Near-surface material and topography generate anomalous high-frequency ground motion amplification in Chugiak, Alaska

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
By: , and 

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Abstract

An ∼3 km long nodal array oriented approximately east–west was deployed in Chugiak, Alaska, by the U.S. Geological Survey during 2021. The array intersects with the permanent NetQuakes station NP.ARTY, where peak ground acceleration (PGA) value of 1.98g was recorded during the 2018  Mw 7.1 Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake, in sharp contrast to the PGA of ∼0.3g at a site just 4 km to the west. Seismic data for Mw  1.8–4.3 aftershocks from the Mw  7.1 event recorded by the nodal array confirm the anomalously large ground motions obtained at NP.ARTY as well as similar amplifications at nodes within ∼1 km to the east. Here, we performed 0–10 Hz 3D finite‐difference simulations, including high‐resolution surface topography, to explore the cause of the unexpectedly large amplification. As expected, the simulations computed with a regional 3D tomography velocity model severely underpredict the 0–10 Hz acceleration records at almost all sites. Adding a near‐surface low‐velocity taper to 300 m depth amplifies the accelerations by up to a factor of 5 and enables a reasonable match between the nodal data and simulations at sites to the west of NP.ARTY. However, this model still underpredicts the spectral energy in the area covered by glacial sediments by up to an order of magnitude. The addition of a till layer using a depth‐dependent shear‐wave velocity (⁠⁠Vs) profile along with a homogeneous, 8 m thick low‐velocity layer with Vs = 250 m/s representing the kame terraces improves the fit to data to within a factor of 2 at nodes located on top of the glacial sediments. Our study shows that the anomalously large high‐frequency amplification recorded at and near NP.ARTY can be explained by a combination of topographic effects and near‐surface low‐velocity material with amplification effects on the high‐frequency ground motion by up to about 40% and an order of magnitude, respectively.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Near-surface material and topography generate anomalous high-frequency ground motion amplification in Chugiak, Alaska
Series title Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
DOI 10.1785/0120240283
Volume 115
Issue 6
Publication Date August 22, 2025
Year Published 2025
Language English
Publisher Seismological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Earthquake Science Center
Description 16 p.
First page 2793
Last page 2808
Country United States
State Alaska
City Chugiak
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