EVALUATION OF RECENT EARTHQUAKES IN ALBANIA

Abstract

Earthquakes are natural phenomena that impact the life of inhabitants who live in zones prone to them. It is of great importance to understand the mechanism in order to undertake adequate precautions and design improvements to have a more resistant urban infrastructure. This article takes into consideration the issues related to structural problems caused by the two earthquakes that shook Albania (September 21 and November 26) in 2019.A considerable number of structures suffered a lot of damages and a substantial amount was destroyed. The team of structural engineers did inspection and post assessment immediately after these incidents. This paper shares some of the findings achieved during these inspections. We find it necessary to summarize in a structural engineering point of view the main causes that the buildings suffered through these earthquakes. Moreover, we added some recommendations in order not to repeat the errors of for the future. This study also includes comparisons between Albanian seismic codes of construction and their equivalent Eurocodes and evaluates the adoption of them to nationwide.