STRONG GROUND MOTION AT MEIZOSEISMAL AREA |SAFETY OF IMPORTANT ENGINEERING PROJECTS AT POTENTIAL EARTHQUAKE REGION

Potential earthquake regions are the hypocenter areas of future destructive earthquakes that might be of either near field type or direct-underground one. The characteristics of destruction and ground motion of the earthquakes in these regions are similar to those of meizoseismal areas of past earthquakes. The existing data and associated research of some recent earthquakes occurred in China and abroad indicate that: direct-underground earthquakes not only demonstrate very high peak accelerations, but also show ratios of peak vertical acceleration to peak horizontal one that are quite different from those of far field earthquakes. In this paper, authors also discuss safety issues of important engineering projects located in potential earthquake prone regions in the following aspects: rock mass soil failure at meizoseismal areas, ground motion characteristics and seismo-geological hazards etc.