Near-Surface Seismic Studies To Estimate Potential Earthquake Ground Motion Amplification At A Thick Soil Site In The Ottawa River Valley, Canada

Author(s):  
Beatriz Benjumea ◽  
Jim A. Hunter ◽  
Susan E. Pullan ◽  
Robert A. Burns ◽  
Ron L. Good
Author(s):  
Athanasius Cipta ◽  
Phil Cummins ◽  
Masyhur Irsyam ◽  
Sri Hidayati

We use earthquake ground motion modelling via Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) and numerical simulation of seismic waves to consider the effects of site amplification and basin resonance in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. While spectral accelerations at short periods are sensitive to near-surface conditions (i.e., Vs30), our results suggest that, for basins as deep as Jakarta’s, available GMPEs cannot be relied upon to accurately estimate the effect of basin depth on ground motions at long periods (>1 s). Amplitudes at such long periods are influenced by entrapment of seismic waves in the basin, resulting in longer duration of strong ground motion, and interference between incoming and reflected waves as well as focusing at basin edges may amplify seismic waves. In order to simulate such phenomena in detail, a basin model derived from a previous study is used as a computational domain for deterministic earthquake scenario modeling in a 2-dimensional cross-section. A Mw 9.0 megathrust, a Mw 6.5 crustal thrust and a Mw 7.0 instraslab earthquake are chosen as scenario events that pose credible threats to Jakarta, and the interactions with the basin of seismic waves generated by these events were simulated. The highest PGV amplifications are recorded at sites near the middle of the basin and near its southern edge, with maximum amplifications of PGV in the horizontal component of 200% for the crustal, 600% for the megathrust and 335% for the deep intraslab earthquake scenario, respectively. We find that the levels of ground motion response spectral acceleration fall below those of the 2012 Indonesian building Codes's design response spectrum for short periods (< 1 s), but closely approach or may even exceed these levels for longer periods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (6) ◽  
pp. 2862-2881
Author(s):  
Arthur J. Rodgers ◽  
Arben Pitarka ◽  
Ramesh Pankajakshan ◽  
Bjorn Sjögreen ◽  
N. Anders Petersson

ABSTRACT Large earthquake ground-motion simulations in 3D Earth models provide constraints on site-specific shaking intensities but have suffered from limited frequency resolution and ignored site response in soft soils. We report new regional-scale 3D simulations for moment magnitude 7.0 scenario earthquakes on the Hayward Fault, northern California with SW4. Simulations resolved significantly broader band frequencies (0–10 Hz) than previous studies and represent the highest resolution simulations for any such earthquake to date. Seismic waves were excited by a kinematic rupture following Graves and Pitarka (2016) and obeyed wave propagation in a 3D Earth model with topography from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assuming a minimum shear wavespeed, VSmin, of 500  m/s. We corrected motions for linear and nonlinear site response for the shear wavespeed, VS, from the USGS 3D model, using a recently developed ground-motion model (GMM) for Fourier amplitude spectra (Bayless and Abrahamson, 2018, 2019a). At soft soil locations subjected to strong shaking, the site-corrected intensities reflect the competing effects of linear amplification by low VS material, reduction of stiffness during nonlinear deformation, and damping of high frequencies. Sites with near-surface VS of 500  m/s or greater require no linear site correction but can experience amplitude reduction due to nonlinear response. Averaged over all sites, we obtained reasonable agreement with empirical ergodic median GMMs currently used for seismic hazard and design ground motions (epsilon less than 1), with marked improvement at soft sedimentary sites. At specific locations, the simulated shaking intensities show systematic differences from the GMMs that reveal path and site effects not captured in these ergodic models. Results suggest how next generation regional-scale earthquake simulations can provide higher spatial and frequency resolution while including effects of soft soils that are commonly ignored in scenario earthquake ground-motion simulations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janneke van Ginkel ◽  
Elmer Ruigrok ◽  
Rien Herber

<p>Local site conditions can strongly influence the level of amplification of ground-motion at the surface during an earthquake. Especially near-surface low velocity sediments overlying stiffer seismic bedrock modify earthquake ground motions in terms of amplitudes and frequency content, the so-called site response. Earthquake ground-motion site response is of great concern because it can lead to amplified surface shaking resulting in significant damage on structures despite small magnitude events. The Netherlands has tectonically related seismic activity in the southern region with magnitudes up to 5.8 measured so far. In addition, gas extraction in the Groningen field in the northern part of the Netherlands, is regularly causing shallow (3 km), low magnitude (Mw max= 3.6), induced earthquakes. The shallow geology of the Netherlands consists of a very heterogeneous soft sediment cover, which has a strong effect on seismic wave propagation and in particular on the amplitude of ground shaking.</p><p> </p><p>The ambient seismic field and local earthquakes recorded over 69 borehole stations in Groningen are used to define relationships between the subsurface lithological composition, measured shear-wave velocity profiles, horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios (HVSR) and empirical transfer functions (ETF). For the Groningen region we show that the HVSR matches the ETF well and conclude that the HVSR can be used as a first proxy for earthquake site-response. In addition, based on the ETFs we observe that most of the seismic wave amplification occurs in the top 50 m of the much thicker sediment layer. Here, a velocity contrast is present between the very soft Holocene clays and peat on top of the stiffer Pleistocene sands.</p><p> </p><p>Based on the learnings from Groningen we first constructed sediment type classes for the Dutch subsurface, each class representing a level of expected amplification. Secondly, the HVSR curves are estimated for all surface seismometers in the Netherlands seismic network and a sediment class is assigned to each location. Highest HVSR peak amplitudes are measured at sites with the highest level of amplification of the sediment classification. Based on this correlation and the presence of a detailed shallow geological model at most sites in the Netherlands, a simplistic approach is presented to predict amplification at any location with sufficient lithologic information. With this approach based on the shallow sediment composition, we can obtain constraints on the seismic hazard in areas that have limited data availability but have potential risk of seismicity, for example due to geothermal energy extraction.</p>


1996 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Day

Abstract We examine the extent to which the response of a perfectly elastic half-space to an SH-wave incident from below can be characterized when knowledge about the elastic structure is limited to the near surface. Elastic properties are modeled as piecewise continuous functions of the depth coordinate. It is found that the site amplification function can be determined with a frequency resolution that depends inversely on the depth to which the elastic structure is known. Specifically, certain spectral averages of the site amplification function, concentrated over bandwidth Δƒ, depend only on the elastic structure down to a two-way travel-time depth of 1/Δƒ. These spectral averages are entirely independent of the elastic properties at greater depth. Equivalently, when the incident motion has a bandlimited white power spectrum of bandwidth Δƒ, the site amplification of the root mean square (rms) ground motion depends only on the elastic structure down to a two-way travel-time depth of 1/Δƒ. When the bandwidth is sufficiently large, the following corollary applies: the rms surface ground motion equals the rms incident motion multiplied by 2√Ib/I0, where I0 and Ib are shear impedances at the ground surface and basement depth, respectively. This result provides justification for a procedure conventionally used to correct stochastic estimates of earthquake ground motion to account for local site effects. The analysis also clarifies the limitations of that conventional procedure. The results define specific site-response parameters that can be computed from knowledge of shallow structure alone and may thereby contribute to improved understanding of the physical basis for, and limitations of, site classification schemes that are based on average S-wave velocity at shallow depth. While the analytical results are rigorous only for infinite Q, numerical experiments indicate that similar results apply to models with finite, frequency-independent Q. The practical utility of the results is likely to be limited primarily by the degree of lateral heterogeneity present near sites of interest and the degree to which the sites respond nonlinearly to incident ground motion.


2001 ◽  
Vol 09 (04) ◽  
pp. 1561-1581 ◽  
Author(s):  
ENRICO PRIOLO

The application of the 2-D Chebyshev spectral element method (SPEM) to engineering seismology problems is reviewed in this paper. The SPEM is a high-order finite element technique which solves the variational formulation of the seismic wave propagation equations. The computational domain is discretised into an unstructured grid composed by irregular quadrilateral elements. This property makes the SPEM particularly suitable to compute numerically accurate solutions of the full wave equations in complex media. The earthquake is simulated following an approach that can be considered "global", that is all the factors influencing the wave propagation — source, crustal heterogeneity, fine details of the near-surface structure, and topography — are taken into account and solved simultaneously. The basic earthquake source is represented by a 2-D point double couple model. Ruptures propagating along fault segments placed on the model plane are simulated as a finite summation of elementary point sources. After a general introduction, the paper first gives an overview of the method; then it concentrates on some methodological topics of interest for practical applications, such as quadrangular mesh generation, source definition and scaling, numerical accuracy and computational efficiency. Limitations and advantages of using a 2-D approach, although sophisticated such as the SPEM, are addressed, as well. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated through two case histories, i.e. the ground shaking prediction in Catania (Sicily, Italy) for a catastrophic earthquake, and the analysis of the ground motion in the presence of a massive structure.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kentaro Kasamatsu ◽  
Hiroaki Yamanaka ◽  
Shin’ichi Sakai

Abstract We have proposed a new waveform inversion method to estimate a 2D S-wave velocity structure of deep sedimentary layers using broadband Love waves. As a preprocessing operation in our inversion scheme, we decompose earthquake observation records into velocity waveforms at periods of 1 s interval. Then, we verify an assumption of 2D propagations of Love waves with polarization features based on a principal component analysis to select the segments applied for the inversion. A linearized iterative inversion analysis for the selected Love wave segments filtered at period of every 1 s allows a detailed estimation of boundary shapes of interfaces over the seismic bedrock with an S-wave velocity of approximately 3 km/s. We demonstrate the technique’s effectiveness with applications to observed seismograms in the Kanto plain, Japan. Differences between the estimated and existing structural models are remarkable at basin edges. A regional variation of the near-surface S-wave velocities in our model is similar to a distribution of surface geological classifications. Since a subsurface structure at a basin edge strongly affects earthquake ground motions in a basin with generations of surface waves, our method can provide a detail model of a complex S-wave velocity structure at an edge part for a strong ground motion prediction.


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