The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Preliminary report on the seismological and engineering aspects of the October 17, 1989 Santa Cruz (Loma Prieta) earthquake

Astaneh-Asl, Abolhassan; Bertero, Vitelmo V.; Bolt, Bruce A.; Mahin, Stephen A.; Moehle, Jack P.; Seed, Raymond B.

UCB/EERC-89/14, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-10, 51 pages (705.326/1989L/P74)

Researchers from the Univ. of California at Berkeley were sent throughout the San Francisco Bay Area immediately following the Santa Cruz (Loma Prieta) earthquake of Oct. 17, 1989. Investigative teams consisted of faculty, staff, and students from the Earthquake Engineering Research Center, the Seismographic Stations, and the Dept. of Civil Engineering. In addition to teams focusing on the geophysical and geological aspects of the event, engineering teams focused on the behavior of soils and soil structures and on damage to transportation facilities, buildings, industrial facilities, and coastal structures. As a result of these investigations, considerable preliminary data has been collected on the nature of the earthquake and its effects. Field investigations are still in progress and additional laboratory and analytical studies have just been initiated. More definitive conclusions regarding the earthquake and its effects will be reported in subsequent publications. The chapter topics are as follows: (1) seismological considerations; (2) geotechnical considerations; (3) performance of concrete freeway structures; (4) damage to the San Francisco Bay Bridge; (5) preliminary observations on the performance of buildings; and (6) concluding remarks.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-89-14.pdf (9 MB)