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In the vast inland areas of China, more than 3 million bridges have been built to connect the remote mountainous areas and also to make up the urban transportation networks. For these bridges, reinforced concrete is the most widely adopted material in construction. Unlike the offshore bridges subjected to chloride-induced corrosion, the inland bridges have been constantly threatened by atmospheric carbonation-induced corrosion. The inland areas of China are earthquake-prone regions where several major seismic events occurred in recent years. To investigate the seismic vulnerability of inland bridges subjected to atmospheric carbonation-induced corrosion, the time-dependent characteristics of carbonation were analyzed based on an illustrative cable-stayed bridge, and the time-dependent damage states of bridge components during earthquakes were identified through the material strains of reinforcing steel and concrete. A life-cycle fragility assessment method was proposed and was used to establish the time-dependent seismic fragility curves of the illustrative cable-stayed bridge at the component and system levels. Based on the time-dependent fragility analysis, the macro identification for the seismic damage to bridge system under each damage state and its influence on traffic and repair levels were discussed, the damage sequences of bridge components for different damage states were predicted, and the application strategies of the prediction for components' damage sequences at various service periods were introduced. The research shows that the stirrups tend to be corroded first, leading to rapid decreases of the characteristic strain values of the confined core concrete; and the longitudinal reinforcement experiences very slight corrosion during the bridge's service life. The atmospheric carbonation-induced corrosion increases significantly the damage probabilities of the various bridge components, and consequently change their damage sequences at different damage states. However, the carbonation-induced corrosion does not change the CDPs (complete damage points) and MDPs (maximum damage points) of various bridge components. The bridge system is vulnerable during earthquakes and significantly affected by material degradation. Within the design service life, the damage probabilities of the bridge system can be increased by 0.5620 by the carbonation-induced corrosion, the PGAs (peak ground accelerations) corresponding to CDPs can be decreased by 0.1 g, and the MDPs of the failure state can gradually convert to the CDPs. It is possible to predict the damage sequences of the bridge components during earthquakes on the basis of seismic fragility analysis for different service periods of the bridge, based on which the corresponding maintenance and retrofit strategies can then be determined to protect the bridge against possible earthquakes, and the costs can be reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]