Historic Earthquake-Resistant Constructive Techniques Reinforced by Wooden Logs in Algeria

Abstract

The seismicity of northern Algeria is light to moderate and thus a moderate-seismic hazard country. Except the Orleansville 1954, El Asnam 1980 and Boumerdes 2003 earthquakes which happened during the twentieth century, the Algerian country has experienced in the past several moderate seismic events that caused loss of human lives and damage to property in different regions. The historical earthquakes known since ancient time Rusucurru (42) (Central region), Lambaesis (262) (Eastern region), Mostaganem (345) (Western region) and during recent time Algiers (1365, 1716), Cherchell (1732), Dellys (1731), Oran (1780), Blida (1825, 1857), Jijell (1856), Constantine (1858) and Biskra (1869), greatly increases the probabilities of an earthquake occurring and damage in the future. Based on this information, fundamental questions of interest for the architects and engineers are: how did the local population build their houses resisting earthquake loads? What structural techniques did the local population use for building their houses to protect themselves against earthquakes? This paper present the timber-frame earthquake resistant techniques developed such a local seismic culture in northern Algeria cities observed in the Casbah of Algiers and Miliana (Central Algeria), Mostaganem (Western region) and in Batna Highlands region (Eastern Algeria).