Amplitude and frequency characteristics of the 2001 Southern Peru, M w = 8.4 earthquake records

Abstract

The Departments of Civil Engineering and Geophysics of the University of Chile, together with international institutions, deployed strong-motion stations in the northern Chile seismic gap. These instruments recorded the June 23, 2001 Mw = 8.4 earthquake that occurred in Southern Peru. This earthquake exhibited at stiff deep soil sites in northern Chile, relatively large maximum accelerations although the recording stations are located more than 400 km away from the epicentral region and 200 km from the southern edge of the rupture. Typical accelerations at these distances are in the order of 0.30 g, consIDerably larger than those expected from recently presented attenuation formulae. Frequency and Wavelet Decomposition of the signals are presented from which the evolution of the amplitude, as a function of selected frequency bands, is analyzed. Typical Central Frequency varies from 3 to 4.8 Hz for horizontal records and 4.5 to 9.5 Hz for vertical records. Ninety five percent of the record energy is concentrated below 11 Hz. Evolution of energy for bands higher than the average record frequency is relatively smooth, and for low frequency, the energy shows abrupt changes as a function of time. The sudden changes are associated to dominant large amplitude motions observed in most of the records. The high frequency content of the motion observed for this earthquake is correlated with the heterogeneities of the interplate contact. To statically characterize the energy evolution with time a smooth three-parameter envelope adjusted for each frequency band is used, therefore, comparison is possible and results could be applied for synthesis studies.