Topography and Soil Effects in the MS 5.9 Parnitha (Athens) Earthquake: The Case of Adámes

Abstract

Large concentration of damage to residential and industrial buildings occurred in regions near the banks of the Kifisos river canyon during the 7-September-1999 Parnitha (Athens) Earthquake. One such region, which experienced unexpectedly heavy damage, was the small community of Adames, which borders the canyon near its deepest point. To explore whether in addition to structural factors the particular topographic relief and/or the actual soil profile contributed to the observed concentration and non-uniform distribution of damage within a 300 m zone from the edge of the canyon cliff, wave propagation analyses are conducted in one and two dimensions. Finite-element and spectral-element formulations are used to this end. To avoid spurious wave reflections at the artificial boundaries, ourtwo-dimensional (2-D) finite-element analyses utilize Bielak's Effective Seismic Excitation method. Soil layering and stiffnesses are determined from 10 SPT-boreholes and 4 crosshole tests. Ricker wavelets and six realistic accelerograms are used as excitation; two of the latter are selected from the literature and four are obtained on the basis of the four strongest motions of the earthquake, recorded in central Athens.