Nonlinear soil response as a natural passive isolation mechanism. Paper II. The 1933, Long Beach, California earthquake

The areas that experienced large strains and differential motions in the soil (indicated by breaks in the water and gas pipe distribution systems) and the areas with severely damaged buildings showed remarkable separation during the March 10, 1933, Long Beach, California earthquake. With analogous results for the 1994 North-ridge, California earthquake [Soil Dynam. Earthquake Engng. 17 (1998) 41], the observations summarized in this paper show the fallacy of simplistic and popular interpretations, such as those that hold that in the near field the damage to buildings is caused by 'soft' or 'bad ground' conditions. In fact, significant reduction in the potential damage to buildings may be expected in the areas where the soil experiences 'moderate to large' strains. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.