{rfName}
Si

Indexed in

License and use

Citations

19

Altmetrics

Analysis of institutional authors

Gordo-Monso, CarlosAuthor
Share
Publications
>
Article

Significance of directivity effects during the 2011 Lorca earthquake in Spain

Publicated to:Bulletin Of Earthquake Engineering. 16 (7): 2711-2728 - 2018-07-01 16(7), DOI: 10.1007/s10518-017-0301-9

Authors: Gordo-Monso, Carlos; Miranda, Eduardo

Affiliations

Stanford Univ, Civil & Environm Engn Dept, Stanford, CA 94305 USA - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, ETS Ingenieros Caminos C&P, E-28040 Madrid, Spain - Author

Abstract

The May 11th 2011, Lorca earthquake in Southeastern Spain was a moderate magnitude event (M-w 5.1) yet it caused nine fatalities, more than 300 injuries and more than 462 million euros in economic loses. Peak ground accelerations as well as response spectral ordinates far exceed expected values from various ground motion prediction models. In particular, spectral ordinates computed from recorded ground motions significantly exceed those in current Spanish probabilistic seismic hazard models, as well as those in the Spanish and European building codes. The objective of this paper is to assess directivity effects on ground motions recorded during the 2011 Lorca earthquake, and to evaluate the significance of these effects in earthquake resistant design on moderate seismic regions. In the first part of this paper, we study the likelihood of the presence of a directivity pulse, by conducting a comparison of different parameters of recorded ground motions to analytical pulses. In the second part, we relate the recorded ground motion and its inelastic displacement spectra to some recent statistical models that try to capture the displacement demand features of earthquakes presenting directivity-pulse characteristics. It is shown that simple analytical pulses are capable of reproducing very well pulse-type near-fault ground motions recorded during the event. It is concluded that directivity effects played a major role in the large impact caused by this relatively small event. Furthermore, directivity effects which are typically ignored, both in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and in most building codes, may lead to important underestimations of ground motions.

Keywords
DirectionalityDirectivityFault ground motionsInelastic displacement ratiosInelastic spectraIntensityLorca earthquakeNear-faultPulseRecordsRuptureSeismic hazardSoutheast spainW 5.2 lorca

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Bulletin Of Earthquake Engineering due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2018, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Civil and Structural Engineering. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 2.3, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions May 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-05-01, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 8
  • Scopus: 11
  • OpenCitations: 10
Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-05-01:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 18.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 18 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 15.
Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United States of America.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (GORDO MONSO, CARLOS) .