Over the last few centuries, over a million people have died and values for several hundred billion dollars have been lost as a result of earthquakes around the world.

Earthquakes are regarded as the most destructive of all natural disasters. The largest known earthquake in Norway to date was registered at Helgeland in 1819. In present codes and regulations for structural and geotechnical design, earthquake loading must be accounted for.

NGI's state-of-the-art expertise

• modelling of soil response due to earthquakes
• natural hazards caused by earthquakes
• soil-structure interaction

Services related to earthquake engineering

Based on our knowledge on soil modelling and of the ground response to vibrations and dynamic loading, we carry out analyses and calculate the effects of earthquakes. Examples are slope stability, determination of foundation stiffness and damping for structural earthquake analyses and soil-structure interaction.

Typical challenges are evaluation of buildings, bridges, offshore structures and slopes that are subjected to earthquake loading.

Research and development
NGI is currently concentrating on research on the behaviour of various types of soils and the stability of submarine slopes subjected to earthquake loading. One of the aims is to apply new research results to existing analyis methods.

NGI collaborates with several international institutions and centres of excellence on earthquake research. NGI's experts:

• are members of  the Norwegian Standards Association's earthquake committee
• give lectures at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology  and at arrangements for earthquake designers
• present papers and lectures at national and international conferences

NGI is the leading institution of the International Centre for Geohazards (ICG), which is one of Norway's "Centres of Excellence" (CoE). ICG carries out research on the assessment, prevention and mitigation of geohazards, including risk of landslide in soil and rock due to rainfall, flooding, earthquakes and human intervention, and the geological risks in deep waters, especially underwater slides.

In 2004, requirements relating to design of structures for earthquake resistance were introduced in Norway. From 2010 Norway is required to comply with the rules and regulations relating to earthquakes in Eurocode 8. NGI is now engaged in research intended to solve specific problems concerning earthquakes in Norway. An example is the behaviour of quick clay during earthquakes.