NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- Earthquake in Romania March 4, 1977 - An Engineering Report.
- File
- PB82163114.pdf
- Author(s)
- Berg, G. V.; Bolt, B. A.; Sozen, M. A.; Rojahn, C.
- Source
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC., December 1980, 56 p.
- Abstract
- The Romanian earthquake of March 4, 1977, had a focus of intermediate depth in a seismically active region in the Carpathian Mountains. The intensity pattern was strongly biased toward the south and southwest, with ground motion more destructive in Bucharest 170 km SSW of the epicenter than in villages just a few kilometers from the epicenter. Destruction was greatest in Bucharest, where 35 buildings collapsed. All but three of the collapses and most other severe damage occurred to buildings that had been built before the adoption of seismic building regulations and that had survived a strong earthquake in 1940. Of recent buildings, constructed to comply with seismic regulations, two collapsed and one partly collapsed. The building collapse of greatest significance was a Computing Center, a massive 3-story reinforced-concrete structure of relatively long period. The walls were constructed so that they contributed little to the lateral strength and stiffness of the building. Utilities and railroad and highway systems were largely undisturbed by the earthquake. Bucharest had been microzoned as part of a UNESCO Balkan Project, with microzones denoting three levels of risk. The worst destruction occurred in the lowest-risk microzone.
- Keywords
- Structural engineering; Seismic design; Damage assessment; Earthquake resistant structures; Bucharest (Romania); Design; Precast concrete; Reinforced concrete; Buildings; Earthquake engineering; Ground motion; Romania; Building codes; Earthquakes