c





 


From historical sources, more than 60 major earthquakes have happened in the past since the year
567. The magnitudes and intensities since that time are shown in Figure 1. Not only destruction
of the buildings but also civil casualties were reported. Only in the last century, 20 earthquakes
are recorded, exceeding the intensity of VII according to MCK scale. This means large or small
material damages on buildings.



 
 

(


 


 

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Figure 1: Overview of the magnitudes and intensities since the year 567 until today

Three major seismic areas step out in Slovenia:

‡ Western part is the most active seismic region. In 1511 the strongest earthquake with epicenter
in Slovenia was reported. Soca earthquake in 1998 was the strongest in the 20th century with the
epicenter in Slovenia. Otherwise, the large ground motion acceleration values in the western part
are mainly caused by strong and frequent earthquakes in the neighboring region Friuli in Italy,
where the last strong earthquakes took places in 1976.
‡ The central part, where weaker earthquakes are relatively frequent and also strong earthquakes
are not so rare. The strongest known earthquake happened in the capital of Slovenia Ljubljana in
1895. To higher seismic risk at this region contributed especially the Idria earthquake in 1551.

‡ Southern part. Large number of relatively small and rare strong earthquakes contributes to the
relatively high ground motion accelerations. The strongest known earthquake happened in 1917,
which is considered as one of two strongest earthquakes of the 20th century with the epicenter in
Slovenia. High seismic risk in this region can be ascribed to past earthquakes at the Croatian side
of the border and stronger earthquakes on the northern parts of the city Zagreb.

  

Max intensity map

Slovenia is a region with medium seismic intensity. It is of great importance that despite a
relatively low magnitude of the earthquakes the impact can be very severe because of a relatively
shallow hipocenter. Figure 2 shows the maximum intensities according to MSK scale for the
seismic regions in Slovenia with 500 year return period.

Figure 2: Max intensity map of Slovenia

 


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Fundamental probabilistic seismic hazard map in Slovenia is a ground motion acceleration map
with 50 years exposure time and a 475 year return period. The map is elaborated according to
Eurocode 8. The ground motion acceleration values correspond to the ground category A. For all
other ground categories, the values from the map must be multiplied with the adequate soil
coefficient S from Eurocode 8. Design ground motion acceleration values are shown on a seismic
hazard map for a 475 year return period (see Fig. 3).



 

Figure 3: Seismic hazard PGA map (50 years) of Slovenia

 '


   

A ground motion acceleration map with 100 year exposure time and 1000 year return period is
shown in Figure 4.





Figure 4: Seismic hazard PGA map (100 years) of Slovenia

'  

For seismic zonation maps, seismic hazard PGA maps are used.


 
An acceleration spectrum of Type 1 according to EC8 is used in Slovenia. Based on the study of
the ground motion records obtained in Slovenia, especially those from the recent 2004 Bovec
earthquake, some changes have been made in the National document for the application of EC8
in Slovenia (see bold values in the Table). Most importantly, the soil factor for type E has been
increased.

Parameters for horizontal elastic spectra in Slovenia

Ground type S B(s) C (s) D (s)
A 1,0 ë
ë 0,4 2,0
B 1,2 0,15 0,5 2,0
C 1,15 0,20 0,6 2,0
D 1,35 0,20 0,8 2,0
E
 ë
ë ë 2,0