CEES 5383.

001
EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
Fall 2015
Example Test Questions

Chapter 2

Name and briefly describe two main types of seismic waves (e.g. motion of the
medium particle with respect to direction of travel, type of media they can travel
in, etc.). Which one arrives at a seismic station first (i.e. if both have been
originated from the same seismic event)?
o body waves [P-waves and S-waves (SV and SH waves)] and surface
waves (Love waves and Rayleigh waves), exponential decay of amplitude
with depth.
Describe internal structure of the earth.
What is the Moho discontinuity?
What is the Gutenberg discontinuity?
Explain why earthquakes have not been recorded deeper than 700 km from the
earths surface.
Describe the continental drift and plate tectonic theories.
What is a major evidence for plate tectonics theory?
What are the 3 distinct types of plate boundaries? Which type is usually capable
of producing greater earthquakes and why? (p. 29-32, 41)
o spreading ridge/rift boundary (plates move apart from each other)
o subduction zone
o transform fault
What parameters are used to describe the orientation of a fault plane?
What are different types of fault movement? (p. 34)
o Dip slip (normal and reverse faulting, thrust fault)
o Strike slip
What is the azimuth of a strike?
What is a thrust fault?
Describe the elastic rebound theory. How does this theory explain the probability
of seismic events on a particular fault segment?
Name sources of earthquakes other than tectonic movements.
What is the difference between the hypocentral and epicentral distances?
What is the seismic moment? What earthquake quantity does it describe? (p. 42)
Estimate the epicentral distance from a given p- and s-wave record (need to derive
eq. 2.2, p. 44) based on the 3-station diagram.
A potential means to avoid future great earthquakes in seismically active regions
can be thought of as triggering smaller earthquakes to release the buildup of
energy as a result of tectonic movement. Using the Gutenberg-Richter formula
(1956):

Log E = 11.8 + 1.5 Ms

where E is the magnitude of released energy and Ms is the surface magnitude,
discuss the feasibility and any potential problems regarding this approach. (p. 50
and web article)

How can the arrival times of p- and s-waves be used to determine the location of a
seismic event?

For the 3 records shown in the figure shown above and the nomogram given
below, briefly describe how the Richter magnitude can be determined from the
records each station reports. Explain the possible reasons for any discrepancy in
the reported magnitudes.

What are the ranges of p-wave and s-wave velocity in bedrock? (p. 44)
What are shortcomings of Richter Local Magnitude?
What is a coda of an earthquake motion? (p. 48)

What is saturation? What is the magnitude scale that is not subject to saturation
and why? (p. 49)
How is the earthquake intensity determined?

Chapter 3

What are the most significant ground motion characteristics? Explain how they
influence the response of different structures and the probability of their
sustaining damage when subjected to ground motion. (p. 55)
Describe how the same mechanical system can be reliably used to measure both
ground displacement and ground acceleration. (p. 57)
What types of corrections are needed to be applied to the recorded ground
motion? (high-frequency noise, low-frequency baseline (triggering) correction,
instrument response corrections, structural response. p. 62)
Which of the following amplitude parameters are more representative of the effect
of ground motion on a 20-story building, PGA or PGV?
Plot the Fourier Amplitude Spectrum of the following function: f(t) = Sin wt +
Sin 2wt + Sin 3wt +
What is the corner frequency and why is it important? (p. 72)
What is Nyquist frequency? (p. 73)
What is a stationary random process? (p. 73)
What is a response spectrum? What quantities are usually included in the response
spectra? What relationship between these quantities makes it possible to plot them
on the same graph? (p. 73)
What does the acceleration-controlled part of the spectrum mean? (p. 74)
What is the ductility factor? (p. 75)
How is a response spectrum different from Fourier amplitude spectrum? (p. 75)
Explain how PGV/PGA of a recorded ground motion would be related to its
frequency content. (p. 78)
Explain how significant ground motion characteristics of a recorded motion are
related to the size of an earthquake and the epicentral distance of a site (i.e.
magnitude and distance effects). (p. 80, 85, , 100)
Describe two common definitions of the strong ground motion duration. (p. 80)
Conceptually, how do Arias Intensity and Response Spectrum Intensity represent
ground motion parameters (i.e. what quantities are they based on)? Which
significant ground motion parameters do they include? (p. 82, 83)
What are predictive relationships? Provide an example of their general format.
Are they precise? How are their accuracy expressed? (p. 86-90, 104)
What are the sources of spatial variability of ground motions? (p. 100, 101)
Dissipation of EQ energy with distance (geometric damping) p. 87
Do the intensity of an earthquake and intensity of a ground motion record
refer to the same concept? Explain.