The 1904 Ms6.8 Mw7.0-7.2 Cape Turnagain, New Zealand, earthquake

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 183-207
Author(s):  
G. L. Downes
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Surface Wave ◽  
Seismic Hazard ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
Maximum Magnitude ◽  
Surface Wave Magnitude ◽  
Plate Interface ◽  
Attenuation Relations ◽  
Instrumental Records

The 1904 August 09 NZT (August 08 UT) MS6.8 earthquake caused widespread structural and chimney damage from Napier to Wellington and was felt over a large part of New Zealand. Other than a brief paper in 1905, and determinations of its surface wave magnitude in the last 20 years, little has been done to better locate the earthquake or detail its effects. Comprehensive data have now been obtained from searches of historical documents, including newspapers, private and government papers, as well as instrumental records. Interpretation of the intensity data shows that the earthquake was probably centred near Cape Turnagain at relatively shallow depth. The paucity of aftershocks suggests that the earthquake occurred either on the subduction interface, or in the lower seismicity band or upper mantle of the subducting Pacific Plate. The area encompassed by the higher intensity isoseismals suggests the earthquake had a magnitude greater than the calculated surface wave magnitude MS6.75 ± 0.14 — possibly as high as MW7.2. At this magnitude, the earthquake becomes a more significant event in New Zealand’s historical record, and certainly the largest earthquake suspected of rupturing the plate interface along the Hikurangi Margin. A notable feature of the earthquake is the chimney and parapet damage caused in parts of Wellington Central Business District, approximately 170 km from the epicentre. Much of the city and inner suburbs experienced MM5-6, while MM6-7 occurred in several areas, mostly in those areas that are recognised as possibly susceptible to shaking enhancement, but also in several locations outside these areas. The 1904 Cape Turnagain earthquake has several implications for seismic hazard dependent on whether it was intra-slab or on the plate interface. Of particular importance, are the questions whether the damage in Wellington is exceptional and could represent microzone, focussing or directivity effects; the goodness of fit of the intensity distribution to modelled isoseismals using published attenuation relations; the compatibility of the magnitude with the maximum magnitude/magnitude cut-offs used in this area in the New Zealand Probabilistic Seismic Hazard model; and finally, the possibility that the 1904 earthquake might characterise plate interface earthquakes in southern Hawke’s Bay.

scholarly journals Estimation of seismic ground motions using deterministic approach for major cities of Gujarat

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2019-2037 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Shukla ◽  
D. Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Hazard ◽  
Ground Motion ◽  
Probabilistic Approach ◽  
Maximum Magnitude ◽  
Deterministic Approach ◽  
Major City ◽  
Ground Acceleration ◽  
Attenuation Relations ◽  
Ground Motion Attenuation ◽  
Instrumental Records

Abstract. A deterministic seismic hazard analysis has been carried out for various sites of the major cities (Ahmedabad, Surat, Bhuj, Jamnagar and Junagadh) of the Gujarat region in India to compute the seismic hazard exceeding a certain level in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and to estimate maximum possible PGA at each site at bed rock level. The seismic sources in Gujarat are very uncertain and recurrence intervals of regional large earthquakes are not well defined. Because the instrumental records of India specifically in the Gujarat region are far from being satisfactory for modeling the seismic hazard using the probabilistic approach, an attempt has been made in this study to accomplish it through the deterministic approach. In this regard, all small and large faults of the Gujarat region were evaluated to obtain major fault systems. The empirical relations suggested by earlier researchers for the estimation of maximum magnitude of earthquake motion with various properties of faults like length, surface area, slip rate, etc. have been applied to those faults to obtain the maximum earthquake magnitude. For the analysis, seven different ground motion attenuation relations (GMARs) of strong ground motion have been utilized to calculate the maximum horizontal ground accelerations for each major city of Gujarat. Epistemic uncertainties in the hazard computations are accounted for within a logic-tree framework by considering the controlling parameters like b-value, maximum magnitude and ground motion attenuation relations (GMARs). The corresponding deterministic spectra have been prepared for each major city for the 50th and 84th percentiles of ground motion occurrence. These deterministic spectra are further compared with the specified spectra of Indian design code IS:1893-Part I (2002) to validate them for further practical use. Close examination of the developed spectra reveals that the expected ground motion values become high for the Kachchh region i.e. Bhuj city and moderate in the Mainland Gujarat, i.e. cities of Surat and Ahmedabad. The seismic ground motion level in the Saurashtra is moderate but marginally differs from that as presently specified in IS:1893-Part I (2002). Based on the present study, the recommended PGA values for the cities studied are 0.13 g, 0.15 g, 0.64 g, 0.14 g and 0.2 g for Ahmedabad city, Surat City, Bhuj City, Jamnagar City and Junagadh city, respectively. The prepared spectra can be further used for seismic resistant design of structures within the above major city boundaries of Gujarat to quantify seismic loading on structures.

scholarly journals Uncertainties in attenuation relations for New Zealand seismic hazard analysis

1986 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. H. McVerry
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Seismic Hazard ◽  
Hazard Analysis ◽  
Response Spectrum ◽  
Strong Motion ◽  
Seismic Hazard Analysis ◽  
Ground Acceleration ◽  
Attenuation Relations ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Acceleration Data

Probabilistic techniques for seismic hazard analysis have
come into vogue in New Zealand for both the assessment of major projects and the development and review of seismic design codes. However, there are considerable uncertainties in the modelling
 of the strong-motion attenuation, which is necessarily based largely on overseas data. An excellent agreement is obtained between an average 5% damped response spectrum for New Zealand alluvial sites in the 20 to 59 km distance range and 5.4 to 6.0 magnitude class and that given by a Japanese model. Unfortunately, this corresponds to only about half the amplitude levels of 150 year spectra relevant to code design. The much more rapid decay
of ground shaking with distance in New Zealand has led to a considerable modification based on maximum ground acceleration
data from the Inangahua earthquake of the distance-dependence
of the Japanese response spectra model. Less scatter in New Zealand data has resulted in adopting a lower standard deviation for the attenuation model, which is important in reducing the considerable "probabilistic enhancement" of the hazard estimates. Regional differences in attenuation shown by intensities are difficult to resolve from the strong-motion acceleration data, apart from lower accelerations in Fiordland.

scholarly journals Magnitudes of New Zealand earthquakes, 1901-1993

1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Dowrick ◽  
D. A. Rhoades
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Surface Wave ◽  
Standard Error ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Local Magnitude ◽  
Surface Wave Magnitude ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Seismological Observatory ◽  
Consistent Basis

Determinations of surface-wave magnitude (Ms) are made on a consistent basis for 202 selected New Zealand earthquakes over the period 1901-1993, including most post-1942 events with local magnitude not less than 6.0 and centroid depth less than 45 km. These determinations have led to a reassessment of magnitudes and locations of some earlier events in the New Zealand Seismological Observatory Catalogue of local magnitudes (ML), in some cases with substantial revisions. The surface-wave magnitudes are compared with local magnitudes and moment magnitudes (Mw), where available, and the relations between these three variables and centroid depth are examined through regression models. The absence of surface-wave observations for some earthquakes allows an upper limit to be placed on their likely moment magnitudes. The analysis shows that estimates of Mw derived from Ms will have a standard error of about 0.15 and Mw derived from ML a standard error of about 0.3.

Determining hydrological and soil mechanical parameters from multichannel surface-wave analysis across the Alpine Fault at Inchbonnie, New Zealand

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.A. Konstantaki ◽  
S. Carpentier ◽  
F. Garofalo ◽  
P. Bergamo ◽  
L.V. Socco
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Surface Wave ◽  
Mechanical Parameters ◽  
Wave Analysis ◽  
Alpine Fault

A Hybrid Time‐Dependent Probabilistic Seismic‐Hazard Model for Canterbury, New Zealand

2016 ◽  
Vol 87 (6) ◽  
pp. 1311-1318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Gerstenberger ◽  
David A. Rhoades ◽  
Graeme H. McVerry
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Seismic Hazard ◽  
Hazard Model ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Probabilistic Seismic Hazard

scholarly journals Empirical models for predicting lateral spreading and evaluation using New Zealand data

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Dick Beetham ◽  
Grant Dellow ◽  
John X. Zhao ◽  
Graeme H. McVerry
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Strong Motion ◽  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Attenuation Relations ◽  
Geotechnical Parameters ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Aerial Photos ◽  
New Model ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Lateral Displacements

A New empirical model has been developed for predicting liquefaction-induced lateral spreading displacement and is a function of response spectral displacements and geotechnical parameters. Different from the earlier model of Zhang and Zhao (2005), the application of which was limited to Japan and California, the new model can potentially be applied anywhere if ground shaking can be estimated (by using local strong-motion attenuation relations). The new model is applied in New Zealand where the response spectral displacement is estimated using New Zealand strong-motion attenuation relations (McVerry et al. 2006). The accuracy of the new model is evaluated by comparing predicted lateral displacements with those which have been measured from aerial photos or the width of ground cracks at the Landing Road bridge, the James Street loop, the Whakatane Pony Club and the Edgecumbe road and rail bridges sites after the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake. Results show that most predicted errors (defined as the ratio of the difference between the measured and predicted lateral displacements to the measured one) from the new model are less than 40%. When compared with earlier models (Youd et al. 2002, Zhang and Zhao 2005), the new model provides the lowest mean errors.

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