Modified from presentation of Dr. Walter D.

Mooney
The release of the accumulated elastic strain energy
by the sudden rupture of the fault is the cause of the
earthquake shaking
Measures of ground-
ground-motion for
engineering purposes

• PGA (peak ground acceleration)

• PGV (peak ground velocity)
• Response spectral acceleration
(elastic, inelastic) at periods of
engineering interest
• Intensity (Can be related to PGA and
PGV.)
 Peak ground acceleration (PGA)
• easy to measure because the response of most instruments is
proportional to ground acceleration
• liked by many engineers because it can be related to the force
on a short-period building
• convenient single number to enable rough evaluation of
importance of records
• BUT it is not a measure of the force on most buildings
• and it is controlled by the high frequency content in the ground
motion (i.e., it is not associated with a narrow range of
frequencies); records can show isolated short-duration, high-
amplitude spikes with little engineering significance
 1994 Northridge Earthquake, Sylmar Hospital Free-field site

NS Component

Acceleration (cm/s 2)
P wave arrives before S 500
wave. S-Trigger time = 3.2
sec, hypocentral distance
between approx. 5*3.2= 0
16 km and 8*3.2= 26 km

-500

File: C:\rose\ch09\sylm_3comp_acc.draw; Date: 2003-09-15; Time: 19:06:50

0 5 10 15

Acceleration (cm/s 2)
500 Vertical Component
P-motion much higher
frequency than S, and
predominately on vertical 0
component.

-500
0 5 10 15
Acceleration (cm/s 2)

500 EW Component

Is the horizontal S-wave

0
motion polarized?

-500
0 5 10 15
Time (sec)
 Peak ground velocity (PGV)
• Many think it is better correlated with damage
than other measures
• It is sensitive to longer periods than PGA
(making it potentially more predictable using
deterministic models)
• BUT it requires digital processing (no longer an
important issue)
Large Recorded Ground Velocities
 Peak ground displacement (PGD)
• The best parameter for displacement-based design?
• BUT highly sensitive to the low-cut (high-pass) filter that
needs to be applied to most records (in which case the
derived PGD might not represent the true PGD, unlike
PGA, for which the Earth imposes a natural limit to the
frequency content). For this reason I (Dave Boore)
recommend against the use of PGD.
Acceleration Response Spectra
at Periods (or frequencies) of
Engineering Interest
 Elastic response spectra (many
structures can be idealized as SDOF
oscillators)
 At long periods, oscillator
response proportional to base
displacement
Tosc = 80 sec
5
Ground displacement (cm)
0
-5 5
0
-5
Tosc = 40 sec
5
0
-5 100

Tosc = 10 sec 10
10

Relative Displacement (cm)

0
-10 1

Tosc = 1.0 sec 0.1

1
0
-1 0.01

1999 Hector Mine Earthquake (M 7.1)

Tosc = 0.050 sec 0.001
0.001
station 596 (r= 172 km), transverse component
0
-0.001 10 -4
0.1 1 10 100
Period (sec)
Tosc = 0.025 sec
2*10 -4 Ground acceleration (cm/sec 2)
0 20
-2*10 -4 10
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 -10
Time (sec) 10 20 30 40 50 60

Time (sec)
 convert displacement spectrum into acceleration
spectrum (multiply by (2p/T)2). For velocity
spectrum, multiply by 2π/T.
100

100

10
Relative Displacement (cm)

10

Acceleration (cm/s 2)
1

0.1
1

0.01

0.1
1999 Hector Mine Earthquake (M 7.1)
0.001
station 596 (r= 172 km), transverse component

10 -4 0.01
0.1 1 10 100 0.1 1 10 100
Period (sec) Period (sec)

Acceleration or velocity spectra usually used in

engineering
Frequencies of ground-
ground-motion for
engineering purposes
• 10 Hz --- 10 sec (usually below
about 3 sec)
• Resonant period of typical N story
structure ~ N/10 sec
• Corner periods for M 5, 6, and 7 ~
1, 3, and 9 sec
Frequency Response
of Structures
 Modified Mercalli Intensity
I Barely felt
II Felt by only few people
III Felt noticeably, standing autos rock slightly
IV Felt by many, windows and walls creak
V Felt by nearly everyone, some dished and windows broken
VI Felt by all, damaged plaster and chimneys
VII Damage to poorly constructed buildings
VIII Collapse of poorly constructed buildings,
slight damage to well built structures
IX Considerable damage to well constructed buildings,
buildings shifted off foundations
X Damage to well built wooden structures, some masonry
buildings destroyed, train rails bent, landslides
XI Few masonry structure remain standing, bridges
destroyed, ground fissures
XII Damage total
What Controls the Level of Shaking?
• Magnitude

• Directivity
– Larger fault, more energy released and over a larger area

• Distance from fault

– Shaking decays with distance

• Local site response (rock or soil)

– amplify the shaking
– Strongest shaking in rupture direction
– Pockets of higher shaking (lens effect)
 Earthquake Magnitude
• Earthquake magnitude scales originated
because of

– the desire for an objective measure of

earthquake size

– Technological advances -> seismometers

 Modern Seismic Magnitudes
• Today seismologists use different seismic waves
to compute magnitudes
• These waves generally have lower frequencies
than those used by Richter
• These waves are generally recorded at
distances of 1000s of kilometers instead of the
100s of kilometers for the Richter scale
 Teleseismic MS and mb
• Two commonly used modern magnitude
scales are:
• MS, Surface-wave magnitude (Rayleigh Wave)
• mb, Body-wave magnitude (P-wave)
Modern Standard
Moment
Magnitude
Why use moment magnitude?
• It is the best single measure of overall
earthquake size
• It does not saturate
• It can be estimated from geological
observations
• It can be estimated from paleoseismology
studies
• It can be tied to plate motions and recurrence
relations
(From J. Anderson)
(From J. Anderson)
 Ground Motion
Important Factors
• Source effects
– Magnitude or moment Bay Mud
– Rupture directivity
25 km
• Path effects
– Attenuation with distance:
geometric, scattering, and
anelastic
– Critical reflections off Moho
Discontinuity
• Site effects
– Local amplification
 Directivity
• Directivity is a consequence of a moving source
• Waves from far-end of fault will pile up with
waves arriving from near-end of fault, if you are
forward of the rupture
• This causes increased amplitudes in direction of
rupture propagation, and decreased duration.
• Directivity is useful in distinguishing earthquake
fault plane from its auxiliary plane because it
destroys the symmetry of the radiation pattern.
 Rupture Directivity

Hypocenter
Example of observed
directivity effects in the
M7.3 Landers
earthquake ground
motions near the fault.

Directivity played a key

role in the recent San
Simeon, CA, earthquake
2003 San Simeon
M6.5 Earthquake
Rupture Directivity
 Damage in Oceano
2003 San Simeon Earthquake

Cracking in river levee

Failed foundation
Effect of Distance

Ground motion generally

decreases with increasing
epicentral distance
2003 San Simeon Earthquake Distance
and directivity
 Amplitude and Intensity
M7.6 Pakistan earthquake 2005

Seismic waves lose

amplitude with distance
traveled - attenuation

So the amplitude of the waves

depends on distance from the
earthquake. Therefore unlike
magnitude, intensity is not a
single number.
 Site Amplification
• Ground shaking is amplified at “soft soil” (low
velocity) sites
• Shear-wave velocity is commonly used to predict
amplification
– VS30 ( time it takes for a shear wave to travel from
a 30 m depth to the land surface, i.e., time-
averaged 30-m velocity)
Ground Motion Deconvolution

(Steidl)
 Amplification of PGA
as a function of VS30
5
Short-Period AmplificationF a wrt SC-Ib

F a = (v SC-Ib / v ) m a = ( 1050 m/s / v) m a

4
I=0.1g; ma = 0.35
SC-IV
I=0.2g; ma = 0.25
Soft soils
I=0.3g; ma = 0.10
3 SC-III I=0.4g; ma = -0.05
SC-II Fa (0.1g) for Site Class Intervals
Stiff clays and
Sandy soils Gravelly soils and Fa for Site Classes
2
Soft rocks SC-Ib
Firm to Hard rocks
1

(a)
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400
Mean Shear-Wave Velocity to 30 m (100 ft) (v , m/s)
Velocities of Holocene and Pleistocene Units –
Oakland, CA

0
X
Holocene PleistoceneX
5
X
X
10 X
Depth, m

X
15 X
X
X
20 X
X
X Merritt Sand
25 Pleistocene alluvial fan
Holocene alluvial fan
Younger bay mud

30
0 100 200 300 400
Velocity, m/s
 Damage distribution during the 1989 M6.9
Loma Prieta earthquake correlated quite well
with Vs30.
Summary of Strong Ground Motion from
Earthquakes
• Measured using PGA, PGV, pseudo-spectral
acceleration or velocity PSA or PSV, and intensity.
• Increases with magnitude.
• Enhanced in direction of rupture propagation (directivity).
• Generally decreases with epicentral distance.
• Low-velocity soil site gives much higher ground motion
than rock site. Vs30 is a good predictor of site response.