Earthquake Engineering

Earthquake engineering is a young discipline which has emerged from the traditional civil engineering field as well as geophysics. This field later shows large progress through the 20th century. British scientists are the ones who placed a foundation for earthquake engineering studies in the 18th and 19th century.

Robert Hooke who was known for the law of elasticity was one among the first scientists who initiated the need for earthquake studies. He conducted seminars and lectures on earthquake and volcanic actions.

The age of the 19th century showed no kind of difference between seismology and earthquake engineering. Earthquake engineering was more described by means of the epicenter and focal point.  But the major turning point of the vast establishment of earthquake engineering was due to the three major earthquakes that happened in the history at the turn of the century. They were the:

• ·         Mino -Awari Earthquake, 1891 Japan
• ·         1906 Earthquake in San Francisco, U.S
• ·         1908 Earthquake in Reggio-Messina, Italy

Earthquake in Reggio-Messina, Italy bought a tremendous loss of life ( 83000 people died) and infrastructure. This was the main reason behind the evolution of the method of Earthquake Resistant Buildings and the development of Modern Earthquake Engineering.

The degree of seismicity of an area governs the type of earthquake design for a structure by the structural engineer in charge. Hence there are many seismological factors that govern the work and decision of structural engineers. They are the

• Earthquake Sources
• Fault Mechanisms
• Seismic Activity
• Ground Motion
• Attenuation Intensity
• Geological Factors
• Geotechnical Factors
• Topographical Factors