Implications of the Mw9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake for ground motion scaling with source, path, and site parameters

Earthquake Spectra
By: , and 

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Abstract

The Mw9.0 Tohoku-oki Japan earthquake produced approximately 2,000 ground motion recordings. We consider 1,238 three-component accelerograms corrected with component-specific low-cut filters. The recordings have rupture distances between 44 km and 1,000 km, time-averaged shear wave velocities of VS30 = 90 m/s to 1,900 m/s, and usable response spectral periods of 0.01 sec to >10 sec. The data support the notion that the increase of ground motions with magnitude saturates at large magnitudes. High-frequency ground motions demonstrate faster attenuation with distance in backarc than in forearc regions, which is only captured by one of the four considered ground motion prediction equations for subduction earthquakes. Recordings within 100 km of the fault are used to estimate event terms, which are generally positive (indicating model underprediction) at short periods and zero or negative (overprediction) at long periods. We find site amplification to scale minimally with VS30 at high frequencies, in contrast with other active tectonic regions, but to scale strongly with VS30 at low frequencies.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Implications of the Mw9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake for ground motion scaling with source, path, and site parameters
Series title Earthquake Spectra
DOI 10.1193/1.4000115
Volume 29
Issue S1
Year Published 2013
Language English
Publisher Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Contributing office(s) Earthquake Science Center
Description 21 p.
First page S1
Last page S21
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