Earthquake hazard on Iraqi soil: Halabjah earthquake as a case study

Abstract

Iraq is not secure from seismic hazards. Earthquakes are likely to happen and may cause substantial damage. Actually, such hazards were happened and recorded after the last earthquake in November 2017 (Halabjah earthquake). Unfortunately, there is a lack of studies concerns the assessment of the earthquake hazard on the soil in Iraq. The available research efforts directed toward the earthquakes and their effects on bridge piers, and traditional commercial buildings of Iraq. A historical view of earthquakes that struck Iraq was presented in this paper. Evaluation of liquefaction susceptibility of poorly graded sand at the southwest of Baghdad, Iraq was studied considering the last earthquake. The NCEER, 1997 workshop procedure using shear wave velocity was used to evaluate liquefaction susceptibility of soil. The variation of safety factor with depth had been investigated at different earthquake magnitudes and accelerations. The study revealed that the soil had a high tendency to liquefaction if subjected to earthquake magnitudes within the ranges that hit Iraq in November 2017. Large attention should be given to the effect of the earthquake on soil foundation in the future for all engineering project that constructed in Iraq. Keywords: Earthquake, Halabjah earthquake, Liquefaction, Shear wave velocity, Sand