Directivity Effects Research Articles

Seismic Source Tracking With Six Degree‐of‐Freedom Ground Motion Observations

AbstractBack azimuth (BAz) information can be determined from combined measurements of rotations and translations at a single site. Such six degree‐of‐freedom (6‐DoF) measurements are reasonably stable in delivering similar information compared to a small‐scale array of three‐component seismometers. Here we investigate whether a 6‐DoF approach is applicable to tracking seismic sources. While common approaches determining the timing and location of energy sources generating seismic waves rely on the information of P‐waves, here we use S‐waves. We track back azimuths of directly arriving SH‐waves in the two‐dimensional case, P‐converted SV‐waves, direct SV‐ and direct SH‐waves in the three‐dimensional case. For data analysis, we compare a cross‐correlation approach using a grid‐search optimization algorithm with a polarization analysis method. We successfully recover the rupture path and rupture velocity with only one station, under the assumption of an approximately known fault location. Using more than one station, rupture imaging in space and time is possible without a priori assumptions. We discuss the effects of rupture directivity, supershear rupture velocity, source‐receiver geometry, wavefield interference, and noise. We verify our approach with the analysis of moving traffic noise sources using 6‐DoF observations. The collocated classic seismometer and newly built ring laser gyroscope ROMY near Munich, Germany, allow us to record high‐fidelity, broadband 6‐DoF (particle velocity and rotational rate) ground motions. We successfully track vehicles and estimate their speed while traveling along a nearby highway using the estimated BAz as a function of time of a single station observation.

Variability of near‐fault seismic risk to reinforced concrete buildings based on high‐resolution physics‐based ground motion simulations

AbstractBroadband physics‐based simulated earthquake ground motions are utilized to characterize the regional‐scale seismic risk to modern reinforced concrete (RC) structures. A highly dense dataset of ground motions covering a 100‐km 40‐km domain was generated using kinematic fault rupture models with varying rupture characteristics to represent shallow crustal earthquakes and resolved up to frequencies of 5 Hz. Over 40,000 nonlinear response history simulations of short‐ and mid‐rise RC special moment frame buildings were conducted using simulation models that are capable of representing nonlinear behavior and component deterioration effects. The spatial variability of structural risk within a single earthquake scenario and between different rupture scenarios is examined, and the regions of strongest directivity effects and highest structural demands are identified. The structural demands may vary by factor of up to 8.0 at very short distances from the fault, and the large dispersion in the demands decreases significantly beyond a distance of 15 km. The interstory drift and member rotation demands are substantially impacted by important features of the geological structure and the characteristics of the rupture scenarios, particularly the presence of localized high‐slip regions. The frequency characteristics of the structures are found to play an important role in determining the effects of near‐fault ground motions on the structural response and expected damage. The results of this study suggest that the simulated ground motions, particularly those generated using the hybrid rupture approach, may offer reasonable structural risk estimates for low‐frequency structures and conservative estimates for high‐frequency structures.

A possible mechanism of earthquake-induced landslides focusing on pulse-like ground motions

This paper proposes a mechanism of earthquake-induced landslides with pulse-like ground motion (PLGM) based on the discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) method. In recent near-fault earthquake-induced landslides, the two phenomena confusing landslide researchers are observed. One is that large-scale landslides occurred in the area with small PGA but no landslide in the area with large PGA, for example, the landslides occurred during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. The other is that one side slopes collapsed while the opposite side slopes back to back remain stable. For example, most west-faced slopes collapsed while the east-faced slopes back to back remain stable in the 2018 Hokkaido earthquake. To explain the two phenomena in near-fault earthquake-induced landslides with PLGM, a symmetrical slope model subjected to different ground motions during these two earthquakes are analyzed and discussed by using the DDA method. The analysis results show that PLGM may be a major triggering factor for co-seismic landslides in the near-fault region, while PGA may not be the right parameter for the initiation of the earthquake-induced landslides. Meanwhile, the aspect of collapsed slope is related to both the velocity pulse of PLGM and strength parameters of the slope. The proposed mechanism for the earthquake-induced landslides in the near-fault region with PLGM considers both tensile and shear strengths of the slope, which can well explain the landslide initiation phenomena in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake and the 2018 Hokkaido earthquake. The relationship between PLGM and forward directivity effect is also studied in combination with two earthquake cases to more accurately clarify the mechanism of the initiation of co-seismic landslides in the near-fault region.

Effect of Bi-directional excitation on a curved bridge with lead rubber bearing

Abstract A continuous bridge, horizontally curved in plan and isolated with Lead Rubber Bearing (LRB), has been investigated under seismic loading conditions. Two recorded ground motions, representative of historical earthquakes along with far-field (Imperial Valley) and forward directivity effect (Turkey), respectively, have been considered. The bi-directional effect of the bearings considering interaction behavior of bearing and pier has been determined. Modeling and analysis of the bridge have been done by finite element approach. It has been noticed that there is a significant influence of bi-directional loading and the same is found to be maximum in Turkey ground motion which might be due to forward directivity effect.

Study on the source parameters of the micro-earthquakes in Laohutai coal mine based on double difference relocation

Seismicity related to industrial mining activities needs to be understood and quantified in order to ensure safe mining operations. It is of great important to determine if the sources of such events follow the common models and theories, and determine the source rupture property and scale of such events. Moreover, the location of the source is very important to obtain the source parameters. For this purpose, we analyze 103 events recorded in the Laohutai coal mine that are related to fault structure and mining activities to determine their source properties based on relocation. Firstly, the 103 micro-earthquakes were relocated based on double difference algorithm. Then, the source parameters of seismic moment M0, source radius R, corner frequency f0, seismic attenuation Q, energy E, stress drop △σ and apparent stress σa are computed based on relocation, Brune model and grid-search method. The relationship between the other source parameters and seismic moment, the relationship between ML and Mw, and the influence of location on source parameters and magnitude are further analyzed. Finally, the difference of the source parameters between Laohutai coal mine, Qianqiu coal mine and natural earthquakes are analyzed. We find that the source location can be effectively corrected based on double difference algorithm; ω2 model is well suited to estimate source parameters of micro-earthquakes in the Laohutai coal mine. The source spectra show strong directivity effects. Stations in the rupture direction have higher corner frequencies, while stations away from rupture direction have lower corner frequencies. With the increase of M0, the source parameters of R, E and △σ basically show a linear increase, the source parameter f0 basically show a linear decrease and the apparent stress fluctuate up and down around a certain value as a whole. After relocation, the location of the source has a significant effect on the quality attenuation factor Q and has no obvious effect on other source parameters. The influence of relocation on moment magnitude and local magnitude is not obvious. The moment magnitude is linear with the local magnitude. Considering Mw, ML1 can relatively well be used to evaluate the magnitude of the earthquakes in Laohutai coal mine; For the micro-earthquakes with the same magnitude, the values of corner frequency, stress drop, apparent stress and energy in Qianqiu coal mine are greater than those in Laohutai coal mine, the value of source radius in Laohutai coal mine is greater than those in Qianqiu coal mine. For the events with the same magnitude, the corner frequency and the stress drop value of micro-earthquakes are smaller than those of natural earthquake. These indicate that the rupture properties and scales of micro-earthquakes in Laohutai coal mine are different from those of the micro-earthquakes in Qianqiu coal mine and natural earthquakes. The results help us to effectively evaluate the property and magnitude of microseismic source, and better understand causes and consequences of microseismicity in coal mine.

The Effect of Ground Motion Selection Methods for Seismic Design of Tall Buildings: A Case Study of Mandalay City

The near-fault earthquakes ground motion usually observed a few kilometers away from the active faults generally contains high energetic velocity pulses as a consequence of directivity effects. Mandalay city is located 8 km away from the Sagaing fault, and the comparative study is conducted to evaluate the structural response of 3 different types of Reinforced Concrete buildings - 4-story, 10-story, and 16-story buildings, respectively. These buildings are subjected to bi-directional ground motions selected from both far-field and pulse-like near-fault earthquakes. The far-field earthquakes produce less seismic demand on the buildings when compared to the near-fault earthquakes, where the ratio of the fundamental period of the building to the pulse period is significant. Comparing 2 ground motion selection and scaling methods of Tall Building Initiative guidelines - TBI (2010) and TBI (2017), the latter approach provides a more meaningful definition of intensity measure and allows reducing some conservatism. The structural response obtained from the design Equivalent Lateral Force (ELF) and Response Spectrum Analysis (RSA) is compared with the code-based linear Response History Analysis (RHA) results.

Source and strong-motion characteristics of two M\u2009>\u20096 buried earthquakes in southwest Taiwan

We used near-field strong-motion data to investigate the complex combination of source effect and site response for two recent disastrous earthquakes in southwest Taiwan. We estimated strong-motion generation areas (SMGAs) of 2.8 km × 2.8 km and 6.0 km × 4.2 km in a frequency band of 0.4–10 Hz for the 2010 Jiashian and 2016 Meinong earthquakes, respectively. The high-stress drops of 26.2 and 17.0 MPa for these two buried events were potentially related to the small dimension and deep rupture. Our results revealed that both earthquakes exhibited westward rupture directivity, whereas the 2016 Meinong event exhibited a stronger directivity effect because of the consistency between the propagation and slip directions. The localized high peak ground velocity (PGV) patch and the nonlinear site response could be attributed to the soft sediment with high pore fluid pressure and low-velocity structure beneath this region. However, the greater seismic moment and closer faulting location to the thick-mudstone-layer region for the 2016 Meinong event reinforced the strong ground shaking and serious damage over the broad area. This implies that this thick-mudstone-layer region in southern Taiwan plays a crucial role in earthquake response, and an investigation of characteristic site effects should be conducted for seismic hazard mitigation.Graphic abstract

Effect of various aspects on the seismic performanceof a curved bridge with HDR bearings

The performance of an isolated horizontally curved continuous bridge with High Damping Rubber (HDR) Bearings has been investigated under seismic loading conditions. The effectiveness of response controls of the bridge by HDR bearings for various aspects viz. variation in ground motion characteristics, multi-directional effect, level of earthquake shaking, varying incidence angle, have been determined. Three recorded ground motions, representative of historical earthquakes along with near-field, far-field and forward directivity effects, have been considered in the study. The efficacy of the bearings with bi-directional effect considering interaction behavior of bearing and pier has also been investigated. Modeling and analysis of the bridge have been done by finite element approach. Sensitivity studies of the bridge response with respect to design parameters of the bearings for the considered ground motions have been performed. The importance of the nonlinearity of HDR bearings along with crucial design parameters has been identified. It has been observed that the HDR bearings performed well in different variations of ground motions, especially for controlling torsional moment. However, the deck displacement has been found to be increased significantly in case of Turkey ground motions, considering forward directivity effect, which needs to be paid more attention from designer point of view.

Empirical nonergodic shaking scenarios based on spatial correlation models: An application to central Italy

AbstractThis paper provides a new methodological framework to generate empirical ground shaking scenarios, designed for engineering applications and civil protection planning. The methodology is useful both to reconstruct the ground motion pattern of past events and to generate future shaking scenarios, in regions where strong‐motion datasets from multiple events and multiple stations are available. The proposed methodology combines (1) an ad‐hoc nonergodic ground motion model (GMM) with (2) a spatial correlation model for the source region‐, site‐, and path‐systematic residual terms, and (3) a model of the remaining aleatory error to take into account for directivity effects. The associated variability is a function of the type of scenario generated (bedrock or site, past or future event) and it is minimal for source areas where several events have occurred and for sites where recordings are available. In order to develop the region‐specific fully nonergodic GMM and to compute robust estimation of the residual terms, the approach is calibrated on a highly dense dataset compiled for the area of central Italy. Example tests demonstrate the validity of the approach, which allows to simulate acceleration response spectra at unsampled sites, as well as to capture peculiar physical features of ground motion patterns in the region. The proposed approach could be usefully adopted for data‐driven simulations of ground shaking maps, as alternative or complementary tool to physic‐based and stochastic‐based approaches.

Seismic fragility evaluation of semi-rigid frames subjected to near-field earthquakes

The studies on the seismic fragility evaluation of semi-rigid (SR) steel moment frames are meager in the existing literature. The purpose of the present numerical study is to investigate the seismic fragility of SR frames subjected to near-field earthquakes. Specific characteristics of the fragility curves for near-field earthquakes are highlighted by comparing them with those for far-field earthquakes. A ten-story SR frame is analyzed subjected to four sets of earthquakes considering the moderate degree of semi-rigidity. The four sets of earthquakes, namely, far-field, near-field with high directivity, low directivity, and fling-step consist of ensembles of ten real ground motion records in each ensemble. The fragility plots are developed by considering a number of damage measures, namely, the maximum inter-story drift ratio, maximum base shear, maximum roof drift angle, maximum top-story acceleration with the peak ground acceleration (PGA) as an intensity measure. Threshold values for different damage states are decided based on the engineering judgment. For the near-field earthquake with directivity effect, the frequency repercussions on the fragility curves are investigated by varying the peak ground velocity (PGV) to PGA ratio with high ( > 160 cm/s-g), and low (< 160 cm/s-g) ratios. The major findings of the numerical study show that a high directivity ratio of the near-field earthquake has a significant effect on the probability of exceedance as compared to the far-field earthquake.

Study on the disaster mechanism of near-fault pulse-like ground motion of M8.0 Wenchuan earthquake

With the improvement of observation quality, more and more near-fault strong earthquake records have been obtained. Through the analysis of near-fault strong ground motion records of Wenchuan earthquake, the collection and field investigation of seismogenic structural data, as well as the collection and field investigation of near-fault structural damage data, the disaster mechanism of Wenchuan earthquake is studied. The impulsive ground motion (directional effect, permanent displacement effect, etc.) near the fault is determined. It is confirmed that the pulse-like ground motion (directivity effect, permanent displacement effect, etc.) near-fault is the main cause of earthquake damage. Pulse-like ground motion has the characteristics of high peak value, wide frequency band and long duration. Therefore, it is easy to resonate with the structures with different basic periods, thus causing serious direct disasters and indirect secondary disasters.

Tsunami simulations along the Eastern African coast from mega-earthquake sources in the Indian Ocean

The catastrophic 2004 Indonesian tsunami reached the shores of Eastern Africa, where it affected at least 12 countries and caused several hundred casualties, principally in Somalia. Significant variations in run-up were documented by various post-tsunami surveys (note that the latter remain incomplete, especially in Southern Tanzania and Mozambique). In a previous study, Okal et al. (S Afr J Geology 112:343–358, 2009) suggested that these variations could depend on the precise location of the tsunami sources, as a result of the combined effect of source directivity and refraction by irregular bathymetry. In this context, we present the results of a significantly enhanced study, which considers a total of twelve potential sites of mega-earthquakes, along both the Sunda Arc, and the Makran subduction zone. Numerical simulations are carried out at a total of 35 virtual gauges, spanning the East African coast from Socotra in the North to Port Elizabeth in the South, as well as adjoining islands (Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarenes), the Gulf of Aden, and distant islands in the far Southern Indian Ocean, from Amsterdam to Prince Edward. We conclude that at many locations, in particular in Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarenes, the 2004 tsunami (which to a large extent awakened the awareness of the continent to tsunami danger) may not have represented a worst case scenario. For tsunamis originating in the Makran, amplitudes larger than in 1945 require the simultaneous rupture of several blocks of the plate boundary, a scenario which, although not impossible, remains at this stage speculative.

Accounting for directivity-induced pulse-like ground motions in building portfolio loss assessment

Earthquake-induced pulse-like ground motions are often observed in near-source conditions due to forward-directivity. Recent worldwide earthquakes have emphasised the severe damage potential of such pulse-like ground motions. This paper introduces a framework to quantify the impact of directivity-induced pulse-like ground motions on the direct economic losses of building portfolios. To this aim, a simulation-based probabilistic risk modelling framework is implemented for various synthetic building portfolios located either in the fault-parallel or fault-normal orientations with respect to a case-study strike–slip fault. Three low-to-mid-rise building typologies representative of distinct vulnerability classes in the Mediterranean region are considered: non-ductile moment-resisting reinforced concrete (RC) frames with masonry infills, mainly designed to only sustain gravity loads (i.e. pre-code frames); moment-resisting RC infilled frames designed considering seismic provisions for high ductility capacity (i.e. special-code frames); special-code steel moment-resisting frames. Monte Carlo-based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis is first performed, considering the relevant modifications to account for the pulse-occurrence probability and the resulting spectral amplification. Hazard curves for sites/buildings located at different distances from the fault are obtained, discussing the spatial distribution of the hazard amplification. A set of pulse-like ground motions and a set of one-to-one spectrally-equivalent ordinary records are used to perform non-linear dynamic analysis and derive fragility relationships for each considered building typology. A vulnerability model is finally built by combining the derived fragility relationships with a (building-level) damage-to-loss model. The results are presented in terms of intensity-based and expected annual loss for synthetic portfolios of different sizes and distribution of building types. It is shown that, for particularly short-period structures (e.g. infilled RC frames), the influence of near-source directivity can be reasonably neglected in the fragility derivation while kept in place in the hazard component. Overall, near-source directivity effects are significant when estimating losses of individual buildings or small portfolios located very close to a fault. Nevertheless, the impact of pulse-like ground motions on losses for larger portfolios can be considered minimal and can be neglected in most of the practical large-scale seismic risk assessment applications.

Listening Difficulties of Children With Cochlear Implants in Mainstream Secondary Education.

Previous research has shown that children with cochlear implants (CIs) encounter more communication difficulties than their normal-hearing (NH) peers in kindergarten and elementary schools. Yet, little is known about the potential listening difficulties that children with CIs may experience during secondary education. The aim of this study was to investigate the listening difficulties of children with a CI in mainstream secondary education and to compare these results to the difficulties of their NH peers and the difficulties observed by their teachers. The Dutch version of the Listening Inventory for Education Revised (LIFE-R) was administered to 19 children (mean age = 13 years 9 months; SD = 9 months) who received a CI early in life, to their NH classmates (n = 239), and to their teachers (n = 18). All participants were enrolled in mainstream secondary education in Flanders (first to fourth grades). The Listening Inventory for Secondary Education consists of 15 typical listening situations as experienced by students (LIFEstudent) during class activities (LIFEclass) and during social activities at school (LIFEsocial). The teachers completed a separate version of the Listening Inventory for Secondary Education (LIFEteacher) and Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk. Participants with CIs reported significantly more listening difficulties than their NH peers. A regression model estimated that 75% of the participants with CIs were at risk of experiencing listening difficulties. The chances of experiencing listening difficulties were significantly higher in participants with CIs for 7 out of 15 listening situations. The 3 listening situations that had the highest chance of resulting in listening difficulties were (1) listening during group work, (2) listening to multimedia, and (3) listening in large-sized classrooms. Results of the teacher's questionnaires (LIFEteacher and Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk) did not show a similar significant difference in listening difficulties between participants with a CI and their NH peers. According to teachers, NH participants even obtained significantly lower scores for staying on task and for participation in class than participants with a CI. Although children with a CI seemingly fit in well in mainstream schools, they still experience significantly more listening difficulties than their NH peers. Low signal to noise ratios (SNRs), distortions of the speech signal (multimedia, reverberation), distance, lack of visual support, and directivity effects of the microphones were identified as difficulties for children with a CI in the classroom. As teachers may not always notice these listening difficulties, a list of practical recommendations was provided in this study, to raise awareness among teachers and to minimize the difficulties.

Influence of non-Gaussian characteristics of wind load on fatigue damage of wind turbine

Based on translation models, both Gaussian and non-Gaussian wind fields are generated using spectral representation method for investigating the influence of non-Gaussian characteristics and directivity effect of wind load on fatigue damage of wind turbine. Using the blade aerodynamic model and multi-body dynamics, dynamic responses are calculated. Using linear damage accumulation theory and linear crack propagation theory, crack initiation life and crack propagation life are discussed with consideration of the joint probability density distribution of the wind direction and mean wind speed in detail. The result shows that non-Gaussian characteristics of wind load have less influence on fatigue life of wind turbine in the area with smaller annual mean wind speeds. Whereas, the influence becomes significant with the increase of the annual mean wind speed. When the annual mean wind speeds are 7 m/s and 9 m/s at hub height of 90 m, the crack initiation lives under softening non-Gaussian wind decrease by 10% compared with Gaussian wind fields or at higher hub height. The study indicates that the consideration of the influence of softening non-Gaussian characteristics of wind inflows can significantly decrease the fatigue life, and, if neglected, it can result in non-conservative fatigue life estimates for the areas with higher annual mean wind speeds.

Strong Ground-Motion Characteristics Observed in the November 12, 2017, Mw7.3 Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran Earthquake

ABSTRACT The November 12, 2017, moment magnitude (Mw) 7.3 Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake, which occurred after a seismic quiescence, close to the Iran–Iraq border, is one of the largest events recorded in the Zagros fold and thrust belt. In this study, we analyzed strong-motion data of this event from 38 stations within an epicentral distance of 36 to 200 km. Spectral analysis of strong-motion data resulted in an Mw estimate of 7.34, an average rupture velocity of 3.03 km/s, and a stress drop of 154 bars. We estimated that shear dislocation propagated over a rectangular fault area with a length of ~97 km and width of ~17 km. Comparison of the horizontal peak ground-motions from this earthquake with the ground-motion model for active crustal regions indicated overall good agreement; however, the model underestimates ground-motions at stations within distances of approximately 30 km or less. The model appears to underestimate the observed strong-motion recordings from the Mw7.4 September 16, 1978, Tabas and the Mw7.4 June 20, 1990, Manjil earthquakes as well. Investigation of the observed accelerograms showed that the Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake was nucleated by a sub-event with a local magnitude (ML) of 4.9 which contributed about 0.02% to the total seismic moment. The empirical data indicated multiple arrivals due to the development of the rupture as two major sub-events. The spatial distribution of stations along with the time difference between the sub-events on the recorded time-series implies their occurrence from the hypocenter toward the S-SE direction which is coincident with the principal directions of the majority of damaged buildings. The estimated Mw of these sub-events is 6.79 and 7.08, respectively. The distinctive characteristics of near-field recordings from Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake (e.g., multiple phase arrivals due to complex source process, forward directivity effect, and blind thrust faulting) make these data a valuable supplement to the recorded ground-motion database. The improved strong-motion database plays a fundamental role in calibrating seismological simulation models, developing ground-motion models that capture near-source effects, and performing nonlinear dynamic structural analyses.

An Earthquake Source Spectrum Model Considering Rupture Directivity and Its Application for Obtaining Green’s Functions

ABSTRACTA small earthquake with strong rupture directivity is inappropriate to use as a point source when estimating ground motion. A source spectrum model is proposed to remove the effects of rupture directivity and finite fault size from observed earthquakes. This model is developed by using a kinematic source model of a rectangular fault with bilateral-bidirectional rupture propagation. Its amplitude spectrum is modeled to decay as ω−2 at high frequency and is approximated by its envelope to make deconvolution a stable operation. The effectiveness of the proposed spectrum model is demonstrated through application to the two aftershocks of Mw 4.0 and Mw 5.5 observed following the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. These aftershocks had similar focal mechanisms and were located near to each other. A method to estimate the source parameters by using the proposed spectrum model is presented and its effectiveness is demonstrated. The deconvolution of the ground-motion records using a suitable source spectrum model gives us the Green’s function. The amplitude spectra of the Green’s functions obtained from both observed aftershock events are shown to be consistent. The far-field ground motions are simulated by using the Green’s functions. The simulated ground motions match well with the observed ones. Simulation of the ground motions by using the Green’s functions obtained from the deconvolution of ground-motion records by the proposed spectrum model has an advantage compared to the use of small earthquake records as empirical Green’s functions (EGFs). Specifically, this approach reduces the variation in ground-motion simulation results due to the choice of different EGFs.

Influence of near-fault ground motion characteristics on the seismic response of cable-stayed bridges

Observations from several earthquakes indicate that near-fault (NF) ground motions have a significant influence on the seismic response of structures. However, existing studies have only discussed the influence of a certain NF characteristic on the seismic response, rather than systematically discussing and comparing the influence of different NF characteristics. Furthermore, current research is only suitable for a specific structure while the influence of NF characteristics on structures with different dynamic characteristics has not been revealed. As an important lifeline project, the safety of a cable-stayed bridge (CSB) during earthquakes is of great concern. Therefore, this paper investigates the influence of NF ground motions on the seismic response of CSB. Firstly, three major characteristics (i.e., the hanging wall effect, rupture directivity effect and high velocity pulse) of NF ground motions are analyzed using NF records of the Chi–Chi earthquake. Secondly, a finite element (FEM) model for modeling a prototype CSB is developed and benchmarked. Then, the seismic responses of the prototype CSB subjected to NF ground motions with different characteristics are analyzed using the benchmarked FEM model. The analyses show that hanging wall effect, rupture directivity effect, and high velocity pulse affect the seismic demand of the CSB to varying degrees. Furthermore, the influences of NF characteristics on the displacement response of CSBs with different fundamental periods are investigated using SDOF systems. The analysis results show that different NF characteristics have various influences on the displacement response of CSBs with different fundamental periods.

Ground-Motion Attenuation, Stress Drop, and Directivity of Induced Events in the Groningen Gas Field by Spectral Inversion of Borehole Records

ABSTRACTProduction-induced earthquakes in the Groningen gas field caused damage to buildings and concerns for the population, the gas-field owner, and the local and national authorities and institutions. The largest event (ML=3.6) occurred in 2012 near Huizinge, and, despite the subsequent decision of the Dutch government to reduce the gas production in the following years, similar magnitude events occurred in 2018 and 2019 (ML=3.4). Thanks to the improvement of the local seismic networks in the last years, recent events provide a large number of recordings and an unprecedented opportunity to study the characteristics of induced earthquakes in the Groningen gas field and related ground motions.In this study, we exploit the S-wave Fourier amplitude spectra recorded by the 200 m depth borehole sensors of the G network from 2015 to 2019 to derive source and attenuation parameters for ML≥2 induced earthquakes. The borehole spectra are decomposed into source, attenuation, and site nonparametric functions, and parametric models are then adopted to determine moment magnitudes, corner frequencies, and stress drops of 21 events. Attenuation and source parameters are discussed and compared with previous estimates for the region. The impact of destructive interference of upgoing and downgoing waves at borehole depth on the derived parameters is also discussed and assessed to be minor.The analysis of the apparent source spectra reveals that several events show rupture directivity and provides clear observations of frequency-dependent directivity effects in induced earthquakes. The estimated rupture direction shows a good agreement with orientation of pre-existing faults within the reservoir. Our results confirm that rupture directivity is still an important factor for small-magnitude induced events, affecting the amplitude of recorded short-period response spectra and causing relevant spatial ground-motion variability.

Using Aftershocks to Help Locate Historical Earthquakes

AbstractFor historical earthquakes, the spatial distributions of macroseismic intensity reports are commonly used to estimate the event locations. The methods to locate historical earthquakes assume that the highest seismic intensity shows the best estimate of the location of the earthquake. Uncertainties in the locations estimated from macroseismic data can be due to an uneven geographic distribution of sites with intensity reports, variations in intensities due to local soil conditions, ambiguous historical reports, and earthquake directivity effects. Additional constraint on the location of a historical earthquake can come from places where most aftershocks were felt, because these localities may have been closest to the fault on which the mainshock took place. Examples of estimated earthquake locations based on aftershocks are those of the 1727 MLg 5.6 earthquake in northeastern Massachusetts, the MLg 5.7 earthquake in Maine, and the 1755 MLg 6.2 earthquake offshore of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. In all of these cases, the earthquake locations based on the aftershock data are somewhat different from previous locations derived from the macroseismic intensities alone. Uncertainties with this method include identifying aftershocks in historical accounts and the possibility that smaller events that are reported following a strong earthquake are not on or near the mainshock rupture. Even so, evidence of possible aftershock activity may help constrain the location of that mainshock. Because aftershocks of strong earthquakes (M≥7) can last months to years, archival research for aftershocks must be carried out with a somewhat different mindset than that for a mainshock.