map of great Indian earthquake is
shown in Fig. 8.
18 July Occurred on 18 July with a magnitude of 7.6. The epicenter of the
earthquake was located at the Balisera Valley and part of the Doloi
1918
valley of Srimangal, Maulvi Bazar. The greatest damage occurred in
tee garden areas of the Balisera, Doly and Luskerpur valleys. With
few exceptions, all brick buildings were found to be destroyed within
Srimangal this area. Water and sand spouted up to a height of several feet and
Earthquake numerous vents occurred in the ground in various places. Intense
damages occurred in Srimangal but due to shallow focal depth, the
intensity rapidly decreased and in Dhaka only minor effect was
observed. Epicenter distance from Dhaka was 150 km.
3 July 1930 Occurred on 3 July with a magnitude of 7.1 and the epicentre at
Dhubri, Assam. The earthquake caused major damage in the eastern
parts of Rangpur district. Epicenter distance from Dhaka was 250
Dhubri km.
Earthquake
15 January The magnitude of this earthquake was 8.3 in the Richter scale and
1934 the epicenter was in the north of Darbhanga in Bihar. The area of
greatest devastation was in north Bihar and Nepal, but the damage
gradually diminished into adjacent province. The shock was felt by
Bihar-Nepal Persians over a distance of up to 1600 Km. It was felt over an area of
Earthquake. approximately 4920000 Sq. Km in India And Tibet. The earthquake
affected the three main geological units of India- the Peninsula, the
Gangetic alluvium and the Himalaya (Dunn et al, 1934). It did not
affect any part of Bangladesh. Epicenter distance from Dhaka was
510 km.
15 August This earthquake was one of the severest earthquakes of the world. Its
1950 epicenter was in the Arunachal pradesh, northeast of Assam. The
tremor was felt throughout Bangladesh but no damage was reported
from anywhere. The magnitude was 8.5 in the Richter scale
Assam (Choudhury, 2002).Epicenter distance from Dhaka was 780 km.
Earthquake
July 27 2003 This earthquake triggered at 05:17:27 hrs Bangladesh time on July
27, 2003 with a magnitude of 5.1, its epicenter was located at
Kolabunia village of Borkol thana under Rangamati district. This
Borkol earthquake causes damage to several houses and public buildings,
Earthquake two people were reported killed and several hundred were injured. It
is reported that this earthquake created panic among the people and
one person is killed of panic. The experts assessment revealed that
the hypocenter of the earthquake was to be at 22.82N, 92.30E the
focal depth was 10 Km. The maximum EMS intensity of this
earthquake was estimated as VII (Ansary et al, 2003). Epicenter
distance from Dhaka was 290 km.
The most prominent historical earthquakes affecting Sylhet have been listed in
Table 3.
Table - 3: List of the major earthquakes affecting Sylhet
Intensity Epicentral
Magnitude Location
Name of in Sylhet distance (in km)
Date (in Richter of
earthquake (in EMS from From
scale) epicenter
scale) Sylhet Dhaka
10 Jainta,
Cachar
January, 7.5 VIII Assam, 90 250
earthquake
1869 India
Bengal 14 July, Bogra,
7.0 V 235 170
earthquake 1885 Bangladesh
Great
12 June, Assam
Indian 8.7 IX 150 230
1897 basin, India
earthquake
Srimongal 8 July, Srimongal,
7.6 VII 70 150
earthquake 1918 Bangladesh
Dhubri,
Dhubri 2 July,
7.1 VI Assam, 195 250
earthquake 1930
India
Seismic/ Earthquake zones
A region experiencing more frequent and large earthquakes has a higher seismicity
compared to one with less frequent and small earthquakes.
Both the temporal and spatial distributions of all earthquakes, small and big, have
to be systematically accounted for by determining their past behaviour to
determine the future trend.
In the preparation of seismic zoning map the common data which are considered
include: SOIL type and foundation conditions, ground structure and its dynamic
characteristics, intensity distribution during past earthquakes, ground motion
Effects of EQ in Dhaka:
The probable scenario for an earthquake to a scale of M6.5 or above in Dhaka city
could cause:
To address the problem multisectoral, multiagencies, coordinated efforts are essential. The primary role
to be played, is the responsibility of the GOB, which is to identify a lead agency to coordinate with a
number of lined agencies. The policy issues could be handled mostly at the national level. Planning and
implementation issues are to be handled at the local level. In most countries the city municipalities are the
focal points for the planning and implementation of such issues.
The donor agencies and the NGOs can play vital roles in the identification of the right activities,
prioritizing, coordinating, and expediting the activities and their implementations. They can play as
catalyst to the GOB efforts in the mitigation. The NGOs have relative advantages to handle the soft
elements such as, public awareness, training, etc. They can also assist the implementation of the hard
elements. The donor agencies, can also assist the GOB to access resource and also to procure qualified
personnel for technical evaluation, design, and providing recommendations for the right activities both in
policy matters and the program implementations. In the post earthquake situation the DER can help the
country for quick damage assessment, determination of the individual donors for appropriate assistances,
and coordination of the relief efforts with the GOB.
Broadly, we can classify the approaches in to two categories, i.e., preparedness and response. Some of
the preparedness and response, could be activities, are listed below:
- At the GOB set up a special body, may be within the MDMR (DMB?), to take lead and
coordination role.
- Prepare and disseminate special guidelines (like the standing orders) for earthquake
- Launch extensive mass awareness programs for earthquake; the awareness must include
city dwellers, government officials, municipality officials, politicians, engineers,
architects, designers, builders, medical people, etc.
- Develop appropriate training materials for different groups, such as planners, engineers,
contractors, masons, bar binders, volunteers, fire fighters, doctors, nurses, first aid
providers, etc. Take training programs at the appropriate levels to impart these
trainings.
- Update the Bangladesh Building Code and make the document legal, make it binding
for all construction activities.
- Install and operate seismic instrument at suitable locations on the country.
- Develop a comprehensive regional catalogue of all recorded historical earthquakes in
Bangladesh and adjacent regions that influence the country’s seismic hazards.
- Prepare a regional seismic hazard map of Bangladesh using the existing information
and incorporate appropriate building code.
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