Engineering Seismology and Seismic Hazard Assessment

This is an introductory course on the fundamentals of engineering seismology, strong ground motion and seismic hazard assessment. The ultimate object is to provide a background for the assessment of design-basis ground motion both in frequency and time domain. This will be achieved with formal lectures themselves, tutorial sessions and the practical exercises. These teaching activities will be supported with power point presentations, textbook chapters and relevant papers and Internet web sites. This material should be sufficient to obtain a basic background on the subject and to pave the path for those seeking a deeper understanding or greater detail. The course will encompass the basic treatment of the physics of earthquakes and analysis of wave propagation. The time and frequency domain characteristics of the strong ground motion will be covered with enough detail to facilitate the understanding of ground motion prediction and the earthquake hazard assessment. The probabilistic and deterministic treatment of seismic hazard will be covered with supporting examples and exercises. The course will culminate with the elaboration of the subject on the determination of the design basis ground motion needed for the code-based and performance-based design of engineering structures.