| How to Prepare for Expected Large Earthquakes |
 |
| - On the Tenth Anniversary of the 1995 Kobe
Earthquake - |
| Yasunori MATSUOKA *1 and Shunji FUJII *2 |
| The 1995 Kobe Earthquake caused more than 6000
fatalities and property damages about 90 billion US dollars, reminding us of
the vulnerability of the cities by the near field earthquake. It has passed
nearly 10 years since then, and during this period, another major earthquakes
in Japan and overseas have occurred, giving us new problems and lessons. This
article summarizes the lessons from the Kobe earthquake and other earthquakes,
and introduces the research activities based on theses lessons and the progress
of the technologies, including the modification of laws and design standards.
In addition current activities of research and technology development for the
mitigation of earthquake damages are presented. Most of these activities are
characterized as interdisciplinary including different area of engineering
as well as social and economical science. |
| keywords: |
earthquake, ground motion, seisimic
design , seismic isolation, design code, performance based design |