Theses and Dissertations

Author

Inoka Peiris

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Schmitz, Darrel

Committee Member

Wax, Charles

Committee Member

May, James

Date of Degree

8-7-2010

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Geosciences

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

Mississippi State University is one of the many public institutions in Mississippi located near a seismic hazard zone known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). Previous studies reveal the possibility of damage to the campus during an earthquake is in the order of ten percent. Risk assessment for building structures on campus was carried out using HAZUS-MH MR3 software package, for several earthquake scenarios defined to replicate historic and hypothetical earthquake events.The study predicts peak ground accelerations of 0.09g to 0.2g relating to 0.67% to 4.28% building loss ratios respectively, which amounts to a loss of $8.2 million to $53 million. Wood and reinforced masonry buildings show significant resistance to earthquakes compared to concrete and unreinforced masonry buildings. The results of this study suggest that there is a considerable seismic risk to Mississippi State University buildings from a seismic event originating in NMSZ.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15509

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