New Challenges in Seismic Design - Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design - page 13

with the potential for the future earthquakes on these faults and their implication
for building behavior in order to use such information for the structural designs.
This aspect is a matter of common conflict between science and practice. The
continuous transferring of earthquake hazard information and research findings
into the domain of practicing engineers should be an activity of primary
importance .
In this context, Engineering Seismology has the specific task to transform the
qualitative knowledge of Seismology in quantitative information, which shall be
suitable to be used in the frame of Earthquake Engineering , intending to fill the
gap between scientific knowledge and practical questions of structural design. The
engineers should work more closely to seismologists to solve many problems in
both fields of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering. Many
problems can be solved with their further joint efforts, purposely oriented to gain
faster achievements (Hu, 2001).

1.4.2 Tasksof Seismology

Seismology (from the Greek words Seismos meaning earthquake and Logos
meaning science) is the science of earthquakes, being a branch of a more general
science of Geophysics , which refers to the Earth structure. Its objective is the study
and elaboration of theories concerning the generation of an earthquake and the
propagation of seismic waves. At the same time Seismology is involved with
record and interpretation of recorded seismograms.
Astronomy can predict planetary orbits accurately, because it can rely on the
well-established theories on gravity and attraction forces. Unfortunately,
Seismology does not possess such clear theories, being forced to adopt only some
empirical approaches. One knows more about the structure of the Universe than the
interior of our Earth.
One of main aspects of Seismology is source characterization and this involves:
-

Establishing the main tectonic plates and their boundaries.

- Use of GPS stations to determine the movements of tectonic plates and to

establish the stressed zones.

- Better understanding of the rock friction and rupture physics in the fault

zones.

- Establishing the main fault types.

- Discovery and documentation of large pre-historical and historical

earthquakes.

- Use seismic stations to record ground motions and to process these data.

- Quantification of seismic hazard, determining magnitude and recurrence of

earthquakes.

- Dissemination of collected data for all interested fields.

- Elaboration of seismic maps, containing the known faults , seismic areas

and their characteristics.

- Last but not least, the future earthquakes.