Strong Ground Motion Dataset

Andrea Carolina Perez Silva

January 2016

Abstract

Strong ground motion records are used by researchers and engineers worldwide to design

earthquake-resistant structures. Strong ground motion information is currently scattered

across different databases, which makes difficult to access to it. In order overcome this

challenge, the Strong Ground Motion Dataset (SGMD) was created. This dataset brings

together data from six different strong motion databases onto a single publicly-accessible,

user-friendly platform (datacenterhub.org). For each earthquake registered, the SGMD

contains ground motion files — including acceleration, displacement, and velocity histories

as well as response spectra — organized by parameters that describe the site and motion.

Currently 1800 files spanning 35 earthquakes are available in the SGMD.

Introduction

A strong ground motion is defined as any ground motion of sufficient energy and duration

to damage structures. Data obtained from strong ground motions are the basic input for

earthquake-resistant construction and seismic risk assessment. Strong ground motion data

are of particular interest today, as rapid population growth has led to expansion of cities in

seismic regions.

Currently there is a large number of recording networks that generate a great amount of

valuable information by accurately measuring ground motion. This information, however,

is kept on multiple databases, which present it in different formats. This lack of

homogeneity makes it difficult for researchers and practitioners to locate data that they

need to conduct their work.

The strong ground motion dataset (SGMD) was created to facilitate access to strong motion

data by compiling the data from these separate systems in one place and by using consistent

parameters and units to describe the data. The dataset draws from the six largest strong

motion databases, which are described in the next section.

The stored information for each registered earthquake includes basic strong motion

parameters and ground motion files, such as acceleration, velocity and displacement time-

series data. The project is now in its first phase and contains data from 35 earthquakes

coming from 14 different countries. This paper describes the methodology used to construct

the dataset.

Strong Ground Motion

Strong ground motion can be the result of either nearby or large earthquakes that generate

large amplitude waves. This motion is affected by three main elements, namely the source

— e.g. size of the earthquake or tectonic setting —, travel path of the waves to the surface

and local site conditions — e.g. soil properties (Reiter, 1991). To understand the complex

interaction of these elements is the ultimate goal of all strong ground motion studies, since

that knowledge would allow to estimate the levels of ground motion at a particular site.

The large amplitude of the waves of strong ground motion overwhelms the traditional

seismometers, for this reason special instruments, called accelerographs, were designed.

Accelerographs register the ground acceleration during an earthquake. An accelerograph

contains three components, — two horizontal and one vertical — which register the

acceleration in three mutually perpendicular directions1. Acceleration is commonly

measured in G units (1 G = 980 cm/sec 2); being 2.7 G the maximum registered value —

from 2011 Tohoku earthquake.

The maximum acceleration value of a record — called peak ground acceleration (PGA) —

is the most widely used variable to measure strong ground motion. As acceleration is

related with force and is easily measured, PGA is often used as a first insight of the possible

destructive effect of an earthquake — this parameter is used in seismic hazard maps and

building codes. Other variables — called strong ground motion parameters — such as the

magnitude of the earthquake and the epicentral distance of the station also characterize the

ground motion; they are explained in the methodology section. (These parameters describe

the above mentioned elements that affect strong ground motion.)

Strong ground motion information comprises the strong motion parameters and the ground

motion files such as acceleration, velocity and displacement records.

Strong Ground Motion Databases

This dataset was built using data from six large strong ground motion databases (Table 1)

freely available through the web; they are all the result of large projects that attempt to

organize and standardize the available strong ground motion information.

1 By using single and double integration of the acceleration records — files that
display acceleration values with respect to time — velocity and displacement records can
also be obtained.
PEER

The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center project developed the NGA West 2

strong motion database as an expansion of the NGA West 1 database with the objective of

generating ground motion prediction equations. This database is composed of events with

magnitudes greater than 6.0, ground motion data (post 2003) from seismically active

regions and small to moderate California events (Ancheta et al. 2003).

Table 1. Source databases.

Database Abbreviation Link

Consortium of Organizations for COSMOS http://strongmotioncenter.org/

Strong-Motion Observation Systems

Pacific Earthquake Engineering PEER http://ngawest2.berkeley.edu/

Research

European Strong-motion Database ESD http://www.isesd.hi.is/ESD_Local/

frameset.htm

Center for Engineering Strong CESMD http://www.strongmotioncenter.org/

Motion Data

National Research Institute for Earth NIED http://www.kyoshin.bosai.go.jp/

Science and Disaster Prevention

National Geophysical DataCenter NGDC https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/

 struts/form?t=101650&s=34&d=34

The NGA West 2 database contains data from 1265 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging

from 3 to 7.9, accounting for more than 21500 records. These records are consistently

formatted and processed. The content includes acceleration, velocity and displacement

histories for all three accelerometer components. A number of seismic networks and

agencies, such as CIT-SCSN-SCEC, ISC, UCB-BDSN and USGS (íbid., 2003), were the

source for these records.

PEER metadata can be divided in four groups that contain the information of the

earthquake, the station, propagation path and the record; together they add up to more than

250 parameters, whose values, for each record, are displayed in an spreadsheet file

available in thei documentation portion of their website

(http://ngawest2.berkeley.edu/site/documentation).

ESD

The European strong-ground motion database (ESD) contains over 2000 strong motion

records from 856 earthquakes located in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It

includes earthquakes from all magnitude range — M > 4.0 for high seismicity regions and

no boundary for low-seismicity regions (Ambraseys N.N. et al. 2004).

For these earthquakes ESD presents earthquake, station and waveform parameters with the

associated ground motion files that include — uniformly formatted — uncorrected and

corrected acceleration time-series files; and response spectra for all three accelerometer

axes. This information was extracted from local to national networks all over the greater
European area.

COSMOS

COSMOS Strong-motion Virtual Data Center is a web portal that contains over 700

earthquakes from 15 different countries that correspond to more than 16000 strong motion

records (VDC Fact sheet, 2014). No firm selection criteria was followed to select the

earthquakes, although in areas of high seismic activities magnitude threshold is 5.5, and 4.5

for low seismic activity (íbid., 2014).

This web portal presents earthquake, station and ground motion parameters for each

registered earthquake in the web page itself and also allows free download of the associated

ground motion files. Vitual Data Center is supported by the USGS, the California

Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

CESMD

CESMD was developed by the USGS and the California Geological Survey, to give access

to strong motion data for earthquakes of engineering significance. This database provides

strong motion parameters for engineering applications; and ground motion records that

include corrected and uncorrected acceleration histories, and velocity and displacement

time-series.

CESMD website has useful tools to search for strong motion data, such as the Quick

Internet report that provides strong motion information about the most recent earthquakes,

and the Interactive Map for earthquakes that shows the location of strong motion stations

and events. (Haddadi et al. 2014).

CESMD is currently trying to integrate the information of COSMOS Virtual Data Center,

to develop a more comprehensive strong ground motion databank.

NIED

NIED operates Kik-net and K-NET strong-motion seismograph networks that cover Japan

with more than 1700 accelerometric stations.

For each earthquake registered in the database, uncorrected acceleration histories for all

three accelerometer components, and acceleration and velocity response spectrum are

available. Earthquake information is released a few days after the occurrence of the

earthquake, together with PGA contour maps and acceleration waveforms. Besides strong

motion records, borehole sensors of Kik-net stations provide soil conditions information,

and geological and geophysical data that are also available in NIED website.

NGDC

NGDC Strong motion database was part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA)

data centers; it is a static and no longer updated database that contains earthquake data—

which date from 1933 to 1994 — from 19 different countries.

For each earthquake registered in the database, NGDC provides uncorrected and corrected

acceleration histories, and a set of parameters — downloadable as an excel sheet — of the

earthquakes, the recording stations and the ground motion.

Methodology
Strong Ground Motion Parameters

The first step to build this dataset was to select the parameters that form it. To do that, the

parameters of each of the source databases were listed and the parameters in common to at

least three out of the six databases were selected as SGMD parameters (Figure 1). This

methodology assures that the most relevant strong ground motion parameters are

considered.

The selected parameters can be grouped in three categories that describe the basic

information of the earthquake, station and strong-motion. Variables such as date, origin

time, magnitude and epicenter location, describe earthquake source.

The station parameters characterize the stations that recorded strong-motion data, for

example their latitude, longitude, code, epicentral distance and local site conditions.

Strong-motion parameters categorizes each record, for example orientation of each

accelerometer axis; and peak ground acceleration, velocity and displacement (Table 2).

The units and format of these parameters were all set uniform to facilitate data comparison.
Figure 1. Schematic representation of the selection of SGMD parameters. The circles
represent the parameters of each database.

Table 2. Earthquake, station and ground motion parameters

Earthquake parameters

Title Year and name of the earthquake

Source Name of the source database
Date Year, month and day of the earthquake (YYYY-MM-DD)
Time When the earthquake occurred, according to the source
database (HH:MM)
Magnitude Measurement of seismic energy
Magnitude type Scale in which magnitude is measured
Fault mechanism Type of fault that generated the earthquake
Epicenter latitude Latitude where the earthquake occurred
Epicenter longitude Longitude where the earthquake occurred
Hypocenter depth Depth of the earthquake
Station parameters

Station name Unique name of the station. If it is part of an array, the

Station code
Station latitude
Station longitue
Epicentral distance (km)
Station location description
Soil description
location is specified.
Station ID assigned by data provider
Latitude where the station is located
Longitude where the station is located
Distance from the station to the epicenter
Where the instrument is located; e.g. basement, first floor
Type of soil where the station is located

Ground motion parameters

Orientation x Azimuth to accelerometer x-axis

Orientation y
dt
Peak ground acceleration
(PGA_x, PGA_y, PGA_z)
Peak ground velocity
(PGV_x, PGV_y, PGV_z)
Peak ground displacement
(PGD_x, PGD_y, PGD_z)
Azimuth to accelerometer y-axis
Time-step of acceleration, velocity and displacement
histories
Maximum acceleration for each accelerometer axis
Maximum velocity for each accelerometer axis
Maximum displacement for each accelerometer axis

Data Extraction

Each earthquake was first searched on the six different source databases (Table 4). The

procedure to extract data for each earthquake registered in a database is given below (steps

are explained for one earthquake registered in one database; the same procedure was

applied for each database that registered the earthquake):

Select the stations

Not all of the stations registered in the source database were incorporated in this
 dataset. For a station to be included in the SGMD, it needed to meet two criteria:
Horizontal PGA exceeding 0.4 G
Station must be located on the ground surface
These two criteria were established to ensure that the record was in fact a strong ground

motion record. For earthquakes that did not meet (i), the stations that registered the two

largest PGA values were included.

Download files

All the ground motion files attached to each of the selected stations were

downloaded. File content varies according to the database, it may include:

Acceleration histories (corrected or/and uncorrected)2

Velocity and displacement histories

Fourier amplitude spectra files.

Response spectra files.3

As each database has different name formats for each of the files, read-me files that

clarified the content of each file, were appended.

Extract parameter values

The parameter values were extracted from the database website and the ground

motion files. [See appendix for details]

Add earthquake related content

2 The ambient noise, plus some frequency-dependent instrument response is removed

in the corrected acceleration records.
3 Response spectra is a useful engineering tool to analyze the behavior of buildings
during earthquakes.
 Scientific papers and damage reports—freely available in the web—related to the

earthquake were appended to the first entry of the earthquake.

Dataset Structure

The dataset is presented as a big table, each row represents one station and the columns

contain the parameter values and files associated to that station. Different databases may

contain the same station, for example Dayhook station —that registered 1978 Tabas

earthquake—is contained in both PEER and ESD databases; this station represents then two

rows in the dataset, one for each database that registered it. Each row of the table is

distinguished by an identifying number.

Earthquake Selection

Earthquakes were selected based on historical engineering significance. Table 3 lists the 35

earthquakes currently included in the SGMD, organized by magnitude.

Table 3. Registered earthquakes per database

Magnitude,
Earthquake

COSMOS
Mw

CESMD

NGDC
PEER

NIED

ESD
2011 Tohoku 9.0

2010 Chile 8.8

1985 Mexico City 8.1

1985 Valparaiso 7.8

2015 Nepal 7.8

1999 Chi-chi 7.6

1999 Kocaeli 7.5

1978 Tabas 7.4

1992 Landers 7.3

1999 Duzce 7.1

1999 Hector Mine 7.1

1992 Cape Mendocino 7.0

1989 Loma Prieta 7.0

2010 Haiti 7.0

2008 Iwate 6.9

1995 Kobe 6.9

1980 Campano Lucano 6.9

1940 El Centro 6.9

 2001 Nisqually 6.8

1985 Nahanni 6.8

1994 Northridge 6.7

1988 Armenia Spitak 6.7

2004 Niigata 6.6

1971 San Fernando 6.6

2003 Bam 6.6

1992 Erzincan 6.6

2009 L’Aquila 6.3

2003 Bingol 6.3

2011 Christchurch 6.2

2004 Parkfield 6.0

1978 Miyagi Ken-Oki 6.0

1986 San Salvador 5.4

2991 Lorca 5.1

1962 Acapulco ?

Benefits of the SGMD

SGMD has a number of benefits that facilitate the access and use of strong ground motion

information.

Since strong ground motion information has been placed in different databases, to access to

a record requires to search and peruse each database, which can take some time. Compiling

this information in one place avoid this first tedious task.

Strong ground motion parameters have a wide range of applications, in seismic risk
assessment, earthquake resistant construction and earthquake engineering research.

Therefore it is valuable to provide a set of ground motion parameters clearly defined and

with standardized units and formats that make data easier to use. For example, earthquake

engineering research often requires the use of strong motion data from different

earthquakes to construct numerical modeling of the ground motion — to test material or

design resistance to earthquakes —, or to make shake table tests that evaluate building

response.

At last, this dataset allows the users to easily compare the stored data —no other database

has this function—whether it is between databases, earthquakes or the parameters

themselves. This tool has multiple uses; it allows the user to confront the information

between databases, for example, compare different PGA values between databases that

have different processing techniques for the acceleration time-series files; it facilitates the

statistical analysis of the information as comparison between the parameters of the dataset

is easily done, and it allows worldwide strong motion data comparison, which is useful for

example, to determine earthquake records from different locations with similar

characteristics, in that case, if one earthquake happen to have much more records than the

other, these could be used as a reference information for the last one; this is useful for

seismic risk assessment.

Appendix

Ground Motion Parameters

Ground motion parameters were extracted from the data files associated to each station.

According to the formats of these files, different procedures were followed to extract them.

In this section, the most common formats from each source database are presented.

PEER format

Each station registered in PEER database has nine uniformly formatted time-series files that
correspond to corrected acceleration, velocity and displacement—with extension AT2, VT2

and DT2, respectively—for all three accelerometer axes.

Peak ground acceleration, velocity and displacement—for each accelerometer axis—were

extracted from these files by creating a code that selected the maximum value of each time-

series (Fig. A1).

Fig. A1. Corrected displacement time-series in PEER format.

ESD format

ESD provides nine uniformly formatted ground motion files for each registered station,

these files contain corrected (with extension .COR) and uncorrected (with extension .RAW)

acceleration histories, and elastic response spectrum (with extension .SPC) for each

accelerometer axis.

Peak ground acceleration values were extracted from the uncorrected acceleration time-

series files, by creating a code that selected the maximum value of the file (Fig. A2).
Fig. A2. Uncorrected acceleration time-series in ESD format.

SMC format

This format—usually with extension .smc—was created by the USGS National Strong-

Motion Program; it has six type of contents indicated in the first line of the format, these

are:

“1 UNCORRECTED ACCELEROGRAM”

“2 CORRECTED ACCELEROGRAM”

“4 DISPLACEMENT”

“5 RESPONSE SPECTRA”
“6 FOURIER AMPLITUDE SPECTRA”

From the header of the uncorrected accelerogram file, the peak ground acceleration value

was extracted (Fig. A3).

Fig. A3. Header of the uncorrected acceleration time-series in SMC format.

CSIMP format

This format belong to the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CISMP)

(Shakal et al.1985), it has three types of contents:

Uncorrected acceleration time-series, with extension .V1.

Corrected acceleration, velocity and displacement time-series, with extension .V2.

Response and/or Fourier Spectra, with extension .V3.

Peak ground acceleration, velocity and displacement were extracted from the header of

the .V2 format (Fig. A4).

Fig. A4. Header of the corrected acceleration (.V2) time-series in CISMP format. Note that
PGA value is uncorrected (UNCOR MAX), while PGV and PGD values are corrected.
COSMOS format

This format was created by COSMOS database; in this dataset it is incorporated in Chi-chi

and Kocaeli records (Data formats at COSMOS, 2015).

This format—usually with vdc. suffix — presents uncorrected acceleration time-series. From

the header of this files, peak ground acceleration for each accelerometer axis was extracted

(Fig. A5).
Fig. A5. Header of the uncorrected acceleration time-series file in COSMOS format.

K-NET and Kik-net formats

Kik-net and K-NET data files have a compatible format (About K-NET data format, 2002)

that presents uncorrected acceleration time-series values. From the header of this format,

peak ground acceleration values were extracted (Fig. A6).

Fig. A6. Uncorrected acceleration history in K-NET format.

Notes

 For some earthquakes registered in COSMOS or CESMD with records in different

formats (or with no available records), ground motion parameters were taken from
COSMOS Virtual Data Center or CESMD website.

 Peak ground acceleration values for earthquakes registered in NGDC were taken
from its website.

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