The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Implications of site effects in the Mexico City earthquake of Sept. 19, 1985 for earthquake-resistant design criteria in the San Francisco Bay Area of California

Seed, H. Bolton; Sun, Joseph I.

UCB/EERC-89/03, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-03, 130 pages (450/S41/1989)

This report (1) examines factors likely to have influenced the response and degree of damage to structures in the heavily damaged area of Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake; (2) attempts to relate these factors to the intensity of damage that occurred; (3) uses the results of the studies to examine the possible extent of damage to structures constructed on sites underlain by clay in other seismic regions such as the San Francisco Bay area, which like Mexico City, is located near the edge of a deep deposit of clay soil; (4) examines the implications of structural performance in Mexico City for buildings in San Francisco in light of the seismicity of the region; and (5) examines the effects of possible modifications in building codes which might seem desirable in light of the Mexico City earthquake.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-89-03.pdf (3 MB)