BICOL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
LEGAZPI CITY

CE 413
EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
LESSON 3:
MEASUREMENT OF EARTHQUAKES; MAGNITUDES & INTENSITY
“This presentation is not for distribution outside this subject and to be used
solely for this course subject – CE 413.”

PREPARED BY:
ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE
Faculty
ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE
FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 1
 OBJECTIVES:

After the discussion in this chapter, the student will be able to:

1. Describe how earthquakes are measured based on intensity and

magnitude.
2. Determine the equipment used in monitoring earthquakes.
3. Learn the relationship of intensity and magnitude to earthquake
energy.

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 2
 Measuring Earthquakes

Earthquake size is expressed in several ways. Qualitative or non-

instrumental and quantitative or instrumental measurements.

1. Intensity
2. Magnitude

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 3
 Intensity
- is a non-instrumental perceptibility measure of damage to
structures, ground surface effects (e.g. fractures, cracks and
landslides) and human reactions to earthquake shaking.
- it is a descriptive method which has been traditionally
used to establish earthquake size, especially for pre-instrumental
events.
- discrete scales are used to quantify seismic intensity; the
levels are represented by Roman numerals and each degree of
intensity provides a qualitative description of earthquake effects.

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 4
Some of the most common intensity scales:

i. Mercalli-Cancani-Seiberg (MCS): 12-level scale used in Southern Europe;

ii. Modified Mercalli (MM): 12-level scale proposed in 1931 by Wood and
Neumann, who adapted the MCS scale to the California data set. It is used in
North America and several other countries;
iii. Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik (MSK): 12-level scale developed in Central and
Eastern Europe and used in several countries;
iv. European Macroseismic Scale (EMS): 12-level scale adopted since 1998 in
Europe. It is a development of the MM scale;
v. Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA): 7-level scale use in Japan

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 5
 Modified Mercalli Intensity
(MMI) scale

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY
Source: Kramer, Steven, 1996
CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 6
 Comparison
between
seismic intensity
scales

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY
Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008 CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 7
 Source: ICE UP CE 259 Lectures

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 8
 PHIVOLCS
Earthquake
Intensity
Scale (PEIS)

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 9
 • Earthquake intensities are usually obtained from interviews of
observers after the event.
• Intensity scales are used to plot contour lines of equal intensity or
“isoseisms” “isoseismal” then generates an isoseismal map.
• Intensity maps provide approximate distributions of damage and the
extent of ground shaking and shows how the intensity decreases, or
attenuates, with increasing epicentral distance.
• The intensity is generally greatest in the vicinity of the epicenter of the
earthquake (epicentral intensity).

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008 and Kramer, Steven, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 10
 Epicenter (star) of the 2013 Mw 7.2 Bohol earthquake and distribution of
epicenters of aftershocks (circles). Source: Perez, et.al, 2016

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 11
 Source: Perez, et.al, 2016

Isoseismal map of the 2013 Mw 7.2 Bohol earthquake. PEIS VIII (dark gray) is delineated near the
epicenter (star) and west to southwest of Bohol Island; PEIS VII (light gray) is drawn in the rest of
Bohol Island as well as in Metro Cebu.
ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE
FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 12
Source: ICE UP CE 259 Lectures

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 13
 Isoseismal maps from (a) the 1968 Inangahua earthquake in New
Zealand and (b) the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in northern
California (MMI) Source: Kramer, Steven, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 14
 Magnitude

Source: ICE UP CE 259 Lectures

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 15
 Magnitude
- is a quantitative measure of earthquake size and fault dimensions.
- based on the maximum amplitudes of body or surface seismic
waves.
- an instrumental, quantitative and objective scale. The first
attempt to define magnitude scales were made in Japan by Wadati and
in California by Richter in the 1930s.
- scales are frequency-dependent because they measure
amplitudes of seismic waves with different properties.
- calculated from earthquakes recorded by an instrument called
seismograph (www.phivolcs.gov.ph).
Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 16
 Source: ICE UP CE 259 Lectures

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 17
 Modern Seismograph (Vertical)

Modern Seismograph
(Horizontal)

Source: Lectures from Dr. G. Madhavi Latha

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 18
 Earthquake monitoring system in the Philippines

 At present, PHIVOLCS operates 108 (as of December 2020)

seismic stations all over the Philippines. These stations are
equipped with seismometers that detect and record
earthquakes. Data is sent to the PHIVOLCS Data Receiving
Center (DRC) to determine earthquake parameters such as
magnitude, depth of focus and epicenter. Together with
reported felt intensities in the area (if any), earthquake
information is released once these data are determined.

Source: www.phivolcs.gov.ph

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 19
 Seismogram interpretation
 Seismograms can provide
information on
- epicenter location
- magnitude of earthquake
- source properties
 Most seismograms will record P, S
& surface waves
 First arrival is P wave
 After a pause of several
seconds/10s seconds the higher - surface waves follow and may continue for tens of
amplitude S wave arrives seconds.
 Defines S-P interval - surface waves are slower but persist to greater
distances than P & S waves.
Source: Lectures from Dr. G. Madhavi Latha

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 20
 Ground Motion Recording
The actual ground motion at a given location
is derived from instrumentally recorded
motions. The most commonly used
instruments for engineering purposes are
strong motion accelerographs/
accelerometers. These instruments record the
acceleration time history of ground motion at
a site, called an accelerogram.

By proper analysis of a recorded accelerogram to account for instrument distortion and base
line correction, the resulting corrected acceleration record can be used by engineers to
obtain ground velocity and ground displacement by appropriate integration.
Source: Lectures from Dr. G. Madhavi Latha

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 21
 Source: ICE UP CE 259 Lectures

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 22
 Most common magnitudes scales:

i. Local (or Richter) magnitude (ML)

ii. Body wave magnitude (mb)
iii. Surface wave magnitude (MS)
iv. Moment magnitude (MW)

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 23
 i. Local (or Richter) magnitude (ML)
- In 1935, Charles Richter use a Wood-Anderson seismometer to define a
magnitude scale for shallow, local (epicentral distances) less than about
600km (375miles) earthquakes.
- Richter known as the local magnitude as the logarithm (base 10) of the
maximum trace amplitude (in micrometers) recorded on a Wood-
Anderson seismometer.
- The Richter local magnitude (ML) is the best known magnitude scale,
but not always the appropriate scale for description of earthquake size.

Source: Kramer, Steven, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 24
 i. Local (or Richter) magnitude (ML)

- Magnitude (ML) is related to A (maximum seismic wave amplitude, in

microns) by the following relationship:

where A0 is a calibration factor that depends on distance.

- Earthquakes with ML greater than 5.5 caused significant damage, while
an earthquake of ML = 2 is the smallest event normally felt by people.

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 25
 ii. Body wave magnitude (mb)
- Measures the amplitude of P-waves with a period of about 1.0 second
i.e. less than 10-km wavelengths.
- This scale is suitable for deep earthquakes that have few surface waves.
Moreover, can measure distant events, e.g. epicentral distances not less
than 600km. Magnitude (mb) is related to the amplitude, A and period, T
of P-waves as follows:

in which () is a function of the epicenter distance D (in degrees).

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 26
 ii. Body wave magnitude (mb)
- The body wave magnitude (Gutenberg, 1945) is a worldwide
magnitude scale based on the amplitude of the first few cycles of P-
waves which are not strongly influenced by the focal depth and can
be expressed as:

- Body wave magnitude can also be estimated from the amplitude of

one-second-period, higher-mode Rayleigh waves.

Source: Kramer, Steven, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 27
 iii. Surface wave magnitude (MS)
- Surface wave magnitude (Gutenberg and Richter, 1936) is a measure
of the amplitudes of LR-waves with a period of 20seconds, i.e.
wavelength of about 60km, which are common for very distant
earthquakes, e.g. where the epicenter is located more than 2000km.
(Elnashai and Di Sarno, 2008)

(Kramer, 1996)

where A is the maximum ground displacement in micrometers

and  is the epicentral distance of the seismometer measured in
degrees.
Source: Kramer, Steven, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 28
 iv. Moment magnitude (MW)
- Mw accounts for the mechanism of shear that takes place at earthquake sources
and not related to any wavelength.
- Can be used to measure the whole spectrum of ground motions.
- Moment magnitude Mw is defined as a function of the seismic moment M0
(expressed in dyne.cm). This measures the extent of deformation at the
earthquake source and can be evaluated as follows:
or Source: Kramer, Steven, 1996

in which G – shear modulus of the material surrounding the fault, A – fault rupture
area and u – average slip between opposite sides of the fault.
Mw is thus given by:

or Source: Kramer, Steven, 1996

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 29
 COMPARISON
- Richter magnitude ML exhibits several limitations.
a) Applicable only to small and shallow earthquakes and
b) Epicentral distance less than 600km
c) Regional/ local scale while mb, MS and MW are worldwide scales
- The mathematical definition of magnitude implies that all of the above
scales have virtually no upper and lower bound.
- As general guidelines earthquakes with magnitude between 4.5 and 5.5
can be defined as local while with magnitude 6.0 to 7.0 are large seismic
events. Great earthquakes are those with magnitude larger than 7.0.

Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 30
 Other magnitude scales exist; usually based on maximum amplitudes
A of certain waves recorded by seismographs. The general correlation
between magnitude M and A is as follows:

Properties of major magnitude scales Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 31
 Saturation – a phenomenon
wherein as the total amount of
energy released during an
earthquake increases, however,
the ground-shaking characteristics
do not necessarily increase at the
same rate.
For strong earthquakes, the
measured ground-shaking
characteristics become less
sensitive to the size of the
earthquake than for smaller
earthquakes.
Saturation of various magnitude scales: Mw (moment magnitude), ML (Richter local
magnitude), MS (surface wave magnitude), mb (short-period body wave
magnitude), mB (long-period body wave magnitude), and MJMA (Japanese
Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008 and Kramer, 1996 Meteorological Agency magnitude)

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 32
 Earthquake Energy
The total seismic energy released during an earthquake is often
estimated from the relationship (Gutenberg and Richter, 1956)

where E is expressed in ergs (1 erg = 7.5 x 10-8 ft-lb). This relationship

was shown to be applicable to moment magnitude as well. It implies
that a unit change in magnitude corresponds to a 101.5 or 32-fold
increase in seismic energy.

Source: Kramer, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 33
 Earthquake Energy
Similarly, mb and MS are related to seismic energy E by the following
empirical equations:

where E is expressed in joules (1 joule = 107 ergs).

Source: Kramer, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 34
 Relative energy of various
natural and human-made
phenomena

Source: Kramer, 1996

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 35
 Correlation between magnitude and energy release
Source: Elnasahi and Di Sarno, 2008

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 36
 Source: ICE UP CE 259 Lectures

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 37
 Homework #2:
1. An earthquake causes an average of 2.5m strike-slip displacement over
an 80 km long, 23 km deep portion of a transform fault. Assuming that
the rock along the fault had an average rupture strength of 175 kPa,
estimate the seismic moment, M0 and moment magnitude, Mw of an
earthquake.

• Deadline of submission: September 16, 2024.

• Preparation/ Output can be handwritten or computerized, in a short bond
paper/ yellow paper.
• Upload the preparation through Google Classroom.

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 38
Reference
Elnashai, Amr S. and Di Sarno, Luigi. 2008. Fundamentals of Earthquake Engineering. John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
United Kingdom.
Estrada, Hector and See, Luke S. 2017. Introduction to Earthquake Engineering. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis
Group, Florida.
Chen, W.F. and Lui, E.M. 2006. Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis
Group, Florida.
Gioncu, Victor and Mazzolani, Federico M. 2011. Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design. Spon Press,
New York, USA and Taylor & Francis Group e-Library.
Lectures of Dr. Latha, G. Madhavi from Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science.
www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 39
 THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!

ANNA G. BILARO, MSCE

FACULTY CE 413 – EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING Slide No. 40