E. Ghanbari - Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz City, IRAN

Azerbaijan is one of the most active segments of the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt and marks the junction between the African, Arabian and Indian Plate to the South, and Eurasian plate to the North. Historical records of earthquakes in Azerbaijan based on macroseismic nd microseismic observations cover a period of 1000-1200 years. Vulnerability to disaster is increasing urbanization and developments that occupy more areas in Azarbaijan are prone to the effects of significant earthquakes ,as demonstrated in the last few years by the devastating earthquakes in Azerbaijan Salmas earthquake 1930 and Roodbar earthquake 1990 and others in Turkey 1976, 1999, Georgia 1991 and 1992, Armenia 1983. This information must help us to determine important factors such as period of occurrence of a quake in fault. If the movement of fault is strike-slip-fault then the prediction of next movement is possible. In the comparison of NTF and NAF (North Anatolian Fault) with San Andreas Fault (SAF) in California the following results will be deduced: l) The strong motion network on the SAF and NTF to NAF is very sparse. 2) Both of them are strike-slip-fault and right-lateral. Depth and periodicity of shakes along these faults are similar to each other 3) In selected zones of the SAF and NTF to NAF, near fault factors that increase the seismic coefficients must be considered in the codes. 4) Soil-Structure interaction effects possibly affect the performance of the 4-8 story stiff structures adversely.