17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 17WCEE

Sendai, Japan - September 13th to 18th 2020

3RD JANUARY, 2017, AMBASA, TRIPURA EARTHQUAKE: LESSON

LEARNT FROM GEOTECHNICAL AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGE

M. K. Deb (1), L. Halder(2).

(1) Managing Director, Civil Engineering Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd.-India, mkdebindia@gmail.com
(2) Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology Agartala, India, erlhalder@gmail.com

Abstract
Tripura, a third smallest state of India located in the North-Eastern region of the country experienced a moderate
earthquake of Mw 5.7 at 09:09:02 UTC (14:39:03 IST) on 3rd January 2017 with its epicenter at 24.015°N and 92.018°E
and at an estimated focal depth of 32.0 km [1]. Together with Tripura, the quake was strongly felt in the lower part of
Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, even in Kolkata of Westbengal in India as well as many areas of Bangladesh
and Myanmar. At Agartala station (AGT), a peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 0.052g was recorded by the instrument.
Two aftershocks of magnitude 3.4 and 3.9 were also felt on 4th and 6th January 2017, respectively after the mainshock.
Geologically evolved as Tripura Fold Belt below South-East of the Himalayan belt, the state is seismically sensitive
with the impact from several adjacent active faults of Bangladesh (e.g., Madhupur fault, Shyllet fault, etc.) and Dauki
fault of Meghalaya, a north-eastern state of India. The state falls within severe most earthquake zone-V as per IS 1893
(Part 1): 2016 [2]. A detail post-earthquake site investigation was conducted by the authors within 3-days of the
earthquake to capture the types and patterns of failures earthquake-affected areas of Unakoti and Dhalai districts. The
shaken epicentral area resulted in nearly-uprooted conditions of numerous hard-trees, whereas the areas covered with
bamboo clumps were utterly unaffected, which opens up a new direction towards the understanding of soil-root
interactions for future foundation design. From the geotechnical aspects, significant liquefaction, along with massive
sand boiling and lateral spreading, occurred within 10 km to 15 Km from the epicentral area, in the agricultural land on
the bank of river Manu. Moderate landslides were also observed in different locations. Besides this, considerable
damage was also observed in public as well as private buildings. The adobe (mud-wall) houses suffered partial to
complete damage that can be agreed well as the material possess brittle property. Tripura State Disaster Management
Authority reported on 9th January 2017 that nearly 6727 mud-wall houses suffered damage to different degrees (partial
to full). The structural damages occurred mostly in the single-storey and two-storeyed public and private buildings,
however, considerable damage was also observed in a three-story masonry building. The level of damage observed even
in life-line public buildings like, the hospital, schools, transports, etc., at a PGA of 0.052g, exposed the lacking of
earthquake-resistant features which are very much essential for a satisfactory performance in the design level
earthquake (at PGA of 0.18g) thus highlighted the prevailing poor design and construction practices of this region. This
event and its effect on the built environment opens up several directions to reconsider the disaster mitigation-measures
and preparedness giving due weight to such kinds of building structures and other related infrastructures in service to
the people. The overall understanding obtained from the investigation is presented in the paper in details.
Keywords: Ambasa Earthquake; sand-boiling, damage; masonry; RCC

References
[1] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us10007); [accessed Sept. 10, 2019].
[2] IS 1893: Part 1. Indian standard criteria for earthquake resistant design of structures, Bureau of Indian Standards,
New Delhi, India, 2016.