The Role of Site Effects at the Boundary Between Seismology and Engineering: Lessons from Recent Earthquakes

Abstract

This paper summarises the experience gathered on the field following four recent earthquakes: in 2009 at L'Aquila, Italy; in 2010 at Lorca, Spain; in 2011 at Christchurch, New Zealand; in 2012 at Emilia, Italy. These quakes provided useful lessons at the boundary between seismology and engineering, about the difference between what we expected to happen, thanks to more or less simplified models, and what happened in reality. The topics dealt with are: (1) the reliability of "free-field" strong motion recordings, discussing the role of accelerometer housing, spurious transient, city-soil effect, and the possible over-correction of displacements; (2) the mismatch between code provision and observed spectral acceleration due to the role of velocity inversions, the influence of topography, the softening and hardening non-linearity, (3) the importance of vertical component considering the time distribution of phases arrivals and the presence of amplification due to P-velocity contrasts. © The Author(s) 2014.