This breakthrough book is the first to examine the rotational effects in earthquakes, a revolutionary concept in seismology. Existing models do no yet explain the significant rotational and twisting motions that occur during an earthquake and cause the failure of structures. The rotation and twist effects are investigated and described, and their consequences for designing tall buildings and other important structures are presented. This book will change the way the world views earthquakes.

This breakthrough book is the first to examine the rotational effects in earthquakes, a revolutionary concept in seismology. Existing models do no yet explain the significant rotational and twisting motions that occur during an earthquake and cause the failure of structures. The rotation and twist effects are investigated and described, and their consequences for designing tall buildings and other important structures are presented. This book will change the way the world views earthquakes.

Extreme Environmental Events is an authoritative single source for understanding and applying the basic tenets of complexity and systems theory, as well as the tools and measures for analyzing complex systems, to the prediction, monitoring, and evaluation of major natural phenomena affecting life on earth. These phenomena are often highly destructive, and include earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, climate change,, and weather. Early warning, damage, and the immediate response of human populations to these phenomena are also covered from the point of view of complexity and nonlinear systems. In 61 authoritative, state-of-the art articles, world experts in each field apply such tools and concepts as fractals, cellular automata, solitons game theory, network theory, and statistical physics to an understanding of these complex geophysical phenomena.

This book deals with a class of basic deformations in Asymmetric Continuum Theory. It describes molecular deformations and transport velocities in fluids, strain deformations in solids as well as the molecular transport, important in fracture processes. In solids, a separate problem relates to the displacements; their recording, e.g., by means of the seismometers, proves only the existence of the displacement derivatives and not a real displacement. However, the molecular displacements and new fracture criterion including the defect distributions and induced strains are defined in the book too. In fluids, the transport velocities and molecular strains describe the motion processes. The vortex motions are defined by means of the rotational transport; this approach leads to more complicated problems, like the turbulence phenomena. The interaction processes, including the electric and magnetic fields, and some thermodynamical problems and quantum theory analogies help to understand the extreme processes

Our new monograph has been inspired by the former one, Earthquake Source Asymmetry, Structural Media, and Rotation Effects (R. Teisseyre, M. Takeo, and E. Majewski, eds, Springer 2006). Some problems, c- cerned primarily but not exclusively with the basic theoretical nature, have appeared to us as worthy of further analysis. Thus, in the present mo- graph we intend to develop new theoretical approaches to the theory of continua that go far beyond the traditional seismological applications. We also try to present the links between the experimental data, the observed rotational seismic waves, and their theoretical evaluation and description. In addition, we consider the basic point motions and deformations, and we intend to find the invariant forms to describe such point motions. We believe that there must exist the basic equations for all point motions and deformations, and we derive such relations within a frame of a continuum theory. Thus, in the considered standard asymmetric theory, we include relations not only for the displacement velocities but also for a spin motion and basic point deformations as well. We include here the axial point - formation and twist point deformation represented by the string-string and string-membrane motions. A twist vector is defined here as a vector p- pendicular to the string-string plane and representing its magnitude. It - comes an important counterpart to spin and a key to the presented theory. We show in the forthcoming chapters that the twist motion describes the oscillations of shear axes.

Processes of synchronization and interaction play a very special role in different physical problems concerning the dynamics of the Earth’s interior; they are of particular importance in the study of seismic phenomena, and their complexity is strongly affected by the variety of geological structures and inhomogeneities of the medium that hamper the course of these processes and their intensity. The attempt to tackle these problems is a great challenge from experimental, observational and theoretical point of view. We present in this Monograph the theoretical and experimental results achieved in the frame of the European Project “Triggering and synchronization of seismic/ acoustic events by weak external forcing as a sign of approaching the critical point” (INTAS Ref. Nr 05-1000008-7889); in this Project, which was inspired by Professor Tamaz Chelidze, our aim was to give grounds for better understanding and interpretation of dynamical interactive processes of physical ?elds, both found in the laboratory experiments as well as in ?eld observations. One of the leading problems – related to synchronization and interaction of different physical ?elds in fracture processes concerns triggering and initiation of rupture and displa- ments within the Earth interior. From this point of view, the results from laboratory studies on synchronization and interaction and those found and involved in ?eld observations, helped to improve the theoretical background. Reversely, some of the presented new theoretical approaches have served to stimulate laboratory and ?eld studies.

The book Earthquake Engineering - From Engineering Seismology to Optimal Seismic Design of Engineering Structures contains fifteen chapters written by researchers and experts in the fields of earthquake and structural engineering. This book provides the state-of-the-art on recent progress in the field of seimology, earthquake engineering and structural engineering. The book should be useful to graduate students, researchers and practicing structural engineers. It deals with seismicity, seismic hazard assessment and system oriented emergency response for abrupt earthquake disaster, the nature and the components of strong ground motions and several other interesting topics, such as dam-induced earthquakes, seismic stability of slopes and landslides. The book also tackles the dynamic response of underground pipes to blast loads, the optimal seismic design of RC multi-storey buildings, the finite-element analysis of cable-stayed bridges under strong ground motions and the acute psychiatric trauma intervention due to earthquakes.