Application of New Seismic Intensity for Building Damage Evaluation to the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake

Abstract

Seismic intensity is well-known index of strong ground motion to measure earthquake damage. Since it was revised as the instrumental seismic intensity, it is pointed that it does not meet well with earthquake damage during the earthquakes following the 1995 Kobe earthquake. A new seismic intensity considering the ground motion of 1s in period was proposed based on past earthquake records. This study attempts to verify the applicability of the new seismic intensity for the giant inter-plate earthquake such as the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake. The new seismic intensity has good correlation with building damage and is applicable to the ground motion of the interplate earthquake having the far source and long duration.