The 22nd June, 2002 Avej (Iran) Earthquake: Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Perspectives

This paper is devoted to the Avej destructive earthquake from engineering seismology and earthquake engineering point of view. On June 22,2002 a large earthquake shook the suburbs of Avej town, Qazvin, Iran. This earthquake destroyed 7 villages (Changureh, Abdarreh, Hassan-Abad, Naqash, Niaraj , Khandab, Kartal) completely and damaged more than 80 villages between 50% and 90%. The earthquake was felt in the surrounding area up to 100 km. According to official reports, more than 261 people were killed and 1300 were wounded. Magnitude of the earthquake was assigned mb=6.0 by Geophysical Institute of Tehran University (GITU), Ms=6.0 by National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) and Mw=6.5 by United States Geological Survey (USGS) and focal depth of the event, according to USGS report, was estimated to be 10 km. The fault plane solution showed that the event was caused by a reverse fault having trend of about N115. The main shock of the quake was recorded by 50 accelerograph stations. At Avej station, 28 km far from the epicenter, the maximum horizontal and vertical accelerations were approximately 0.50g and 0.26g. respectively.

The macroseismic analyses showed that the epicenter of the earthquake was in the center of a triangle formed by Avej town, Changureh and Gun-Iu villages. More intensive damages were seen in a region limited between Avaj town in the south. Abegarm village in the east, Shirinsu village in the west and Hessar village in the north. In this region all adobe buildings collapsed, masonry buildings were damaged severely and the engineered structures, which were designed and constructed according to the national seismic code for earthquake resistant structures, suffered different levels of damage. Finally the peak intensity of the earthquake in vicinity of surface rupture was estimated to be IX on the MSK scale.