Estimation of the seismic intensity in Caracas during 1812 earthquake using seismic microzonation methodology Rogelio Altez 2005, Revista Geográfica Venezolana

https://www.academia.edu/176801024/Estimation_of_the_seismic_intensity_in_Caracas_during_1812_earthquake_using_seismic_microzonation_methodology This work is part of the results of the study conducted by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), called "The Basic Study on Disaster Prevention in the Metropolitan District of Caracas". The earthquake from March 26, 1812, which caused the worst damage in the history of Caracas, is used as one of the scenario earthquake to estimate its impact to today's Caracas, in order to establish the base for a disaster prevention plan. Although a seismic microzonation methodology for the simulation was developed, there remains a great uncertainty with respect to the location of the fault rupture. Besides, numerous available historical documents were not clear enough to validate the simulation. Therefore, historical documents were critically reviewed, which revealed that about 60% of the buildings were heavily damaged in Caracas by the 1812 earthquake. A building database in Caracas is used to find a best fit model by the simulations. Mapping the damage degree of buildings from documents' review revealed that the northern part of 1812 Caracas suffered higher damage degree, which is in agreement with the results of the simulation, and which can be explained by the proximity to the fault rupture and by site effects.