THE BEHAVIOUR OF STRUCTURES BUILT ON ACTIVE FAULT ZONES: EXAMPLES FROM THE RECENT EARTHQUAKES OF TURKEY

Abstract

The 1999 Kocaeli and Düzce earthquakes of Turkey caused loss of many people and severe structural damage to structures. In addition to poor quality construction and inappropriate construction materials, the damage was caused partly by the permanent displacement of the ground due to faulting and partly by the liquefaction and lateral spread of the ground. The aim of this paper is to make an attempt to describe the general features of the surface ruptures and related ground failures and damage to structures, and to discuss several important examples from both earthquakes which may be precursory for the earthquake engineering community to develop seismic codes for structures in active fault zones.