Post-earthquake observations showed that the use of URM buildings in the area with high relative hazard of seismicity lead to significant damages. Moreover, defects in design and construction of buildings, which was the result of the lack of enough supervision by responsible organizations, can be considered as other causes of damages. In this paper, observed damages in masonry buildings are presented and investigated in detail. | JSEE Vol. 20, No. 3, 2018 Performance of Masonry Buildings in November 12, 2017, Sarpol-e Zahab - Ezgeleh Earthquake (MW ) Behrokh Hosseini Hashemi 1*, Morteza Abbasnejadfard 2, and Babak Keykhosro Kiany2 1. Associate Professor, Structural Engineering Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran, * Corresponding Author; email: behrokh@ 2. . Candidate, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran Received: 03/07/2018 Accepted: 26/09/2018 AB S T RA CT Keywords: Sarpol-e Zahab - Ezgeleh Earthquake; Masonry structures; Failure types; Seismic code Sa rpol-e Za ha b - Ezgeleh ea rthqua ke (MW ) occurred in Kermansha h province of Iran near the Iraq - Iran border on November 12, 2017 at 18:18 UTC (21:48 local time). The epicenter was located about 5 km from Ezgeleh town. Sarpol-e Zahab - Ezgeleh earthquake is the most destructive seismic event in Iran in recent decade in terms of financial and human losses. Based on field observations, carried out by the authors between November 25 and 30, 2017, extensive non-structural and structural damages were inflicted to all types of masonry buildings. Post-earthquake observations showed that the use of URM buildings in the area with high relative hazard of seismicity lead to significant damages. Moreover, defects in design and construction of buildings, which was the result of the lack of enough supervision by responsible organizations, can be considered as other causes of damages. In this paper, observed damages in masonry buildings are presented and investigated in detail. 1. Introduction Iran is frequently exposed to destructive earthquakes with the return period of about 10 years. The last event was the earthquake of MW occurred at 21:48 local time on November 12, 2017 in Kermanshah province and adjacent areas, which is located in west of Iran, quite close to the Iraq and Iran border. During this
