Earthquakes pose a significant threat to the life safety and well-being of a large portion of the world’s population. The effects of sedimentary basins on infrastructure damage have been observed in numerous earthquakes that have occurred in the past few of decades. The United States Geologic Survey (USGS) incorporated basin effects into the development of the recent National Seismic Hazard...
This research investigates seismic risk assessment for bridge structures using a combination of conventional and next-generation intensity measures (IMs). The study focuses on simplified bridge models, characteristic of European construction, and explores the efficacy of multiple IMs, including spectral acceleration (Sa), average spectral acceleration (Saavg), and filtered...
Ground motion models (GMMs) are the key element of probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA). These models predict an earthquake ground motion intensity measure as a function of some independent variables that represent the earthquake source, path and site effects. The latter one can substantially influence the PSHA results since they are critical factors affecting the amplitude,...
The official adoption of Eurocode standards in North Macedonia, compared to developed EU countries, was only in recent years, leaving a significant gap that needs to be tackled. The new generation of Eurocode standards is posing demands to seismic hazard assessment’s outputs to use the most updated seismic hazard models, which will be crucial for the development of national annexes. To improve...
The understanding of earthquake occurrence patterns and their implications for short-term increases in seismic hazard and risk is crucial during ongoing seismic crises. This understanding enables informed decision-making by civil protection and governmental agencies. Aftershocks exacerbate seismic hazards by striking already weakened structures and generating strong ground motions, which...
Abstract: Ground motion models - GMM-s for epicentral zone have been developed based on records of occurred shallow earthquakes obtained on soil type - rock, epicentral distances ., focal depths and local magnitude M = 3.9 - 6.1. Spectral acceleration - SA has been investigated for damping of 5% and for 221 models of a single-degree-of-freedom system with natural period ranging from 0.05 to...
Iceland is one of the northern European countries with the highest seismic activity. The strongest earthquakes take place on two large transform faults, one of which is the densely populated South Iceland Seismic Zone (SISZ), characterized by its unique North-South aligned bookshelf dextral strike-slip faults that are responsible for the long-term release of tectonic strain across the zone....
The medieval town of Ston in southern Dalmatia (Croatia) has experienced several significant earthquakes since the mid-19th century, notably the ones in 1850 and 1996. While the macroseismic parameters as well as classification of damage to buildings in Ston related to the 1996 event are available from previous studies, the 1850 earthquake has only recently undergone detailed macroseismic...
Seismic risk assessment is crucial for mitigation of strong earthquakes’ effects on communities since it offers a comprehensive framework for minimizing damage, casualties, and economic losses. This can be accomplished through designing earthquake-resistant structures, retrofitting the existing buildings, economic resilience, urban planning, and public education. One of the key elements of...
After the recent 2020 earthquakes ML5.5 in Zagreb and ML6.2 in Petrinja, a considerable part of the reported damage to churches, museums, cultural and older buildings and houses was observed in topographical areas of Northern Croatia. Topographic amplification of seismic ground motion can be affected by the topographic irregularity, inducing phenomena such as the focusing of seismic waves, the...
Near-surface characterization, i.e., determination of the physical-mechanical characteristics of the soil and rock masses that constitute the terrain structure is crucial in avoiding catastrophic consequences during seismic and geotechnical hazards. Geophysical techniques can provide a comprehensive understanding of subsurface conditions, including the presence of weak zones, local anomalies,...
Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) is the international standard practice for seismic risk management worldwide and is used as the foundation for evaluating the basis peak ground motion parameters used by structural building codes for earthquake resistant design (e.g., Eurocode 8). While the existing PSHA map for Iceland, the Icelandic National Annex to Eurocode 8, has effectively...
