Assessment of the Seismicity of Peshawar Region in Line with the Historical Data and Modern Building Codes (ASCE-07 & IBC-2006)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The damages done by earthquakes in the human history can’t be denied in any sense as the phenomenon is responsible for bringing catastrophes both socially and economically. It is known that Pakistan is located in one of the seismically active regions of the world. The Quetta earthquake which occurred in 1935, the Ziarat earthquake of 2008, the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 and the Dallbaandin earthquake in 2011 bear the testimony of active seismicity in Pakistan. The Building code of Pakistan (BCP) 2007 has placed Peshawar in seismic zone 2B with a PGA range of 0.16–0.24. However, this is not in line with the historical data and available ground motion records. Therefore, in this research, a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment technique was used to estimate the strong ground motion parameters for a grid of 11 km by 11 km, covering all the active faults within and around the Peshawar region and having significant effect on the seismicity of Peshawar. Moreover, PGA along with spectral acceleration values are required by modern building codes (IBC 2009 and ASCE-7) for the estimation of seismic loads, is calculated. From seismic hazard analysis, it was found that Peshawar lies in seismic Zone 1 with a PGA value of 0.06. The estimated PGA value was also validated and in line with the PGA values obtained from the ground motion records of Peshawar Meteorological Department.