Strong Ground Motion Seismology

This book contains selected papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Strong Ground Motion Seismology", held in Ankara, Turkey between June 10 and 21, 1985. The strong ground motion resulting from a major earthquake determines the level of the seismic hazard to enable earthquake engineers to assess the structural performance and the consecutive risks to the property and life, as well as providing detailed information to seismologists about its source mechanism. From the earthquake engineering point the main problem is the specification of a design level ground motion for a given source-site-structure-economic life and risk combination through deterministic and probabilistic approaches. In seismology the strong motion data provide the high frequency information to determine the rupture process and the complexity of the source mechanism. The effects of the propagation path on the strong ground motion is a research area receiving sub- stantial attenuation both from earthquake engineers and seismologists. The Institute provided a venue for the treatment of the subject matter by a series of lectures on earthquake source models and near- field theories; effects of propagation paths and site conditions, numerical and empirical methods for prediction; data acquisition and analysis; hazard assessment and engineering application.