Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Deterministic Earthquake Scenarios for the City of Sofia

  • Chapter
Seismic Ground Motion in Large Urban Areas

Part of the book series: Pageoph Topical Volumes ((PTV))

  • 230 Accesses

Abstract

The city of Sofia is exposed to a high seismic risk. Macroseismic intensities in the range of VIII – X (MSK) can be expected in the city. The earthquakes that can influence the hazard in Sofia originate either beneath the city or are caused by seismic sources located within a radius of 40 km. The city of Sofia is also prone to the remote Vrancea seismic zone in Romania, and particularly vulnerable are the long-period elements of the built environment. The high seismic risk and the lack of instrumental recordings of the regional seismicity make the use of appropriate credible earthquake scenarios and ground-motion modelling approaches for defining the seismic input for the city of Sofia necessary. Complete synthetic seismic signals, due to several earthquake scenarios, were computed along chosen geological profiles crossing the city, applying a hybrid technique, which combines the modal summation technique and finite differences. The modelling takes into account simultaneously the geotechnical properties of the site, the position and geometry of the seismic source and the mechanical properties of the propagation medium. Acceleration, velocity and displacement time histories and related quantities of earthquake engineering interest (e.g., response spectra, ground-motion amplification along the profiles) have been supplied. The approach applied in this study allows us to obtain the definition of the seismic input at low cost, exploiting large quantities of existing data (e.g. geotechnical, geological, seismological). It may be efficiently used to estimate the ground motion for the purposes of microzonation, urban planning, retrofitting or insurance of the built environment, etc.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Alterman, Z. S., and Karal, F. C. (1968), Propagation of Elastic waves in Layered Media by Finite Difference Methods, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 58, 367–398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonchev, E., Bune V., Christoskov, L., Karagyuleva, J., Kostadinov, V., Reisner, G., Rizikova, S., Shebalin, N., Sholpo, V., and Sokerova, D. (1982), A Method for Compilation of Seismic Zoning Prognostic Maps for the Territory of Bulgaria, Geologica Balkanica 12/ 2, 3–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christoskov, L., Georgiev, Tzv., Deneva, D., and Babachkova, B. (1989), On the Seismicity and Seismic Hazard of Sofia Valley, Proc. Of the 4th Int. Symposium on the Analysis of Seismicity and Seismic Risk, Bechyne Castle, CSSR, IX, 1989, pp. 448–454.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christoskov, L. (1992), 100 Years Seismology in Bulgaria, Bulg. Geoph. J. XVIII/1, 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Decanini, L., Mollaioli, F., Panza, G. F., Romanelli, F. and Vaccari, F. (2001), Probabilistic vs. deterministic evaluation of seismic hazard and damage earthquake scenarios: A general problem, particularly relevant for seismic isolation, Proc. 7th International Seminar on Seismic Isolation, Passive Energy Dissipation and Active Control of Vibrations of Structures, Assisi, Italy, October 2–5, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • FäH, D., Iodice, C., Suhadolc, P., and Panza, G. F. (1993), A New Method for the Realistic Estimation of Seismic Ground Motion in Megacities: The Case of Rome, Earthquake Spectra 9, 643–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FäH, D., Iodice, C., Suhadolc, P., and Panza, G. F. (1994a), Application of Numerical Simulations for a Tentative Seismic Microzonation of the City of Rome, Annali di geofisica XXXVIII, 5–6, 607–615.

    Google Scholar 

  • FäH, D., Suhadolc, P., Mueller, S. T., and Panza, G. F. (1994b), A Hybrid Method for the Estimation of Ground Motion in Sedimentary Basins; Quantative Modelling for Mexico city, BSSA 84, 383–399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frangov, G. (1995), Assessment of the Conditions and Factors, Determining the Geological Hazards at the Sofia Kettle, Rep. to CGMR (in Bulgarian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Glavcheva, R. (1990), Parametrization of the Isoseismal from Bulgarian Earthquakes, Bulg. Geoph. J. XVI, 4, 38–44 (in Bulgarian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Glavcheva, R. (1993), Atlas of Isoseismal Maps, Bulgaria 1981–1990, Geoph. Inst., BAS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glavcheva, R., Georgiev, T. Z., Botev, E., Babachkova, B. L., and Toteva, T. (1996), Sofia Graben and the Earthquake of December 14, 1995, Bulgarian Geophys. J. XXII, 3, 44–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ivanov, P. (1997), Assessment of the Geological Conditions in the Sofia Kettle under Seismic Impact, Proc. International IAEG Conference, Athens, 1997, Balkema, Rotterdam, 1265–1270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ivanov, Pl., Frangov, G., and Yaneva, M. (1998), Engineering Geological Characteristics of Quaternary Sediments in the Sofia Graben, Proc. 3rd WG Meeting, 2–5, 12, 1998, Sofia, 33–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaranoff, D., Tectonics of Bulgaria (Technika, Sofia 1960).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamenov, B. and Kojumdjieva, N. (1983), Stratigraphy of the Neogene in Sofia Basin, Paleontology, Stratigraphy and Lithology 18, 69–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirov, K. (1952), A Contribution to Studying of the Earthquakes in Sofia Valley, An. of Main Direction for Geological and Mine Researches 5, 407–417 (in Bulgarian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Levander, A. R. (1988), Fourth-order Finite-difference P-SV Seismograms, Geophysics 53, 1425–1436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lokmer, I., Herak, M., Panza, G. F., and Vaccari, F. (2001), Amplification of Strong Ground Motion in the City of Zagreb, Croatia, Estimated by Computations of Synthetic Seismograms, ICTP Preprints, IC/ 2001/26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matova, M. (2001), Recent manifestations of seismotectonic activity in Sofia region and their land subsidence potential, Proc. Final Conf. of UNESCO-BAS Project on Land Subsidence, June 27–30, 2001, Sofia, 93–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Medvedev, S. V. (1977), Seismic Intensity Scale MSK-76, Publ. Inst. Geophys. Pol. Acad. Sc. 117, 95–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Molchan, G., Kronrod, T., and Panza, G. F. (1997), Multi-scale Seismicity Model for Seismic Risk, BSSA 87, 5, 1220–1229.

    Google Scholar 

  • NEIC, National Earthquake Information Center, http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/epic/epic_global.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunziata, C., Costa G., Marrara, F., and Panza, G. F. (2000), Validated Estimation of Response Spectra for the 1980 Irpinia Earthquake in the Eastern Area of Naples, Earthquake Spectra 16, 3, 643–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orozova-Stanishkova I., and Slejko, D. (1994), Seismic Hazard of Bulgaria, Natural Hazards 9, 247–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orozova-Stanishkova I., Costa, G., Vaccari, F., and Suhadolc, P. (1996), Estimates of 1 Hz Maximum Accelerations in Bulgaria for Seismic Risk Reduction Purposes, Tectonophysics 258, 263–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panza, G. F. (1985), Synthetic Seismograms: The Rayleigh Waves Modal Summation, J. Geophysics 58, 125–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panza, G. F. and Suhadolc, P. (1987). Complete strong motion synthetics. In Seismic Strong Motion Synthetics (ed. Bolt B.A.) (Academic Press, Orlando) pp. 153–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panza, G. F., Romanelli, F., and Vaccari F. (2000), Seismic wave propagation in Laterally Heterogeneous Anelastic Media: Theory and Applications to Seismic Zonation, In Advances in Geophysics 43, pp. 1–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panza, G. F. and Vaccari, F. (2000), Introduction. In Seismic Hazard of the Circum-Pannonian Region (eds. Panza, G. F., Radualian, M., and Trifu, C.) (Pure Appl. Geophys. Topical Volume, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland, 2000) pp.5–10.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Panza, G. F., Cioflan, C. O., Kouteva, M., Paskaleva, L, and Romanelli, F. (2002), An Innovative Assessment of the Seismic Hazard from Vrancea Intermediate-depth Earthquakes: Case Studies in Romania and Bulgaria (submitted to the 12 E CEE, Ref. No. 230).

    Google Scholar 

  • Paskaleva, I. and Kouteva, M. (2001a), A Contribution to the Seismic Risk Assessment of Sofia Region and the Town of Russe from Deterministic Modelling, Report on Bilateral Project “Engineering Seismic Hazard and Risk Assessment of Selected Cities in the Balkan region,” CLSMEE-BAS—DST-UNIVTS, May–June 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paskaleva, I. and Kouteva M. (2001), An Approach for Microzonation of the Town of Russe in Connection with Recent Vrancea Earthquakes and Shabla Zone, Report on Bilateral Project Engineering Seismic hazard and Risk Assessment of Selected Cities in the Balkan Region, “CLSMEE-BAS—DST-UNIVTS, May–June 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paskaleva, I., Matova, M., and Frangov, G. (2002), Expert Assessment of the Displacements Provoked by Seismic Events: Case Study for the Sofia Metropolitan Area (Pure Appl. Geophy. Topical Volumes, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, Switzerland, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • Petkov, I. and Christoskov, L. (1965), On Seismicity in the Region of the Town of Sofia Concerning the Macroseismic Zoning, Ann. Sofia Univ. 58, 163–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrov, P. and Iliev, I. (1970), The Effect of Engineering Geological Conditions on Seismic Microzoning in Sofia, Proc. 3rd Eur. Symposium on EE, Sofia, 79–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranguelov, B. (1996), Seismicity and Site Effects on the Sofia Valley District, Proc. 1st WG meeting, Oct. 31–Nov. 3, Sofia, 28–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranguelov, B. and Toteva, T. (1998), Recent Seismicity Observed Around Sofia City, Proc. 3rd WG Meeting, Dec. 2–5, Sofia, 7–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • ROMPLUS Earthquake Catalogue, Romanian Catalogue on line, Computer File, www.infp.infp.ro. Seed, H. B. and Idriss, I. M. (1982), Ground Motions and Soil Liquefaction during Earthquakes, EERI, 1–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shanov, S., Spassov, E., and Georgiev, T. (1992), Evidence for the Existence of a Paleosubduction Zone Beneath the Rhodopean Massif (Central Balkan), Tectonophysics 206, 307–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shebalin, N., Leydecker, G., Mokrushina, N. Tatevossian, R., Erteleva, O., and Vassiliev, V., Earthquake Catalogue for Central and Southeastern Europe 342 BC-1990 AD (European Commission, Report No. ETNU CT 93-0087) (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Slavov, S. L., Ground Motion Modelling in the City of Sofia (TRIL—ICTP Visitors report) (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  • Solakov, D., Simeonova, S. T., and Christoskov, L. (2001), Seismic Hazard Assessment for the Sofia Area, Annali di Geofisica 44, 3. 541–555.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanishkova, I. and Slejko, D. (1991), Seismic Hazard of the Main Bulgarian Cities, In Atti del 10° Convegno Annuale del Gruppo Nazionale digeologica della terra solida; Roma, 6–8 Novembre, 1991, 123–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, R., Vaccari, F., Marrara, F., and Panza, G. F. (1998), The Main Features of the Local Geological Conditions can Explain the Macroseismic Intensity Caused in Xiji-langfu (Beijing) by the Ms = 7.7 Tangshan 196 Earthquake, Pure Appl. And Geophys. 152, 507–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Todorovska,M., Paskaleva, I., and Glavcheva, R. (1995), Earthquake Source Parameters for Seismic Hazard Assessment: Examples of Bulgaria, Proc.10th ECEE, Vienna, Austria.

    Google Scholar 

  • Triantafyllidis, P., Hatzidimitriou, P. M., Suhadolc, P., Theodulidis, N., and Pitilakis, K., Comparison between 1-D and 2-D site effects modelling. In The Effests of the Surface Geology on Seismic Motion, (eds. Irikura, K., Kudo, K., Okada H., and Sasatani, T.) (Balkema, Rotterdam, 2, 1998) pp. 981–986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tzankov, Tz., and Nikolov G. (1996), Recent Bilateral Listric Destruction in Western Stara Planina Mountain and Western Fore Balkan, Bulgaria, C.R.Bulg. Acad. Sci. 49, 4, 53–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaccari, F., Gregersen, S., Furlan, M., and Panza, G. F. (1989), Synthetic Seismograms in Laterally Heterogeneous, Anelsatic Media by Modal Summation of P-SV Waves, Geoph.. J. Int. 99, 285–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaccari, F., Nunziata C., FäH, D., and Panza, G. F. (1995), Reduction of Seismic Vulnerability of Megacities: The Cases of Rome and Naples, Proc. 5th Int. Conf. on Seismic Zonation, EERI, Oct., 1995, Nice, France, 1392–1399.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virieux, J. (1984), SH—Velocity-stress Finite-difference Method: Velocity-stress Finite-Difference Method, Geophysics 49, 1933–1957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Virieux, J. (1986), P-SV Wave Propagation in Heterogenoues Media: Velocity-stress Finite-difference Method, Geophysics 51, 889–901.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Sofia, Bulgaria

    S. Slavov

  2. Central Laboratory for Seismic Mechanics and Earthquake Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

    I. Paskaleva

  3. Central Laboratory for Seismic Mechanics and Earthquake Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev str. bl. 3, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria

    M. Kouteva

  4. Department of Earth’ Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy

    F. Vaccari & G. F. Panza

  5. INGV - Osservatorio Vesuviano, Naples, Italy

    F. Vaccari

  6. SAND Group, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy

    G. F. Panza

Authors
  1. S. Slavov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. I. Paskaleva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Kouteva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. F. Vaccari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. G. F. Panza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Via Weiss 4, 34127, Trieste, Italy

    Giuliano F. Panza

  2. SAND Group, The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Strada costiera 11, 34100, Trieste, Italy

    Giuliano F. Panza

  3. Central Laboratory of Seismic Mechanics and Earthquake Engineering CLSMEE, BAS, Acad. G. Bonchev St., Bl. 3, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Ivanka Paskaleva

  4. Dipartimento di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Università di Napoli Federico II, Largo San Marcellino, 10, 80138, Napoli, Italy

    Concettina Nunziata

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Birkhäuser Verlag

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Slavov, S., Paskaleva, I., Kouteva, M., Vaccari, F., Panza, G.F. (2004). Deterministic Earthquake Scenarios for the City of Sofia. In: Panza, G.F., Paskaleva, I., Nunziata, C. (eds) Seismic Ground Motion in Large Urban Areas. Pageoph Topical Volumes. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7355-0_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7355-0_16

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-7643-7042-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-7355-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation