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The subject of the influence of the seismic excitation on limit loads of footings is revisited, with emphasis on the moment load. The kinematic approach of limit analysis is employed using two collapse mechanisms allowing footing rotation and one with pure translational kinematics. Two of the mechanisms have novel elements, not presented in earlier literature. The paper is focused on the resistance of the soil weight to activating a mechanism of failure, which can be best cast in terms of the seismic bearing capacity factor Nsγ . Seismic loads from the superstructure are interpreted as those caused by a three-mass model, each mass with its own seismic coefficient. The notion of generalized loads is used to present the yield locus for the footing in terms of the gravity force, horizontal force, and moment. The non-symmetric components of the load are interpreted as seismically activated. The approach yields a strict upper bound to the magnitude of the load vector causing failure. Of the three failure mechanisms considered none yields the best (least) solutions for all combinations of loads. In general, the two mechanisms with footing rotation perform better for large moments, whereas the translational mechanism yields better results when moments are small. However, even in the absence of a moment load, the rotational mechanism can yield better estimates of the limit load when the seismic coefficient is relatively large.