Engineering for Australian Earthquakes

Jack Pappin

About the Presentation

This lecture explores the nature of earthquake ground motion and its effects on buildings. It gives an overview of the seismic hazard in Australia and discusses the likelihood of various levels of ground motion.  Finally it discusses what can be done to improve building response and whether we, as residents, should be concerned.

Newcastle 1989

Jack Pappin

Jack has many years of experience in geotechnical design. Having graduated from Adelaide University in 1973, working with CSIRO and completing a PhD at Nottingham UK, he joined the Arup geotechnics team in London in 1980 and transferred to Hong Kong in 1993 before retiring in 2014. Jack became a specialist in geotechnical earthquake engineering after seeing the aftermath of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. He believes that engineering design requires a thorough understanding of the various failure modes to ensure an adequate margin against them. Both geotechnical and seismic design provide a wide range of challenges when attempting to follow these principles.

Engineers Australia members participating in AGS technical sessions can record attendance on their personal CPD logs. Members should refer to Engineers Australia CPD policy for details on CPD types, requirements and auditing guidelines.