M5.

1 Lorca Earthquake field investigation

1

Spanish-French-Portuguese field investigation of the 11th May Mw5.1
earthquake in Lorca (Murcia, Spain)
X. Goula
(1)
, A. Barbat
(1)
, M. Carreo
(1)
, N. Lantada
(1)
, J. Valcarcel
(1)
, J. Irizarry
(1)
, S. Figueras
(1)
, A.
Macau
(1)
, D. Combescure
(2)
, M. Belvaux
(2)
, S. Bremond
(2)
, C. Carames
(2)
, D. Monfort
(2)
, G.
Verrhiest
(2)
, R. Bairrao
(3)
( 1)
: AEIS-UPC-IGC,
( 2)
: AFPS-BRGM,
(3)
: SPES-LNEC
The earthquake which occurred on the 11
th
of May 2011 in Lorca (Murcia, Spain) had a magnitude
Mw=5.1 and its epicenter was situated at only 3km depth and few kilometers from Lorca town which
has a total population of about 90,000 inhabitants. The peak ground acceleration recorded in Lorca is
higher than 0.37g. The event caused 9 casualties and more than 250 injured persons (Fig. 1). About 15%
of the building stock (about 500 buildings) has been declared with structural damage or need to be
repaired before being used. The 16 religious buildings have also been seriously damaged by the
earthquake. Such an earthquake can be defined as a near-field moderate earthquake which does not
usually cause significant damage except for the less vulnerable structures and equipments.
After similar seismic events, teams of structural engineers, architects, seismologists and professional
involved in risk assessment are used in visiting the site, analyzing the main damages, the general
behavior of the buildings and equipments and the crisis management in order to learn lessons for and
also to train the youngest members of the teams.
It has been decided to organize, between the 24
th
and 28
th
May, a common intervention with
representatives of the Spanish (AEIS-UPC-IGC, 8 persons), French (AFPS-BRGM, 6 persons, Organizer of
the AFPS mission: D. Combescure) and Portuguese Earthquake Engineering Association (SPES, 1 person:
R. Bairrao, LNEC). Several participants are also members of the French and Spanish SISPYR project. A
total of 15 persons has been part of this 5 days field investigation in order to support the Spanish IGN
intervention on the field after the Lorca earthquake. X. Goula, Leader of the Seismic Group of the
Institut of Geology of Catalunya was the coordinator of the field investigation mission. Alex Barbat
professor President of the Spanish Earthquake Engineering Association (AEIS) was the main
representative of UPC, Barcelona.
This support has consisted in:
- Seismology and soil behavior investigation: aftershocks recording for location and for soil
experimentation. IGN is present with the intervention bus and 2 instruments. SISPYR and BRGM have
joined more instruments,
- Structural damage survey of reinforced concrete and masonry buildings with a special interest in the
damage assessment and diagnostic methodology,
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The Lorca event which has concerned a large number of buildings shows a special technical interest for
countries like Spain, France and Portugal with low to moderate seismicity where similar events may
occur.
The main objective of the mission is to report the main observations and to try to draw conclusions for
the seismic standards for standard and industrial buildings and for post-disaster emergency procedures.
First conclusions of the field investigation:
Lorca has given, two weeks after the event, a first impression of normal life with many civil works and
the recovery of a large part of its activities and services. Nevertheless the seismic event has had a major
impact on the town and has caused structural and non-structural damages in a rather large number of
buildings: only half of the schools are now opened, almost all the churches are closed and 15,000
persons (for a total of 60,000 inhabitants of the central urban area of Lorca) have had to leave their
houses and stay at houses of their relatives, holidays houses (in the surrounding countryside or in
LAguila seaside resort distant of 35 km), in the emergency camp (1,500 persons two weeks after the
earthquake) or in a small non-official camp not far from their damaged houses.
The town which is very densely populated has been shaken by a first earthquake of magnitude Mw=4.5
with a 2km depth at 17.05 (local hour) which made people going out in the streets and stopping their
working activities. The main shock occurred at 18.47 and had a magnitude Mw=5.1 with a 3 km depth.
Note that for such a magnitude, the dimensions of the fault are estimated to 4km for the length and
2km for the depth for a slip of about 0.15m. During the damaging second shock, all the schools and
churches were not occupied. Both shocks occurred very close to the surface and in the very vicinity of
the most urban area: the epicenters were at few kilometers from the town center but it is estimated
that the fault has developed in the direction and maybe underneath the town. As expected for such a
magnitude, the duration of the seismic vibration was very short (1.5s for the strong motion duration
Fig. 2). The recorded signals and some observation done on the site (sliding of heavy objects, for
example) show a strong directivity of the seismic ground motion toward north. This can be explained by
the assumed orientation of the fault (Fig.3).
Although only two important structures collapsed during the event (a church and a 8-years old 4 storeys
reinforced concrete building), important damages have been observed in a part of the building stock of
the town in particular in the masonry non-structural elements and the reinforced concrete elements
with a high index of vulnerability (short columns, irregular structures, detailing from the 70s Fig. 4-6).
The main part of the casualties has been caused by the non-structural masonry walls or parapets falling
down from the highest storeys of the RC buildings. The vicinity of the epicenter and the very limited
depth explain the observed damages and the high values of acceleration recorded in Lorca. It has to be
noted that the values of spectral acceleration recorded on the site are 2 or 3 times higher than the
Spanish Standards in this area. Nevertheless the reinforced concrete buildings respecting the basic rules
of the seismic guidelines (lack of short columns, adequate detailing and shear reinforcement) have not
suffered any damage in the structural system (although the peak ground and the spectral accelerations
were three times higher than the values provided in the Spanish standards Fig. 7). The Spanish
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standards include very few provisions regarding the non structural elements which have to adapt the
displacement of the frame structures. The non-structural damage can be limited by either increasing the
stiffness of the structural system by adding reinforced concrete walls (lift staircases, for example) or
adopting flexible non-structural elements. In public or important buildings such as schools and hospitals,
the non-structural damage can become a real concern (Fig. 8). Several schools have been visited and, for
some of them, it was a chance that they were not occupied during the earthquake. Some of these
schools have also suffered structural damage.
Lorca town has a very rich cultural heritage due to this position close to the border with Granada Califat
during more than 200 years (1260-1492) and its rich agriculture. The town contains several important
churches, monuments and museum (http://lorcatallerdeltiempo.es/). The cultural life of the town is
particularly intense during the Passo Azul and Passo Blanco Semana Santa processions. The two
churches where are sheltered the two symbols of Lorca have been protected very soon after the event:
it was important to avoid the collapse of these churches. The most impressive damage has been
observed in the Santiago church (complete collapse of the Cupola and the roof Fig 9). For the other
churches, the damages are located in the internal structure (painted arches and cupolas) and the ring
towers which have been consolidated. One tower of the Castle has also been seriously damaged.
The large hospital of Lorca (capacity of 350 persons, 1200 staffs, 6 operatory blocks) situated outside the
town (and at a larger distance from the epicenter) has only suffered very limited damage and was
operative after the earthquake: an operation was on-going during the earthquake and has been
achieved with success. The hospital has been evacuated just after the second shock because of the
difficulties to quickly estimate the damage in the hospital structure and equipments and the fear of
important aftershocks. The observations done in the hospital (Fig. 10-11) and in the other parts of the
town with industrial equipments (mechanical workshops, electrical sub-station Fig. 12) let think that
the equipments are not very vulnerable to this type of earthquake (high acceleration but very short
duration). Any networks have not been shut-down during the earthquake (electricity, fixed telephone,
gaz and water supplies). Only the mobile phone network has been saturated and had to be
strengthened by requesting two additional mobile units. The motorway and the tunnel galleries have
also not suffered damage. The motorway was stopped during some hours to check the lack of damage
(ground failure) and avoid accidents. A motorway bridge is located very close to the epicenter (Fig. 13).
The crisis has been very efficiently managed following the procedure scheduled for such an event: the
first decision has been taken by the city major but as soon as the amplitude of the damage was known,
Murcia region took the lead and has requested the deployment of the special military unit UME. In 36
hours, camps with a total capacity of 4,000 persons have been made available by the Spanish Civil
Protection, UME and Red Cross with more than 1,000 staffs for the crisis management. More than 4,000
buildings have been inspected the days after the earthquake in order to identify the undamaged
buildings available to host the population and to secure the damaged area. The assessment using green,
yellow and red flags has been performed very quickly but with a very low reliability which has created a
lack of confidence in the population. The inspections are being repeated and the reliability is improving.
Now -28
th
May- only 215 buildings are classified with a red status (destruction or heavy strengthening
M5.1 Lorca Earthquake field investigation
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required). One of the difficulties encountered during this assessment was the lack of established
evaluation form. During the field investigation mission, the Spanish and French earthquake associations
have used some evaluation forms under development. The observations done after this seismic event
will be used for the guidelines written by AFPS in the technical fields covered by the association.
Only 2 weeks after the event, several buildings were being strengthened mainly with steel jackets (Fig.
14). The quality of the strengthening techniques was not equal and columns were sometimes repaired
only very locally.

Table 1: Peak ground accelerations and velocities recorded by IGN

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Figure 1: Location of epicenters, damage and casualties. Location of the accelerometers which have
recorded the strong motion
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Figure 2: North-south recorded acceleration (Mw 5.1 event) and response spectrum
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Figure 3: Fault position and geometry compared to the town and the IGN accelerometer (from IGC)


Figure 4: View of the collapse building and the heavily damaged RC building (short columns)
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a/ Shear failure due to short columns b/ Shear failure due to pounding of adjacent buildings
Figure 5: Damage in recent RC buildings
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Figure 6: Non structural damage in recent RC buildings
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Figure 7: Recent buildings with no damage

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a/ Damage in the non structural masonry walls

b/ Failure of a non structural wall in a corridor c/ Structural damage in RC elements of a school theater
Figure 8: Damage in schools
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a/ Santiago church b/ Castle tower

c/ Non structural damage
Figure 9: Damage in cultural heritage structures

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Figure 10: Light damage in the hospital (pounding between blocks and non structural damage)
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Figure 11: View of the hospital and of equipments which have remained operative after the earthquake
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a/ Electrical sub-station

b/ Nitrogen and Oxygen tanks at the hospital
Figure 12: Example of equipments without damage

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Figure 13: Motorway bridge in the epicentral area
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Figure 14: Example of strengthening of damaged columns