The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Relationships between soil conditions and building damage in the Caracas earthquake of July 29, 1967

Seed, H. Bolton; Idriss, I. M.; Dezfulian, Houshang

UCB/EERC-70/02, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1970-02, 1 vol. (715/S41/1970)

This report examines the influence of local soil conditions on the intensity of ground motion and whether damage patterns resulting from the Caracas earthquake are related to soil conditions. Detailed analyses of the statistical correlation between the extent of structural damage to different types of buildings in Caracas and the depths of soil underlying the buildings were conducted. Theoretical analyses to determine the influence of soil conditions on ground motion characteristics in different parts of the Caracas Valley with the objective of determining whether the damage patterns are related to the soil conditions and whether they might have been anticipated if such techniques had been available before the earthquake were carried out. Analyses to investigate the influence of soil conditions on the ground motion characteristics along the Caraballeda coast and their possible influence on building damage were done.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-70-02.pdf (6 MB)