• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.419-425
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• 2009

Although earthquake damage was negligible in Korea during the last a few decades, its historic records suggest that the peninsula have experienced severe earthquake damages throughout the history. The potential for disastrous earthquakes, therefore, should always be considered. Harbors handle 99.6% of imported and exported cargo in Korea. Thus, it is necessary to secure the safety of harbors against seismic events and to establish a support system of emergency measures. Although instrumental seismic data are favored for seismic hazard estimation, their history in the peninsula is limited only to the past 30 years, which does not represent the long-term seismic characteristics of the peninsula. We use historic earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5 to observe long-term regional seismic hazards. Results of historic earthquake records indicate relatively high seismic hazard at harbors in Pohang, Ulsan and Incheon. Analysis of instrumental earthquake records reveal relatively high seismic hazard for harbors located along the East coast including Okgye, Mukho, Donghae, Samcheok, Pohang, and Ulsan.