Energy Content Analysis of the Large 2019 Ridgecrest, California Seismic Sequence

Abstract

The energy content of ground motion records obtained during the 2019 M6.4, M7.1 Ridgecrest, California earthquakes which occurred closely in space is analyzed in this paper. Wavelet transform as a powerful tool, that is used to evaluate the energy content characteristics including cumulative energy profiles and the total energy for different components of records, was obtained at three stations named China Lake Christmas Canyon, China Lake and Tower 2. Due to the fact that the energy-based parameters could be well correlated with damage distribution, this path has been taken into consideration in this research work with the light of the powerful wavelet tool. For this purpose, the discrete wavelet transform is efficiently used for multi-resolution decomposition of acceleration time history of ground motions and a new framework is presented to estimate the energy level of earthquake sequences. Finally, the pseudo-period corresponding to each corresponding level is introduced and the distribution of energy vs. the pseudo-period is discussed. The results of this paper provide a platform to compare the energy levels of different earthquake sequences in different periods. Analysis showed that wide-band energy distribution could be identified at China Lake Christmas Canyon and Tower 2 stations.