• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.45-65
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• 2018

Over the last three decades, Performance-based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE) has been mainly developed for high seismicity regions. Although information is abundant for PBEE throughout the world, the application of PBEE to lower-seismicity regions, such as those where the magnitude of the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) is less than 6.5, is not always straightforward because some portions of PBEE may not be appropriate for such regions due to geological differences between high- and low-seismicity regions. This paper presents a brief review of state-of-art PBEE methodologies and introduces the seismic hazard of lower-seismicity regions, including those of the Korean Peninsula, with their unique characteristics. With this seismic hazard, representative low-rise RC MRF structures and high-rise RC wall residential structures are evaluated using PBEE. Also, the range of the forces and deformations of the representative building structures under the design earthquake (DE) and the MCE of South Korea are presented. These reviews are used to propose some ideas to improve the practice of state-of-art PBEE in lower-seismicity regions.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.23-30
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• 1998

An estimation of seismic risk parameters by seismic zones of the Korea Peninsula in order to calculate the seismic hazard values using these was erformed. Seven seismic source zones were selected in consideration of seismicity and geology of Korean Peninsula. The seismicity parameters that should be estimated are maximum intensity, activity rate and b value in the Gutenberg - Richter relation. For computation of these parameters, least square method or maximum likelihood method is applied to the earthquake data in two ways; the one for the data without maximum intensity and the other with maximum intensity. Earthquake data since Choseon Dynasty is regarded as complete and estimation of parameters was made for these data using above two ways. And recently, a new method is published that estimate the seismicity parameters using mixed data containing large historical events and recent complete observations. Therefore, this method is applied to the whole earthquake data of the Korean Peninsula. It turns out that the b value computed considering maximum intensity is slightly lower than that computed considering without maximum intensity, and it becomes still lower when the incomplete data prior to Choseon Dynasty is used. In the case of the activity rates, the values obtained without maximum intensity and that with maximum intensity are similar, though they are lower when the incomplete data is used. The values of maximum intensities are usually lower when considering incomplete data. In the seismic source zone including the Yangsan Fault zone, however, the values are higher when considering the incomplete data.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.69-80
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• 1978

The seismicity of the Korean peninsula (2A. D.-1977) is investigated temporally and spatially to estimate seismic hazard zones in the Korean peninsula, based on macroseismic data from description of the historical literature and reported data by JMA, ERI, World Data Center-A, and ISC.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2000

The seismicity of the Korean Peninsula shows a very irregular pattern of strain release typical of the intraplate seismicity. The Korean Peninsula may be divided into several tectonic provinces of differing tectonics. In this analysis, seismicity parameters for each tectonic province are evaluated from historical as well as instrumental earthquake data of the Korean Peninsula to examine the differences in seismic characteristics among tectonic provinces. Statistical analysis of the earthquake data made of incomplete data before the Choseon Dynasty and complete data afterwards reveals that there exist no significant differences in seismic characteristics between the tectonic provinces. It turns out the b-value in the intensity-frequency relation for the whole peninsula is about 0.6 and the maximum earthquake is about MMI X. The results of this study may be used in the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of the Korean Peninsula and in estimating the design earthquake in earthquake engineering.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.64-71
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• 1999

Seismicity of the Korean Peninsula shows intraplate seismicity that has irregular pattern in both time and space. Seismic data of the Korean peninsula consists of historical earthquakes and instrumental earthquakes. In this study we devide these data into complete part and incomplete part and considering earthquake size uncertainty estimate seismic hazard parameters - activity rate λ, b value of Gutenberg-Richter relation and maximum possible earthquake IMAX by statistical method in each major tectonic provinces. These estimated values are expected to be important input parameters in probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and evaluation of design earthquake.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-63
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• 1980

The seismicity of the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity is investigated temporally (2 A. D. to 1978) and spatially to evaluate the seismic risk and to understand the neotectonics around the peninsula. The study has been conducted using macrocosmic data obtained from historical literature, and instrumental records recorded by the Worldwide Network of Standardized Seismographs(WWNSS). The seismicity of the peninsula was active from the 13th through the 17th centuries. A seismic quiescence began at the onset of the 18th century, and has continued for the last 200 years. Presently, the seismicity region is found to be active again. The return periods are determined by a statistical method based upon the cumulative magnitude recurrence. They indicate that the seismic risk is greater in the south or west than in the north or east of the peninsula. Focal mechanism solutions demonstrate that the neotectonic stress distribution in the Japan Sea is greatly influenced by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Eurasian Plate or the Philippine Sea Plate, even though the predominate local paleotectonics is controlled by the spreading of the earth's crut.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.256-267
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• 2010

Earthquakes in the Korean Peninsula occur along the faults formed and boundaries between major geological units ruptured due to violent tectonic activities during the Mesozoic. E-W and/or ENE-SSW compressive stress regime resulting from collisions between the Eurasian plate and neighbouring the Indian plate, the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate trigger Korean earthquakes of thrust faulting with predominant strike-slip components along the mostly NNE-SSW trending active faults. Seismicity of the Korean peninsula has been moderate to low during the past 20 centuries except for the period from the 15th to the 18th centuries of exceptionally high seismicity, showing the typical irregularity of intraplate seismicity. The structure of the Korean peninsula is rather homogeneous without the Conrad discontinuity sharply dividing the upper and lower crust. Lateral heterogeneities exist in the crust. The crust with an average thickness of about 33 km is thicker in the mountainous region than the plain due to the Airy-type isostatic equilibrium maintained in the peninsula. Crustal P-wave velocity with average of about 6.3 km/sec increases gradually from the near surface to the Moho. The upper mantle P-wave (Pn) velocity is about 7.8 km/sec.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.159-167
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• 2000

We tested the randomness and estimated the degree of concentration for the earthquake occurrence in the Korean Peninsula by using the statistical methods for spatial data. For the randomness test, we applied both of the test statistics based method and the empirical distribution based method to the both of historical and instrumental seismicity data. It was found that the earthquake occurrences for historical and instrumental seismicity data are not random and clustered rather than scattered. A nonparametric density estimation method was used to estimate the concentration degree in the Peninsula. The earthquake occurrences show relatively high concentration on Seoul, Choongnam, Chonbook and Kyungbook areas for the historical seismicity data. Also,'L" shaped concentrations connecting Whanghaedo -the coast of Choongnam -the inland of Kyungbook area are revealed for the instrumental seismicity data.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.499-505
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• 2001

Kim and Baek (2000) tested the spatial randomness for he earthquake occurrence in the Korean Peninsula by using the nearest-neighbor test statistics and empirical distribution functions. The K-function, however, has obvious advantages over the methods used in Kim and Baek (2000), such as it does not depend on the shape of the study region and is an effective summary of spatial dependence over a wide range of scales. We applied the K-function method for testing the randomness to both of the historical and the instrumental seismicity data. It was found that he earthquake occurrences for historical and instrumental seismicity data are not random and clustered rather than scattered.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.309-329
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• 1995

Seismicity and stress state in the Korean peninsula are studied using the catalogue of historical earthquakes and that from the seismological observations before the 1960s, with the aid of instrumental catalogue up to 1995. It seems that the completeness of the historical catalogue has a significant enhancement during the first two hundred years of the Yi dynasty, i.e., from the 1400s to the 1600s. From then on the catalogue may be regarded as near to complete for strong earthquakes in an overall sense. From the distribution of strong earthquakes, three seismic zones may be identified. From the south to the north, those are the southern seismic zone (남부지진대), the Seoul-Pyongyang seismic zone (서울-평양지진대), and the northern seismic zone (북부지진대). The mechanisms of some earthquakes obtained using first motion read- ings are reevaluated with a grid testing method. The results indicate that the compressional axis is nearly horizontal along the EW direction.