• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.185-192
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• 2017

A sequence of earthquakes with the main shock $M_L$ 5.8 occurred on September 12 2016 in the Gyeongju area. The main shock was the largest earthquakes in the southern part of the Korean peninsula since the instrumental seismic observation began in the peninsula in 1905 and clearly demonstrated that the Yangsan fault is seismically active. The mean focal depth of the foreshock, main shock, and aftershock of the Gyeongju earthquakes estimated by the crustal model of single layer of the Korean peninsula without the Conrad discontinuity turns out to be 12.9 km, which is 2.8 km lower than that estimated based on the IASP91 reference model with the Conrad discontinuity. The distribution of the historical and instrumental earthquakes in the Gyeongju area indicates that the Yangsan fault system comprising the main Yangsan fault and its subsidiary faults is a large fracture zone. The epicenters of the Gyeongju earthquakes show that a few faults of the Yangsan fault system are involved in the release of the strain energy accumulated in the area. That the major earthquakes of Gyeongju earthquakes occurred not on the surface but below 10 km depth suggests the necessity of the study of the distribution of deep active faults of the Yangsan fault system. The magnitude of maximum earthquake of the Gyeongju area estimated based on the earthquake data of the area turns out to be 7.3. The recurrence intervals of the earthquakes over magnitudes 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 based on the earthquake data since 1978, which is the most complete data in the peninsula, are estimated as 80, 670, and 5,900 years, respectively. The September 2016 Gyeongju earthquakes are basically intraplate earthquakes not related to the Great East Japan earthquake of March 11 2011 which is interplate earthquake.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.419-425
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• 2009

Although earthquake damage was negligible in Korea during the last a few decades, its historic records suggest that the peninsula have experienced severe earthquake damages throughout the history. The potential for disastrous earthquakes, therefore, should always be considered. Harbors handle 99.6% of imported and exported cargo in Korea. Thus, it is necessary to secure the safety of harbors against seismic events and to establish a support system of emergency measures. Although instrumental seismic data are favored for seismic hazard estimation, their history in the peninsula is limited only to the past 30 years, which does not represent the long-term seismic characteristics of the peninsula. We use historic earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5 to observe long-term regional seismic hazards. Results of historic earthquake records indicate relatively high seismic hazard at harbors in Pohang, Ulsan and Incheon. Analysis of instrumental earthquake records reveal relatively high seismic hazard for harbors located along the East coast including Okgye, Mukho, Donghae, Samcheok, Pohang, and Ulsan.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.64-71
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• 1999

Seismicity of the Korean Peninsula shows intraplate seismicity that has irregular pattern in both time and space. Seismic data of the Korean peninsula consists of historical earthquakes and instrumental earthquakes. In this study we devide these data into complete part and incomplete part and considering earthquake size uncertainty estimate seismic hazard parameters - activity rate λ, b value of Gutenberg-Richter relation and maximum possible earthquake IMAX by statistical method in each major tectonic provinces. These estimated values are expected to be important input parameters in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and evaluation of design earthquake.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.309-329
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• 1995

Seismicity and stress state in the Korean peninsula are studied using the catalogue of historical earthquakes and that from the seismological observations before the 1960s, with the aid of instrumental catalogue up to 1995. It seems that the completeness of the historical catalogue has a significant enhancement during the first two hundred years of the Yi dynasty, i.e., from the 1400s to the 1600s. From then on the catalogue may be regarded as near to complete for strong earthquakes in an overall sense. From the distribution of strong earthquakes, three seismic zones may be identified. From the south to the north, those are the southern seismic zone (남부지진대), the Seoul-Pyongyang seismic zone (서울-평양지진대), and the northern seismic zone (북부지진대). The mechanisms of some earthquakes obtained using first motion read- ings are reevaluated with a grid testing method. The results indicate that the compressional axis is nearly horizontal along the EW direction.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.94-97
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• 1997

The December 13, 1996 Yeongweol earthquake of magnitude 4.5 was felt almost everywhere in southern part of the Korean Peninsula and Cheju Island, even though not feld in Tsushima Island at other places in Japan near to Korea. Production lines of semiconductor disk in electronic engineering companies of Gumi manufacturing complex were seriously affected by the shake of this earthquake. Total 17 earthquakes of magnitude 4 or above occurred within the area of 50km radius from Yeongweol in the period from the year 1400 to 1996. This group of earthquakes includes 12 events of magnitude 5.0 or above and 3 events of magnitude 6.0 or above. Among these events, 13 earthquakes are historical events of years 1400-1904. Most of them occurred in 15-16 centuries. The February 21, 1596 Jungseon-Pyeongchang event of magnitude 6.5 is the largest one up to now in the area. There are four instrumental earthquakes (years 1905-1996) of magnitude 4.0 or above in this area. An earthquake of magnitude 4.4 occurred on 5th of November, 1919 at almost the same place as the December 13, 1996 earthquake of magnitude 4.5. Thus this event is preceded with the previous one by 77 years.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.337-351
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• 2021

On September 12, 2016, the Gyeongju earthquake occurred in the south-eastern region of the Korean peninsula. The event was ranked as the largest magnitude earthquake (=5.8) since instrumental recording was started by the Korean Metrological Administration (KMA) in 1978. The objective of this study is to provide information obtained from the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake and to propose a procedure estimating seismic risk of a typical old RC building for past and potential earthquakes. Ground motions are simulated using the point source model at 4941 grid locations in the Korean peninsula that resulted from the Gyeongju earthquake and from potential future earthquakes with the same hypocenter considering different soil conditions. Nonlinear response history analyses are conducted for each grid location using a three-story gravity-designed reinforced concrete (RC) frame that most closely represents conventional old school and public buildings. Then, contour maps are constructed to present the seismic risk associated with this building for the Gyeongju earthquake and potential future scenario earthquakes. These contour maps can be useful in the development of a mitigation plan for potential earthquake damage to school and public buildings at all grid locations on the Korean peninsula.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.209-221
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• 2023

The Mw=7.7 (Pazarcık-Kahramanmaraş) and Mw=7.6 (Elbistan-Kahramanmaraş) earthquakes that occurred in Türkiye on 06.02.2023 with 9 hours' intervals, caused great losses of life and property as the biggest catastrophe in the instrumental period. The earthquakes affecting an area of 14% of the country were enormous and caused a great deal of loss of life and damage. Numerous buildings have collapsed or damaged at different levels, both in the city centers and in rural areas. Within the scope of this study, masonry structure damage built from different types of materials in the earthquake region was taken into consideration. In this study, the damage and causes of such masonry structures that do not generally receive engineering services were examined and explained in detail. Insufficient interlocking between wall-wall and wall-roof, inadequate masonry, lack of horizontal and vertical bond beams, usage of low-strength materials, poor workmanship, and heavy earthen roof are commonly caused to structural damages. Separation at the corner point and out-of-plane mechanism in structural walls, and heavy earthen roof damages are common types of damage in masonry structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.365-372
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• 2019

Post-earthquake crisis management is a key capability for a country to be able to recover after a major seismic event. Instrumental seismic data transmitted and processed in a very short time can contribute to better management of the emergency and can give insights on the earthquake's impact on a specific area. Romania is a country with a high seismic hazard, mostly due to the Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes. The elastic acceleration response spectrum of a seismic motion provides important information on the level of maximum acceleration the buildings were subjected to. Based on new data analysis and knowledge advancements, the acceleration elastic response spectrum for horizontal ground components recommended by the Romanian seismic codes has been evolving over the last six decades. This study aims to propose a framework for post-earthquake warning based on code spectrum exceedances. A comprehensive background analysis was undertaken using strong motion data from previous earthquakes corroborated with observational damage, to prove the method's applicability. Moreover, a case-study for two densely populated Romanian cities (Focsani and Bucharest) is presented, using data from a $5.5M_W$ earthquake (October 28, 2018) and considering the evolution of the three generations of code-based spectral levels for the two cities. Data recorded in free-field and in buildings were analyzed and has confirmed that no structural damage occurred within the two cities. For future strong seismic events, this tool can provide useful information on the effect of the earthquake on structures in the most exposed areas.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.499-505
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• 2001

Kim and Baek (2000) tested the spatial randomness for he earthquake occurrence in the Korean Peninsula by using the nearest-neighbor test statistics and empirical distribution functions. The K-function, however, has obvious advantages over the methods used in Kim and Baek (2000), such as it does not depend on the shape of the study region and is an effective summary of spatial dependence over a wide range of scales. We applied the K-function method for testing the randomness to both of the historical and the instrumental seismicity data. It was found that he earthquake occurrences for historical and instrumental seismicity data are not random and clustered rather than scattered.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.323-332
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• 2018

Recent two moderate earthquakes (2016 $M_w=5.4$ Gyeongju and 2017 $M_w=5.5$ Pohang) in Korea provided the unique chance of developing a set of relations to estimate instrumental seismic intensity in Korea by augmenting the time-history data from MMI seismic intensity regions above V to the insufficient data previously accumulated from the MMI regions limited up to IV. The MMI intensity regions of V and VI was identified by delineating the epicentral distance from the reference intensity statistics in distance derived by using the integrated MMI data obtained by combining the intensity survey results of KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) and 'DYFI (Did You Feel It)' MMIs of USGS. The time-histories of the seismic stations from the MMI intensity regions above V were then preprocessed by applying the previously developed site-correction filters to be converted to a site-equivalent condition in a manner consistent with the previous study. The average values of the ground-motion parameters for the three ground motion parameters of PGA, PGV and BSPGA (Bracketed Summation of PGA per second for 30 seconds) were calculated for the MMI=V and VI and used to generate the dataset of the average values of the ground-motion parameters for the individual MMIs from I to VI. Based on this dataset, the linear regression analysis resulted in the following relations with proposed valid ranges of MMI. $MMI=2.36{\times}log_{10}(PGA(gal))+1.44$ ($I{\leq}MMI$$MMI=2.44{\times}log_{10}(PGV(kine))+4.86$ ($I{\leq}MMI$$MMI=2.59{\times}log_{10}(BSPGA(gal{\cdot}sec))-1.02$ ($I{\leq}MMI$