Seismic Hazard and Ground Response Analysis in Gibraltar

This publication falls within the ambit of geotechnical earthquake engineering and relates to the potential pervasive effects of earthquake shaking, as it is transmitted from seismic source to the underlying bedrock at a site and then through the overlying ground, to the surface. An accurate assessment of such effects is clearly of paramount importance for the design of civil engineering and building structures. The seismic design of building structures in Gibraltar is normally carried out in accordance with Euro-code EC-8. Given that no specific EC-8 National Annex (defining critical seismic design parameters) exists for Gibraltar, reliance has traditionally been placed on the use of the Spanish NCSE-02 seismic Code.This publication investigates the suitability of the current Spanish NCSE-02 seismic hazard map, for ground response from earthquake source to site, in Gibraltar. The investigation is carried out by means of a literature review of regional and local seismic hazard and a specific probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA).The results of the PSHA for Gibraltar suggest a 0.13g peak ground acceleration of reference, on Type A ground as a more suitable value.