Earthquake Effects

(Shaking, Landslides, Liquefaction, and

Tsunamis)

Direct Shaking Hazards and Human-Made Structures

Most earthquake-related deaths are caused by the collapse of structures and
the construction practices play a tremendous role in the death toll of an
earthquake. In southern Italy in 1909 more than 100,000 people perished in
an earthquake that struck the region. Almost half of the people living in the
region of Messina were killed due to the easily collapsible structures that
dominated the villages of the region. A larger earthquake that struck San
Francisco three years earlier had killed fewer people (about 700) because
building construction practices were different type (predominantly wood).
Survival rates in the San Francisco earthquake was about 98%, that in the
Messina earthquake was between 33% and 45%) (Zebrowski, 1997).
Building practices can make all the difference in earthquakes, even a
moderate rupture beneath a city with structures unprepared for shaking can
produce tens of thousands of casualties.
Although probably the most important, direct shaking effects are not the
only hazard associated with earthquakes, other effects such as landslides,
liquefaction, and tsunamis have also played important part in destruction
produced by earthquakes.

Geologic Effects on Shaking

When we discussed earthquake
intensity we discussed some of
the basic factors that affect the
amplitude and duration of
shaking produced by an
earthquake (earthquake size,
distance from fault, site and
regional geology, etc.) and as you
are aware, the shaking caused by
seismic waves can cause damage
buildings or cause buildings to
collapse. The level of damage
done to a structure depends on
the amplitude and the duration
of shaking. The amplitudes are
largest close to large earthquakes
and the duration generally
increases with the size of the
earthquake (larger quakes shake
longer because they rupture
larger areas). Regional geology
can affect the level and duration
of shaking but more important
are local site conditions.
Although the process can be
complicated for strong shaking,
generally shaking in soft
sediments is larger and longer
than when compared with the
shaking experienced at a "hard
rock" site.
Preparing Structures for Shaking
The first step in preparing structures for shaking is to understand how
buildings respond to ground motions- this is the field of study for earthquake
and structural engineers.

When the ground shakes,

buildings respond to the
accelerations transmitted
from the ground through
the structure's
foundation. The inertia
of the building (it wants
to stay at rest) can cause
shearing of the structure
which can concentrate
stresses on the weak
walls or joints in the
structure resulting in
failure or perhaps total
collapse. The type of
 shaking and the
frequency of shaking
depends on the structure.
Tall buildings tend to
amplify the motions of
longer period motions
when compared with
small buildings. Each
structure has a resonance
frequency that is
characteristic of the
building. Predicting the
precise behavior of
buildings is complicated,
a rule of thumb is that
the period of resonance is
about equal to 0.1 times
the number of stories in
the structure. Thus
Macelwane Hall
resonates at about 0.3
seconds period, and
Griesedeck at about 1.4
seconds.

Taller buildings also tend to shake longer than short buildings, which can
make them relatively more susceptible to damage. Fortunately many tall
buildings are constructed to withstand strong winds and some precautions
have been taken to reduce their tendency to shake. And they can be made
resistant to earthquake vibrations.
In many regions of limited resources and/or old structures, the structures are
not very well suited to earthquake induced strains and collapse of adobe-
style construction has caused thousands of deaths in the last decade. The
worst possible structure for earthquake regions is the unreinforced masonry
(which is common in the St. Louis area).
Estimating Hazards

Preparing structures (either new or old) for earthquakes is expensive and the
level of investment is a social and political decision. The choice of building
design is a compromise between appearance, function, structure, strength,
and of course, cost. Standards are instituted through the establishment of
Building Codes, which regulate the design and construction of buildings.
Most of our building codes are designed to protect first the building
occupants, and second the building integrity. Building codes are usually
drafted to meet the demands of the expected shaking in a given region that
are summarized by seismologists and earthquake engineers in hazards maps.
Hazard maps are constructed by examining
• The earthquake history of the region to estimate the probability of an
earthquake
• The expected shaking intensity produced by the earthquake (often
expressed as a peak acceleration)
• The frequency of the shaking, the distance from the fault
• The regional geology and site conditions
to estimate the maximum level of shaking expected during the lifetime of a
building. Constructing accurate hazard maps is a challenge and remains the
focus of much Geoscience research. For the Midwest you may want to check
out the WWW site of a large multidisciplinary effort to help prepare the
eastern US for the low-probability, but high consequence earthquake
hazards.
 (Courtesy of Dr. Robert Herrmann, Saint Louis University)

Strengthening Structures

We have two approaches for preparing buildings for earthquakes: you either
secure the building components (walls, floors, foundation, etc.) together and
have the entire structure behave as a single stiff unit that moves with the
ground, or you construct a strong and flexible structure that distorts but
doesn't break and absorbs some of the shaking energy. Either approach can
be expensive so we cannot build all our structures to withstand the largest
possible earthquake. We must make compromises and accept some risk (this is
not unlike the risks that we accept every day, driving on a freeway, flying in
an airplane, living in flood-prone regions, tornado "alley", hurricane-prone
regions, etc.).
We need different levels of resistance for different classes of structures.
Critical structures such as hospitals, power, water-treatment, and chemical
plants, dams, etc. must not only survive the shaking, but must remain in
operation. These structure require the largest investment of resources to
insure that they can provide services following an earthquake.

More general requirements for other structure include having our buildings
• Sustain little damage in small-to-moderate quakes (M < 5.5)
• Sustain some repairable damage for moderate quakes (5.5 < M < 7.0)
• Not collapse in large earthquakes (M > 7.0)
To insure that we meet these goals we can take a number of steps, beginning
with thoughtful and responsible planning and zoning laws. Since we know
that sites with soft, water-saturated foundations are prone to damage, we
should resist the temptation to build on those sits and we should certainly
not put critical structures on such sites, and avoid building on these sites at
all if possible. If that's not possible, try to compact the soft sediments before
the constructing or anchor the structure in the basement.
We can take a number of steps to strengthen buildings including using steel
frame construction, adequately securing the structure to the ground through
a solid foundation, incorporating shear walls and or cross-bracing into the
structure, or more sophisticated approaches such as using rubber or steel pads
to isolate the structure from the shaking.
We have talked above seismic waves and how they vibrate the ground which
can lead directly to the collapse of structures. There are other, secondary
effects that are caused by earthquakes, most often a result of strong shaking.
A simple example common in many earthquakes are landslides. The shaking
causes regions of the rock and soil to slide downhill. The same material
would eventually fail with increased time, but earthquakes trigger many
slides that do much bit of damage.

Landslides and Liquefaction

Buildings aren't the only thing to fail under the stresses of seismic waves.
Often unstable regions of hillsides or mountains fail. In addition to the
obvious hazard posed by large landslides, even non lethal slides can cause
problems when they block highways they can be inconvenient or cause
problems for emergency and rescue operations.
 Occasionally large landslides can be triggered by earthquakes. In 1970 an
earthquake off the coast of Peru produced a landslide than began 80 miles
away from the earthquake. The slide was large (witnesses estimated it's
height at about 30 meters or 100 feet), traveled at more than one-hundred
miles per hour and plowed through part of one village and annihilated
another, killing more than 18,000 people.
In some cases, when the surface is underlain by a saturated, sand rich layer
of soil, prolonged shaking can cause the expulsion of fluid from the sand
layer resulting in large "sand blows" that erupt through the overlying strata.

In the 1811-12 earthquakes the sand blows were enormous and covered large
regions of the Missouri bootheel. Liquefaction can cause other problems as
the soil loses it ability to resist shear and flows much like quick sand.
Anything relying on the substrata for support can shift, tilt, rupture, or
collapse.
Tsunamis
A sometimes dramatic byproduct of certain types of earthquakes are
tsunamis. Tsunami is a Japanese term that means "harbor wave". Tsunamis
are frequently confused with tidal waves, but they have nothing to do with
the tides, they are the result of a sudden vertical offset in the ocean floor
caused by earthquakes, submarine landslides, and volcanic deformation. In
1883 the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa resulted in the collapse of a caldera
that initiated a tsunami which killed 36,000 people on nearby islands. On
June 25, 1896 an earthquake off the Japanese coast generated a tsunami
that hit the shore with wave heights ranging from 10 to 100 feet. As the
fishing fleets returned to shore following an overnight trip they found their
villages destroyed and 22,000 people dead. In the last century more than
50,000 people have died as a result of tsunamis.
Tsunami Initiation

A sudden offset changes the elevation of the ocean and initiates a water
wave that travels outward from the region of sea-floor disruption. Tsunamis
can travel all the way across the ocean and large earthquakes in Alaska and
Chile have generated waves that caused damage and deaths in regions as far
away as California, Hawaii and Japan.
 Tsunamis are initiated by a sudden displacement of the ocean,
commonly caused by vertical deformation of the ocean floor during
earthquakes. Other causes such as deformation by landslides and
volcanic processes also generate tsunamis.

The speed of this wave depends on the ocean depth and is typically about as
fast as a commercial passenger jet (about 0.2 km/s or 712 km/hr). This is
relatively slow compared to seismic waves, so we are often alerted to the
dangers of the tsunami by the shaking before the wave arrives. The trouble is
that the time to react is not very long in regions close to the earthquake that
caused the tsunami.

In deep water tsunamis are not large and pose no danger. They
are very broad with horizontal wavelengths of hundreds of
kilometers and surface heights much much smaller, about one
meter.

Tsunamis pose no threat in the deep ocean because they are only a meter or so
high in deep water. But as the wave approaches the shore and the water
shallows, all the energy that was distributed throughout the ocean depth
becomes concentrated in the shallow water and the wave height increases.
 When a tsunami approaches the shore, the water depth decreases,
the front of the wave slows down, the wave grows dramatically,
and surges on land.

Typical heights for large tsunamis are on the order of 10s of meters and a
few have approached 90 meters (about 300 feet). These waves are typically
more devastating to the coastal region than the shaking of the earthquake
that caused the tsunami. Even the more common tsunamis of about 10-20
meters can "wipe clean" coastal communities.
Deadly tsunamis occur about every one to two years and they have at times
killed thousands of people. In 1992-93 three large tsunamis occurred: one in
Japan, Indonesia, and Nicaragua. All struck at night and devastated the
local communities.
The 1946 Scotch Point Lightstation Tsunami

At 1:28AM, April 1, 1946, about 150 km (100 miles) south of Unimak

Island in the Aleutians, a large earthquake offset the ocean floor and rattled
a lightstation operated by five U. S. Coast Guard personnel. Unknown to
the lightstation operators, the earthquake had also generated a large
tsunami. It took about 50 minutes for the waves to travel across the shallow
continental shelf and arrive at the lightstation at 02:18AM.
The weather was clear and calm and the five-story lightstation was about 32
feet above sea-level. The crew heard a large roar from the sea just before a
100-foot high tsunami struck and completely demolished the station killing
all inside. At 7 AM, as survivors from a nearby station (located higher up
the cliff but considerably damaged and evacuated when the waves hit) were
searching for survivors, the tsunami arrived 2200 km at Hawaii away where
a series of waves struck the islands killing 159 more people.
An artist's depiction of a tsunami that destroyed a US Coast Guard
Lighthouse in the Aleutian Islands. The tsunami was generated by a
large earthquake about 45 minutes earlier (Ms = 7.4, Mw = 8.0,
from Kanamori, Mechanism of Tsunami Earthquakes, Physics of Earth
and Planetary Interiors, Volume 6, pages 346-359, 1972).