China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Dynamic proper ties of soil
Published in Hsai-Yang Fang, John L. Daniels, Introductory Geotechnical Engineering, 2017
Hsai-Yang Fang, John L. Daniels
An earthquake is a natural phenomenon that can occur virtually anywhere. Man’s understanding of the earthquake phenomena has undergone a gradual transition over the centuries. In Greek mythology the god Poseidon was the ruler of the sea and earthquakes. Throughout the centuries, man has been plagued by earthquake superstitions. The early Chinese attributed earthquakes to the rolling over of a huge monster within the earth, and others such as India and Japan also have similar ideas. To a certain extent there still remains with us in this modern time a certain amount of superstition and misconception. There are, however, two main areas, which between them, account for more than 80% of the earthquakes in modern times. The Circum-Pacific Belt, which runs from Chile, north to Alaska, and then down through Japan to New Guinea. The Mediterranean Belt (Alpide Belt) extends from Spain and North Africa, through Italy and the Middle East countries, and joins the Circum-Pacific belt in the East Indies. According to record, one of the strongest earthquakes was in Lisbon, Portugal on November 1, 1755. In terms of damage, the September 1, 1923 earthquake in the Kwanto plain in Japan was one of the worst. The sea-bottom in one area of the Sagami Bay sank more than 1000 feet (305 m). In the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama more than 50,000 buildings were completely destroyed. Of course there have been many notable earthquakes, and further discussion and a historical perspective is given by Scawthorn (2003). In order to better understand the earthquake characteristics and phenomena it is imperative to learn some common earthquake-related terms as used by geologists and engineers briefly explained as follows:
Soil liquefaction potential in Kahramanmaras, Turkey
Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 2019
A.F. Cabalar, A. Canbolat, N. Akbulut, S.H. Tercan, H. Isik
Turkey is located on the Mediterranean segment of the Alpide belt or Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt. The Alpine orogeny is being formed by the collision of Africa and India with Eurasia in the north. Meanwhile, the collision between India and Asia causes the Himalayan orogeny. Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt has a nonhomogeneous seismicity, which is mainly concentrated along the plate edges. The tectonics of the Mediterranean region influences the Eurasian, Arabian and African plates (McKenzie 1970). However, eastern Mediterranean is more complex. The study area receives an increased seismic activity, and the reason for that might be due to the small fast-moving plates(Chorowicz et al. (2005); McKenzie 1972; Alptekin 1973; Dewey and Şengör 1979; Erdik et al. 1985; Westaway 2003; Cabalar 2006, 2008).