Source Spectra and Site Response from S Waves of Intermediate-Depth Vrancea, Romania, Earthquakes

2009 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Oth ◽  
S. Parolai ◽  
D. Bindi ◽  
F. Wenzel
2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 645-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Zafarani ◽  
B. Hassani

2020 ◽  
Vol 221 (2) ◽  
pp. 1029-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroo Kanamori ◽  
Zachary E Ross ◽  
Luis Rivera

SUMMARY We use KiK-net (NIED) downhole records to estimate the radiated energy, ER, of 29 Japanese inland earthquakes with a magnitude range from Mw = 5.6 to 7.0. The method is based on the work of Gutenberg and Richter in which the time integral of S-wave ground-motion velocity-squared is measured as a basic metric of the radiated energy. Only stations within a distance of 100 km are used to minimize complex path and attenuation effects. Unlike the teleseismic method that uses mainly P waves, the use of S waves which carry more than 95 per cent of the radiated energy allows us to obtain robust results. We calibrate the method using synthetic seismograms to modernize and improve the Gutenberg–Richter method. We compute synthetic seismograms for a source model of each event with a given source function (i.e. known ER), the actual mechanism and the source-station geometry. Then, we compare the given ER with the computed energy metric to correct for the unknown effect of wave propagation and the mechanism. The use of downhole records minimizes the uncertainty resulting from the site response. Our results suggest that the currently available estimates of ER from teleseismic data are probably within a factor of 3, on average, of the absolute value. The scaled energy eR ( = ER/M0) is nearly constant at about 3 × 10−5 over a magnitude range from Mw = 5.6 to 7.0 with a slight increasing trend with Mw. We found no significant difference in eR between dip-slip and strike-slip events.


2009 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 2410-2434 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Boore ◽  
A. A. Skarlatoudis ◽  
B. N. Margaris ◽  
C. B. Papazachos ◽  
C. Ventouzi

1992 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 642-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Gutierrez ◽  
Shri Krishna Singh

Abstract The city of Acapulco is located near or above the mature seismic gap of Guerrero along the Mexican subduction zone. With the purpose of studying the character of strong ground motion on soft sites, four digital accelerographs have been installed in the city on such sites. These instruments have been in operation since 1988. Two additional instruments, part of the Guerrero Accelerograph Array, are located on hard sites in the area. One of these, VNTA, has been in operation since 1985 and the other, ACAN, since 1989. These stations have recorded several earthquakes. We use data from eight events (4.2 ≤ M ≤ 6.9) to study spectral amplification of seismic waves at the soft sites with respect to VNTA. The S waves are amplified by a factor of 6 to 25 at the soft sites in a fairly broad range of frequencies; both the amplification and the frequency band over which it occurs depend upon the site. Although the largest earthquake in our data set (M = 6.9) gave rise to a peak horizontal acceleration exceeding 0.3 g at one of the soft sites, no clear evidence of nonlinear behavior of the subsoil is found. Spectral amplifications of S-wave coda are very similar to those of S waves. We also measured microtremors at the strong-motion sites. The microtremor spectra were interpreted, using reasonable assumptions, to test the feasibility of this technique in reproducing the spectral amplifications observed during earthquakes. Our results show that only a rough estimate of site response can be obtained from this technique, at least in Acapulco; caution is warranted in its use elsewhere.


1990 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-934
Author(s):  
Heidi Houston ◽  
Hiroo Kanamori

Abstract We studied strong-motion spectra observed for three Mw 7.8 to 8.0 earthquakes (the 1985 Michoacán, Mexico; 1985 Valparaíso, Chile; and 1983 Akita-Oki, Japan earthquakes). We determined the decay of spectral amplitude with distance from the station, considering different measures of distance from a finite fault. We compared strong-motion spectra (Fourier acceleration spectra) observed for these three earthquakes with those estimated from the source spectrum determined from teleseismic P waves. We scaled the teleseismic source spectra to produce reference strong-motion spectra at periods from 1 to 10 sec using a simple physical model of far-field S body waves from a point source recorded at the surface of a homogeneous half-space. For all three earthquakes the reference spectral amplitudes at periods of 1 to 5 sec are about half the observed ones at distances of about 50 km. The difference increases as the distance increases. At distances of 200 to 300 km, the reference spectrum is about 1/10 of the observed one. The difference between the reference and the observed spectrum is attributed to the contribution of phases other than direct S waves and to site response. We applied corrections for the finiteness (spatial extent) of the source using a simple model of rupture propagation on a dipping two-dimensional fault. Including the source finiteness did not improve the estimate substantially at periods from 1 to 20 sec, but it modeled significant changes in the signal duration as a function of azimuth for the 1985 Michoacán earthquake. Our results can be used to establish empirical relations between the observed spectra and the half-space responses, depending on the distance and the site condition. If such empirical relations can be established, source spectra determined from teleseismic records may be used to estimate strong motions.


1997 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 446-462
Author(s):  
Toshimi Satoh ◽  
Hiroshi Kawase ◽  
Toshiaki Sato

Abstract Strong motions of 18 earthquakes (3.4 ≦ MJ ≦ 7.1, MJ: JMA magnitude) in the eastern Tohoku district, Japan, have been observed at 12 borehole sites within a 20- × 20-km region in Sendai. In our previous study, we defined a Pliocene layer, whose S-wave velocity VS is greater than 500 m/sec and whose N value of the standard penetration test is greater than 50, as engineering bedrock in Sendai and calculated 304 engineering bedrock waves (hypocentral distance X = 15 to 300 km) by removing the site response between the engineering bedrock and the surface. As the second stage of our study toward a quantitative prediction of strong ground motions of horizontal components, we propose here a statistical spectral model of the engineering bedrock waves by introducing the site response between the pre-Tertiary bedrock (VS ≈ 3000 m/sec) and the engineering bedrock (VS ≈ 500 to 700 m/sec) and a frequency-dependent Q into Boore's spectral model. We separate the site response between the pre-Tertiary bedrock and the engineering bedrock, an attenuation function, and source spectra from the engineering bedrock spectra by assuming an ω−2 model with the seismic moment M0 from the Harvard CMT solution estimated for earthquakes of MJ ≧ 5.3. Initial values of corner frequency f0 are determined based on a previous empirical M0 − f0 relationship in this district. Using six moderate-sized earthquakes (5.3 ≦ MJ ≦ 6.0), we first estimate frequency-dependent Q to be Q = 110f0.69 (f: frequency) by minimizing the standard deviation of the site response, which is defined as the ratio of observed engineering bedrock spectra with respect to the estimated attenuation and the assumed source spectra. The averaged site response is simultaneously estimated to be 1 at 0.1 Hz, 5 at 1 Hz, and 3 at 20 Hz. We then invert f0 and cutoff frequencies fmax for all 18 earthquakes and M0 for seven small-sized earthquakes of MJ < 5.3 by minimizing the difference between the model and observed spectra. The average Brune stress drop obtained from an M0 − f0 relationship estimated from 17 earthquakes except for the smallest earthquake with M0 less than 1021 dyne·cm is 200 bars. The estimated M0 − f0 relationship is identical to the one used to calculate initial values of f0 so that we do not need to perform the inversion iteratively. The obtained stress drop for subduction zone earthquakes in the eastern Tohoku district is consistent with other previous studies. The dependence of the inverted fmax on M0 is not significant, and the logarithmic average of fmax is found to be 13.5 Hz. By using these controlling parameters and the M0 − f0 relationship obtained from a regression analysis, acceleration spectra on the engineering bedrock in Sendai can be predicted statistically from X and M0 or MJ by considering standard deviations of the site response, f0, and fmax.


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