Author : C. Selin Ravikumar, V. Ramasamy and T.S. Thandavamoorthy

The mechanism of earthquake consists of generation of seismic waves due to the rupture of the rock in the Earth and their propagation within the earth crest due to the movement of the Earth. The rupture surface is called a fault plane. There are three kinds of faults, namely, strike slip, dip slip and oblique slip. The severity of earthquake depends on the slip. The seismic waves comprises of P wave, S waves, R or Rayleigh waves and L or Love waves. The P and S waves constitute the body waves and the R and L waves constitute surface waves. The surface waves are dangerous and causes extensive damages on the Earth surface. Normally structures are founded on the Earth. So due to the motion of the Earth the ground vibrates and this sets in motion the structures. Many structures consisting of masonry, concrete, road and railway were damaged in the past earthquakes globally. The paper presents the mechanism of earthquake and the damages it can cause to structures of varied types by reviewing the available literature.

Keywords: earthquake, fault line, slip, seismic waves, structures, damages

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.4,No.2 (April- 2014)