Earthquake engineering structures are those engineered to withstand various types of hazardous earthquake exposures at the sites of their particular location.

Earthquake engineering is treating its subject structures like defensive fortifications in military engineering but for the warfare on earthquakes. Both earthquake and military general design principles are similar: be ready to slow down or mitigate the advance of a possible attacker.

The main objectives of earthquake engineering are:

• Understand interaction of structures with the shaky ground.

• Foresee the consequences of possible earthquakes.

• Design, construct and maintain structures to perform at earthquake exposure up to the expectations and in compliance with building codes.