Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to provide a basic understanding about earthquakes, their world-wide distribution, what causes them, their likely damage mechanisms, earthquake measuring scales, and current efforts on the prediction of strong seismic ground motions. This chapter, therefore, furnishes the basic information necessary for understanding the more detailed concepts that follow in the subsequent chapters of this book. The basic vocabulary of seismology is defined. The seismicity of the world is discussed first and its relationship with tectonic plates is explained. The general causes of earthquakes are discussed next where tectonic actions, dilatancy in the crustal rocks, explosions, collapses, volcanic actions, and other likely causes are introduced. Earthquake fault sources are discussed next. Various faulting mechanisms are explained followed by a brief discussion of seismic waves. Earthquake damage mechanisms are introduced and different major damage mechanisms are identified by examples. Quantification of earthquakes is of significant interest to seismic design engineers. Various earthquake intensity and magnitude scales are defined followed by a description of earthquake source models. Basic information regarding the concepts of directivity and near-fault effects are presented. Finally, the ideas behind seismic risk evaluation and earthquake prediction are discussed.
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Bolt, B.A. (2001). The Nature of Earthquake Ground Motion. In: Naeim, F. (eds) The Seismic Design Handbook. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1693-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1693-4_1
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