Geoscience and Geotechnical Aspects of Recent Earthquakes

The paper includes seven recent earthquakes investigated by the Earthquake Investigation Committee of ASCE Technical Council on Lifelines Earthquake Engineering: 1993 Hokkaido Nansei Oki, Japan, 1993 Guam, 1999 Kocaeli (Izmit), Turkey, 2001 El Salvador, 2001 Nisqually, Washington, 2003 Zemmouri, Algeria and 2004 Sumatra, Indonesia earthquakes. These events occurred over the past 15 years both inside the United States and overseas, and encompassed crustal, interplate and intraslab events. Following a brief outline of the characteristics and damages of these earthquakes, some of the geoscience and geotechnical aspects observed by the authors are discussed with lessons learned with respect to lifelines facilities outlined.