Ampification and liquefaction of buildings on different bedrock

I found these interesting series of animation and video from www.iris.edu about Earthquake mechanisms and its effects on our building. So, I posted them here for sharing with everyone. Since the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated Japan in March 2011, I believe that civil engineers must now realize that hazard from EQ is closer and possible to occur in several countries. This thus requires all civil engineers to learn more in depth about the earthquake and how to prevent their built infrastructures from non repairable damages and even collapses.

Highly generalized animation reflects the arrivals of P, S, and surface waves to 3 closely spaced buildings.  Exaggerated movement of the buildings reflects the relative motion recorded by the seismograms. The 4th building on the beach shows the effect of liquefaction of underlying sediment. Animation ends with actual seismograms from buildings on solid bedrock and sediment fill equal distance from the 1989 Loma Prieta M7 earthquake. Original music by Jesse Gay, Portland OR.

Credit:www.iris.edu