L. Suarez, J. López, J. Cruzado
The most recent update of the Seismic Hazard Map of Puerto Rico was carried out in 2003 when the first active seismic fault within the island, in the Cabo Rojo area, was considered. Since then, several geophysical studies have been carried out on various seismic faults within the island that have helped to expand the knowledge of these faults and, in some cases, to recognize their high seismic activity. The Seismic Sequence that began in December 2019 produced more than thirteen thousand earthquakes in 2020, with a large percentage of them having their epicenter within the Island. The overwhelming evidence of active seismic faults within the Island urges the prompt update of the Seismic Hazard Map. However, multiple studies are needed to determine with accepted precision the location, size and slip rate of these faults so that they can be included in the Seismic Hazard Map. In the meantime, engineers urgently require a proper estimate of the seismic loads that these faults, not thoroughly studied, can apply to the structures to be designed or rehabilitated. In this paper we use the current knowledge of the existing earthquake fault zones and the deterministic methodology of ASCE 7-16 to develop design spectra for twelve municipalities of Puerto Rico taking into consideration all the earthquake fault zones that constantly threaten the Island. In average, the proposed spectra almost double the design seismic loads required by the current 2018 IBC code.
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Published on 08/12/21Accepted on 08/12/21Submitted on 08/12/21
Volume 21, 2021Licence: CC BY-NC-SA license
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