**1. Introduction**

Although Zhang Heng invented the first ground vibration measuring instrument as early as 132 AD, and subsequent to that the seismic design codes of countries located within earthquake zones have specified increasingly strict vibration fortification standards for structures, it can be seen from **Table 1** that the death toll of tectonic earthquakes remains high.

It has been established that traditional earthquake disaster mitigation scholars, in the absence of a clear definition of the seismic conditions that result in structural failure during tectonic earthquakes, have attributed such failures (illustrated in **Figures 1**–**4**) to insufficient protection against ground vibration resistance, and thus the vibration fortification specifications for structures have continued to be increased after tectonic earthquakes that have had a large impact. The main effect of a tectonic earthquake however results from shear banding, which accounts for more than 90%


**Table 1.**

*The 10 major earthquakes that have caused the highest number of deaths around the world [1].*

**Figure 1.**

*Damage sustained by the Zhenong Building in Taipei during the 418 Hualien earthquake of 2019 [2]: (a) building appearance; (b) cracks in the floor slab.*

*Seismic Conditions Required to Cause Structural Failures in Tectonic Earthquakes DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108719*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Damage sustained by the Yutai Building in Taipei during the 418 Hualien earthquake of 2019 [3]: (a) failure of tilting and subsidence; (b) close-up of damage caused by tilting and subsidence.*

of the total energy dissipated by a seismic event; the secondary effect is ground vibration, whose energy accounts for less than 10% of the total seismic energy dissipation [6]. In fact, the earthquake disaster prevention methods proposed, based on this flawed understanding, including vibration isolation and vibration reduction, actually only increase the vibration resistance of structures under earthquake conditions that would not result in failure in any case. Since the seismic design specifications do not properly reflect the seismic conditions that result in structural failure during tectonic earthquakes, it is not possible to ensure that structures that fully comply with the seismic design specifications will not fail during earthquakes. In view of this, this chapter will first define the seismic conditions that do result in structural failure during tectonic earthquakes and then analyze the reasons why the traditional methods of earthquake disaster prevention cannot perform their desired functions.

**Figure 3.** *The Dongshing Building in Taipei collapsed during the 921 Jiji earthquake of 1999 [4].*

**Figure 4.**

*During the 921 Jiji earthquake of 1999: (a) Sanmin Junior High School in Hualien, Taiwan remained stable [5]; (b) Guangfu Junior High School in Taichung, Taiwan suffered severe damage. Note: The red line in (b) indicates the position of the first floor.*
