Probabilistic Earthquake Damage Curves for Low-Rise Buildings Based on Field Data

All buildings in Iceland are registered in an official database that contains detailed information about them, and insurance against natural disasters is obligatory. When a destructive earthquake occurs, all damage is reported, and the repair and replacement cost for every affected building is evalu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Earthquake Spectra
Main Authors: Bessason, Bjarni, Bjarnason, Jón Örvar, Gudmundsson, Ari, Sólnes, Júlíus, Steedman, Scott
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2012
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Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1193/1.4000082
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1193/1.4000082
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1193/1.4000082
Description
Summary:All buildings in Iceland are registered in an official database that contains detailed information about them, and insurance against natural disasters is obligatory. When a destructive earthquake occurs, all damage is reported, and the repair and replacement cost for every affected building is evaluated. In May 2008, a shallow earthquake of magnitude M w = 6.3 struck in South Iceland. A great deal of damage occurred, but fortunately, there was no loss of life. The recorded maximum PGA was 0.88 g. Detailed and complete information of all real estate property and the damage incurred, along with recorded strong-motion data and an area-specific attenuation model, have provided an opportunity to create probabilistic damage curves for the building stock in the affected area. The damage model obtained from the 2008 earthquake was tested and verified by using it to back-calculate the damage that occurred in the two South Iceland earthquakes of June 2000 ( M w = 6.5).