Ground-motion modeling of Hayward fault scenario earthquakes, part II: Simulation of long-period and broadband ground motions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aagaard, Brad T.; Graves, Robert W.; Rodgers, Arthur; Brocher, Thomas M.; Simpson, Robert W.; Dreger, Douglas; Petersson, N. Anders; Larsen, Shawn C.; Ma, Shuo; Jachens, Robert C.

2010-01-01

We simulate long-period (T>1.0–2.0 s) and broadband (T>0.1 s) ground motions for 39 scenario earthquakes (Mw 6.7–7.2) involving the Hayward, Calaveras, and Rodgers Creek faults. For rupture on the Hayward fault, we consider the effects of creep on coseismic slip using two different approaches, both of which reduce the ground motions, compared with neglecting the influence of creep. Nevertheless, the scenario earthquakes generate strong shaking throughout the San Francisco Bay area, with about 50% of the urban area experiencing modified Mercalli intensity VII or greater for the magnitude 7.0 scenario events. Long-period simulations of the 2007 Mw 4.18 Oakland earthquake and the 2007 Mw 5.45 Alum Rock earthquake show that the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bay Area Velocity Model version 08.3.0 permits simulation of the amplitude and duration of shaking throughout the San Francisco Bay area for Hayward fault earthquakes, with the greatest accuracy in the Santa Clara Valley (San Jose area). The ground motions for the suite of scenarios exhibit a strong sensitivity to the rupture length (or magnitude), hypocenter (or rupture directivity), and slip distribution. The ground motions display a much weaker sensitivity to the rise time and rupture speed. Peak velocities, peak accelerations, and spectral accelerations from the synthetic broadband ground motions are, on average, slightly higher than the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) ground-motion prediction equations. We attribute much of this difference to the seismic velocity structure in the San Francisco Bay area and how the NGA models account for basin amplification; the NGA relations may underpredict amplification in shallow sedimentary basins. The simulations also suggest that the Spudich and Chiou (2008) directivity corrections to the NGA relations could be improved by increasing the areal extent of rupture directivity with period.

Broadband Ground Motion Simulation Recipe for Scenario Hazard Assessment in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koketsu, K.; Fujiwara, H.; Irikura, K.

2014-12-01

The National Seismic Hazard Maps for Japan, which consist of probabilistic seismic hazard maps (PSHMs) and scenario earthquake shaking maps (SESMs), have been published every year since 2005 by the Earthquake Research Committee (ERC) in the Headquarter for Earthquake Research Promotion, which was established in the Japanese government after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The publication was interrupted due to problems in the PSHMs revealed by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, and the Subcommittee for Evaluations of Strong Ground Motions ('Subcommittee') has been examining the problems for two and a half years (ERC, 2013; Fujiwara, 2014). However, the SESMs and the broadband ground motion simulation recipe used in them are still valid at least for crustal earthquakes. Here, we outline this recipe and show the results of validation tests for it.Irikura and Miyake (2001) and Irikura (2004) developed a recipe for simulating strong ground motions from future crustal earthquakes based on a characterization of their source models (Irikura recipe). The result of the characterization is called a characterized source model, where a rectangular fault includes a few rectangular asperities. Each asperity and the background area surrounding the asperities have their own uniform stress drops. The Irikura recipe defines the parameters of the fault and asperities, and how to simulate broadband ground motions from the characterized source model. The recipe for the SESMs was constructed following the Irikura recipe (ERC, 2005). The National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) then made simulation codes along this recipe to generate SESMs (Fujiwara et al., 2006; Morikawa et al., 2011). The Subcommittee in 2002 validated a preliminary version of the SESM recipe by comparing simulated and observed ground motions for the 2000 Tottori earthquake. In 2007 and 2008, the Subcommittee carried out detailed validations of the current version of the SESM recipe and the NIED codes using ground motions from the 2005 Fukuoka earthquake. Irikura and Miyake (2011) summarized the latter validations, concluding that the ground motions were successfully simulated as shown in the figure. This indicates that the recipe has enough potential to generate broadband ground motions for scenario hazard assessment in Japan.

First USGS urban seismic hazard maps predict the effects of soils

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cramer, C.H.; Gomberg, J.S.; Schweig, E.S.; Waldron, B.A.; Tucker, K.

2006-01-01

Probabilistic and scenario urban seismic hazard maps have been produced for Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee covering a six-quadrangle area of the city. The nine probabilistic maps are for peak ground acceleration and 0.2 s and 1.0 s spectral acceleration and for 10%, 5%, and 2% probability of being exceeded in 50 years. Six scenario maps for these three ground motions have also been generated for both an M7.7 and M6.2 on the southwest arm of the New Madrid seismic zone ending at Marked Tree, Arkansas. All maps include the effect of local geology. Relative to the national seismic hazard maps, the effect of the thick sediments beneath Memphis is to decrease 0.2 s probabilistic ground motions by 0-30% and increase 1.0 s probabilistic ground motions by ???100%. Probabilistic peak ground accelerations remain at levels similar to the national maps, although the ground motion gradient across Shelby County is reduced and ground motions are more uniform within the county. The M7.7 scenario maps show ground motions similar to the 5%-in-50-year probabilistic maps. As an effect of local geology, both M7.7 and M6.2 scenario maps show a more uniform seismic ground-motion hazard across Shelby County than scenario maps with constant site conditions (i.e., NEHRP B/C boundary).

Statistical analysis of low-rise building damage caused by the San Fernando earthquake

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Scholl, R.E.

1974-02-01

An empirical investigation of damage to low-rise buildings in two selected control areas within Glendale, California, caused by the ground motion precipitated by the San Fernando earthquake of February 9, 1971 is summarized. The procedures for obtaining the appropriate data and the methodology used in deriving ground motion-damage relationships are described. Motion-damage relationships are derived for overall damage and for the most frequently damaged building components. Overall motion-damage relationships are expressed in terms of damage incidence (damage ratio) and damage cost (damage cost factor). The motion-damage relationships derived from the earthquake data are compared with similar data obtained for lou-risemore » buildings subjected to ground motion generated by an underground nuclear explosion. Overall comparison results show that for the same spectral acceleration, the earthquake caused slightly more damage. Differences in ground-motion characteristics for the two types of disturbances provide the most probable explanation for this discrepancy. (auth)« less

Using SW4 for 3D Simulations of Earthquake Strong Ground Motions: Application to Near-Field Strong Motion, Building Response, Basin Edge Generated Waves and Earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay Are

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodgers, A. J.; Pitarka, A.; Petersson, N. A.; Sjogreen, B.; McCallen, D.; Miah, M.

2016-12-01

Simulation of earthquake ground motions is becoming more widely used due to improvements of numerical methods, development of ever more efficient computer programs (codes), and growth in and access to High-Performance Computing (HPC). We report on how SW4 can be used for accurate and efficient simulations of earthquake strong motions. SW4 is an anelastic finite difference code based on a fourth order summation-by-parts displacement formulation. It is parallelized and can run on one or many processors. SW4 has many desirable features for seismic strong motion simulation: incorporation of surface topography; automatic mesh generation; mesh refinement; attenuation and supergrid boundary conditions. It also has several ways to introduce 3D models and sources (including Standard Rupture Format for extended sources). We are using SW4 to simulate strong ground motions for several applications. We are performing parametric studies of near-fault motions from moderate earthquakes to investigate basin edge generated waves and large earthquakes to provide motions to engineers study building response. We show that 3D propagation near basin edges can generate significant amplifications relative to 1D analysis. SW4 is also being used to model earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay Area. This includes modeling moderate (M3.5-5) events to evaluate the United States Geologic Survey's 3D model of regional structure as well as strong motions from the 2014 South Napa earthquake and possible large scenario events. Recently SW4 was built on a Commodity Technology Systems-1 (CTS-1) at LLNL, new systems for capacity computing at the DOE National Labs. We find SW4 scales well and runs faster on these systems compared to the previous generation of LINUX clusters.

Automatic generation of smart earthquake-resistant building system: Hybrid system of base-isolation and building-connection.

PubMed

Kasagi, M; Fujita, K; Tsuji, M; Takewaki, I

2016-02-01

A base-isolated building may sometimes exhibit an undesirable large response to a long-duration, long-period earthquake ground motion and a connected building system without base-isolation may show a large response to a near-fault (rather high-frequency) earthquake ground motion. To overcome both deficiencies, a new hybrid control system of base-isolation and building-connection is proposed and investigated. In this new hybrid building system, a base-isolated building is connected to a stiffer free wall with oil dampers. It has been demonstrated in a preliminary research that the proposed hybrid system is effective both for near-fault (rather high-frequency) and long-duration, long-period earthquake ground motions and has sufficient redundancy and robustness for a broad range of earthquake ground motions.An automatic generation algorithm of this kind of smart structures of base-isolation and building-connection hybrid systems is presented in this paper. It is shown that, while the proposed algorithm does not work well in a building without the connecting-damper system, it works well in the proposed smart hybrid system with the connecting damper system.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pitarka, A.

In this project we developed GEN_SRF4 a computer program for generating kinematic rupture models, compatible with the SRF format, using Irikura and Miyake (2011) asperity-­based earthquake rupture model (IM2011, hereafter). IM2011, also known as Irkura’s recipe, has been widely used to model and simulate ground motion from earthquakes in Japan. An essential part of the method is its kinematic rupture generation technique, which is based on a deterministic rupture asperity modeling approach. The source model simplicity and efficiency of IM2011 at reproducing ground motion from earthquakes recorded in Japan makes it attractive to developers and users of the Southern Californiamore » Earthquake Center Broadband Platform (SCEC BB platform). Besides writing the code the objective of our study was to test the transportability of IM2011 to broadband simulation methods used by the SCEC BB platform. Here we test it using the Graves and Pitarka (2010) method, implemented in the platform. We performed broadband (0.1- -10 Hz) ground motion simulations for a M6.7 scenario earthquake using rupture models produced with both GEN_SRF4 and rupture generator of Graves and Pitarka (2016), (GP2016 hereafter). In the simulations we used the same Green’s functions, and same high frequency approach for calculating the low-­frequency and high-­frequency parts of ground motion, respectively.« less

Seismic fragility curves of bridge piers accounting for ground motions in Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Duy-Duan; Lee, Tae-Hyung

2018-04-01

Korea is located in a slight-to-moderate seismic zone. Nevertheless, several studies pointed that the peak earthquake magnitude in the region can be reached to approximately 6.5. Accordingly, a seismic vulnerability evaluation of the existing structures accounting for ground motions in Korea is momentous. The purpose of this paper is to develop seismic fragility curves for bridge piers of a steel box girder bridge equipped with and without base isolators based on a set of ground motions recorded in Korea. A finite element simulation platform, OpenSees, is utilized to perform nonlinear time history analyses of the bridges. A series of damage states is defined based on a damage index which is expressed in terms of the column displacement ductility ratio. The fragility curves based on Korean motions were thereafter compared with the fragility curves generated using worldwide earthquakes to assess the effect of the two ground motion groups on the seismic fragility curves of the bridge piers. The results reveal that both non- and base-isolated bridge piers are less vulnerable during the Korean ground motions than that under worldwide earthquakes.

Modeling of earthquake ground motion in the frequency domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thrainsson, Hjortur

In recent years, the utilization of time histories of earthquake ground motion has grown considerably in the design and analysis of civil structures. It is very unlikely, however, that recordings of earthquake ground motion will be available for all sites and conditions of interest. Hence, there is a need for efficient methods for the simulation and spatial interpolation of earthquake ground motion. In addition to providing estimates of the ground motion at a site using data from adjacent recording stations, spatially interpolated ground motions can also be used in design and analysis of long-span structures, such as bridges and pipelines, where differential movement is important. The objective of this research is to develop a methodology for rapid generation of horizontal earthquake ground motion at any site for a given region, based on readily available source, path and site characteristics, or (sparse) recordings. The research includes two main topics: (i) the simulation of earthquake ground motion at a given site, and (ii) the spatial interpolation of earthquake ground motion. In topic (i), models are developed to simulate acceleration time histories using the inverse discrete Fourier transform. The Fourier phase differences, defined as the difference in phase angle between adjacent frequency components, are simulated conditional on the Fourier amplitude. Uniformly processed recordings from recent California earthquakes are used to validate the simulation models, as well as to develop prediction formulas for the model parameters. The models developed in this research provide rapid simulation of earthquake ground motion over a wide range of magnitudes and distances, but they are not intended to replace more robust geophysical models. In topic (ii), a model is developed in which Fourier amplitudes and Fourier phase angles are interpolated separately. A simple dispersion relationship is included in the phase angle interpolation. The accuracy of the interpolation model is assessed using data from the SMART-1 array in Taiwan. The interpolation model provides an effective method to estimate ground motion at a site using recordings from stations located up to several kilometers away. Reliable estimates of differential ground motion are restricted to relatively limited ranges of frequencies and inter-station spacings.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aagaard, B T; Graves, R W; Rodgers, A

We simulate long-period (T > 1.0-2.0 s) and broadband (T > 0.1 s) ground motions for 39 scenarios earthquakes (Mw 6.7-7.2) involving the Hayward, Calaveras, and Rodgers Creek faults. For rupture on the Hayward fault we consider the effects of creep on coseismic slip using two different approaches, both of which reduce the ground motions compared with neglecting the influence of creep. Nevertheless, the scenario earthquakes generate strong shaking throughout the San Francisco Bay area with about 50% of the urban area experiencing MMI VII or greater for the magnitude 7.0 scenario events. Long-period simulations of the 2007 Mw 4.18more » Oakland and 2007 Mw 4.5 Alum Rock earthquakes show that the USGS Bay Area Velocity Model version 08.3.0 permits simulation of the amplitude and duration of shaking throughout the San Francisco Bay area, with the greatest accuracy in the Santa Clara Valley (San Jose area). The ground motions exhibit a strong sensitivity to the rupture length (or magnitude), hypocenter (or rupture directivity), and slip distribution. The ground motions display a much weaker sensitivity to the rise time and rupture speed. Peak velocities, peak accelerations, and spectral accelerations from the synthetic broadband ground motions are, on average, slightly higher than the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) ground-motion prediction equations. We attribute at least some of this difference to the relatively narrow width of the Hayward fault ruptures. The simulations suggest that the Spudich and Chiou (2008) directivity corrections to the NGA relations could be improved by including a dependence on the rupture speed and increasing the areal extent of rupture directivity with period. The simulations also indicate that the NGA relations may under-predict amplification in shallow sedimentary basins.« less

The 2011 Mineral, VA M5.8 Earthquake Ground Motions and Stress Drop: An Important Contribution to the NGA East Ground Motion Database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cramer, C. H.; Kutliroff, J.; Dangkua, D.

2011-12-01

The M5.8 Mineral, Virginia earthquake of August 23, 2011 is the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in eastern North America since the 1988 M5.9 Saguenay, Canada earthquake. Historically, a similar magnitude earthquake occurred on May 31, 1897 at 18:58 UCT in western Virginia west of Roanoke. Paleoseismic evidence for larger magnitude earthquakes has also been found in the central Virginia region. The Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) East project to develop new ground motion prediction equations for stable continental regions (SCRs), including eastern North America (ENA), is ongoing at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center funded by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the U.S. Department of Energy. The available recordings from the M5.8 Virginia are being added to the NGA East ground motion database. Close in (less than 100 km) strong motion recordings are particularly interesting for both ground motion and stress drop estimates as most close-in broadband seismometers clipped on the mainshock. A preliminary estimate for earthquake corner frequency for the M5.8 Virginia earthquake of ~0.7 Hz has been obtained from a strong motion record 57 km from the mainshock epicenter. For a M5.8 earthquake this suggests a Brune stress drop of ~300 bars for the Virginia event. Very preliminary comparisons using accelerometer data suggest the ground motions from the M5.8 Virginia earthquake agree well with current ENA ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) at short periods (PGA, 0.2 s) and are below the GMPEs at longer periods (1.0 s), which is the same relationship seen from other recent M5 ENA earthquakes. We will present observed versus GMPE ground motion comparisons for all the ground motion observations and stress drop estimates from strong motion recordings at distances less than 100 km. A review of the completed NGA East ENA ground motion database will also be provided.

Ground Motion Prediction Trends For Eastern North America Based on the Next Generation Attenuation East Ground Motion Database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cramer, C. H.; Kutliroff, J.; Dangkua, D.

2010-12-01

A five-year Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) East project to develop new ground motion prediction equations for stable continental regions (SCRs), including eastern North America (ENA), has begun at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center funded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and the Department of Energy (DOE). The initial effort focused on database design and collection of appropriate M>4 ENA broadband and accelerograph records to populate the database. Ongoing work has focused on adding records from smaller ENA earthquakes and from other SCRs such as Europe, Australia, and India. Currently, over 6500 horizontal and vertical component records from 60 ENA earthquakes have been collected and prepared (instrument response removed, filtering to acceptable-signal band, determining peak and spectral parameter values, quality assurance, etc.) for the database. Geologic Survey of Canada (GSC) strong motion recordings, previously not available, have also been added to the NGA East database. The additional earthquakes increase the number of ground motion recordings in the 10 - 100 km range, particularly from the 2008 M5.2 Mt. Carmel, IL event, and the 2005 M4.7 Riviere du Loup and 2010 M5.0 Val des Bois earthquakes in Quebec, Canada. The goal is to complete the ENA database and make it available in 2011 followed by a SCR database in 2012. Comparisons of ground motion observations from four recent M5 ENA earthquakes with current ENA ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) suggest that current GMPEs, as a group, reasonably agree with M5 observations at short periods, particularly at distances less than 200 km. However, at one second, current GMPEs over predict M5 ground motion observations. The 2001 M7.6 Bhuj, India, earthquake provides some constraint at large magnitudes, as geology and regional attenuation is analogous to ENA. Cramer and Kumar, 2003, have shown that ENA GMPE’s generally agree with the Bhuj dataset within 300 km at short and long periods. But the Bhuj earthquake does not exhibit the intermediate-period spectral sag (Atkinson, 1993) of larger ENA earthquakes and thus the Bhuj ground motions may be larger than what could be expected at one second for M7s in ENA.

A synthetic GMPE based on deterministic simulated ground motion data obtained from dynamic rupture models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalguer, L. A.; Baumann, C.; Cauzzi, C.

2013-12-01

Empirical ground motion prediction in the very near-field and for large magnitudes is often based on extrapolation of ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) outside the range where they are well constrained by recorded data. With empirical GMPEs it is also difficult to capture source-dominated ground motion patterns, such as the effects of velocity pulses induced by subshear and supershear rupture directivity, buried and surface-rupturing, hanging-wall and foot-wall, weak shallow layers, complex geometry faults and stress drop. A way to cope at least in part with these shortcomings is to augment the calibration datasets with synthetic ground motions. To this aim, physics-based dynamic rupture models - where the physical bases involved in the fault rupture are explicitly considered - appear to be a suitable approach to produce synthetic ground motions. In this contribution, we first perform an assessment of a database of synthetic ground motions generated by a suite of dynamic rupture simulations to verify compatibility of the peak ground amplitudes with current GMPEs. The synthetic data-set is composed by 360 earthquake scenarios with moment magnitudes in the range of 5.5-7, for three mechanisms of faulting (reverse, normal and strike-slip) and for both buried faults and surface rupturing faults. Second, we parameterise the synthetic dataset through a GMPE. For this purpose, we identify the basic functional forms by analyzing the variation of the synthetic peak ground motions and spectral ordinates as a function of different explanatory variables related to the earthquake source characteristics, in order to account for some of the source effects listed above. We argue that this study provides basic guidelines for the developments of future GMPEs including data from physics-based numerical simulations.

Multi-component ground motion response spectra for coupled horizontal, vertical, angular accelerations, and tilt

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kalkan, E.; Graizer, V.

2007-01-01

Rotational and vertical components of ground motion are almost always ignored in design or in the assessment of structures despite the fact that vertical motion can be twice as much as the horizontal motion and may exceed 2g level, and rotational excitation may reach few degrees in the proximity of fault rupture. Coupling of different components of ground excitation may significantly amplify the seismic demand by introducing additional lateral forces and enhanced P-?? effects. In this paper, a governing equation of motion is postulated to compute the response of a SDOF oscillator under a multi-component excitation. The expanded equation includes secondary P-?? components associated with the combined impacts of tilt and vertical excitations in addition to the inertial forcing terms due to the angular and translational accelerations. The elastic and inelastic spectral ordinates traditionally generated considering the uniaxial input motion are compared at the end with the multi-component response spectra of coupled horizontal, vertical and tilting motions. The proposed multi-component response spectrum reflects kinematic characteristics of the ground motion that are not identifiable by the conventional spectrum itself, at least for the near-fault region where high intensity vertical shaking and rotational excitation are likely to occur.

Passenger Acceptance of Alignments with Frequent Curves in Maglev or Other Very-High-Speed Ground Systems

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-03-31

This study explored comfort and motion-sickness effects of Maglev travel in corridors characterized by frequent curves. A procedure was developed for estimating the propensity of a given set of ride motions to induce motion sickness, generating a num...

NGA-West2 Research Project

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bozorgnia, Yousef; Abrahamson, Norman A.; Al Atik, Linda; Ancheta, Timothy D.; Atkinson, Gail M.; Baker, Jack W.; Baltay, Annemarie S.; Boore, David M.; Campbell, Kenneth W.; Chiou, Brian S.J.; Darragh, Robert B.; Day, Steve; Donahue, Jennifer; Graves, Robert W.; Gregor, Nick; Hanks, Thomas C.; Idriss, I. M.; Kamai, Ronnie; Kishida, Tadahiro; Kottke, Albert; Mahin, Stephen A.; Rezaeian, Sanaz; Rowshandel, Badie; Seyhan, Emel; Shahi, Shrey; Shantz, Tom; Silva, Walter; Spudich, Paul A.; Stewart, Jonathan P.; Watson-Lamprey, Jennie; Wooddell, Kathryn; Youngs, Robert

2014-01-01

The NGA-West2 project is a large multidisciplinary, multi-year research program on the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) models for shallow crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions. The research project has been coordinated by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), with extensive technical interactions among many individuals and organizations. NGA-West2 addresses several key issues in ground-motion seismic hazard, including updating the NGA database for a magnitude range of 3.0–7.9; updating NGA ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for the “average” horizontal component; scaling response spectra for damping values other than 5%; quantifying the effects of directivity and directionality for horizontal ground motion; resolving discrepancies between the NGA and the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) site amplification factors; analysis of epistemic uncertainty for NGA GMPEs; and developing GMPEs for vertical ground motion. This paper presents an overview of the NGA-West2 research program and its subprojects.

Implications of next generation attenuation ground motion prediction equations for site coefficients used in earthquake resistant design

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, Roger D.

2014-01-01

Proposals are developed to update Tables 11.4-1 and 11.4-2 of Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures published as American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute standard 7-10 (ASCE/SEI 7–10). The updates are mean next generation attenuation (NGA) site coefficients inferred directly from the four NGA ground motion prediction equations used to derive the maximum considered earthquake response maps adopted in ASCE/SEI 7–10. Proposals include the recommendation to use straight-line interpolation to infer site coefficients at intermediate values of (average shear velocity to 30-m depth). The NGA coefficients are shown to agree well with adopted site coefficients at low levels of input motion (0.1 g) and those observed from the Loma Prieta earthquake. For higher levels of input motion, the majority of the adopted values are within the 95% epistemic-uncertainty limits implied by the NGA estimates with the exceptions being the mid-period site coefficient, Fv, for site class D and the short-period coefficient, Fa, for site class C, both of which are slightly less than the corresponding 95% limit. The NGA data base shows that the median value  of 913 m/s for site class B is more typical than 760 m/s as a value to characterize firm to hard rock sites as the uniform ground condition for future maximum considered earthquake response ground motion estimates. Future updates of NGA ground motion prediction equations can be incorporated easily into future adjustments of adopted site coefficients using procedures presented herein. 

NGA-West2 Empirical Fourier Model for Active Crustal Regions to Generate Regionally Adjustable Response Spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bora, S. S.; Cotton, F.; Scherbaum, F.; Kuehn, N. M.

2016-12-01

Adjustment of median ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) from data-rich (host) regions to data-poor regions (target) is one of major challenges that remains with the current practice of engineering seismology and seismic hazard analysis. Fourier spectral representation of ground motion provides a solution to address the problem of adjustment that is physically transparent and consistent with the concepts of linear system theory. Also, it provides a direct interface to appreciate the physically expected behavior of seismological parameters on ground motion. In the present study, we derive an empirical Fourier model for computing regionally adjustable response spectral ordinates based on random vibration theory (RVT) from shallow crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions, following the approach of Bora et al. (2014, 2015). , For this purpose, we use an expanded NGA-West2 database with M 3.2—7.9 earthquakes at distances ranging from 0 to 300 km. A mixed-effects regression technique is employed to further explore various components of variability. The NGA-West2 database expanded over a wide magnitude range provides a better understanding (and constraint) of source scaling of ground motion. The large global volume of the database also allows investigating regional patterns in distance-dependent attenuation (i.e., geometrical spreading and inelastic attenuation) of ground motion as well as in the source parameters (e.g., magnitude and stress drop). Furthermore, event-wise variability and its correlation with stress parameter are investigated. Finally, application of the derived Fourier model in generating adjustable response spectra will be shown.

Thunder-induced ground motions: 1. Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Ting-L.; Langston, Charles A.

2009-04-01

Acoustic pressure from thunder and its induced ground motions were investigated using a small array consisting of five three-component short-period surface seismometers, a three-component borehole seismometer, and five infrasound microphones. We used the array to constrain wave parameters of the incident acoustic and seismic waves. The incident slowness differences between acoustic pressure and ground motions suggest that ground reverberations were first initiated somewhat away from the array. Using slowness inferred from ground motions is preferable to obtain the seismic source parameters. We propose a source equalization procedure for acoustic/seismic deconvolution to generate the time domain transfer function, a procedure similar to that of obtaining teleseismic earthquake receiver functions. The time domain transfer function removes the incident pressure time history from the seismogram. An additional vertical-to-radial ground motion transfer function was used to identify the Rayleigh wave propagation mode of induced seismic waves complementing that found using the particle motions and amplitude variations in the borehole. The initial motions obtained by the time domain transfer functions suggest a low Poisson's ratio for the near-surface layer. The acoustic-to-seismic transfer functions show a consistent reverberation series at frequencies near 5 Hz. This gives an empirical measure of site resonance that depends on the ratio of the layer velocity to layer thickness for earthquake P and S waves. The time domain transfer function approach by transferring a spectral division into the time domain provides an alternative method for studying acoustic-to-seismic coupling.

WE-D-303-02: Applications of Volumetric Images Generated with a Respiratory Motion Model Based On An External Surrogate Signal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hurwitz, M; Williams, C; Dhou, S

Purpose: Respiratory motion can vary significantly over the course of simulation and treatment. Our goal is to use volumetric images generated with a respiratory motion model to improve the definition of the internal target volume (ITV) and the estimate of delivered dose. Methods: Ten irregular patient breathing patterns spanning 35 seconds each were incorporated into a digital phantom. Ten images over the first five seconds of breathing were used to emulate a 4DCT scan, build the ITV, and generate a patient-specific respiratory motion model which correlated the measured trajectories of markers placed on the patients’ chests with the motion ofmore » the internal anatomy. This model was used to generate volumetric images over the subsequent thirty seconds of breathing. The increase in the ITV taking into account the full 35 seconds of breathing was assessed with ground-truth and model-generated images. For one patient, a treatment plan based on the initial ITV was created and the delivered dose was estimated using images from the first five seconds as well as ground-truth and model-generated images from the next 30 seconds. Results: The increase in the ITV ranged from 0.2 cc to 6.9 cc for the ten patients based on ground-truth information. The model predicted this increase in the ITV with an average error of 0.8 cc. The delivered dose to the tumor (D95) changed significantly from 57 Gy to 41 Gy when estimated using 5 seconds and 30 seconds, respectively. The model captured this effect, giving an estimated D95 of 44 Gy. Conclusion: A respiratory motion model generating volumetric images of the internal patient anatomy could be useful in estimating the increase in the ITV due to irregular breathing during simulation and in assessing delivered dose during treatment. This project was supported, in part, through a Master Research Agreement with Varian Medical Systems, Inc. and Radiological Society of North America Research Scholar Grant #RSCH1206.« less

A Parametric Study of Nonlinear Seismic Response Analysis of Transmission Line Structures

PubMed Central

Wang, Yanming; Yi, Zhenhua

2014-01-01

A parametric study of nonlinear seismic response analysis of transmission line structures subjected to earthquake loading is studied in this paper. The transmission lines are modeled by cable element which accounts for the nonlinearity of the cable based on a real project. Nonuniform ground motions are generated using a stochastic approach based on random vibration analysis. The effects of multicomponent ground motions, correlations among multicomponent ground motions, wave travel, coherency loss, and local site on the responses of the cables are investigated using nonlinear time history analysis method, respectively. The results show the multicomponent seismic excitations should be considered, but the correlations among multicomponent ground motions could be neglected. The wave passage effect has a significant influence on the responses of the cables. The change of the degree of coherency loss has little influence on the response of the cables, but the responses of the cables are affected significantly by the effect of coherency loss. The responses of the cables change little with the degree of the difference of site condition changing. The effect of multicomponent ground motions, wave passage, coherency loss, and local site should be considered for the seismic design of the transmission line structures. PMID:25133215

3D Dynamic Rupture Simulations along the Wasatch Fault, Utah, Incorporating Rough-fault Topography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Withers, Kyle; Moschetti, Morgan

2017-04-01

Studies have found that the Wasatch Fault has experienced successive large magnitude (>Mw 7.2) earthquakes, with an average recurrence interval near 350 years. To date, no large magnitude event has been recorded along the fault, with the last rupture along the Salt Lake City segment occurring 1300 years ago. Because of this, as well as the lack of strong ground motion records in basins and from normal-faulting earthquakes worldwide, seismic hazard in the region is not well constrained. Previous numerical simulations have modeled deterministic ground motion in the heavily populated regions of Utah, near Salt Lake City, but were primarily restricted to low frequencies ( 1 Hz). Our goal is to better assess broadband ground motions from the Wasatch Fault Zone. Here, we extend deterministic ground motion prediction to higher frequencies ( 5 Hz) in this region by using physics-based spontaneous dynamic rupture simulations along a normal fault with characteristics derived from geologic observations. We use a summation by parts finite difference code (Waveqlab3D) with rough-fault topography following a self-similar fractal distribution (over length scales from 100 m to the size of the fault) and include off-fault plasticity to simulate ruptures > Mw 6.5. Geometric complexity along fault planes has previously been shown to generate broadband sources with spectral energy matching that of observations. We investigate the impact of varying the hypocenter location, as well as the influence that multiple realizations of rough-fault topography have on the rupture process and resulting ground motion. We utilize Waveqlab3's computational efficiency to model wave-propagation to a significant distance from the fault with media heterogeneity at both long and short spatial wavelengths. These simulations generate a synthetic dataset of ground motions to compare with GMPEs, in terms of both the median and inter and intraevent variability.

Generation of Classical DInSAR and PSI Ground Motion Maps on a Cloud Thematic Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mora, Oscar; Ordoqui, Patrick; Romero, Laia

2016-08-01

This paper presents the experience of ALTAMIRA INFORMATION uploading InSAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry) services in the Geohazard Exploitation Platform (GEP), supported by ESA. Two different processing chains are presented jointly with ground motion maps obtained from the cloud computing, one being DIAPASON for classical DInSAR and SPN (Stable Point Network) for PSI (Persistent Scatterer Interferometry) processing. The product obtained from DIAPASON is the interferometric phase related to ground motion (phase fringes from a SAR pair). SPN provides motion data (mean velocity and time series) on high-quality pixels from a stack of SAR images. DIAPASON is already implemented, and SPN is under development to be exploited with historical data coming from ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT satellites, and current acquisitions of SENTINEL-1 in SLC and TOPSAR modes.

An Overview and Parametric Evaluation of the CGS ShakeMap Automated System in CISN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hagos, L. Z.; Haddadi, H. R.; Shakal, A. F.

2014-12-01

In the recent years, ShakeMap has been extensively used in California for earthquake rapid response. Serving as a backup to the Northern and Southern seismic regions of the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), the California Geological Survey (CGS) is running a ShakeMap system configured such that it effectively produces ShakeMaps for earthquakes occurring in both regions. In achieving this goal, CGS has worked to improve the robustness of its ShakeMap system and the quality of its products. Peak ground motion amplitude data are exchanged between the CISN data centers to provide robust generation of ShakeMap. Most exchanged ground motion packets come associated with an earthquake by the authoritative network. However, for ground motion packets that come unassociated, CGS employs an event association scheme to associate them with the corresponding earthquake. The generated ShakeMap products are published to the CGS server which can also be accessed through the CISN website. The backup function is designed to publish ShakeMap products to the USGS NEIC server without collision with the regional networks, only acting in cases where the authoritative region encounters a system failure. Depending on the size, location and significance of the earthquake, review of ShakeMap products by a seismologist may involve changes to ShakeMap parameters from the default. We present an overview of the CGS ShakeMap system and highlight some of the parameters a seismologist may adjust including parameters related to basin effects, directivity effects when finite fault models are available, site corrections, etc. We also analyze the sensitivity and dependence of the ShakeMap intensity and ground motion maps on the number of observed data included in the computation. In light of the available strong motion amplitude data, we attempt to address the question of what constitutes an adequate quality ShakeMap in the tradeoff between rapidity and completeness. We also present a brief comparative study of the available Ground Motion to Intensity Conversion Equations (GMICE) by studying selected earthquakes in California region. Results of these studies can be used as a tool in ShakeMap generation for California earthquakes when the use of non-default parameters is required.

Long-period Ground Motion Simulation in the Osaka Basin during the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwata, T.; Kubo, H.; Asano, K.; Sato, K.; Aoi, S.

2014-12-01

Large amplitude long-period ground motions (1-10s) with long duration were observed in the Osaka sedimentary basin during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (Mw9.0) and its aftershock (Ibaraki-Oki, Mw7.7), which is about 600 km away from the source regions. Sato et al. (2013) analyzed strong ground motion records from the source region to the Osaka basin and showed the following characteristics. (1) In the period range of 1 to 10s, the amplitude of horizontal components of the ground motion at the site-specific period is amplified in the Osaka basin sites. The predominant period is about 7s in the bay area where the largest pSv were observed. (2) The velocity Fourier amplitude spectra with their predominant period of around 7s are observed at the bedrock sites surrounding the Osaka basin. Those characteristics were observed during both of the mainshock and the largest aftershock. Therefore, large long-period ground motions in the Osaka basin are generated by the combination of propagation-path and basin effects. They simulated ground motions due to the largest aftershock as a simple point source model using three-dimensional FDM (GMS; Aoi and Fujiwara, 1999). They used a three-dimensional velocity structure based on the Japan Integrated Velocity Structure Model (JIVSM, Koketsu et al., 2012), with the minimum effective period of the computation of 3s. Their simulation result reproduced the observation characteristics well and it validates the applicability of the JIVSM for the long period ground motion simulation. In this study, we try to simulate long-period ground motions during the mainshock. The source model we used for the simulation is based on the SMGA model obtained by Asano and Iwata (2012). We succeed to simulate long-period ground motion propagation from Kanto area to the Osaka basin fairly well. The long-period ground motion simulations with the several Osaka basin velocity structure models are done for improving the model applicability. We used strong motion data recorded by K-NET, KiK-net and F-net of NIED, CEORKA, BRI, JMA, Osaka city waterworks bureau, and Osaka prefecture. GMS provided by NIED is used for the computation.

Source Model of Huge Subduction Earthquakes for Strong Ground Motion Prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwata, T.; Asano, K.

2012-12-01

It is a quite important issue for strong ground motion prediction to construct the source model of huge subduction earthquakes. Irikura and Miyake (2001, 2011) proposed the characterized source model for strong ground motion prediction, which consists of plural strong ground motion generation area (SMGA, Miyake et al., 2003) patches on the source fault. We obtained the SMGA source models for many events using the empirical Green's function method and found the SMGA size has an empirical scaling relationship with seismic moment. Therefore, the SMGA size can be assumed from that empirical relation under giving the seismic moment for anticipated earthquakes. Concerning to the setting of the SMGAs position, the information of the fault segment is useful for inland crustal earthquakes. For the 1995 Kobe earthquake, three SMGA patches are obtained and each Nojima, Suma, and Suwayama segment respectively has one SMGA from the SMGA modeling (e.g. Kamae and Irikura, 1998). For the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, Asano and Iwata (2012) estimated the SMGA source model and obtained four SMGA patches on the source fault. Total SMGA area follows the extension of the empirical scaling relationship between the seismic moment and the SMGA area for subduction plate-boundary earthquakes, and it shows the applicability of the empirical scaling relationship for the SMGA. The positions of two SMGAs are in Miyagi-Oki segment and those other two SMGAs are in Fukushima-Oki and Ibaraki-Oki segments, respectively. Asano and Iwata (2012) also pointed out that all SMGAs are corresponding to the historical source areas of 1930's. Those SMGAs do not overlap the huge slip area in the shallower part of the source fault which estimated by teleseismic data, long-period strong motion data, and/or geodetic data during the 2011 mainshock. This fact shows the huge slip area does not contribute to strong ground motion generation (10-0.1s). The information of the fault segment in the subduction zone, or historical earthquake source area is also applicable for the construction of SMGA settings for strong ground motion prediction for future earthquakes.

Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis for Sumatra, Indonesia and across the Southern Malaysian Peninsula

USGS Publications Warehouse

Petersen, M.D.; Dewey, J.; Hartzell, S.; Mueller, C.; Harmsen, S.; Frankel, A.D.; Rukstales, K.

2004-01-01

The ground motion hazard for Sumatra and the Malaysian peninsula is calculated in a probabilistic framework, using procedures developed for the US National Seismic Hazard Maps. We constructed regional earthquake source models and used standard published and modified attenuation equations to calculate peak ground acceleration at 2% and 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years for rock site conditions. We developed or modified earthquake catalogs and declustered these catalogs to include only independent earthquakes. The resulting catalogs were used to define four source zones that characterize earthquakes in four tectonic environments: subduction zone interface earthquakes, subduction zone deep intraslab earthquakes, strike-slip transform earthquakes, and intraplate earthquakes. The recurrence rates and sizes of historical earthquakes on known faults and across zones were also determined from this modified catalog. In addition to the source zones, our seismic source model considers two major faults that are known historically to generate large earthquakes: the Sumatran subduction zone and the Sumatran transform fault. Several published studies were used to describe earthquakes along these faults during historical and pre-historical time, as well as to identify segmentation models of faults. Peak horizontal ground accelerations were calculated using ground motion prediction relations that were developed from seismic data obtained from the crustal interplate environment, crustal intraplate environment, along the subduction zone interface, and from deep intraslab earthquakes. Most of these relations, however, have not been developed for large distances that are needed for calculating the hazard across the Malaysian peninsula, and none were developed for earthquake ground motions generated in an interplate tectonic environment that are propagated into an intraplate tectonic environment. For the interplate and intraplate crustal earthquakes, we have applied ground-motion prediction relations that are consistent with California (interplate) and India (intraplate) strong motion data that we collected for distances beyond 200 km. For the subduction zone equations, we recognized that the published relationships at large distances were not consistent with global earthquake data that we collected and modified the relations to be compatible with the global subduction zone ground motions. In this analysis, we have used alternative source and attenuation models and weighted them to account for our uncertainty in which model is most appropriate for Sumatra or for the Malaysian peninsula. The resulting peak horizontal ground accelerations for 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years range from over 100% g to about 10% g across Sumatra and generally less than 20% g across most of the Malaysian peninsula. The ground motions at 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years are typically about 60% of the ground motions derived for a hazard level at 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years. The largest contributors to hazard are from the Sumatran faults.

Study of the characteristics of seismic signals generated by natural and cultural phenomena. [such as earthquakes, sonic booms, and nuclear explosions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goforth, T. T.; Rasmussen, R. K.

1974-01-01

Seismic data recorded at the Tonto Forest Seismological Observatory in Arizona and the Uinta Basin Seismological Observatory in Utah were used to compare the frequency of occurrence, severity, and spectral content of ground motions resulting from earthquakes, and other natural and man-made sources with the motions generated by sonic booms. A search of data recorded at the two observatories yielded a classification of over 180,000 earthquake phase arrivals on the basis of frequency of occurrence versus maximum ground velocity. The majority of the large ground velocities were produced by seismic surface waves from moderate to large earthquakes in the western United States, and particularly along the Pacific Coast of the United States and northern Mexico. A visual analysis of raw film seismogram data over a 3-year period indicates that local and regional seismic events, including quarry blasts, are frequent in occurrence, but do not produce ground motions at the observatories comparable to either the large western United States earthquakes or to sonic booms. Seismic data from the Nevada Test Site nuclear blasts were used to derive magnitude-distance-sonic boom overpressure relations.

Generation of fluoroscopic 3D images with a respiratory motion model based on an external surrogate signal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurwitz, Martina; Williams, Christopher L.; Mishra, Pankaj; Rottmann, Joerg; Dhou, Salam; Wagar, Matthew; Mannarino, Edward G.; Mak, Raymond H.; Lewis, John H.

2015-01-01

Respiratory motion during radiotherapy can cause uncertainties in definition of the target volume and in estimation of the dose delivered to the target and healthy tissue. In this paper, we generate volumetric images of the internal patient anatomy during treatment using only the motion of a surrogate signal. Pre-treatment four-dimensional CT imaging is used to create a patient-specific model correlating internal respiratory motion with the trajectory of an external surrogate placed on the chest. The performance of this model is assessed with digital and physical phantoms reproducing measured irregular patient breathing patterns. Ten patient breathing patterns are incorporated in a digital phantom. For each patient breathing pattern, the model is used to generate images over the course of thirty seconds. The tumor position predicted by the model is compared to ground truth information from the digital phantom. Over the ten patient breathing patterns, the average absolute error in the tumor centroid position predicted by the motion model is 1.4 mm. The corresponding error for one patient breathing pattern implemented in an anthropomorphic physical phantom was 0.6 mm. The global voxel intensity error was used to compare the full image to the ground truth and demonstrates good agreement between predicted and true images. The model also generates accurate predictions for breathing patterns with irregular phases or amplitudes.

A comparative study of ground motion hybrid simulations and the modified NGA ground motion predictive equations for directivity and its application to the the Marmara Sea region (Turkey)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pischiutta, M.; Akinci, A.; Spagnuolo, E.; Taroni, M.; Herrero, A.; Aochi, H.

2016-12-01

We have simulated strong ground motions for two Mw>7.0 rupture scenarios on the North Anatolian Fault, in the Marmara Sea within 10-20 km from Istanbul. This city is characterized by one of the highest levels of seismic risk in Europe and the Mediterranean region. The increased risk in Istanbul is due to eight destructive earthquakes that ruptured the fault system and left a seismic gap at the western portion of the 1000km-long North Anatolian Fault Zone. To estimate the ground motion characteristics and its variability in the region we have simulated physics-based rupture scenarios, producing hybrid broadband time histories. We have merged two simulation techniques: a full 3D wave propagation method to generate low-frequency seismograms (Aochi and Ulrich, 2015) and the stochastic finite-fault model approach based on a dynamic corner frequency (Motazedian and Atkinson, 2005) to simulate high-frequency seismograms (Akinci et al., 2016, submitted to BSSA, 2016). They are merged to compute realistic broadband hybrid time histories. The comparison of ground motion intensity measures (PGA, PGV, SA) resulting from our simulations with those predicted by the recent Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) in the region (Boore & Atkinson, 2008; Chiou & Young, 2008; Akkar & Bommer, 2010; Akkar & Cagnan, 2010) seems to indicate that rupture directivity and super-shear rupture effects affect the ground motion in the Marmara Sea region. In order to account for the rupture directivity we improve the comparison using the directivity predictor proposed by Spudich & Chiu (2008). This study highlights the importance of the rupture directivity for the hazard estimation in the Marmara Sea region, especially for the city of Istanbul.

Motion synthesis and force distribution analysis for a biped robot.

PubMed

Trojnacki, Maciej T; Zielińska, Teresa

2011-01-01

In this paper, the method of generating biped robot motion using recorded human gait is presented. The recorded data were modified taking into account the velocity available for robot drives. Data includes only selected joint angles, therefore the missing values were obtained considering the dynamic postural stability of the robot, which means obtaining an adequate motion trajectory of the so-called Zero Moment Point (ZMT). Also, the method of determining the ground reaction forces' distribution during the biped robot's dynamic stable walk is described. The method was developed by the authors. Following the description of equations characterizing the dynamics of robot's motion, the values of the components of ground reaction forces were symbolically determined as well as the coordinates of the points of robot's feet contact with the ground. The theoretical considerations have been supported by computer simulation and animation of the robot's motion. This was done using Matlab/Simulink package and Simulink 3D Animation Toolbox, and it has proved the proposed method.

Seismic Hazard and Ground Motion Characterization at the Itoiz Dam (Northern Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivas-Medina, A.; Santoyo, M. A.; Luzón, F.; Benito, B.; Gaspar-Escribano, J. M.; García-Jerez, A.

2012-08-01

This paper presents a new hazard-consistent ground motion characterization of the Itoiz dam site, located in Northern Spain. Firstly, we propose a methodology with different approximation levels to the expected ground motion at the dam site. Secondly, we apply this methodology taking into account the particular characteristics of the site and of the dam. Hazard calculations were performed following the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment method using a logic tree, which accounts for different seismic source zonings and different ground-motion attenuation relationships. The study was done in terms of peak ground acceleration and several spectral accelerations of periods coinciding with the fundamental vibration periods of the dam. In order to estimate these ground motions we consider two different dam conditions: when the dam is empty ( T = 0.1 s) and when it is filled with water to its maximum capacity ( T = 0.22 s). Additionally, seismic hazard analysis is done for two return periods: 975 years, related to the project earthquake, and 4,975 years, identified with an extreme event. Soil conditions were also taken into account at the site of the dam. Through the proposed methodology we deal with different forms of characterizing ground motion at the study site. In a first step, we obtain the uniform hazard response spectra for the two return periods. In a second step, a disaggregation analysis is done in order to obtain the controlling earthquakes that can affect the dam. Subsequently, we characterize the ground motion at the dam site in terms of specific response spectra for target motions defined by the expected values SA ( T) of T = 0.1 and 0.22 s for the return periods of 975 and 4,975 years, respectively. Finally, synthetic acceleration time histories for earthquake events matching the controlling parameters are generated using the discrete wave-number method and subsequently analyzed. Because of the short relative distances between the controlling earthquakes and the dam site we considered finite sources in these computations. We conclude that directivity effects should be taken into account as an important variable in this kind of studies for ground motion characteristics.

Tsunami simulation using submarine displacement calculated from simulation of ground motion due to seismic source model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akiyama, S.; Kawaji, K.; Fujihara, S.

2013-12-01

Since fault fracturing due to an earthquake can simultaneously cause ground motion and tsunami, it is appropriate to evaluate the ground motion and the tsunami by single fault model. However, several source models are used independently in the ground motion simulation or the tsunami simulation, because of difficulty in evaluating both phenomena simultaneously. Many source models for the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake are proposed from the inversion analyses of seismic observations or from those of tsunami observations. Most of these models show the similar features, which large amount of slip is located at the shallower part of fault area near the Japan Trench. This indicates that the ground motion and the tsunami can be evaluated by the single source model. Therefore, we examine the possibility of the tsunami prediction, using the fault model estimated from seismic observation records. In this study, we try to carry out the tsunami simulation using the displacement field of oceanic crustal movements, which is calculated from the ground motion simulation of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. We use two fault models by Yoshida et al. (2011), which are based on both the teleseismic body wave and on the strong ground motion records. Although there is the common feature in those fault models, the amount of slip near the Japan trench is lager in the fault model from the strong ground motion records than in that from the teleseismic body wave. First, the large-scale ground motion simulations applying those fault models used by the voxel type finite element method are performed for the whole eastern Japan. The synthetic waveforms computed from the simulations are generally consistent with the observation records of K-NET (Kinoshita (1998)) and KiK-net stations (Aoi et al. (2000)), deployed by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED). Next, the tsunami simulations are performed by the finite difference calculation based on the shallow water theory. The initial wave height for tsunami generation is estimated from the vertical displacement of ocean bottom due to the crustal movements, which is obtained from the ground motion simulation mentioned above. The results of tsunami simulations are compared with the observations of the GPS wave gauges to evaluate the validity for the tsunami prediction using the fault model based on the seismic observation records.

Practical Applications for Earthquake Scenarios Using ShakeMap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wald, D. J.; Worden, B.; Quitoriano, V.; Goltz, J.

2001-12-01

In planning and coordinating emergency response, utilities, local government, and other organizations are best served by conducting training exercises based on realistic earthquake situations-ones that they are most likely to face. Scenario earthquakes can fill this role; they can be generated for any geologically plausible earthquake or for actual historic earthquakes. ShakeMap Web pages now display selected earthquake scenarios (www.trinet.org/shake/archive/scenario/html) and more events will be added as they are requested and produced. We will discuss the methodology and provide practical examples where these scenarios are used directly for risk reduction. Given a selected event, we have developed tools to make it relatively easy to generate a ShakeMap earthquake scenario using the following steps: 1) Assume a particular fault or fault segment will (or did) rupture over a certain length, 2) Determine the magnitude of the earthquake based on assumed rupture dimensions, 3) Estimate the ground shaking at all locations in the chosen area around the fault, and 4) Represent these motions visually by producing ShakeMaps and generating ground motion input for loss estimation modeling (e.g., FEMA's HAZUS). At present, ground motions are estimated using empirical attenuation relationships to estimate peak ground motions on rock conditions. We then correct the amplitude at that location based on the local site soil (NEHRP) conditions as we do in the general ShakeMap interpolation scheme. Finiteness is included explicitly, but directivity enters only through the empirical relations. Although current ShakeMap earthquake scenarios are empirically based, substantial improvements in numerical ground motion modeling have been made in recent years. However, loss estimation tools, HAZUS for example, typically require relatively high frequency (3 Hz) input for predicting losses, above the range of frequencies successfully modeled to date. Achieving full-synthetic ground motion estimates that will substantially improve over empirical relations at these frequencies will require developing cost-effective numerical tools for proper theoretical inclusion of known complex ground motion effects. Current efforts underway must continue in order to obtain site, basin, and deeper crustal structure, and to characterize and test 3D earth models (including attenuation and nonlinearity). In contrast, longer period synthetics (>2 sec) are currently being generated in a deterministic fashion to include 3D and shallow site effects, an improvement on empirical estimates alone. As progress is made, we will naturally incorporate such advances into the ShakeMap scenario earthquake and processing methodology. Our scenarios are currently used heavily in emergency response planning and loss estimation. Primary users include city, county, state and federal government agencies (e.g., the California Office of Emergency Services, FEMA, the County of Los Angeles) as well as emergency response planners and managers for utilities, businesses, and other large organizations. We have found the scenarios are also of fundamental interest to many in the media and the general community interested in the nature of the ground shaking likely experienced in past earthquakes as well as effects of rupture on known faults in the future.

Hybrid broadband Ground Motion simulation based on a dynamic rupture model of the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galvez, P.; Somerville, P.; Bayless, J.; Dalguer, L. A.

2015-12-01

The rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake exhibits depth-dependent variations in the frequency content of seismic radiation from the plate interface. This depth-varying rupture property has also been observed in other subduction zones (Lay et al, 2012). During the Tohoku earthquake, the shallow region radiated coherent low frequency seismic waves whereas the deeper region radiated high frequency waves. Several kinematic inversions (Suzuki et al, 2011; Lee et al, 2011; Bletery et al, 2014; Minson et al, 2014) detected seismic waves below 0.1 Hz coming from the shallow depths that produced slip larger than 40-50 meters close to the trench. Using empirical green functions, Asano & Iwata (2012), Kurahashi and Irikura (2011) and others detected regions of strong ground motion radiation at frequencies up to 10Hz located mainly at the bottom of the plate interface. A recent dynamic model that embodies this depth-dependent radiation using physical models has been developed by Galvez et al (2014, 2015). In this model the rupture process is modeled using a linear weakening friction law with slip reactivation on the shallow region of the plate interface (Galvez et al, 2015). This model reproduces the multiple seismic wave fronts recorded on the Kik-net seismic network along the Japanese coast up to 0.1 Hz as well as the GPS displacements. In the deep region, the rupture sequence is consistent with the sequence of the strong ground motion generation areas (SMGAs) that radiate high frequency ground motion at the bottom of the plate interface (Kurahashi and Irikura, 2013). It remains challenging to perform ground motions fully coupled with a dynamic rupture up to 10 Hz for a megathrust event. Therefore, to generate high frequency ground motions, we make use of the stochastic approach of Graves and Pitarka (2010) but add to the source spectrum the slip rate function of the dynamic model. In this hybrid-dynamic approach, the slip rate function is windowed with Gaussian noise where the duration of the time window and the starting rupture is determined by the slip rate function at each point in the fault (Dalguer et al, 2002). Finally, to validate this method we compare the synthetic seismograms with the recorded ground motion for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake up to 10 Hz.

Chapter A. The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Strong Ground Motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Borcherdt, Roger D.

1994-01-01

Strong ground motion generated by the Loma Prieta, Calif., earthquake (MS~7.1) of October 17, 1989, resulted in at least 63 deaths, more than 3,757 injuries, and damage estimated to exceed $5.9 billion. Strong ground motion severely damaged critical lifelines (freeway overpasses, bridges, and pipelines), caused severe damage to poorly constructed buildings, and induced a significant number of ground failures associated with liquefaction and landsliding. It also caused a significant proportion of the damage and loss of life at distances as far as 100 km from the epicenter. Consequently, understanding the characteristics of the strong ground motion associated with the earthquake is fundamental to understanding the earthquake's devastating impact on society. The papers assembled in this chapter address this problem. Damage to vulnerable structures from the earthquake varied substantially with the distance from the causative fault and the type of underlying geologic deposits. Most of the damage and loss of life occurred in areas underlain by 'soft soil'. Quantifying these effects is important for understanding the tragic concentrations of damage in such areas as Santa Cruz and the Marina and Embarcadero Districts of San Francisco, and the failures of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Interstate Highway 880 overpass. Most importantly, understanding these effects is a necessary prerequisite for improving mitigation measures for larger earthquakes likely to occur much closer to densely urbanized areas in the San Francisco Bay region. The earthquake generated an especially important data set for understanding variations in the severity of strong ground motion. Instrumental strong-motion recordings were obtained at 131 sites located from about 6 to 175 km from the rupture zone. This set of recordings, the largest yet collected for an event of this size, was obtained from sites on various geologic deposits, including a unique set on 'soft soil' deposits (artificial fill and bay mud). These exceptional ground-motion data are used by the authors of the papers in this chapter to infer radiation characteristics of the earthquake source, identify dominant propagation characteristics of the Earth?s crust, quantify amplification characteristics of near-surface geologic deposits, develop general amplification factors for site-dependent building-code provisions, and revise earthquake-hazard assessments for the San Francisco Bay region. Interpretations of additional data recorded in well-instrumented buildings, dams, and freeway overpasses are provided in other chapters of this report.

Hazard-to-Risk: High-Performance Computing Simulations of Large Earthquake Ground Motions and Building Damage in the Near-Fault Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miah, M.; Rodgers, A. J.; McCallen, D.; Petersson, N. A.; Pitarka, A.

2017-12-01

We are running high-performance computing (HPC) simulations of ground motions for large (magnitude, M=6.5-7.0) earthquakes in the near-fault region (< 50 km) to 5 Hz and higher. Ground motions are then used as forcing functions for canonical steel moment frame buildings throughout the near-fault domain. For ground motions, we are using SW4, a fourth order summation-by-parts finite difference time-domain code running on 10,000-100,000's of cores. Earthquake ruptures are generated using the Graves and Pitarka (2017) method. We validated ground motion intensity measurements against Ground Motion Prediction Equations. We considered two events (M=6.5 and 7.0) for vertical strike-slip ruptures with three-dimensional (3D) basin structures, including stochastic heterogeneity. We have also considered M7.0 scenarios for a Hayward Fault rupture scenario which effects the San Francisco Bay Area and northern California using both 1D and 3D earth structure. Dynamic, inelastic response of canonical buildings is computed with the NEVADA, a nonlinear, finite-deformation finite element code. Canonical buildings include 3-, 9-, 20- and 40-story steel moment frame buildings. Damage potential is tracked by the peak inter-story drift (PID) ratio, which measures the maximum displacement between adjacent floors of the building and is strongly correlated with damage. PID ratios greater 1.0 generally indicate non-linear response and permanent deformation of the structure. We also track roof displacement to identify permanent deformation. PID (damage) for a given earthquake scenario (M, slip distribution, hypocenter) is spatially mapped throughout the SW4 domain with 1-2 km resolution. Results show that in the near fault region building damage is correlated with peak ground velocity (PGV), while farther away (> 20 km) it is better correlated with peak ground acceleration (PGA). We also show how simulated ground motions have peaks in the response spectra that shift to longer periods for larger magnitude events and for locations of forward directivity, as has been reported by Sommerville (2003). These advanced numerical simulation capabilities provide a detailed look at the regional distribution of ground motions and allow us to quantify how ground motion hazard translate to risk for specific structures on a regional scale.

Application and API for Real-time Visualization of Ground-motions and Tsunami

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoi, S.; Kunugi, T.; Suzuki, W.; Kubo, T.; Nakamura, H.; Azuma, H.; Fujiwara, H.

2015-12-01

Due to the recent progress of seismograph and communication environment, real-time and continuous ground-motion observation becomes technically and economically feasible. K-NET and KiK-net, which are nationwide strong motion networks operated by NIED, cover all Japan by about 1750 stations in total. More than half of the stations transmit the ground-motion indexes and/or waveform data in every second. Traditionally, strong-motion data were recorded by event-triggering based instruments with non-continues telephone line which is connected only after an earthquake. Though the data from such networks mainly contribute to preparations for future earthquakes, huge amount of real-time data from dense network are expected to directly contribute to the mitigation of ongoing earthquake disasters through, e.g., automatic shutdown plants and helping decision-making for initial response. By generating the distribution map of these indexes and uploading them to the website, we implemented the real-time ground motion monitoring system, Kyoshin (strong-motion in Japanese) monitor. This web service (www.kyoshin.bosai.go.jp) started in 2008 and anyone can grasp the current ground motions of Japan. Though this service provides only ground-motion map in GIF format, to take full advantage of real-time strong-motion data to mitigate the ongoing disasters, digital data are important. We have developed a WebAPI to provide real-time data and related information such as ground motions (5 km-mesh) and arrival times estimated from EEW (earthquake early warning). All response data from this WebAPI are in JSON format and are easy to parse. We also developed Kyoshin monitor application for smartphone, 'Kmoni view' using the API. In this application, ground motions estimated from EEW are overlapped on the map with the observed one-second-interval indexes. The application can playback previous earthquakes for demonstration or disaster drill. In mobile environment, data traffic and battery are limited and it is not practical to regularly visualize all the data. The application has automatic starting (pop-up) function triggered by EEW. Similar WebAPI and application for tsunami are being prepared using the pressure data recorded by dense offshore observation network (S-net), which is under construction along the Japan Trench.

Neurons Forming Optic Glomeruli Compute Figure–Ground Discriminations in Drosophila

PubMed Central

Aptekar, Jacob W.; Keleş, Mehmet F.; Lu, Patrick M.; Zolotova, Nadezhda M.

2015-01-01

Many animals rely on visual figure–ground discrimination to aid in navigation, and to draw attention to salient features like conspecifics or predators. Even figures that are similar in pattern and luminance to the visual surroundings can be distinguished by the optical disparity generated by their relative motion against the ground, and yet the neural mechanisms underlying these visual discriminations are not well understood. We show in flies that a diverse array of figure–ground stimuli containing a motion-defined edge elicit statistically similar behavioral responses to one another, and statistically distinct behavioral responses from ground motion alone. From studies in larger flies and other insect species, we hypothesized that the circuitry of the lobula—one of the four, primary neuropiles of the fly optic lobe—performs this visual discrimination. Using calcium imaging of input dendrites, we then show that information encoded in cells projecting from the lobula to discrete optic glomeruli in the central brain group these sets of figure–ground stimuli in a homologous manner to the behavior; “figure-like” stimuli are coded similar to one another and “ground-like” stimuli are encoded differently. One cell class responds to the leading edge of a figure and is suppressed by ground motion. Two other classes cluster any figure-like stimuli, including a figure moving opposite the ground, distinctly from ground alone. This evidence demonstrates that lobula outputs provide a diverse basis set encoding visual features necessary for figure detection. PMID:25972183

Neurons forming optic glomeruli compute figure-ground discriminations in Drosophila.

PubMed

Aptekar, Jacob W; Keleş, Mehmet F; Lu, Patrick M; Zolotova, Nadezhda M; Frye, Mark A

2015-05-13

Many animals rely on visual figure-ground discrimination to aid in navigation, and to draw attention to salient features like conspecifics or predators. Even figures that are similar in pattern and luminance to the visual surroundings can be distinguished by the optical disparity generated by their relative motion against the ground, and yet the neural mechanisms underlying these visual discriminations are not well understood. We show in flies that a diverse array of figure-ground stimuli containing a motion-defined edge elicit statistically similar behavioral responses to one another, and statistically distinct behavioral responses from ground motion alone. From studies in larger flies and other insect species, we hypothesized that the circuitry of the lobula--one of the four, primary neuropiles of the fly optic lobe--performs this visual discrimination. Using calcium imaging of input dendrites, we then show that information encoded in cells projecting from the lobula to discrete optic glomeruli in the central brain group these sets of figure-ground stimuli in a homologous manner to the behavior; "figure-like" stimuli are coded similar to one another and "ground-like" stimuli are encoded differently. One cell class responds to the leading edge of a figure and is suppressed by ground motion. Two other classes cluster any figure-like stimuli, including a figure moving opposite the ground, distinctly from ground alone. This evidence demonstrates that lobula outputs provide a diverse basis set encoding visual features necessary for figure detection. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/357587-13$15.00/0.

Ground Vibration Generated by a Load Moving Along a Railway Track

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

SHENG, X.; JONES, C. J. C.; PETYT, M.

1999-11-01

The propagation of vibration generated by a harmonic or a constant load moving along a layered beam resting on the layered half-space is investigated theoretically in this paper. The solution to this problem can be used to study the ground vibration generated by the motion of a train axle load on a railway track. In this application, the ground is modelled as a number of parallel viscoelastic layers overlying an elastic half-space or a rigid foundation. The track, including the rails, rail pad, sleepers and ballast, is modelled as an infinite, layered beam structure. The modal nature of propagation in the ground for a chosen set of ground parameters is discussed and the results of the model are presented showing the characteristics of the vibration generated by a constant load and an oscillatory load at speeds below, near to, and above the lowest ground wave speed.

Moment Magnitude discussion in Austria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weginger, Stefan; Jia, Yan; Hausmann, Helmut; Lenhardt, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

We implemented and tested the Moment Magnitude estimation „dbmw" from the University of Trieste in our Antelope near real-time System. It is used to get a fast Moment Magnitude solutions and Ground Motion Parameter (PGA, PGV, PSA 0.3, PSA 1.0 and PSA 3.0) to calculate Shake and Interactive maps. A Moment Magnitude Catalogue was generated and compared with the Austrian Earthquake Catalogue and all available Magnitude solution of the neighbouring agencies. Relations of Mw to Ml and Ground Motion to Intensity are presented.

Dynamical simulation priors for human motion tracking.

PubMed

Vondrak, Marek; Sigal, Leonid; Jenkins, Odest Chadwicke

2013-01-01

We propose a simulation-based dynamical motion prior for tracking human motion from video in presence of physical ground-person interactions. Most tracking approaches to date have focused on efficient inference algorithms and/or learning of prior kinematic motion models; however, few can explicitly account for the physical plausibility of recovered motion. Here, we aim to recover physically plausible motion of a single articulated human subject. Toward this end, we propose a full-body 3D physical simulation-based prior that explicitly incorporates a model of human dynamics into the Bayesian filtering framework. We consider the motion of the subject to be generated by a feedback “control loop” in which Newtonian physics approximates the rigid-body motion dynamics of the human and the environment through the application and integration of interaction forces, motor forces, and gravity. Interaction forces prevent physically impossible hypotheses, enable more appropriate reactions to the environment (e.g., ground contacts), and are produced from detected human-environment collisions. Motor forces actuate the body, ensure that proposed pose transitions are physically feasible, and are generated using a motion controller. For efficient inference in the resulting high-dimensional state space, we utilize an exemplar-based control strategy that reduces the effective search space of motor forces. As a result, we are able to recover physically plausible motion of human subjects from monocular and multiview video. We show, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that our approach performs favorably with respect to Bayesian filtering methods with standard motion priors.

On the generation of horizontal shear waves by underground explosions in jointed rocks

DOE PAGES

Vorobiev, Oleg; Ezzedine, Souheil; Antoun, Tarabay; ...

2015-02-04

This paper describes computational studies of non-spherical ground motions generated by spherical explosions in a heavily jointed granite formation. Various factors affecting the shear wave generation are considered, including joint spacing, orientation, persistence and properties. Simulations are performed both in 2D for a single joint set to elucidate the basic response mechanisms, and in 3D for multiple joint sets to realistically represent in situ conditions in a realistic geologic setting. The joints are modeled explicitly using both contact elements and weakness planes in the material. Simulations are performed both deterministically and stochastically to quantify the effects of geologic uncertainties onmore » near field ground motions. The mechanical properties of the rock and the joints as well as the joint spacing and orientation are taken from experimental test data and geophysical logs corresponding to the Climax Stock granitic outcrop, which is the geologic setting of the Source Physics Experiment (SPE). Agreement between simulation results and near field wave motion data from SPE enables newfound understanding of the origin and extent of non-spherical motions associated with underground explosions in fractured geologic media.« less

Strong motion from surface waves in deep sedimentary basins

USGS Publications Warehouse

Joyner, W.B.

2000-01-01

It is widely recognized that long-period surface waves generated by conversion of body waves at the boundaries of deep sedimentary basins make an important contribution to strong ground motion. The factors controlling the amplitude of such motion, however, are not widely understood. A study of pseudovelocity response spectra of strong-motion records from the Los Angeles Basin shows that late-arriving surface waves with group velocities of about 1 km/sec dominate the ground motion for periods of 3 sec and longer. The rate of amplitude decay for these waves is less than for the body waves and depends significantly on period, with smaller decay for longer periods. The amplitude can be modeled by the equation log y = f(M, RE) + c + bRB where y is the pseudovelocity response, f(M, RE) is an attenuation relation based on a general strong-motion data set, M is moment magnitude, RE is the distance from the source to the edge of the basin, RB is the distance from the edge of the basin to the recording site, and b and c are parameters fit to the data. The equation gives values larger by as much as a factor of 3 than given by the attenuation relationships based on general strong-motion data sets for the same source-site distance. It is clear that surface waves need to be taken into account in the design of long-period structures in deep sedimentary basins. The ground-motion levels specified by the earthquake provisions of current building codes, in California at least, accommodate the long-period ground motions from basin-edge-generated surface waves for periods of 5 sec and less and earthquakes with moment magnitudes of 7.5 or less located more than 20 km outside the basin. There may be problems at longer periods and for earthquakes located closer to the basin edge. The results of this study suggest that anelastic attenuation may need to be included in attempts to model long-period motion in deep sedimentary basins. To obtain better data on surface waves in the future, operators of strong-motion networks should take special care for the faithful recording of the long-period components of ground motion. It will also be necessary to insure that at least some selected recorders, once triggered, continue to operate for a time sufficient for the surface waves to traverse the basin. With velocities of about 1 km/sec, that time will be as long as 100 sec for a basin the size of the Los Angeles Basin.

Ground-motion prediction equations for the average horizontal component of PGA, PGV, and 5%-damped PSA at spectral periods between 0.01 s and 10.0 s

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, D.M.; Atkinson, G.M.

2008-01-01

This paper contains ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for average horizontal-component ground motions as a function of earthquake magnitude, distance from source to site, local average shear-wave velocity, and fault type. Our equations are for peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), and 5%-damped pseudo-absolute-acceleration spectra (PSA) at periods between 0.01 s and 10 s. They were derived by empirical regression of an extensive strong-motion database compiled by the 'PEER NGA' (Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center's Next Generation Attenuation) project. For periods less than 1 s, the analysis used 1,574 records from 58 mainshocks in the distance range from 0 km to 400 km (the number of available data decreased as period increased). The primary predictor variables are moment magnitude (M), closest horizontal distance to the surface projection of the fault plane (RJB), and the time-averaged shear-wave velocity from the surface to 30 m (VS30). The equations are applicable for M=5-8, RJB<200 km, and VS30= 180-1300 m/s. ?? 2008, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Effect of ground wind shear on aircraft trailing vortices

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1972-08-01

The motion of the pair of trailing vortices generated by an aircraft is not well described by simple line vortex theory in the presence of a cross wind near the ground. Experimental observations indicate that the up-wind vortex usually drops to a low...

PEER NGA-East Overview: Development of a Ground Motion Characterization Model (Ground Motion Prediction Equations) for Central and Eastern North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goulet, C. A.; Abrahamson, N. A.; Al Atik, L.; Atkinson, G. M.; Bozorgnia, Y.; Graves, R. W.; Kuehn, N. M.; Youngs, R. R.

2017-12-01

The Next Generation Attenuation project for Central and Eastern North America (CENA), NGA-East, is a major multi-disciplinary project coordinated by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). The project was co-sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). NGA-East involved a large number of participating researchers from various organizations in academia, industry and government and was carried-out as a combination of 1) a scientific research project and 2) a model-building component following the NRC Seismic Senior Hazard Analysis Committee (SSHAC) Level 3 process. The science part of the project led to several data products and technical reports while the SSHAC component aggregated the various results into a ground motion characterization (GMC) model. The GMC model consists in a set of ground motion models (GMMs) for median and standard deviation of ground motions and their associated weights, combined into logic-trees for use in probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA). NGA-East addressed many technical challenges, most of them related to the relatively small number of earthquake recordings available for CENA. To resolve this shortcoming, the project relied on ground motion simulations to supplement the available data. Other important scientific issues were addressed through research projects on topics such as the regionalization of seismic source, path and attenuation of motions, the treatment of variability and uncertainties and on the evaluation of site effects. Seven working groups were formed to cover the complexity and breadth of topics in the NGA-East project, each focused on a specific technical area. This presentation provides an overview of the NGA-East research project and its key products.

Strong Ground Motion Generation during the 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, K.; Iwata, T.

2011-12-01

Strong ground motions during the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Mw9.0) were densely observed by the strong motion observation networks all over Japan. Seeing the acceleration and velocity waveforms observed at strong stations in northeast Japan along the source region, those ground motions are characterized by plural wave packets with duration of about twenty seconds. Particularly, two wave packets separated by about fifty seconds could be found on the records in the northern part of the damaged area, whereas only one significant wave packets could be recognized on the records in the southern part of the damaged area. The record section shows four isolated wave packets propagating from different locations to north and south, and it gives us a hint of the strong motion generation process on the source fault which is related to the heterogeneous rupture process in the scale of tens of kilometers. In order to solve it, we assume that each isolated wave packet is contributed by the corresponding strong motion generation area (SMGA). It is a source patch whose slip velocity is larger than off the area (Miyake et al., 2003). That is, the source model of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake consists of four SMGAs. The SMGA source model has succeeded in reproducing broadband strong ground motions for past subduction-zone events (e.g., Suzuki and Iwata, 2007). The target frequency range is set to be 0.1-10 Hz in this study as this range is significantly related to seismic damage generation to general man-made structures. First, we identified the rupture starting points of each SMGA by picking up the onset of individual packets. The source fault plane is set following the GCMT solution. The first two SMGAs were located approximately 70 km and 30 km west of the hypocenter. The third and forth SMGAs were located approximately 160 km and 230 km southwest of the hypocenter. Then, the model parameters (size, rise time, stress drop, rupture velocity, rupture propagation pattern) of these four SMGAs were determined by waveform modeling using the empirical Green's function method (Irikura, 1986). The first and second SMGAs are located close to each other, and they are partially overlapped though the difference in the rupture time between them is more than 40 s. Those two SMGA appear to be included in the source region of the past repeating Miyagi-Oki subduction-zone event in 1936. The third and fourth SMGAs appear to be located in the source region of the past Fukushima-Oki events in 1938. Each of Those regions has been expected to cause next major earthquakes in the long-term evaluation. The obtained source model explains the acceleration, velocity, and displacement time histories in the target frequency range at most stations well. All of four SMGAs exist apparently outside of the large slip area along the trench east of the hypocenter, which was estimated by the seismic, geodetic, and tsunami inversion analyses, and this large slip zone near the trench does not contribute to strong motion much. At this point, we can conclude that the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake has a possibility to be a complex event rupturing multiple preexisting asperities in terms of strong ground motion generation. It should be helpful to validate and improve the applicability of the strong motion prediction recipe for great subduction-zone earthquakes.

A combined source and site-effect study of ground motions generated by an earthquake in Port au Prince (Haiti)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

St Fleur, Sadrac; Courboulex, Francoise; Bertrand, Etienne; Deschamps, Anne; Mercier de Lepinay, Bernard; Prepetit, Claude; Hough, Suzan

2013-04-01

We present the preliminary results of a study with the aim of understanding how some combinations of source and site effects can generate extreme ground motions in the city of Port au Prince. For this study, we have used the recordings of several tens of earthquakes with magnitude larger than 3.0 at 3 to 14 stations from three networks: 3 stations of the Canadian Broad-band network (RNCan), 2 stations of the educational French network (SaE) and 9 stations of the accelerometric network (Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie of Port au Prince and US Geological survey). In order to estimate site effects under each station, we have applied classical spectral ratio methods: The H/V (Horizontal/Vertical) method was first used to select a reference station, which was itself used in a site/reference method. Because a true reference station was not available, we have used successively stations HCEA, then station PAPH, then an average value of 3 stations. In the frequency range studied (0.5 - 20 Hz), we found a site-to-reference ratio up to 3 to 8. However, these values present a large variability, depending on the earthquake recordings. This may indicate that the observed amplification from one station to the other depends not only from the local site effect but also from the source. We then used the same earthquake recordings as Empirical Green's Functions (EGF) in order to simulate the ground motions generated by a virtual earthquake. For this simulation, we have used a stochastic EGF summation method. We have worked on the simulation of a magnitude Mw=6.8 using successively 2 smaller events that occurred on the Leogane fault as EGF. The results obtained using the two events are surprisingly very different. Using the first EGF, we obtained almost the same ground motion values at each station in Port au Prince, whereas with the second EGF, the results highlight large differences. The large variability obtained in the results indicates that a particular combination of site and source effects may be responsible of large ground motions, especially at some given sites.

The role of local soil-induced amplification in the 27 July 1980 northeastern Kentucky earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Woolery, E.W.; Lin, T.-L.; Wang, Z.; Shi, B.

2008-01-01

Amplification of earthquake ground motions by near-surface soil deposits was believed to have occurred in Maysville, Kentucky, U.S.A. during the northeast Kentucky (Sharpsburg) earthquake (mb,Lg 5.3) of July 27, 1980. The city of Maysville, founded on approximately 30 m of Late Quaternary Ohio River flood plain alluvium, was 52 km from the epicenter, but experienced equivalent or higher Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) VII, compared with the epicentral area of the earthquake (i.e., MMI VI-VII). In this study, dynamic soil properties were obtained at 10 sites in Maysville using seismic P-wave and S-wave (SH-mode) refraction and reflection methods. Synthetically generated composite time histories and limited geotechnical information, along with the measured dynamic properties, were used to perform one-dimensional linear-equivalent amplification analyses. The results indicated the soils generated ground-motion amplification factors between 3.0 and 6.0 and at a frequency range between 2.0 and 5.0 Hz (0.2 to 0.5 s). The building damage in Maysville from the Sharpsburg earthquake was predominantly found in one- to three-story masonry structures. The estimated fundamental period for one- to three-story masonry buildings is approximately 0.11 to 0.26 s (3.8 to 9 Hz). These correlations suggest the elevated ground motion intensity in Maysville can be accounted for by near-surface soil-amplification effects and resonance of the ground motion by the buildings (i.e., double resonance).

Orientation-independent measures of ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, D.M.; Watson-Lamprey, Jennie; Abrahamson, N.A.

2006-01-01

The geometric mean of the response spectra for two orthogonal horizontal components of motion, commonly used as the response variable in predictions of strong ground motion, depends on the orientation of the sensors as installed in the field. This means that the measure of ground-motion intensity could differ for the same actual ground motion. This dependence on sensor orientation is most pronounced for strongly correlated motion (the extreme example being linearly polarized motion), such as often occurs at periods of 1 sec or longer. We propose two new measures of the geometric mean, GMRotDpp, and GMRotIpp, that are independent of the sensor orientations. Both are based on a set of geometric means computed from the as-recorded orthogonal horizontal motions rotated through all possible non-redundant rotation angles. GMRotDpp is determined as the ppth percentile of the set of geometric means for a given oscillator period. For example, GMRotDOO, GMRotD50, and GMRotD100 correspond to the minimum, median, and maximum values, respectively. The rotations that lead to GMRotDpp depend on period, whereas a single-period-independent rotation is used for GMRotIpp, the angle being chosen to minimize the spread of the rotation-dependent geometric mean (normalized by GMRotDpp) over the usable range of oscillator periods. GMRotI50 is the ground-motion intensity measure being used in the development of new ground-motion prediction equations by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center Next Generation Attenuation project. Comparisons with as-recorded geometric means for a large dataset show that the new measures are systematically larger than the geometric-mean response spectra using the as-recorded values of ground acceleration, but only by a small amount (less than 3%). The theoretical advantage of the new measures is that they remove sensor orientation as a contributor to aleatory uncertainty. Whether the reduction is of practical significance awaits detailed studies of large datasets. A preliminary analysis contained in a companion article by Beyer and Bommer finds that the reduction is small-to-nonexistent for equations based on a wide range of magnitudes and distances. The results of Beyer and Bommer do suggest, however, that there is an increasing reduction as period increases. Whether the reduction increases with other subdivisions of the dataset for which strongly correlated motions might be expected (e.g., pulselike motions close to faults) awaits further analysis.

Infrasonic induced ground motions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Ting-Li

On January 28, 2004, the CERI seismic network recorded seismic signals generated by an unknown source. Our conclusion is that the acoustic waves were initiated by an explosive source near the ground surface. The meteorological temperature and effective sound speed profiles suggested existence of an efficient near-surface waveguide that allowed the acoustic disturbance to propagate to large distances. An explosion occurring in an area of forest and farms would have limited the number of eyewitnesses. Resolution of the source might be possible by experiment or by detailed analysis of the ground motion data. A seismo-acoustic array was built to investigate thunder-induced ground motions. Two thunder events with similar N-wave waveforms but different horizontal slownesses are chosen to evaluate the credibility of using thunder as a seismic source. These impulsive acoustic waves excited P and S reverberations in the near surface that depend on both the incident wave horizontal slowness and the velocity structure in the upper 30 meters. Nineteen thunder events were chosen to further investigate the seismo-acoustic coupling. The consistent incident slowness differences between acoustic pressure and ground motions suggest that ground reverberations were first initiated somewhat away from the array. Acoustic and seismic signals were used to generate the time-domain transfer function through the deconvolution technique. Possible non-linear interaction for acoustic propagation into the soil at the surface was observed. The reverse radial initial motions suggest a low Poisson's ratio for the near-surface layer. The acoustic-to-seismic transfer functions show a consistent reverberation series of the Rayleigh wave type, which has a systematic dispersion relation to incident slownesses inferred from the seismic ground velocity. Air-coupled Rayleigh wave dispersion was used to quantitatively constrain the near-surface site structure with constraints afforded by near-surface body wave refraction and Rayleigh wave dispersion data. Theoretical standard high-frequency and air-coupled Rayleigh wave dispersion calculated by the inferred site structure match the observed dispersion curves. Our study suggests that natural or controlled air-borne pressure sources can be used to investigate the near-surface site structures for earthquake shaking hazard studies.

Design of Visco-Elastic Dampers for RC Frame for Site-Specific Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamatchi, P.; Rama Raju, K.; Ravisankar, K.; Iyer, Nagesh R.

2016-12-01

Number of Reinforced Concrete (RC) framed buildings have got damaged at Ahmedabad city, India located at about 240 km away from epicenter during January 2001, 7.6 moment magnitude (Mw) Bhuj earthquake. In the present study, two dimensional nonlinear time history dynamic analyses of a typical 13 storey frame assumed to be located at Ahmedabad is carried out with the rock level and surface level site-specific ground motion for scenario earthquake of Mw 7.6 from Bhuj. Artificial ground motions are generated using extended finite source stochastic model with seismological parameters reported in literature for 2001 Bhuj earthquake. Surface level ground motions are obtained for a typical soil profile of 100 m depth reported in literature through one dimensional equivalent linear wave propagation analyses. From the analyses, failure of frame is observed for surface level ground motions which indicates that, in addition to the in-adequacy of the cross sections and reinforcement of the RC members of the frame chosen, the rich energy content of the surface level ground motion near the fundamental time period of the frame has also contributed for the failure of frame. As a part of retrofitting measure, five Visco-elastic Dampers (VED) in chevron bracing are added to frame. For the frame considered in the present study, provision of VED is found to be effective to mitigate damage for the soil site considered.

Generation of Shear Motion from an Isotropic Explosion Source by Scattering in Heterogeneous Media

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hirakawa, Evan; Pitarka, Arben; Mellors, Robert

One challenging task in explosion seismology is the development of physical models for explaining the generation of S waves during underground explosions. Recent analysis of ground motion from chemical explosions during the Source Physics Experiment (Pitarka et al., 2015) suggests that, although a large component of shear motion was generated directly at the source, additional scattering from heterogeneous velocity structure and topography is necessary to better match the recorded data. In our paper, we used a stochastic representation of small-scale velocity variability to produce high-frequency scattering and to analyze its implication on shear-motion generation during underground explosions. In our stochasticmore » velocity model, the key parameters that affect scattering are the correlation length and the relative amplitude of velocity perturbations. Finally, based on finite-difference simulations of elastic wave propagation from an isotropic explosion source, we find that higher velocity perturbations result in larger shear motion, whereas the correlation length, which controls the scatterers size, affects the frequency range at which relative transverse motion is larger.« less

Generation of Shear Motion from an Isotropic Explosion Source by Scattering in Heterogeneous Media

DOE PAGES

Hirakawa, Evan; Pitarka, Arben; Mellors, Robert

2016-07-19

One challenging task in explosion seismology is the development of physical models for explaining the generation of S waves during underground explosions. Recent analysis of ground motion from chemical explosions during the Source Physics Experiment (Pitarka et al., 2015) suggests that, although a large component of shear motion was generated directly at the source, additional scattering from heterogeneous velocity structure and topography is necessary to better match the recorded data. In our paper, we used a stochastic representation of small-scale velocity variability to produce high-frequency scattering and to analyze its implication on shear-motion generation during underground explosions. In our stochasticmore » velocity model, the key parameters that affect scattering are the correlation length and the relative amplitude of velocity perturbations. Finally, based on finite-difference simulations of elastic wave propagation from an isotropic explosion source, we find that higher velocity perturbations result in larger shear motion, whereas the correlation length, which controls the scatterers size, affects the frequency range at which relative transverse motion is larger.« less

Portable Linear Sled (PLS) for biomedical research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vallotton, Will; Matsuhiro, Dennis; Wynn, Tom; Temple, John

1993-01-01

The PLS is a portable linear motion generating device conceived by researchers at Ames Research Center's Vestibular Research Facility and designed by engineers at Ames for the study of motion sickness in space. It is an extremely smooth apparatus, powered by linear motors and suspended on air bearings which ride on precision ground ceramic ways.

Simulations of Ground Motion in Southern California based upon the Spectral-Element Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tromp, J.; Komatitsch, D.; Liu, Q.

2003-12-01

We use the spectral-element method to simulate ground motion generated by recent well-recorded small earthquakes in Southern California. Simulations are performed using a new sedimentary basin model that is constrained by hundreds of petroleum industry well logs and more than twenty thousand kilometers of seismic reflection profiles. The numerical simulations account for 3D variations of seismic wave speeds and density, topography and bathymetry, and attenuation. Simulations for several small recent events demonstrate that the combination of a detailed sedimentary basin model and an accurate numerical technique facilitates the simulation of ground motion at periods of 2 seconds and longer inside the Los Angeles basin and 6 seconds and longer elsewhere. Peak ground displacement, velocity and acceleration maps illustrate that significant amplification occurs in the basin. Centroid-Moment Tensor mechanisms are obtained based upon Pnl and surface waveforms and numerically calculated 3D Frechet derivatives. We use a combination of waveform and waveform-envelope misfit criteria, and facilitate pure double-couple or zero-trace moment-tensor inversions.

Basin-edge generated Rayleigh waves in the Almaty basin and corresponding consequences for ground motion amplification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilz, Marco; Parolai, Stefano; Petrovic, Bojana; Silacheva, Natalya; Abakanov, Tanatkan; Orunbaev, Sagynbek; Moldobekov, Bolot

2018-04-01

During the past two centuries, several large earthquakes have caused extensive damages in the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan. Increasing the preparedness for future events, the definition of the optimal engineering designs for civil structures and the corresponding mitigation of earthquake risks involves the accomplishment of site response studies. To this regard, a temporary seismological network of 15 stations was installed in the city aiming at the accurate identification of local variations of site response at different locations. As the city is settled on a deep sediment-filled plain with laterally strongly varying thicknesses, bound to the south by the Tien-Shan mountain range, the city might face important site effects: large amplification and significant increase of shaking duration. In addition, surface waves in the low-frequency range around and slightly higher than the fundamental resonance frequency, which could be generated at the boundaries of the basin, can carry a large amount of energy. In turn, this will influence both the spatial distribution of the level of amplification and the temporal lengthening of ground motion significantly. For quantifying these effects, we apply complex trace analysis, which uses the instantaneous polarization characteristics of the seismic signal for separating waves arriving at a single site from different directions. In this way, secondary surface waves originating at various sites along the edge of the Almaty basin can be identified as well as their generation regions. After having assessed 1-D amplification effects with well-established techniques like the standard spectral ratio and the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio techniques, the results further indicate that thick layers of soft clay deposits and the 3-D structure of the basin give rise to lengthening of ground motion and high amplification values at low frequencies around 0.2 Hz. The steep structure of the sediment-bedrock interface at the southern edge of the Almaty basin can generate surface waves with distinct azimuths, meaning that the spatial variability of ground motion is not only related to a simple 1-D response but it can be strongly modified by secondary waves generated at the margin of the basin.

Prediction of Strong Earthquake Ground Motion for the M=7.4 and M=7.2 1999, Turkey Earthquakes based upon Geological Structure Modeling and Local Earthquake Recordings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gok, R.; Hutchings, L.

2004-05-01

We test a means to predict strong ground motion using the Mw=7.4 and Mw=7.2 1999 Izmit and Duzce, Turkey earthquakes. We generate 100 rupture scenarios for each earthquake, constrained by a prior knowledge, and use these to synthesize strong ground motion and make the prediction. Ground motion is synthesized with the representation relation using impulsive point source Green's functions and synthetic source models. We synthesize the earthquakes from DC to 25 Hz. We demonstrate how to incorporate this approach into standard probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA). The synthesis of earthquakes is based upon analysis of over 3,000 aftershocks recorded by several seismic networks. The analysis provides source parameters of the aftershocks; records available for use as empirical Green's functions; and a three-dimensional velocity structure from tomographic inversion. The velocity model is linked to a finite difference wave propagation code (E3D, Larsen 1998) to generate synthetic Green's functions (DC < f < 0.5 Hz). We performed the simultaneous inversion for hypocenter locations and three-dimensional P-wave velocity structure of the Marmara region using SIMULPS14 along with 2,500 events. We also obtained source moment and corner frequency and individual station attenuation parameter estimates for over 500 events by performing a simultaneous inversion to fit these parameters with a Brune source model. We used the results of the source inversion to deconvolve out a Brune model from small to moderate size earthquake (M<4.0) recordings to obtain empirical Green's functions for the higher frequency range of ground motion (0.5 < f < 25.0 Hz). Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract W-7405-ENG-48.

The Engineering Strong Ground Motion Network of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velasco Miranda, J. M.; Ramirez-Guzman, L.; Aguilar Calderon, L. A.; Almora Mata, D.; Ayala Hernandez, M.; Castro Parra, G.; Molina Avila, I.; Mora, A.; Torres Noguez, M.; Vazquez Larquet, R.

2014-12-01

The coverage, design, operation and monitoring capabilities of the strong ground motion program at the Institute of Engineering (IE) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is presented. Started in 1952, the seismic instrumentation intended initially to bolster earthquake engineering projects in Mexico City has evolved into the largest strong ground motion monitoring system in the region. Today, it provides information not only to engineering projects, but also to the near real-time risk mitigation systems of the country, and enhances the general understanding of the effects and causes of earthquakes in Mexico. The IE network includes more than 100 free-field stations and several buildings, covering the largest urban centers and zones of significant seismicity in Central Mexico. Of those stations, approximately one-fourth send the observed acceleration to a processing center in Mexico City continuously, and the rest require either periodic visits for the manual recovery of the data or remote interrogation, for later processing and cataloging. In this research, we document the procedures and telecommunications systems used systematically to recover information. Additionally, we analyze the spatial distribution of the free-field accelerographs, the quality of the instrumentation, and the recorded ground motions. The evaluation criteria are based on the: 1) uncertainty in the generation of ground motion parameter maps due to the spatial distribution of the stations, 2) potential of the array to provide localization and magnitude estimates for earthquakes with magnitudes greater than Mw 5, and 3) adequacy of the network for the development of Ground Motion Prediction Equations due to intra-plate and intra-slab earthquakes. We conclude that the monitoring system requires a new redistribution, additional stations, and a substantial improvement in the instrumentation and telecommunications. Finally, we present an integral plan to improve the current network's monitoring capabilities.

Estimating unknown input parameters when implementing the NGA ground-motion prediction equations in engineering practice

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kaklamanos, James; Baise, Laurie G.; Boore, David M.

2011-01-01

The ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) developed as part of the Next Generation Attenuation of Ground Motions (NGA-West) project in 2008 are becoming widely used in seismic hazard analyses. However, these new models are considerably more complicated than previous GMPEs, and they require several more input parameters. When employing the NGA models, users routinely face situations in which some of the required input parameters are unknown. In this paper, we present a framework for estimating the unknown source, path, and site parameters when implementing the NGA models in engineering practice, and we derive geometrically-based equations relating the three distance measures found in the NGA models. Our intent is for the content of this paper not only to make the NGA models more accessible, but also to help with the implementation of other present or future GMPEs.

Thunder-induced ground motions: 2. Site characterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Ting-L.; Langston, Charles A.

2009-04-01

Thunder-induced ground motion, near-surface refraction, and Rayleigh wave dispersion measurements were used to constrain near-surface velocity structure at an unconsolidated sediment site. We employed near-surface seismic refraction measurements to first define ranges for site structure parameters. Air-coupled and hammer-generated Rayleigh wave dispersion curves were used to further constrain the site structure by a grid search technique. The acoustic-to-seismic coupling is modeled as an incident plane P wave in a fluid half-space impinging into a solid layered half-space. We found that the infrasound-induced ground motions constrained substrate velocities and the average thickness and velocities of the near-surface layer. The addition of higher-frequency near-surface Rayleigh waves produced tighter constraints on the near-surface velocities. This suggests that natural or controlled airborne pressure sources can be used to investigate the near-surface site structures for earthquake shaking hazard studies.

Review: Progress in rotational ground-motion observations from explosions and local earthquakes in Taiwan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lee, William H K.; Huang, Bor-Shouh; Langston, Charles A.; Lin, Chin-Jen; Liu, Chun-Chi; Shin, Tzay-Chyn; Teng, Ta-Liang; Wu, Chien-Fu

2009-01-01

Rotational motions generated by large earthquakes in the far field have been successfully measured, and observations agree well with the classical elasticity theory. However, recent rotational measurements in the near field of earthquakes in Japan and in Taiwan indicate that rotational ground motions are 10 to 100 times larger than expected from the classical elasticity theory. The near-field strong-motion records of the 1999 Mw 7.6 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake suggest that the ground motions along the 100 km rupture are complex. Some rather arbitrary baseline corrections are necessary in order to obtain reasonable displacement values from double integration of the acceleration data. Because rotational motions can contaminate acceleration observations due to the induced perturbation of the Earth’s gravitational field, we started a modest program to observe rotational ground motions in Taiwan.Three papers have reported the rotational observations in Taiwan: (1) at the HGSD station (Liu et al., 2009), (2) at the N3 site from two TAiwan Integrated GEodynamics Research (TAIGER) explosions (Lin et al., 2009), and (3) at the Taiwan campus of the National Chung-Cheng University (NCCU) (Wu et al., 2009). In addition, Langston et al. (2009) reported the results of analyzing the TAIGER explosion data. As noted by several authors before, we found a linear relationship between peak rotational rate (PRR in mrad/sec) and peak ground acceleration (PGA in m/sec2) from local earthquakes in Taiwan, PRR=0.002+1.301 PGA, with a correlation coefficient of 0.988.

Ground motions can help to understand the style of the supershear transition of dynamic ruptures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bizzarri, A.; Liu, C.

2016-12-01

Supershear earthquakes (which have the propagation speed greater than the S wave speed) are known to leave special signatures in the signals on the fault (fault slip velocity, dynamic traction evolution, energy flux, etc.) and in the generated ground motions. Moreover, two different styles of supershear transition have been identified, that are related to the degree of instability of the fault. In the direct transition (DT) mechanism the rupture at which the rupture front advances (rupture speed) continuously increases from the sub-Rayleigh speed to the terminal speed of P waves, without any jump. On the other hand, in the mother-daughter (MD) mechanism a forbidden zone of rupture speed really exists and a secondary pseudo-rupture is generated ahead of the primary rupture front. Here we found that the also off-fault signals (seismic wavefields) generated by these two mechanisms are rather different. In particular, we show that in that the MD case an enhanced trailing Rayleigh field emerges, which on the contrary has very low amplitudes (or it is even practically absent) in the DT case. Therefore, we show that it is possible to distinguish the style of the supershear transition of an earthquake event by looking at the resulting ground motions. In particular, basing on the results of our numerical simulations, we can conclude that the Denali, Alaska, earthquake was basically controlled by a classical MD mechanism.

Site correction of stochastic simulation in southwestern Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lun Huang, Cong; Wen, Kuo Liang; Huang, Jyun Yan

2014-05-01

Peak ground acceleration (PGA) of a disastrous earthquake, is concerned both in civil engineering and seismology study. Presently, the ground motion prediction equation is widely used for PGA estimation study by engineers. However, the local site effect is another important factor participates in strong motion prediction. For example, in 1985 the Mexico City, 400km far from the epicenter, suffered massive damage due to the seismic wave amplification from the local alluvial layers. (Anderson et al., 1986) In past studies, the use of stochastic method had been done and showed well performance on the simulation of ground-motion at rock site (Beresnev and Atkinson, 1998a ; Roumelioti and Beresnev, 2003). In this study, the site correction was conducted by the empirical transfer function compared with the rock site response from stochastic point-source (Boore, 2005) and finite-fault (Boore, 2009) methods. The error between the simulated and observed Fourier spectrum and PGA are calculated. Further we compared the estimated PGA to the result calculated from ground motion prediction equation. The earthquake data used in this study is recorded by Taiwan Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (TSMIP) from 1991 to 2012; the study area is located at south-western Taiwan. The empirical transfer function was generated by calculating the spectrum ratio between alluvial site and rock site (Borcheret, 1970). Due to the lack of reference rock site station in this area, the rock site ground motion was generated through stochastic point-source model instead. Several target events were then chosen for stochastic point-source simulating to the halfspace. Then, the empirical transfer function for each station was multiplied to the simulated halfspace response. Finally, we focused on two target events: the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw=7.6) and the 2010 Jiashian earthquake (Mw=6.4). Considering the large event may contain with complex rupture mechanism, the asperity and delay time for each sub-fault is to be concerned. Both the stochastic point-source and the finite-fault model were used to check the result of our correction.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pitarka, Arben

GEN_SRF_4 is a computer program for generation kinematic earthquake rupture models for use in ground motion modeling and simulations of earthquakes. The output is an ascii SRF formatted file containing kinematic rupture parameters.

Physics-Based Hazard Assessment for Critical Structures Near Large Earthquake Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hutchings, L.; Mert, A.; Fahjan, Y.; Novikova, T.; Golara, A.; Miah, M.; Fergany, E.; Foxall, W.

2017-09-01

We argue that for critical structures near large earthquake sources: (1) the ergodic assumption, recent history, and simplified descriptions of the hazard are not appropriate to rely on for earthquake ground motion prediction and can lead to a mis-estimation of the hazard and risk to structures; (2) a physics-based approach can address these issues; (3) a physics-based source model must be provided to generate realistic phasing effects from finite rupture and model near-source ground motion correctly; (4) wave propagations and site response should be site specific; (5) a much wider search of possible sources of ground motion can be achieved computationally with a physics-based approach; (6) unless one utilizes a physics-based approach, the hazard and risk to structures has unknown uncertainties; (7) uncertainties can be reduced with a physics-based approach, but not with an ergodic approach; (8) computational power and computer codes have advanced to the point that risk to structures can be calculated directly from source and site-specific ground motions. Spanning the variability of potential ground motion in a predictive situation is especially difficult for near-source areas, but that is the distance at which the hazard is the greatest. The basis of a "physical-based" approach is ground-motion syntheses derived from physics and an understanding of the earthquake process. This is an overview paper and results from previous studies are used to make the case for these conclusions. Our premise is that 50 years of strong motion records is insufficient to capture all possible ranges of site and propagation path conditions, rupture processes, and spatial geometric relationships between source and site. Predicting future earthquake scenarios is necessary; models that have little or no physical basis but have been tested and adjusted to fit available observations can only "predict" what happened in the past, which should be considered description as opposed to prediction. We have developed a methodology for synthesizing physics-based broadband ground motion that incorporates the effects of realistic earthquake rupture along specific faults and the actual geology between the source and site.

An operational-oriented approach to the assessment of low probability seismic ground motions for critical infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia-Fernandez, Mariano; Assatourians, Karen; Jimenez, Maria-Jose

2018-01-01

Extreme natural hazard events have the potential to cause significant disruption to critical infrastructure (CI) networks. Among them, earthquakes represent a major threat as sudden-onset events with limited, if any, capability of forecast, and high damage potential. In recent years, the increased exposure of interdependent systems has heightened concern, motivating the need for a framework for the management of these increased hazards. The seismic performance level and resilience of existing non-nuclear CIs can be analyzed by identifying the ground motion input values leading to failure of selected key elements. Main interest focuses on the ground motions exceeding the original design values, which should correspond to low probability occurrence. A seismic hazard methodology has been specifically developed to consider low-probability ground motions affecting elongated CI networks. The approach is based on Monte Carlo simulation, which allows for building long-duration synthetic earthquake catalogs to derive low-probability amplitudes. This approach does not affect the mean hazard values and allows obtaining a representation of maximum amplitudes that follow a general extreme-value distribution. This facilitates the analysis of the occurrence of extremes, i.e., very low probability of exceedance from unlikely combinations, for the development of, e.g., stress tests, among other applications. Following this methodology, extreme ground-motion scenarios have been developed for selected combinations of modeling inputs including seismic activity models (source model and magnitude-recurrence relationship), ground motion prediction equations (GMPE), hazard levels, and fractiles of extreme ground motion. The different results provide an overview of the effects of different hazard modeling inputs on the generated extreme motion hazard scenarios. This approach to seismic hazard is at the core of the risk analysis procedure developed and applied to European CI transport networks within the framework of the European-funded INFRARISK project. Such an operational seismic hazard framework can be used to provide insight in a timely manner to make informed risk management or regulating further decisions on the required level of detail or on the adoption of measures, the cost of which can be balanced against the benefits of the measures in question.

Testing long-period ground-motion simulations of scenario earthquakes using the Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah mainshock: Evaluation of finite-fault rupture characterization and 3D seismic velocity models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graves, Robert W.; Aagaard, Brad T.

2011-01-01

Using a suite of five hypothetical finite-fault rupture models, we test the ability of long-period (T>2.0 s) ground-motion simulations of scenario earthquakes to produce waveforms throughout southern California consistent with those recorded during the 4 April 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake. The hypothetical ruptures are generated using the methodology proposed by Graves and Pitarka (2010) and require, as inputs, only a general description of the fault location and geometry, event magnitude, and hypocenter, as would be done for a scenario event. For each rupture model, two Southern California Earthquake Center three-dimensional community seismic velocity models (CVM-4m and CVM-H62) are used, resulting in a total of 10 ground-motion simulations, which we compare with recorded ground motions. While the details of the motions vary across the simulations, the median levels match the observed peak ground velocities reasonably well, with the standard deviation of the residuals generally within 50% of the median. Simulations with the CVM-4m model yield somewhat lower variance than those with the CVM-H62 model. Both models tend to overpredict motions in the San Diego region and underpredict motions in the Mojave desert. Within the greater Los Angeles basin, the CVM-4m model generally matches the level of observed motions, whereas the CVM-H62 model tends to overpredict the motions, particularly in the southern portion of the basin. The variance in the peak velocity residuals is lowest for a rupture that has significant shallow slip (<5 km depth), whereas the variance in the residuals is greatest for ruptures with large asperities below 10 km depth. Overall, these results are encouraging and provide confidence in the predictive capabilities of the simulation methodology, while also suggesting some regions in which the seismic velocity models may need improvement.

A Bayesian and Physics-Based Ground Motion Parameters Map Generation System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramirez-Guzman, L.; Quiroz, A.; Sandoval, H.; Perez-Yanez, C.; Ruiz, A. L.; Delgado, R.; Macias, M. A.; Alcántara, L.

2014-12-01

We present the Ground Motion Parameters Map Generation (GMPMG) system developed by the Institute of Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The system delivers estimates of information associated with the social impact of earthquakes, engineering ground motion parameters (gmp), and macroseismic intensity maps. The gmp calculated are peak ground acceleration and velocity (pga and pgv) and response spectral acceleration (SA). The GMPMG relies on real-time data received from strong ground motion stations belonging to UNAM's networks throughout Mexico. Data are gathered via satellite and internet service providers, and managed with the data acquisition software Earthworm. The system is self-contained and can perform all calculations required for estimating gmp and intensity maps due to earthquakes, automatically or manually. An initial data processing, by baseline correcting and removing records containing glitches or low signal-to-noise ratio, is performed. The system then assigns a hypocentral location using first arrivals and a simplified 3D model, followed by a moment tensor inversion, which is performed using a pre-calculated Receiver Green's Tensors (RGT) database for a realistic 3D model of Mexico. A backup system to compute epicentral location and magnitude is in place. A Bayesian Kriging is employed to combine recorded values with grids of computed gmp. The latter are obtained by using appropriate ground motion prediction equations (for pgv, pga and SA with T=0.3, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 s ) and numerical simulations performed in real time, using the aforementioned RGT database (for SA with T=2, 2.5 and 3 s). Estimated intensity maps are then computed using SA(T=2S) to Modified Mercalli Intensity correlations derived for central Mexico. The maps are made available to the institutions in charge of the disaster prevention systems. In order to analyze the accuracy of the maps, we compare them against observations not considered in the computations, and present some examples of recent earthquakes. We conclude that the system provides information with a fair goodness-of-fit against observations. This project is partially supported by DGAPA-PAPIIT (UNAM) project TB100313-RR170313.

Calibration, Information, and Control Strategies for Braking to Avoid a Collision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fajen, Brett R.

2005-01-01

This study explored visual control strategies for braking to avoid collision by manipulating information about speed of self-motion. Participants watched computer-generated displays and used a brake to stop at an object in the path of motion. Global optic flow rate and edge rate were manipulated by adjusting eyeheight and ground-texture size.…

Modeling Nonlinear Site Response Uncertainty in Broadband Ground Motion Simulations for the Los Angeles Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assimaki, D.; Li, W.; Steidl, J. M.; Schmedes, J.

2007-12-01

The assessment of strong motion site response is of great significance, both for mitigating seismic hazard and for performing detailed analyses of earthquake source characteristics. There currently exists, however, large degree of uncertainty concerning the mathematical model to be employed for the computationally efficient evaluation of local site effects, and the site investigation program necessary to evaluate the nonlinear input model parameters and ensure cost-effective predictions; and while site response observations may provide critical constraints on interpretation methods, the lack of a statistically significant number of in-situ strong motion records prohibits statistical analyses to be conducted and uncertainties to be quantified based entirely on field data. In this paper, we combine downhole observations and broadband ground motion synthetics for characteristic site conditions the Los Angeles Basin, and investigate the variability in ground motion estimation introduced by the site response assessment methodology. In particular, site-specific regional velocity and attenuation structures are initially compiled using near-surface geotechnical data collected at downhole geotechnical arrays, inverse low-strain velocity and attenuation profiles at these sites obtained by inversion of weak motion records and the crustal velocity structure at the corresponding locations obtained from the Southern California Earthquake Centre Community Velocity Model. Successively, broadband ground motions are simulated by means of a hybrid low/high-frequency finite source model with correlated random parameters for rupture scenaria of weak, medium and large magnitude events (M =3.5-7.5). Observed estimates of site response at the stations of interest are first compared to the ensemble of approximate and incremental nonlinear site response models. Parametric studies are next conducted for each fixed magnitude (fault geometry) scenario by varying the source-to-site distance and source parameters for the ensemble of site conditions. Elastic, equivalent linear and nonlinear simulations are implemented for the deterministic description of the base-model velocity and attenuation structures and nonlinear soil properties, to examine the variability in ground motion predictions as a function of ground motion amplitude and frequency content, and nonlinear site response methodology. The modeling site response uncertainty introduced in the broadband ground motion predictions is reported by means of the COV of site amplification, defined as the ratio of the predicted peak ground acceleration (PGA) and spectral acceleration (SA) at short and long periods to the corresponding intensity measure on the ground surface of a typical NEHRP BC boundary profile (Vs30=760m/s), for the ensemble of approximate and incremental nonlinear models implemented. A frequency index is developed to describe the frequency content of incident ground motion. In conjunction with the rock-outcrop acceleration level, this index is used to identify the site and ground motion conditions where incremental nonlinear analyses should be employed in lieu of approximate methodologies. Finally, the effects of modeling uncertainty in ground response analysis is evaluated in the estimation of site amplification factors, which are successively compared to recently published factors of the New Generation Attenuation Relations (NGA) and the currently employed Seismic Code Provisions (NEHRP).

Vulnerability assessment of RC frames considering the characteristic of pulse-like ground motions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Chao; Wen, Zengping

2017-04-01

Pulse-like ground motions are a special class of ground motions that are particularly challenging to characterize for earthquake hazard assessment. These motions are characterized by a "pulse" in the velocity time history of the motion, and they are typically very intense and have been observed to cause severe damage to structures in past earthquakes. So it is particularly important to characterize these ground motions. Previous studies show that the severe response of structure is not entirely accounted for by measuring the intensity of the ground motion using spectral acceleration of the elastic first-mode period of a structure (Sa(T1)). This paper will use several alternative intensity measures to characterize the effect of pulse-like ground motions in vulnerability assessment. The ability of these intensity measures to characterize pulse-like ground motions will be evaluated. Pulse-like ground motions and ordinary ground motions are selected as input to carry out incremental dynamic analysis. Structural response and vulnerability are estimated by using Sa(T1) as the intensity measure. The impact of pulse period on structural response is studied through residual analysis. By comparing the difference between the structural response and vulnerability curves using pulse-like ground motions and ordinary ground motions as the input, the impact of velocity pulse on vulnerability is investigated and the shortcoming of using Sa(T1) to characterize pulse-like ground motion is analyzed. Then, vector-valued ground motion intensity measures(Sa(T1)&RT1,T2, Sa(T1)&RPGV,Sa) and inelastic displacement spectra(Sdi(T1)) are used to characterize the damage potential of pulse-like ground motions, the efficiency and sufficiency of these intensity measures are evaluated. The study shows that: have strong the damage potential of near fault ground motions with velocity pulse is closely related to the pulse period of strong motion as well as first mode period of vibration and nonlinear features of the structure. The above factors should be taken into account when choosing a reasonable ground motion parameter to characterize the damage potential of pulse-like ground motions. Vulnerability curves based on Sa(T1) show obvious differences between using near fault ground motions and ordinary ground motions, as well as pulse-like ground motions with different pulse periods as the input. When using vector-valued intensity measures such as Sa(T1)&RT1,T2, Sa(T1)&RPGV,Sa and inelastic displacement spectra, the results of vulnerability analysis are roughly the same. These ground motion intensity measures are more efficient and sufficient to characterize the damage potential of near fault ground motions with velocity pulse.

A hybrid approach to estimate the complex motions of clouds in sky images

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peng, Zhenzhou; Yu, Dantong; Huang, Dong

Tracking the motion of clouds is essential to forecasting the weather and to predicting the short-term solar energy generation. Existing techniques mainly fall into two categories: variational optical flow, and block matching. In this article, we summarize recent advances in estimating cloud motion using ground-based sky imagers and quantitatively evaluate state-of-the-art approaches. Then we propose a hybrid tracking framework to incorporate the strength of both block matching and optical flow models. To validate the accuracy of the proposed approach, we introduce a series of synthetic images to simulate the cloud movement and deformation, and thereafter comprehensively compare our hybrid approachmore » with several representative tracking algorithms over both simulated and real images collected from various sites/imagers. The results show that our hybrid approach outperforms state-of-the-art models by reducing at least 30% motion estimation errors compared with the ground-truth motions in most of simulated image sequences. Furthermore, our hybrid model demonstrates its superior efficiency in several real cloud image datasets by lowering at least 15% Mean Absolute Error (MAE) between predicted images and ground-truth images.« less

A hybrid approach to estimate the complex motions of clouds in sky images

DOE PAGES

Peng, Zhenzhou; Yu, Dantong; Huang, Dong; ...

2016-09-14

Tracking the motion of clouds is essential to forecasting the weather and to predicting the short-term solar energy generation. Existing techniques mainly fall into two categories: variational optical flow, and block matching. In this article, we summarize recent advances in estimating cloud motion using ground-based sky imagers and quantitatively evaluate state-of-the-art approaches. Then we propose a hybrid tracking framework to incorporate the strength of both block matching and optical flow models. To validate the accuracy of the proposed approach, we introduce a series of synthetic images to simulate the cloud movement and deformation, and thereafter comprehensively compare our hybrid approachmore » with several representative tracking algorithms over both simulated and real images collected from various sites/imagers. The results show that our hybrid approach outperforms state-of-the-art models by reducing at least 30% motion estimation errors compared with the ground-truth motions in most of simulated image sequences. Furthermore, our hybrid model demonstrates its superior efficiency in several real cloud image datasets by lowering at least 15% Mean Absolute Error (MAE) between predicted images and ground-truth images.« less

Earthquake early warning using P-waves that appear after initial S-waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kodera, Y.

2017-12-01

As measures for underprediction for large earthquakes with finite faults and overprediction for multiple simultaneous earthquakes, Hoshiba (2013), Hoshiba and Aoki (2015), and Kodera et al. (2016) proposed earthquake early warning (EEW) methods that directly predict ground motion by computing the wave propagation of observed ground motion. These methods are expected to predict ground motion with a high accuracy even for complicated scenarios because these methods do not need source parameter estimation. On the other hand, there is room for improvement in their rapidity because they predict strong motion prediction mainly based on the observation of S-waves and do not explicitly use P-wave information available before the S-waves. In this research, we propose a real-time P-wave detector to incorporate P-wave information into these wavefield-estimation approaches. P-waves within a few seconds from the P-onsets are commonly used in many existing EEW methods. In addition, we focus on P-waves that may appear in the later part of seismic waves. Kurahashi and Irikura (2013) mentioned that P-waves radiated from strong motion generation areas (SMGAs) were recognizable after S-waves of the initial rupture point in the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9.0) (the Tohoku-oki earthquake). Detecting these P-waves would enhance the rapidity of prediction for the peak ground motion generated by SMGAs. We constructed a real-time P-wave detector that uses a polarity analysis. Using acceleration records in boreholes of KiK-net (band-pass filtered around 0.5-10 Hz with site amplification correction), the P-wave detector performed the principal component analysis with a sliding window of 4 s and calculated P-filter values (e.g. Ross and Ben-Zion, 2014). The application to the Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0) showed that (1) peaks of P-filter that corresponded to SMGAs appeared in several stations located near SMGAs and (2) real-time seismic intensities (Kunugi et al., 2013) reached the local maximum several seconds after the P-filter peaks appeared. These findings indicate that the proposed P-wave detector allows wavefield-estimation approaches to predict the peak ground motion of SMGAs with a certain lead time.

Are recent empirical directivity models sufficient in capturing near-fault directivity effect?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yen-Shin; Cotton, Fabrice; Pagani, Marco; Weatherill, Graeme; Reshi, Owais; Mai, Martin

2017-04-01

It has been widely observed that the ground motion variability in the near field can be significantly higher than that commonly reported in published GMPEs, and this has been suggested to be a consequence of directivity. To capture the spatial variation in ground motion amplitude and frequency caused by the near-fault directivity effect, several models for engineering applications have been developed using empirical or, more recently, the combination of empirical and simulation data. Many research works have indicated that the large velocity pulses mainly observed in the near-field are primarily related to slip heterogeneity (i.e., asperities), suggesting that the slip heterogeneity is a more dominant controlling factor than the rupture velocity or source rise time function. The first generation of broadband directivity models for application in ground motion prediction do not account for heterogeneity of slip and rupture speed. With the increased availability of strong motion recordings (e.g., NGA-West 2 database) in the near-fault region, the directivity models moved from broadband to narrowband models to include the magnitude dependence of the period of the rupture directivity pulses, wherein the pulses are believed to be closely related to the heterogeneity of slip distribution. After decades of directivity models development, does the latest generation of models - i.e. the one including narrowband directivity models - better capture the near-fault directivity effects, particularly in presence of strong slip heterogeneity? To address this question, a set of simulated motions for an earthquake rupture scenario, with various kinematic slip models and hypocenter locations, are used as a basis for a comparison with the directivity models proposed by the NGA-West 2 project for application with ground motion prediction equations incorporating a narrowband directivity model. The aim of this research is to gain better insights on the accuracy of narrowband directivity models under conditions commonly encountered in the real world. Our preliminary result shows that empirical models including directivity factors better predict physics based ground-motion and their spatial variability than classical empirical models. However, the results clearly indicate that it is still a challenge for the directivity models to capture the strong directivity effect if a high level of slip heterogeneity is involved during the source rupture process.

Developing Stochastic Models as Inputs for High-Frequency Ground Motion Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savran, William Harvey

High-frequency ( 10 Hz) deterministic ground motion simulations are challenged by our understanding of the small-scale structure of the earth's crust and the rupture process during an earthquake. We will likely never obtain deterministic models that can accurately describe these processes down to the meter scale length required for broadband wave propagation. Instead, we can attempt to explain the behavior, in a statistical sense, by including stochastic models defined by correlations observed in the natural earth and through physics based simulations of the earthquake rupture process. Toward this goal, we develop stochastic models to address both of the primary considerations for deterministic ground motion simulations: namely, the description of the material properties in the crust, and broadband earthquake source descriptions. Using borehole sonic log data recorded in Los Angeles basin, we estimate the spatial correlation structure of the small-scale fluctuations in P-wave velocities by determining the best-fitting parameters of a von Karman correlation function. We find that Hurst exponents, nu, between 0.0-0.2, vertical correlation lengths, az, of 15-150m, an standard deviation, sigma of about 5% characterize the variability in the borehole data. Usin these parameters, we generated a stochastic model of velocity and density perturbations and combined with leading seismic velocity models to perform a validation exercise for the 2008, Chino Hills, CA using heterogeneous media. We find that models of velocity and density perturbations can have significant effects on the wavefield at frequencies as low as 0.3 Hz, with ensemble median values of various ground motion metrics varying up to +/-50%, at certain stations, compared to those computed solely from the CVM. Finally, we develop a kinematic rupture generator based on dynamic rupture simulations on geometrically complex faults. We analyze 100 dynamic rupture simulations on strike-slip faults ranging from Mw 6.4-7.2. We find that our dynamic simulations follow empirical scaling relationships for inter-plate strike-slip events, and provide source spectra comparable with an o -2 model. Our rupture generator reproduces GMPE medians and intra-event standard deviations spectral accelerations for an ensemble of 10 Hz fully-deterministic ground motion simulations, as compared to NGA West2 GMPE relationships up to 0.2 seconds.

Real-time Shakemap implementation in Austria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weginger, Stefan; Jia, Yan; Papi Isaba, Maria; Horn, Nikolaus

2017-04-01

ShakeMaps provide near-real-time maps of ground motion and shaking intensity following significant earthquakes. They are automatically generated within a few minutes after occurrence of an earthquake. We tested and included the USGS ShakeMap 4.0 (experimental code) based on python in the Antelope real-time system with local modified GMPE and Site Effects based on the conditions in Austria. The ShakeMaps are provided in terms of Intensity, PGA, PGV and PSA. Future presentation of ShakeMap contour lines and Ground Motion Parameter with interactive maps and data exchange over Web-Services are shown.

Characterizing directional variations in long-period ground motion amplifications in the Kanto Basin, Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mukai, Y.; Furumura, T.; Maeda, T.

2017-12-01

In the Kanto Basin (including Tokyo in Japan), the long-period (T=3-10 s) ground motions are strongly developed when large earthquakes occur nearby. The amplitude of the long-period ground motion in the basin varies strongly among earthquakes; it is tremendous from the earthquakes in Niigata (northwest of Kanto), but is several times weaker from the earthquakes in Tohoku (north of Kanto). In this study, we examined the cause of such azimuthal-dependent amplitude variation for the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu (M6.8) and the 2011 Fukushima Hamadori (M7.0) earthquake based on numerical simulations of seismic wave propagation by the finite-difference method. We first examined the non-isotropic source-radiation effect of these events. By performing numerical simulations for different strike angles of these source faults, significant variation in amplitude of the long-period ground motions were observed in Tokyo for both the events. Among tested strike angles, the source of the 2004 event (strike = 212 deg.) produced the largest long-period ground motion due to strong radiation of surface wave towards the Kanto Basin, while the 2011 event (strike = 132 deg.) produced the least. The minimum-to-maximum ratio of their amplitudes with respect to strike angle is about 2 and 1.3, respectively. These investigations suggest the source radiation effect considerably contributes to the variations of the long-period ground motions. We then examined the effect of the 3D structure of the Kanto Basin on the generation of the long-period ground motion. For the 2004 event, we found that the long-period signal first arrives at the central Tokyo from the western edge of the Kanto Basin. Then, later signals containing both the Rayleigh and Love waves were amplified dramatically due to the localized low-velocity structure to the northwestern part of the basin. On the other hand, in the case of the 2011 event, the seismic waves propagating towards the basin were dissipated significantly as it travels over the ridge structure of the basement in the northern part of the basin, where the seismic wave speed is faster than the surroundings. Therefore, the large variation of the long-period ground motion among earthquakes occurs due to the combined effects of source radiation and propagation properties in the 3D heterogeneous structure of the Kanto Basin.

Combining multiple earthquake models in real time for earthquake early warning

USGS Publications Warehouse

Minson, Sarah E.; Wu, Stephen; Beck, James L; Heaton, Thomas H.

2017-01-01

The ultimate goal of earthquake early warning (EEW) is to provide local shaking information to users before the strong shaking from an earthquake reaches their location. This is accomplished by operating one or more real‐time analyses that attempt to predict shaking intensity, often by estimating the earthquake’s location and magnitude and then predicting the ground motion from that point source. Other EEW algorithms use finite rupture models or may directly estimate ground motion without first solving for an earthquake source. EEW performance could be improved if the information from these diverse and independent prediction models could be combined into one unified, ground‐motion prediction. In this article, we set the forecast shaking at each location as the common ground to combine all these predictions and introduce a Bayesian approach to creating better ground‐motion predictions. We also describe how this methodology could be used to build a new generation of EEW systems that provide optimal decisions customized for each user based on the user’s individual false‐alarm tolerance and the time necessary for that user to react.

Broadband Ground Motion Observation and Simulation for the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyake, H.; Chimoto, K.; Yamanaka, H.; Tsuno, S.; Korenaga, M.; Yamada, N.; Matsushima, T.; Miyakawa, K.

2016-12-01

During the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, strong motion data were widely recorded by the permanent dense triggered strong motion network of K-NET/KiK-net and seismic intensity meters installed by local government and JMA. Seismic intensities close to the MMI 9-10 are recorded twice at the Mashiki town, and once at the Nishihara village and KiK-net Mashiki (KMMH16 ground surface). Near-fault records indicate extreme ground motion exceeding 400 cm/s in 5% pSv at a period of 1 s for the Mashiki town and 3-4 s for the Nishihara village. Fault parallel velocity components are larger between the Mashiki town and the Nishihara village, on the other hand, fault normal velocity components are larger inside the caldera of the Aso volcano. The former indicates rupture passed through along-strike stations, and the latter stations located at the forward rupture direction (e.g., Miyatake, 1999). In addition to the permanent observation, temporary continuous strong motion stations were installed just after the earthquake in the Kumamoto city, Mashiki town, Nishihara village, Minami-Aso village, and Aso town, (e.g., Chimoto et al., 2016; Tsuno et al., 2016; Yamanaka et al. 2016). This study performs to estimate strong motion generation areas for the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake sequence using the empirical Green's function method, then to simulate broadband ground motions for both the permanent and temporary strong motion stations. Currently the target period range is between 0.1 s to 5-10 s due to the signal-to-noise ratio of element earthquakes used for the empirical Green's functions. We also care fault dimension parameters N within 4 to 10 to avoid spectral sags and artificial periodicity. The simulated seismic intensities as well as fault normal and parallel velocity components will be discussed.

Near-Fault Broadband Ground Motion Simulations Using Empirical Green's Functions: Application to the Upper Rhine Graben (France-Germany) Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Del Gaudio, Sergio; Hok, Sebastien; Festa, Gaetano; Causse, Mathieu; Lancieri, Maria

2017-09-01

Seismic hazard estimation relies classically on data-based ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) giving the expected motion level as a function of several parameters characterizing the source and the sites of interest. However, records of moderate to large earthquakes at short distances from the faults are still rare. For this reason, it is difficult to obtain a reliable ground motion prediction for such a class of events and distances where also the largest amount of damage is usually observed. A possible strategy to fill this lack of information is to generate synthetic accelerograms based on an accurate modeling of both extended fault rupture and wave propagation process. The development of such modeling strategies is essential for estimating seismic hazard close to faults in moderate seismic activity zones, where data are even scarcer. For that reason, we selected a target site in Upper Rhine Graben (URG), at the French-German border. URG is a region where faults producing micro-seismic activity are very close to the sites of interest (e.g., critical infrastructures like supply lines, nuclear power plants, etc.) needing a careful investigation of seismic hazard. In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of performing near-fault broadband ground motion numerical simulations in a moderate seismic activity region such as URG and discuss some of the challenges related to such an application. The modeling strategy is to couple the multi-empirical Green's function technique (multi-EGFt) with a k -2 kinematic source model. One of the advantages of the multi-EGFt is that it does not require a detailed knowledge of the propagation medium since the records of small events are used as the medium transfer function, if, at the target site, records of small earthquakes located on the target fault are available. The selection of suitable events to be used as multi-EGF is detailed and discussed in our specific situation where less number of events are available. We then showed the impact that each source parameter characterizing the k-2 model has on ground motion amplitude. Finally we performed ground motion simulations showing results for different probable earthquake scenarios in the URG. Dependency of ground motions and of their variability are analyzed at different frequencies in respect of rupture velocity, roughness degree of slip distribution (stress drop), and hypocenter location. In near-source conditions, ground motion variability is shown to be mostly governed by the uncertainty on source parameters. In our specific configuration (magnitude, distance), the directivity effect is only observed in a limited frequency range. Rather, broadband ground motions are shown to be sensitive to both average rupture velocity and its possible variability, and to slip roughness. Ending up with a comparison of simulation results and GMPEs, we conclude that source parameters and their variability should be set up carefully to obtain reliable broadband ground motion estimations. In particular, our study shows that slip roughness should be set up in respect of the target stress drop. This entails the need for a better understanding of the physics of earthquake source and its incorporation in the ground motion modeling.

Earthquake Ground Motion Simulations in the Central United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramirez Guzman, L.; Boyd, O. S.; Hartzell, S.; Williams, R. A.

2010-12-01

The Central United States (CUS) includes two of the major seismic zones east of the Rockies: the New Madrid and Wabash Valley Seismic Zones. The winter 1811-1812 New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) events were the largest intraplate sequence ever recorded in the United States. Together with their aftershocks, these earthquakes produced large areas of liquefaction, new lakes, and landslides in the region. Seismicity in the early 1800’s was dominated by the NMSZ activity, although three low magnitude 5 earthquakes occurred in the last 40 years in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone (WVSZ). The population and infrastructure of the CUS have drastically changed from that of the early nineteenth century, and a large earthquake would now cause significant casualties and economic losses within the country’s heartland. In this study we present three sets of numerical simulations depicting earthquakes in the region. These hypothetical ruptures are located on the Reelfoot fault and the southern axial arm of the NMSZ and in the WVSZ. Our broad-band synthetic ground motions are calculated following the Liu et al. (2006) hybrid method. Using a finite element solver we calculate low frequency ground motion (< 1 Hz) which accounts for the heterogeneity and low velocity soils of the region by using a recently developed seismic velocity model (CUSVM1) and a minimum shear wave velocity of 300 m/s. The broad-band ground motions are then generated by combining high frequency synthetics computed in a 1D velocity model with the low frequency motions at a crossover frequency of 1 Hz. We primarily discuss the basin effects produced by the Mississippi embayment and investigate the effects of hypocentral location and slip distribution on ground motions in densely populated areas within the CUS.

Engineering applications of strong ground motion simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Somerville, Paul

1993-02-01

The formulation, validation and application of a procedure for simulating strong ground motions for use in engineering practice are described. The procedure uses empirical source functions (derived from near-source strong motion recordings of small earthquakes) to provide a realistic representation of effects such as source radiation that are difficult to model at high frequencies due to their partly stochastic behavior. Wave propagation effects are modeled using simplified Green's functions that are designed to transfer empirical source functions from their recording sites to those required for use in simulations at a specific site. The procedure has been validated against strong motion recordings of both crustal and subduction earthquakes. For the validation process we choose earthquakes whose source models (including a spatially heterogeneous distribution of the slip of the fault) are independently known and which have abundant strong motion recordings. A quantitative measurement of the fit between the simulated and recorded motion in this validation process is used to estimate the modeling and random uncertainty associated with the simulation procedure. This modeling and random uncertainty is one part of the overall uncertainty in estimates of ground motions of future earthquakes at a specific site derived using the simulation procedure. The other contribution to uncertainty is that due to uncertainty in the source parameters of future earthquakes that affect the site, which is estimated from a suite of simulations generated by varying the source parameters over their ranges of uncertainty. In this paper, we describe the validation of the simulation procedure for crustal earthquakes against strong motion recordings of the 1989 Loma Prieta, California, earthquake, and for subduction earthquakes against the 1985 Michoacán, Mexico, and Valparaiso, Chile, earthquakes. We then show examples of the application of the simulation procedure to the estimatation of the design response spectra for crustal earthquakes at a power plant site in California and for subduction earthquakes in the Seattle-Portland region. We also demonstrate the use of simulation methods for modeling the attenuation of strong ground motion, and show evidence of the effect of critical reflections from the lower crust in causing the observed flattening of the attenuation of strong ground motion from the 1988 Saguenay, Quebec, and 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes.

Update of the Graizer-Kalkan ground-motion prediction equations for shallow crustal continental earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graizer, Vladimir; Kalkan, Erol

2015-01-01

A ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) for computing medians and standard deviations of peak ground acceleration and 5-percent damped pseudo spectral acceleration response ordinates of maximum horizontal component of randomly oriented ground motions was developed by Graizer and Kalkan (2007, 2009) to be used for seismic hazard analyses and engineering applications. This GMPE was derived from the greatly expanded Next Generation of Attenuation (NGA)-West1 database. In this study, Graizer and Kalkan’s GMPE is revised to include (1) an anelastic attenuation term as a function of quality factor (Q0) in order to capture regional differences in large-distance attenuation and (2) a new frequency-dependent sedimentary-basin scaling term as a function of depth to the 1.5-km/s shear-wave velocity isosurface to improve ground-motion predictions for sites on deep sedimentary basins. The new model (GK15), developed to be simple, is applicable to the western United States and other regions with shallow continental crust in active tectonic environments and may be used for earthquakes with moment magnitudes 5.0–8.0, distances 0–250 km, average shear-wave velocities 200–1,300 m/s, and spectral periods 0.01–5 s. Directivity effects are not explicitly modeled but are included through the variability of the data. Our aleatory variability model captures inter-event variability, which decreases with magnitude and increases with distance. The mixed-effects residuals analysis shows that the GK15 reveals no trend with respect to the independent parameters. The GK15 is a significant improvement over Graizer and Kalkan (2007, 2009), and provides a demonstrable, reliable description of ground-motion amplitudes recorded from shallow crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions over a wide range of magnitudes, distances, and site conditions.

Evaluation of Ground-Motion Modeling Techniques for Use in Global ShakeMap - A Critique of Instrumental Ground-Motion Prediction Equations, Peak Ground Motion to Macroseismic Intensity Conversions, and Macroseismic Intensity Predictions in Different Tectonic Settings

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Trevor I.; Wald, David J.

2009-01-01

Regional differences in ground-motion attenuation have long been thought to add uncertainty in the prediction of ground motion. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that regional differences in ground-motion attenuation may not be as significant as previously thought and that the key differences between regions may be a consequence of limitations in ground-motion datasets over incomplete magnitude and distance ranges. Undoubtedly, regional differences in attenuation can exist owing to differences in crustal structure and tectonic setting, and these can contribute to differences in ground-motion attenuation at larger source-receiver distances. Herein, we examine the use of a variety of techniques for the prediction of several ground-motion metrics (peak ground acceleration and velocity, response spectral ordinates, and macroseismic intensity) and compare them against a global dataset of instrumental ground-motion recordings and intensity assignments. The primary goal of this study is to determine whether existing ground-motion prediction techniques are applicable for use in the U.S. Geological Survey's Global ShakeMap and Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER). We seek the most appropriate ground-motion predictive technique, or techniques, for each of the tectonic regimes considered: shallow active crust, subduction zone, and stable continental region.

Building damage concentrated in Longtoushan town during the 2014 Ms. 6.5 Ludian earthquake, Yunnan, China: examination of cause and implications based on ground motion and vulnerability analyses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xin; Kurahashi, Susumu; Wu, Hao; Si, Hongjun; Ma, Qiang; Dang, Ji; Tao, Dongwang; Feng, Jiwei; Irikura, Kojiro

2017-09-01

Though the 2014 Ludian Earthquake had only a moderate magnitude (Ms 6.5), high-level ground motions of almost 1 g occurred at Longtoushan Town (seismic station 53LLT), which located near the intersection of a conjugate-shaped seismogenic fault. The building damages on the pluvial fan and the river terrace at Longtoushan was clearly different. In order to examine the generation of the large acceleration at 53LLT, the focal mechanisms and the rupture processes of the conjugate-shaped seismogenic fault were determined. We found that there were two continuous impulsive waves in the records of 53LLT that were generated from two different faults, the Baogunao fault and the Xiaohe fault, respectively. Site effects on the pluvial fan and the river terrace at Longtoushan Town and their relations to different building damages were examined. We found that the predominant period at the pluvial fan was about 0.25 s, close to the fundamental natural period of multi-story confined masonry buildings. Ground motions on the pluvial fan and the river terrace were simulated through convolving synthesized bedrock motions with the transfer functions, which were analyzed using the one-dimensional underground velocity structures identified from H/V spectral ratios of ambient noise. Building collapse ratios (CRs) are estimated based on the vulnerability function of the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake and are compared with the observed values. We found that the observed building CRs on the pluvial fan are much higher than the estimated values. High-level ground shaking that is far beyond the design level was a reason for serious building damage.

3-D simulation of hanging wall effect at dam site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, L.; Xu, Y.

2017-12-01

Hanging wall effect is one of the near fault effects. This paper focuses on the difference of the ground motions on the hanging wall side between the footwall side of the fault at dam site considering the key factors, such as actual topography, the rupture process. For this purpose, 3-D ground motions are numerically simulated by the spectrum element method (SEM), which takes into account the physical mechanism of generation and propagation of seismic waves. With the SEM model of 548 million DOFs, excitation and propagation of seismic waves are simulated to compare the difference between the ground motion on the hanging wall side and that on the footwall side. Take Dagangshan region located in China as an example, several seismogenic finite faults with different dip angle are simulated to investigate the hanging wall effect. Furthermore, by comparing the ground motions of the receiving points, the influence of several factors on hanging wall effect is investigated, such as the dip of the fault and the fault type (strike slip fault or dip-slip fault). The peak acceleration on the hanging wall side is obviously larger than those on the footwall side, which numerically evidences the hanging wall effect. Besides, the simulation shows that only when the dip is less than 70° does the hanging wall effect deserve attention.

Spectral damping scaling factors for shallow crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rezaeian, Sanaz; Bozorgnia, Yousef; Idriss, I.M.; Campbell, Kenneth; Abrahamson, Norman; Silva, Walter

2012-01-01

Ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for elastic response spectra, including the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) models, are typically developed at a 5% viscous damping ratio. In reality, however, structural and non-structural systems can have damping ratios other than 5%, depending on various factors such as structural types, construction materials, level of ground motion excitations, among others. This report provides the findings of a comprehensive study to develop a new model for a Damping Scaling Factor (DSF) that can be used to adjust the 5% damped spectral ordinates predicted by a GMPE to spectral ordinates with damping ratios between 0.5 to 30%. Using the updated, 2011 version of the NGA database of ground motions recorded in worldwide shallow crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions (i.e., the NGA-West2 database), dependencies of the DSF on variables including damping ratio, spectral period, moment magnitude, source-to-site distance, duration, and local site conditions are examined. The strong influence of duration is captured by inclusion of both magnitude and distance in the DSF model. Site conditions are found to have less significant influence on DSF and are not included in the model. The proposed model for DSF provides functional forms for the median value and the logarithmic standard deviation of DSF. This model is heteroscedastic, where the variance is a function of the damping ratio. Damping Scaling Factor models are developed for the “average” horizontal ground motion components, i.e., RotD50 and GMRotI50, as well as the vertical component of ground motion.

On the Relationship between Fourier and Response Spectra: Implications for the Adjustment of Empirical Ground-Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bora, Sanjay; Scherbaum, Frank; Kuehn, Nicolas; Stafford, Peter

2016-04-01

Often, scaling of response spectral amplitudes, (e.g., spectral acceleration) obtained from empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs), with respect to commonly used seismological parameters such as magnitude, distance and site condition is assumed/referred to be representing a similar scaling of Fourier spectral amplitudes. For instance, the distance scaling of response spectral amplitudes is related with the geometrical spreading of seismic waves. Such comparison of scaling of response spectral amplitudes with that of corresponding Fourier spectral amplitudes is motivated by that, the functional forms of response spectral GMPEs are often derived using the concepts borrowed from Fourier spectral modeling of ground motion. As these GMPEs are subsequently calibrated with empirical observations, this may not appear to pose any major problems in the prediction of ground motion for a particular earthquake scenario. However, the assumption that the Fourier spectral concepts persist for response spectra can lead to undesirable consequences when it comes to the adjustment of response spectral GMPEs to represent conditions not covered in the original empirical data set. In this context, a couple of important questions arise, e.g., what are the distinctions and/or similarities between Fourier and response spectra of ground-motions? And, if they are different, then what is the mechanism responsible for such differences and how do adjustments that are made to FAS manifest in response spectra? We explore the relationship between the Fourier and response spectrum of ground motion by using random vibration theory (RVT). With a simple Brune (1970, 1971) source model, RVT-generated acceleration spectra for a fixed magnitude and distance scenario are used. The RVT analyses reveal that the scaling of low oscillator-frequency response spectral ordinates can be treated as being equivalent to the scaling of the corresponding Fourier spectral ordinates. However, the high oscillator-frequency response spectral ordinates are controlled by a rather wide-band of Fourier spectral ordinates. In fact, the peak ground acceleration (PGA), counter to the popular perception that it is a reflection of the high-frequency characteristics of ground motion, is controlled by the entire Fourier spectrum of ground-motion. Finally, it is demonstrated, how an adjustment made in Fourier spectral amplitudes is different or similar to the same adjustment made in the response spectral amplitudes. For this purpose, two cases: adjustments to the stress parameter (Δσ) (source term) and to attributes reflecting site response (V s-κ0) are considered.

A Method for Assessing Ground-Truth Accuracy of the 5DCT Technique

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dou, Tai H., E-mail: tdou@mednet.ucla.edu; Thomas, David H.; O'Connell, Dylan P.

2015-11-15

Purpose: To develop a technique that assesses the accuracy of the breathing phase-specific volume image generation process by patient-specific breathing motion model using the original free-breathing computed tomographic (CT) scans as ground truths. Methods: Sixteen lung cancer patients underwent a previously published protocol in which 25 free-breathing fast helical CT scans were acquired with a simultaneous breathing surrogate. A patient-specific motion model was constructed based on the tissue displacements determined by a state-of-the-art deformable image registration. The first image was arbitrarily selected as the reference image. The motion model was used, along with the free-breathing phase information of the originalmore » 25 image datasets, to generate a set of deformation vector fields that mapped the reference image to the 24 nonreference images. The high-pitch helically acquired original scans served as ground truths because they captured the instantaneous tissue positions during free breathing. Image similarity between the simulated and the original scans was assessed using deformable registration that evaluated the pointwise discordance throughout the lungs. Results: Qualitative comparisons using image overlays showed excellent agreement between the simulated images and the original images. Even large 2-cm diaphragm displacements were very well modeled, as was sliding motion across the lung–chest wall boundary. The mean error across the patient cohort was 1.15 ± 0.37 mm, and the mean 95th percentile error was 2.47 ± 0.78 mm. Conclusion: The proposed ground truth–based technique provided voxel-by-voxel accuracy analysis that could identify organ-specific or tumor-specific motion modeling errors for treatment planning. Despite a large variety of breathing patterns and lung deformations during the free-breathing scanning session, the 5-dimensionl CT technique was able to accurately reproduce the original helical CT scans, suggesting its applicability to a wide range of patients.« less

Long-Period Ground Motion due to Near-Shear Earthquake Ruptures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koketsu, K.; Yokota, Y.; Hikima, K.

2010-12-01

Long-period ground motion has become an increasingly important consideration because of the recent rapid increase in the number of large-scale structures, such as high-rise buildings and large oil storage tanks. Large subduction-zone earthquakes and moderate to large crustal earthquakes can generate far-source long-period ground motions in distant sedimentary basins with the help of path effects. Near-fault long-period ground motions are generated, for the most part, by the source effects of forward rupture directivity (Koketsu and Miyake, 2008). This rupture directivity effect is the maximum in the direction of fault rupture when a rupture velocity is nearly equal to shear wave velocity around a source fault (Dunham and Archuleta, 2005). The near-shear rupture was found to occur during the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake at the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau (Koketsu et al., 2010). The variance of waveform residuals in a joint inversion of teleseismic and strong motion data was the minimum when we adopted a rupture velocity of 2.8 km/s, which is close to the shear wave velocity of 2.6 km/s around the hypocenter. We also found near-shear rupture during the 2010 Mw 6.9 Yushu earthquake (Yokota et al., 2010). The optimum rupture velocity for an inversion of teleseismic data is 3.5 km/s, which is almost equal to the shear wave velocity around the hypocenter. Since, in addition, supershear rupture was found during the 2001 Mw 7.8 Central Kunlun earthquake (Bouchon and Vallee, 2003), such fast earthquake rupture can be a characteristic of the eastern Tibetan plateau. Huge damage in Yingxiu and Beichuan from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and damage heavier than expected in the county seat of Yushu from the medium-sized Yushu earthquake can be attributed to the maximum rupture directivity effect in the rupture direction due to near-shear earthquake ruptures.

Application of constrained k-means clustering in ground motion simulation validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khoshnevis, N.; Taborda, R.

2017-12-01

The validation of ground motion synthetics has received increased attention over the last few years due to the advances in physics-based deterministic and hybrid simulation methods. Unlike for low frequency simulations (f ≤ 0.5 Hz), for which it has become reasonable to expect a good match between synthetics and data, in the case of high-frequency simulations (f ≥ 1 Hz) it is not possible to match results on a wiggle-by-wiggle basis. This is mostly due to the various complexities and uncertainties involved in earthquake ground motion modeling. Therefore, in order to compare synthetics with data we turn to different time series metrics, which are used as a means to characterize how the synthetics match the data on qualitative and statistical sense. In general, these metrics provide GOF scores that measure the level of similarity in the time and frequency domains. It is common for these scores to be scaled from 0 to 10, with 10 representing a perfect match. Although using individual metrics for particular applications is considered more adequate, there is no consensus or a unified method to classify the comparison between a set of synthetic and recorded seismograms when the various metrics offer different scores. We study the relationship among these metrics through a constrained k-means clustering approach. We define 4 hypothetical stations with scores 3, 5, 7, and 9 for all metrics. We put these stations in the category of cannot-link constraints. We generate the dataset through the validation of the results from a deterministic (physics-based) ground motion simulation for a moderate magnitude earthquake in the greater Los Angeles basin using three velocity models. The maximum frequency of the simulation is 4 Hz. The dataset involves over 300 stations and 11 metrics, or features, as they are understood in the clustering process, where the metrics form a multi-dimensional space. We address the high-dimensional feature effects with a subspace-clustering analysis, generate a final labeled dataset of stations, and discuss the within-class statistical characteristics of each metric. Labeling these stations is the first step towards developing a unified metric to evaluate ground motion simulations in an application-independent manner.

Rupture process and strong ground motions of the 2007 Niigataken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake -Directivity pulses striking the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant-

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irikura, K.; Kagawa, T.; Miyakoshi, K.; Kurahashi, S.

2007-12-01

The Niigataken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake occurred on July 16, 2007, northwest-off Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing severe damages of ten people dead, about 1300 injured, about 1000 collapsed houses and major lifelines suspended. In particular, strong ground motions from the earthquake struck the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant (hereafter KKNPP), triggering a fire at an electric transformer and other problems such as leakage of water containing radioactive materials into air and the sea, although the radioactivity levels of the releases are as low as those of the radiation which normal citizens would receive from the natural environment in a year. The source mechanism of this earthquake is a reverse fault, but whether it is the NE-SW strike and NW dip or the SW-NE strike and SE dip are still controversial from the aftershock distribution and geological surveys near the source. Results of the rupture processes inverted by using the GPS and SAR data, tsunami data and teleseismic data so far did not succeed in determining which fault planes moved. Strong ground motions were recorded at about 390 stations by the K-NET of NIED including the stations very close to the source area. There was the KKNPP which is probably one of buildings and facilities closest to the source area. They have their own strong motion network with 22 three-components' accelerographs locating at ground-surface, underground, buildings and basements of reactors. The PGA attenuation-distance relationships made setting the fault plane estimated from the GPS data generally follow the empirical relations in Japan, for example, Fukushima and Tanaka (1990) and Si and Midorikawa (1999), even if either fault plane, SE dip or NW dip, is assumed. However, the strong ground motions in the site of the KKNPP had very large accelerations and velocities more than those expected from the empirical relations. The surface motions there had the PGA of more than 1200 gals and even underground motions at the basements of the reactors locating five stories below the ground had the PGA of 680 gals. We simulated ground motions using the characterized source model (Kamae and Irikura, 1998) with three asperities and the empirical Green's function method (Irikura, 1986). Then, we found that the source model should be a reverse fault with the NE-SW strike and NW dip to explain the strong motion records obtained near the source area. In particular, strong ground motions in the site of the KKNPP had three significant pulses which are generated as directivity pulses in forward direction of rupture propagation. This is the reason why the strong ground motions in the site of the KKNPP had very large accelerations and velocities. The source model is also verified comparing the observed records at the KKNPP with the numerical simulations by the discrete wavenumber method (Bouchon, 1981).

Near Source Structural Effects on Seismic Waves: Implication for Shear Motion Generation During SPE-4Prime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pitarka, A.

2015-12-01

Arben Pitarka, Souheil M. Ezzedine, Oleg Y. Vorobiev, Tarabay H. Antoun, Lew A. Glenn, William R. Walter, Robert J. Mellors, and Evan Hirakawa. We have analyzed effects of wave scattering due to near-source structural complexity and sliding joint motion on generation of shear waves from SPE-4Pprime, a shallow chemical explosion conducted at the Nevada National Security Site. In addition to analyzing far-field ground motion recorded on three-component geophones, we performed high-frequency simulations of the explosion using a finite difference method and heterogeneous media with stochastic variability. The stochastic variations of seismic velocity were modeled using Gaussian correlation functions. Using simulations and recorded waveforms we demonstrate the implication of wave scattering on generation of shear motion, and show the gradual increase of shear motion energy as the waves propagate through media with variable scattering. The amplitude and duration of shear waves resulting from wave scattering are found to be dependent on the model complexity and to a lesser extent to source distance. Analysis of shear-motion generation due to joint motion were conducted using numerical simulations performed with GEODYN-L, a parallelized Lagrangian hydrocode, while a stochastic approach was used in depicting the properties of joints. Separated effects of source and wave scattering on shear motion generation will be shown through simulated motion. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 Release Number: LLNL-ABS-675570

Source characterization of underground explosions from hydrodynamic-to-elastic coupling simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiang, A.; Pitarka, A.; Ford, S. R.; Ezzedine, S. M.; Vorobiev, O.

2017-12-01

A major improvement in ground motion simulation capabilities for underground explosion monitoring during the first phase of the Source Physics Experiment (SPE) is the development of a wave propagation solver that can propagate explosion generated non-linear near field ground motions to the far-field. The calculation is done using a hybrid modeling approach with a one-way hydrodynamic-to-elastic coupling in three dimensions where near-field motions are computed using GEODYN-L, a Lagrangian hydrodynamics code, and then passed to WPP, an elastic finite-difference code for seismic waveform modeling. The advancement in ground motion simulation capabilities gives us the opportunity to assess moment tensor inversion of a realistic volumetric source with near-field effects in a controlled setting, where we can evaluate the recovered source properties as a function of modeling parameters (i.e. velocity model) and can provide insights into previous source studies on SPE Phase I chemical shots and other historical nuclear explosions. For example the moment tensor inversion of far-field SPE seismic data demonstrated while vertical motions are well-modeled using existing velocity models large misfits still persist in predicting tangential shear wave motions from explosions. One possible explanation we can explore is errors and uncertainties from the underlying Earth model. Here we investigate the recovered moment tensor solution, particularly on the non-volumetric component, by inverting far-field ground motions simulated from physics-based explosion source models in fractured material, where the physics-based source models are based on the modeling of SPE-4P, SPE-5 and SPE-6 near-field data. The hybrid modeling approach provides new prospects in modeling explosion source and understanding the uncertainties associated with it.

Analysis of Ground Motion from An Underground Chemical Explosion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pitarka, Arben; Mellors, Robert J.; Walter, William R.

Here in this paper we investigate the excitation and propagation of far-field seismic waves from the 905 kg trinitrotoluene equivalent underground chemical explosion SPE-3 recorded during the Source Physics Experiment (SPE) at the Nevada National Security Site. The recorded far-field ground motion at short and long distances is characterized by substantial shear-wave energy, and large azimuthal variations in P-and S-wave amplitudes. The shear waves observed on the transverse component of sensors at epicentral distances <50 m suggests they were generated at or very near the source. The relative amplitude of the shear waves grows as the waves propagate away frommore » the source. We analyze and model the shear-wave excitation during the explosion in the 0.01–10 Hz frequency range, at epicentral distances of up to 1 km. We used two simulation techniques. One is based on the empirical isotropic Mueller–Murphy (MM) (Mueller and Murphy, 1971) nuclear explosion source model, and 3D anelastic wave propagation modeling. The second uses a physics-based approach that couples hydrodynamic modeling of the chemical explosion source with anelastic wave propagation modeling. Comparisons with recorded data show the MM source model overestimates the SPE-3 far-field ground motion by an average factor of 4. The observations show that shear waves with substantial high-frequency energy were generated at the source. However, to match the observations additional shear waves from scattering, including surface topography, and heterogeneous shallow structure contributed to the amplification of far-field shear motion. Comparisons between empirically based isotropic and physics-based anisotropic source models suggest that both wave-scattering effects and near-field nonlinear effects are needed to explain the amplitude and irregular radiation pattern of shear motion observed during the SPE-3 explosion.« less

Analysis of Ground Motion from An Underground Chemical Explosion

DOE PAGES

Pitarka, Arben; Mellors, Robert J.; Walter, William R.; ...

2015-09-08

Here in this paper we investigate the excitation and propagation of far-field seismic waves from the 905 kg trinitrotoluene equivalent underground chemical explosion SPE-3 recorded during the Source Physics Experiment (SPE) at the Nevada National Security Site. The recorded far-field ground motion at short and long distances is characterized by substantial shear-wave energy, and large azimuthal variations in P-and S-wave amplitudes. The shear waves observed on the transverse component of sensors at epicentral distances <50 m suggests they were generated at or very near the source. The relative amplitude of the shear waves grows as the waves propagate away frommore » the source. We analyze and model the shear-wave excitation during the explosion in the 0.01–10 Hz frequency range, at epicentral distances of up to 1 km. We used two simulation techniques. One is based on the empirical isotropic Mueller–Murphy (MM) (Mueller and Murphy, 1971) nuclear explosion source model, and 3D anelastic wave propagation modeling. The second uses a physics-based approach that couples hydrodynamic modeling of the chemical explosion source with anelastic wave propagation modeling. Comparisons with recorded data show the MM source model overestimates the SPE-3 far-field ground motion by an average factor of 4. The observations show that shear waves with substantial high-frequency energy were generated at the source. However, to match the observations additional shear waves from scattering, including surface topography, and heterogeneous shallow structure contributed to the amplification of far-field shear motion. Comparisons between empirically based isotropic and physics-based anisotropic source models suggest that both wave-scattering effects and near-field nonlinear effects are needed to explain the amplitude and irregular radiation pattern of shear motion observed during the SPE-3 explosion.« less

Evaluation of calibration accuracy of magnetometer sensors of Aist small spacecraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sedelnikov, A. V.; Filippov, A. S.; Gorozhakina, A. S.

2018-05-01

In the paper the technique of estimation of calibration accuracy of magnetometer gauges by the example of an Aist small spacecraft is stated. According to the measurement of the Earth's magnetic field in the orbital flight of a small spacecraft, the parameters of its rotational motion around the center of mass are estimated and primary information is generated for the magnetic actuators of the orbital motion control system. Therefore, calibration of the magnetometer sensors at the ground test stage is essential for the successful execution of the flight program. The technique can be used at the stages of ground and flight tests of magnetic field measuring instruments.

Simulation of ground motion using the stochastic method

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, D.M.

2003-01-01

A simple and powerful method for simulating ground motions is to combine parametric or functional descriptions of the ground motion's amplitude spectrum with a random phase spectrum modified such that the motion is distributed over a duration related to the earthquake magnitude and to the distance from the source. This method of simulating ground motions often goes by the name "the stochastic method." It is particularly useful for simulating the higher-frequency ground motions of most interest to engineers (generally, f>0.1 Hz), and it is widely used to predict ground motions for regions of the world in which recordings of motion from potentially damaging earthquakes are not available. This simple method has been successful in matching a variety of ground-motion measures for earthquakes with seismic moments spanning more than 12 orders of magnitude and in diverse tectonic environments. One of the essential characteristics of the method is that it distills what is known about the various factors affecting ground motions (source, path, and site) into simple functional forms. This provides a means by which the results of the rigorous studies reported in other papers in this volume can be incorporated into practical predictions of ground motion.

Enhancement of long period components of recorded and synthetic ground motions using InSAR

USGS Publications Warehouse

Abell, J.A.; Carlos de la Llera, J.; Wicks, C.W.

2011-01-01

Tall buildings and flexible structures require a better characterization of long period ground motion spectra than the one provided by current seismic building codes. Motivated by that, a methodology is proposed and tested to improve recorded and synthetic ground motions which are consistent with the observed co-seismic displacement field obtained from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) analysis of image data for the Tocopilla 2007 earthquake (Mw=7.7) in Northern Chile. A methodology is proposed to correct the observed motions such that, after double integration, they are coherent with the local value of the residual displacement. Synthetic records are generated by using a stochastic finite-fault model coupled with a long period pulse to capture the long period fling effect. It is observed that the proposed co-seismic correction yields records with more accurate long-period spectral components as compared with regular correction schemes such as acausal filtering. These signals provide an estimate for the velocity and displacement spectra, which are essential for tall-building design. Furthermore, hints are provided as to the shape of long-period spectra for seismic zones prone to large co-seismic displacements such as the Nazca-South American zone. ?? 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Extension of Characterized Source Model for Broadband Strong Ground Motion Simulations (0.1-50s) of M9 Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, K.; Iwata, T.

2014-12-01

After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan (Mw9.0), many papers on the source model of this mega subduction earthquake have been published. From our study on the modeling of strong motion waveforms in the period 0.1-10s, four isolated strong motion generation areas (SMGAs) were identified in the area deeper than 25 km (Asano and Iwata, 2012). The locations of these SMGAs were found to correspond to the asperities of M7-class events in 1930's. However, many studies on kinematic rupture modeling using seismic, geodetic and tsunami data revealed that the existence of the large slip area from the trench to the hypocenter (e.g., Fujii et al., 2011; Koketsu et al., 2011; Shao et al., 2011; Suzuki et al., 2011). That is, the excitation of seismic wave is spatially different in long and short period ranges as is already discussed by Lay et al.(2012) and related studies. The Tohoku earthquake raised a new issue we have to solve on the relationship between the strong motion generation and the fault rupture process, and it is an important issue to advance the source modeling for future strong motion prediction. The previous our source model consists of four SMGAs, and observed ground motions in the period range 0.1-10s are explained well by this source model. We tried to extend our source model to explain the observed ground motions in wider period range with a simple assumption referring to the previous our study and the concept of the characterized source model (Irikura and Miyake, 2001, 2011). We obtained a characterized source model, which have four SMGAs in the deep part, one large slip area in the shallow part and background area with low slip. The seismic moment of this source model is equivalent to Mw9.0. The strong ground motions are simulated by the empirical Green's function method (Irikura, 1986). Though the longest period limit is restricted by the SN ratio of the EGF event (Mw~6.0) records, this new source model succeeded to reproduce the observed waveforms and Fourier amplitude spectra in the period range 0.1-50s. The location of this large slip area seems to overlap the source regions of historical events in 1793 and 1897 off Sanriku area. We think the source model for strong motion prediction of Mw9 event could be constructed by the combination of hierarchical multiple asperities or source patches related to histrorical events in this region.

Mode-selective control of thermal Brownian vibration of micro-resonator (Generation of a thermal no-equilibrium state by mechanical feedback control)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawamura, Y.; Kanegae, R.

2017-09-01

Recently, there have been various attempts to dampen the vibration amplitude of the Brownian motion of a microresonator below the thermal vibration amplitude, with the goal of reaching the quantum ground vibration level. To further develop the approach of reaching the quantum ground state, it is essential to clarify whether or not coupling exists between the different vibration modes of the resonator. In this paper, the mode-selective control of thermal Brownian vibration is shown. The first and the second vibration modes of a micro-cantilever moved by a random Brownian motion are cooled selectively and independently below the thermal vibration amplitude, as determined by the statistical thermodynamic theory, using a mechanical feedback control method. This experimental result shows that the thermal no-equilibrium condition was generated by mechanical feedback control.

Liquefaction, ground oscillation, and soil deformation at the Wildlife Array, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holzer, T.L.; Youd, T.L.

2007-01-01

Excess pore-water pressure and liquefaction at the Wildlife Liquefaction Array in 1987 were caused by deformation associated with both high-frequency strong ground motion and 5.5-second-period Love waves. The Love waves produced large (???1.5%) cyclic shear strains well after the stronger high-frequency ground motion abated. These cyclic strains generated approximately from 13 to 35% of the excess pore-water pressure in the liquefied layer and caused excess pore-water pressures ultimately to reach effective overburden stress. The deformation associated with the Love waves explains the "postearthquake" increase of pore-water pressure that was recorded at the array. This explanation suggests that conventional methods for predicting liquefaction based on peak ground acceleration are incomplete and may need to consider cyclic strains associated with long-period surface waves. A post-earthquake survey of an inclinometer casing indicated permanent shear strain associated with lateral spreading primarily occurred in the upper part of the liquefied layer. Comparison of cone penetration test soundings conducted after the earthquake with pre-earthquake soundings suggests sleeve friction increased. Natural lateral variability of the liquefied layer obscured changes in tip resistance despite a ???1% reduction in volume. The large oscillatory motion associated with surface waves explains ground oscillation that has been reported at some liquefaction sites during earthquakes.

Losses to single-family housing from ground motions in the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wesson, R.L.; Perkins, D.M.; Leyendecker, E.V.; Roth, R.J.; Petersen, M.D.

2004-01-01

The distributions of insured losses to single-family housing following the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake for 234 ZIP codes can be satisfactorily modeled with gamma distributions. Regressions of the parameters in the gamma distribution on estimates of ground motion, derived from ShakeMap estimates or from interpolated observations, provide a basis for developing curves of conditional probability of loss given a ground motion. Comparison of the resulting estimates of aggregate loss with the actual aggregate loss gives satisfactory agreement for several different ground-motion parameters. Estimates of loss based on a deterministic spatial model of the earthquake ground motion, using standard attenuation relationships and NEHRP soil factors, give satisfactory results for some ground-motion parameters if the input ground motions are increased about one and one-half standard deviations above the median, reflecting the fact that the ground motions for the Northridge earthquake tended to be higher than the median ground motion for other earthquakes with similar magnitude. The results give promise for making estimates of insured losses to a similar building stock under future earthquake loading. ?? 2004, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

3D Dynamic Rupture Simulations along Dipping Faults, with a focus on the Wasatch Fault Zone, Utah

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Withers, K.; Moschetti, M. P.

2017-12-01

We study dynamic rupture and ground motion from dip-slip faults in regions that have high-seismic hazard, such as the Wasatch fault zone, Utah. Previous numerical simulations have modeled deterministic ground motion along segments of this fault in the heavily populated regions near Salt Lake City but were restricted to low frequencies ( 1 Hz). We seek to better understand the rupture process and assess broadband ground motions and variability from the Wasatch Fault Zone by extending deterministic ground motion prediction to higher frequencies (up to 5 Hz). We perform simulations along a dipping normal fault (40 x 20 km along strike and width, respectively) with characteristics derived from geologic observations to generate a suite of ruptures > Mw 6.5. This approach utilizes dynamic simulations (fully physics-based models, where the initial stress drop and friction law are imposed) using a summation by parts (SBP) method. The simulations include rough-fault topography following a self-similar fractal distribution (over length scales from 100 m to the size of the fault) in addition to off-fault plasticity. Energy losses from heat and other mechanisms, modeled as anelastic attenuation, are also included, as well as free-surface topography, which can significantly affect ground motion patterns. We compare the effect of material structure and both rate and state and slip-weakening friction laws have on rupture propagation. The simulations show reduced slip and moment release in the near surface with the inclusion of plasticity, better agreeing with observations of shallow slip deficit. Long-wavelength fault geometry imparts a non-uniform stress distribution along both dip and strike, influencing the preferred rupture direction and hypocenter location, potentially important for seismic hazard estimation.

Statistical Modeling of Fire Occurrence Using Data from the Tōhoku, Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

PubMed

Anderson, Dana; Davidson, Rachel A; Himoto, Keisuke; Scawthorn, Charles

2016-02-01

In this article, we develop statistical models to predict the number and geographic distribution of fires caused by earthquake ground motion and tsunami inundation in Japan. Using new, uniquely large, and consistent data sets from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, we fitted three types of models-generalized linear models (GLMs), generalized additive models (GAMs), and boosted regression trees (BRTs). This is the first time the latter two have been used in this application. A simple conceptual framework guided identification of candidate covariates. Models were then compared based on their out-of-sample predictive power, goodness of fit to the data, ease of implementation, and relative importance of the framework concepts. For the ground motion data set, we recommend a Poisson GAM; for the tsunami data set, a negative binomial (NB) GLM or NB GAM. The best models generate out-of-sample predictions of the total number of ignitions in the region within one or two. Prefecture-level prediction errors average approximately three. All models demonstrate predictive power far superior to four from the literature that were also tested. A nonlinear relationship is apparent between ignitions and ground motion, so for GLMs, which assume a linear response-covariate relationship, instrumental intensity was the preferred ground motion covariate because it captures part of that nonlinearity. Measures of commercial exposure were preferred over measures of residential exposure for both ground motion and tsunami ignition models. This may vary in other regions, but nevertheless highlights the value of testing alternative measures for each concept. Models with the best predictive power included two or three covariates. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Toppling analysis of the Echo Cliffs precariously balanced rock

USGS Publications Warehouse

Veeraraghavan, Swetha; Hudnut, Kenneth W.; Krishnan, Swaminathan

2017-01-01

Toppling analysis of a precariously balanced rock (PBR) can provide insight into the nature of ground motion that has not occurred at that location in the past and, by extension, can constrain peak ground motions for use in engineering design. Earlier approaches have targeted 2D models of the rock or modeled the rock–pedestal contact using spring‐damper assemblies that require recalibration for each rock. Here, a method to model PBRs in 3D is presented through a case study of the Echo Cliffs PBR. The 3D model is created from a point cloud of the rock, the pedestal, and their interface, obtained using terrestrial laser scanning. The dynamic response of the model under earthquake excitation is simulated using a rigid‐body dynamics algorithm. The veracity of this approach is demonstrated through comparisons against data from shake‐table experiments. Fragility maps for toppling probability of the Echo Cliffs PBR as a function of various ground‐motion parameters, rock–pedestal interface friction coefficient, and excitation direction are presented. These fragility maps indicate that the toppling probability of this rock is low (less than 0.2) for peak ground acceleration (PGA) and peak ground velocity (PGV) lower than 3  m/s2 and 0.75  m/s, respectively, suggesting that the ground‐motion intensities at this location from earthquakes on nearby faults have most probably not exceeded the above‐mentioned PGA and PGV during the age of the PBR. Additionally, the fragility maps generated from this methodology can also be directly coupled with existing probabilistic frameworks to obtain direct constraints on unexceeded ground motion at a PBR’s location.

Physically-Based Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis Using Broad-Band Ground Motion Simulation: a Case Study for Prince Islands Fault, Marmara Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mert, A.

2016-12-01

The main motivation of this study is the impending occurrence of a catastrophic earthquake along the Prince Island Fault (PIF) in Marmara Sea and the disaster risk around Marmara region, especially in İstanbul. This study provides the results of a physically-based Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) methodology, using broad-band strong ground motion simulations, for sites within the Marmara region, Turkey, due to possible large earthquakes throughout the PIF segments in the Marmara Sea. The methodology is called physically-based because it depends on the physical processes of earthquake rupture and wave propagation to simulate earthquake ground motion time histories. We include the effects of all considerable magnitude earthquakes. To generate the high frequency (0.5-20 Hz) part of the broadband earthquake simulation, the real small magnitude earthquakes recorded by local seismic array are used as an Empirical Green's Functions (EGF). For the frequencies below 0.5 Hz the simulations are obtained using by Synthetic Green's Functions (SGF) which are synthetic seismograms calculated by an explicit 2D/3D elastic finite difference wave propagation routine. Using by a range of rupture scenarios for all considerable magnitude earthquakes throughout the PIF segments we provide a hazard calculation for frequencies 0.1-20 Hz. Physically based PSHA used here follows the same procedure of conventional PSHA except that conventional PSHA utilizes point sources or a series of point sources to represent earthquakes and this approach utilizes full rupture of earthquakes along faults. Further, conventional PSHA predicts ground-motion parameters using by empirical attenuation relationships, whereas this approach calculates synthetic seismograms for all magnitude earthquakes to obtain ground-motion parameters. PSHA results are produced for 2%, 10% and 50% hazards for all studied sites in Marmara Region.

Inertial navigation sensor integrated motion analysis for autonomous vehicle navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roberts, Barry; Bhanu, Bir

1992-01-01

Recent work on INS integrated motion analysis is described. Results were obtained with a maximally passive system of obstacle detection (OD) for ground-based vehicles and rotorcraft. The OD approach involves motion analysis of imagery acquired by a passive sensor in the course of vehicle travel to generate range measurements to world points within the sensor FOV. INS data and scene analysis results are used to enhance interest point selection, the matching of the interest points, and the subsequent motion-based computations, tracking, and OD. The most important lesson learned from the research described here is that the incorporation of inertial data into the motion analysis program greatly improves the analysis and makes the process more robust.

Using Simulated Ground Motions to Constrain Near-Source Ground Motion Prediction Equations in Areas Experiencing Induced Seismicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bydlon, S. A.; Dunham, E. M.

2016-12-01

Recent increases in seismic activity in historically quiescent areas such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, including large, potentially induced events such as the 2011 Mw 5.6 Prague, OK, earthquake, have spurred the need for investigation into expected ground motions associated with these seismic sources. The neoteric nature of this seismicity increase corresponds to a scarcity of ground motion recordings within 50 km of earthquakes Mw 3.0 and greater, with increasing scarcity at larger magnitudes. Gathering additional near-source ground motion data will help better constraints on regional ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) and will happen over time, but this leaves open the possibility of damaging earthquakes occurring before potential ground shaking and seismic hazard in these areas are properly understood. To aid the effort of constraining near-source GMPEs associated with induced seismicity, we integrate synthetic ground motion data from simulated earthquakes into the process. Using the dynamic rupture and seismic wave propagation code waveqlab3d, we perform verification and validation exercises intended to establish confidence in simulated ground motions for use in constraining GMPEs. We verify the accuracy of our ground motion simulator by performing the PEER/SCEC layer-over-halfspace comparison problem LOH.1 Validation exercises to ensure that we are synthesizing realistic ground motion data include comparisons to recorded ground motions for specific earthquakes in target areas of Oklahoma between Mw 3.0 and 4.0. Using a 3D velocity structure that includes a 1D structure with additional small-scale heterogeneity, the properties of which are based on well-log data from Oklahoma, we perform ground motion simulations of small (Mw 3.0 - 4.0) earthquakes using point moment tensor sources. We use the resulting synthetic ground motion data to develop GMPEs for small earthquakes in Oklahoma. Preliminary results indicate that ground motions can be amplified if the source is located in the shallow, sedimentary sequence compared to the basement. Source depth could therefore be an important variable to define explicitly in GMPEs instead of being incorporated into traditional distance metrics. Future work will include the addition of dynamic sources to develop GMPEs for large earthquakes.

Ground Motion Prediction Equations Empowered by Stress Drop Measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyake, H.; Oth, A.

2015-12-01

Significant variation of stress drop is a crucial issue for ground motion prediction equations and probabilistic seismic hazard assessment, since only a few ground motion prediction equations take into account stress drop. In addition to average and sigma studies of stress drop and ground motion prediction equations (e.g., Cotton et al., 2013; Baltay and Hanks, 2014), we explore 1-to-1 relationship for each earthquake between stress drop and between-event residual of a ground motion prediction equation. We used the stress drop dataset of Oth (2013) for Japanese crustal earthquakes ranging 0.1 to 100 MPa and K-NET/KiK-net ground motion dataset against for several ground motion prediction equations with volcanic front treatment. Between-event residuals for ground accelerations and velocities are generally coincident with stress drop, as investigated by seismic intensity measures of Oth et al. (2015). Moreover, we found faster attenuation of ground acceleration and velocities for large stress drop events for the similar fault distance range and focal depth. It may suggest an alternative parameterization of stress drop to control attenuation distance rate for ground motion prediction equations. We also investigate 1-to-1 relationship and sigma for regional/national-scale stress drop variation and current national-scale ground motion equations.

Effects of listricity on near field ground motions: the kinematic case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Passone, Luca; Mai, P. Martin

2016-04-01

Listric faults are defined as curved faults in which the dip decreases with depth, resulting in a concave upwards shape. Previous works show that breaking the symmetry of faults affects rupture dynamics and near field ground motions (e.g. Oglesby et al., 1998; Nielsen, 1998; Oglesby et al., 2000b; O'Connell et al. 2007). In recent years listric faults have been associated with devastating events, such as the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake that caused almost 150 billion of damage, and the 1999 Mw 7.6 Chi- Chi earthquake that caused 10 billion worth of damage, each of them responsible also for tens of thousands of injured and dead. We focus on quantifying near field ground motions as a function of initial dip, style (normal or reverse) and a listricity. To construct a listric profile for the simulations we use an exponential function (Wang et al., 2009) that approximates the dip angle for a certain depth as a function of the depth itself, the initial dip angle and a listricity factor. We then generate an ensemble of source models, with initial dip ranging from 10 to 90 degrees and a listricity factor from 5 to 20. Finally, heterogeneous slip distributions are created for a magnitude Mw 6.8 earthquake. Choosing different hypocenter locations and rupture velocities, we construct a range of kinematic source models that are resolved on both the listric and planar-fault geometry. We then compute the near-source seismic wavefield within a uniform isotropic medium using a generalized 3D finite-difference method. The listric and planar simulations are then compared, and their differences quantified. Initial results show a secondary directivity effect once the listricity factor exceeds 10 for the larger initial dip faults, thus inducing a change in the azimuthal angle with respect of the epicenter where peak ground motions are experienced. At the same time, overall PGV values are decreased, more so for geometries with higher listricity factors. With the knowledge acquired, a ground motion reduction factor can be applied to ground motion prediction equations when the fault is considered to be listric and hazard maps should re-adjusted to cater for the relocation of peak ground motions due to directivity effects.

Earthquake ground motion: Chapter 3

USGS Publications Warehouse

Luco, Nicolas; Kircher, Charles A.; Crouse, C. B.; Charney, Finley; Haselton, Curt B.; Baker, Jack W.; Zimmerman, Reid; Hooper, John D.; McVitty, William; Taylor, Andy

2016-01-01

Most of the effort in seismic design of buildings and other structures is focused on structural design. This chapter addresses another key aspect of the design process—characterization of earthquake ground motion into parameters for use in design. Section 3.1 describes the basis of the earthquake ground motion maps in the Provisions and in ASCE 7 (the Standard). Section 3.2 has examples for the determination of ground motion parameters and spectra for use in design. Section 3.3 describes site-specific ground motion requirements and provides example site-specific design and MCER response spectra and example values of site-specific ground motion parameters. Section 3.4 discusses and provides an example for the selection and scaling of ground motion records for use in various types of response history analysis permitted in the Standard.

Validating Pseudo-dynamic Source Models against Observed Ground Motion Data at the SCEC Broadband Platform, Ver 16.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, S. G.

2016-12-01

Simulation-based ground motion prediction approaches have several benefits over empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs). For instance, full 3-component waveforms can be produced and site-specific hazard analysis is also possible. However, it is important to validate them against observed ground motion data to confirm their efficiency and validity before practical uses. There have been community efforts for these purposes, which are supported by the Broadband Platform (BBP) project at the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). In the simulation-based ground motion prediction approaches, it is a critical element to prepare a possible range of scenario rupture models. I developed a pseudo-dynamic source model for Mw 6.5-7.0 by analyzing a number of dynamic rupture models, based on 1-point and 2-point statistics of earthquake source parameters (Song et al. 2014; Song 2016). In this study, the developed pseudo-dynamic source models were tested against observed ground motion data at the SCEC BBP, Ver 16.5. The validation was performed at two stages. At the first stage, simulated ground motions were validated against observed ground motion data for past events such as the 1992 Landers and 1994 Northridge, California, earthquakes. At the second stage, they were validated against the latest version of empirical GMPEs, i.e., NGA-West2. The validation results show that the simulated ground motions produce ground motion intensities compatible with observed ground motion data at both stages. The compatibility of the pseudo-dynamic source models with the omega-square spectral decay and the standard deviation of the simulated ground motion intensities are also discussed in the study

The cause of larger local magnitude (Mj) in western Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawamoto, H.; Furumura, T.

2017-12-01

The local magnitude of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) scale (Mj) in Japan sometimes show a significant discrepancy between Mw. The Mj is calculated using the amplitude of the horizontal component of ground displacement recorded by seismometers with the natural period of T0=5 s using Katsumata et al. (2004). A typical example of such a discrepancy in estimating Mj was an overestimation of the 2000 Western Tottori earthquake (Mj=7.3, Mw=6.7; hereafter referred to as event T). In this study, we examined the discrepancy between Mj and Mw for recent large earthquakes occurring in Japan.We found that the most earthquakes with larger Mj (>Mw) occur in western Japan while the earthquakes in northern Japan show reasonable Mj (=Mw). To understand the cause of such larger Mj for western Japan earthquakes we examined the strong motion record from the K-NET and KiK-net network for the event T and other earthquakes for reference. The observed ground displacement record from the event T shows a distinctive Love wave packet in tangential motion with a dominant period of about T=5 s which propagates long distances without showing strong dispersions. On the other hand, the ground motions from the earthquakes in northeastern Japan do not have such surface wave packet, and attenuation of ground motion is significant. Therefore, the overestimation of the Mj for earthquakes in western Japan may be attributed to efficient generation and propagation properties of Love wave probably relating to the crustal structure of western Japan. To explain this, we then conducted a numerical simulation of seismic wave propagation using 3D sedimentary layer model (JIVSM; Koketsu et al., 2012) and the source model of the event T. The result demonstrated the efficient generation of Love wave from the shallow strike-slip source which propagates long distances in western Japan without significant dispersions. On the other hand, the generation of surface wave was not so efficient when using a sedimentary layer model of northeastern Japan. In this case, the attenuation of surface wave is very significant due to the dispersion and scattering as propagating through sedimentary basins. Therefore, overestimation of the Mj for earthquakes in western Japan strongly relates to the structure of western Japan to generate distinctive Love wave packet for long distances.

Evaluation of Nevada Test Site Ground Motion and Rock Property Data to Bound Ground Motions at the Yucca Mountain Repository

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hutchings, L J; Foxall, W; Rambo, J

2005-02-14

Yucca Mountain licensing will require estimation of ground motions from probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA) with annual probabilities of exceedance on the order of 10{sup -6} to 10{sup -7} per year or smaller, which correspond to much longer earthquake return periods than most previous PSHA studies. These long return periods for the Yucca Mountain PSHA result in estimates of ground motion that are extremely high ({approx} 10 g) and that are believed to be physically unrealizable. However, there is at present no generally accepted method to bound ground motions either by showing that the physical properties of materials cannot maintainmore » such extreme motions, or the energy release by the source for such large motions is physically impossible. The purpose of this feasibility study is to examine recorded ground motion and rock property data from nuclear explosions to determine its usefulness for studying the ground motion from extreme earthquakes. The premise is that nuclear explosions are an extreme energy density source, and that the recorded ground motion will provide useful information about the limits of ground motion from extreme earthquakes. The data were categorized by the source and rock properties, and evaluated as to what extent non-linearity in the material has affected the recordings. They also compiled existing results of non-linear dynamic modeling of the explosions carried out by LLNL and other institutions. They conducted an extensive literature review to outline current understanding of extreme ground motion. They also analyzed the data in terms of estimating maximum ground motions at Yucca Mountain.« less

Evaluation of Nevada Test Site Ground Motion and Rock Property Data to Bound Ground Motions at the Yucca Mountain Repository

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hutchings, L H; Foxall, W; Rambo, J

2005-03-09

Yucca Mountain licensing will require estimation of ground motions from probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA) with annual probabilities of exceedance on the order of 10{sup -6} to 10{sup -7} per year or smaller, which correspond to much longer earthquake return periods than most previous PSHA studies. These long return periods for the Yucca Mountain PSHA result in estimates of ground motion that are extremely high ({approx} 10 g) and that are believed to be physically unrealizable. However, there is at present no generally accepted method to bound ground motions either by showing that the physical properties of materials cannot maintainmore » such extreme motions, or the energy release by the source for such large motions is physically impossible. The purpose of this feasibility study is to examine recorded ground motion and rock property data from nuclear explosions to determine its usefulness for studying the ground motion from extreme earthquakes. The premise is that nuclear explosions are an extreme energy density source, and that the recorded ground motion will provide useful information about the limits of ground motion from extreme earthquakes. The data were categorized by the source and rock properties, and evaluated as to what extent non-linearity in the material has affected the recordings. They also compiled existing results of non-linear dynamic modeling of the explosions carried out by LLNL and other institutions. They conducted an extensive literature review to outline current understanding of extreme ground motion. They also analyzed the data in terms of estimating maximum ground motions at Yucca Mountain.« less

Source Rupture Process for the February 21, 2011, Mw6.1, New Zealand Earthquake and the Characteristics of Near-field Strong Ground Motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, L.; Shi, B.

2011-12-01

The New Zealand Earthquake of February 21, 2011, Mw 6.1 occurred in the South Island, New Zealand with the epicenter at longitude 172.70°E and latitude 43.58°S, and with depth of 5 km. The Mw 6.1 earthquake occurred on an unknown blind fault involving oblique-thrust faulting, which is 9 km away from southern of the Christchurch, the third largest city of New Zealand, with a striking direction from east toward west (United State Geology Survey, USGS, 2011). The earthquake killed at least 163 people and caused a lot of construction damages in Christchurch city. The Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) observed at station Heathcote Valley Primary School (HVSC), which is 1 km away from the epicenter, is up to almost 2.0g. The ground-motion observation suggests that the buried earthquake source generates much higher near-fault ground motion. In this study, we have analyzed the earthquake source spectral parameters based on the strong motion observations, and estimated the near-fault ground motion based on the Brune's circular fault model. The results indicate that the larger ground motion may be caused by a higher dynamic stress drop,Δσd , or effect stress drop named by Brune, in the major source rupture region. In addition, a dynamical composite source model (DCSM) has been developed to simulate the near-fault strong ground motion with associated fault rupture properties from the kinematic point of view. For comparison purpose, we also conducted the broadband ground motion predictions for the station of HVSC; the synthetic seismogram of time histories produced for this station has good agreement with the observations in the waveforms, peak values and frequency contents, which clearly indicate that the higher dynamic stress drop during the fault rupture may play an important role to the anomalous ground-motion amplification. The preliminary simulated result illustrated in at Station HVSC is that the synthetics seismograms have a realistic appearance in the waveform and time duration to the observations, especially for the vertical component. Synthetics Fourier spectra are reasonably similar to the recordings. The simulated PGA values of vertical and S26W components are consistent with the recorded, and for the S64E component, the PGA derived from our simulation is smaller than that from observation. The resultant Fourier spectra both for the synthetic and observation is much similar with each other for three components of acceleration time histories, except for the vertical component, where the derived spectra from synthetic data is smaller than that resultant from observation when the frequency is above 10 Hz. Both theoretical study and numerical simulation indicate that, for the 2011 Mw 6.1, New Zealand Earthquake, the higher dynamic stress drop during the source rupture process could play an important role to the anomalous ground-motion amplification beside to the other site-related seismic effects. The composite source modeling based on the simple Brune's pulse model could approximately provide us a good insight into earthquake source related rupture processes for a moderate-sized earthquake.

Sideband cooling of micromechanical motion to the quantum ground state.

PubMed

Teufel, J D; Donner, T; Li, Dale; Harlow, J W; Allman, M S; Cicak, K; Sirois, A J; Whittaker, J D; Lehnert, K W; Simmonds, R W

2011-07-06

The advent of laser cooling techniques revolutionized the study of many atomic-scale systems, fuelling progress towards quantum computing with trapped ions and generating new states of matter with Bose-Einstein condensates. Analogous cooling techniques can provide a general and flexible method of preparing macroscopic objects in their motional ground state. Cavity optomechanical or electromechanical systems achieve sideband cooling through the strong interaction between light and motion. However, entering the quantum regime--in which a system has less than a single quantum of motion--has been difficult because sideband cooling has not sufficiently overwhelmed the coupling of low-frequency mechanical systems to their hot environments. Here we demonstrate sideband cooling of an approximately 10-MHz micromechanical oscillator to the quantum ground state. This achievement required a large electromechanical interaction, which was obtained by embedding a micromechanical membrane into a superconducting microwave resonant circuit. To verify the cooling of the membrane motion to a phonon occupation of 0.34 ± 0.05 phonons, we perform a near-Heisenberg-limited position measurement within (5.1 ± 0.4)h/2π, where h is Planck's constant. Furthermore, our device exhibits strong coupling, allowing coherent exchange of microwave photons and mechanical phonons. Simultaneously achieving strong coupling, ground state preparation and efficient measurement sets the stage for rapid advances in the control and detection of non-classical states of motion, possibly even testing quantum theory itself in the unexplored region of larger size and mass. Because mechanical oscillators can couple to light of any frequency, they could also serve as a unique intermediary for transferring quantum information between microwave and optical domains.

Stochastic ground motion simulation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rezaeian, Sanaz; Xiaodan, Sun; Beer, Michael; Kougioumtzoglou, Ioannis A.; Patelli, Edoardo; Siu-Kui Au, Ivan

2014-01-01

Strong earthquake ground motion records are fundamental in engineering applications. Ground motion time series are used in response-history dynamic analysis of structural or geotechnical systems. In such analysis, the validity of predicted responses depends on the validity of the input excitations. Ground motion records are also used to develop ground motion prediction equations(GMPEs) for intensity measures such as spectral accelerations that are used in response-spectrum dynamic analysis. Despite the thousands of available strong ground motion records, there remains a shortage of records for large-magnitude earthquakes at short distances or in specific regions, as well as records that sample specific combinations of source, path, and site characteristics.

Stress Drop and Depth Controls on Ground Motion From Induced Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baltay, A.; Rubinstein, J. L.; Terra, F. M.; Hanks, T. C.; Herrmann, R. B.

2015-12-01

Induced earthquakes in the central United States pose a risk to local populations, but there is not yet agreement on how to portray their hazard. A large source of uncertainty in the hazard arises from ground motion prediction, which depends on the magnitude and distance of the causative earthquake. However, ground motion models for induced earthquakes may be very different than models previously developed for either the eastern or western United States. A key question is whether ground motions from induced earthquakes are similar to those from natural earthquakes, yet there is little history of natural events in the same region with which to compare the induced ground motions. To address these problems, we explore how earthquake source properties, such as stress drop or depth, affect the recorded ground motion of induced earthquakes. Typically, due to stress drop increasing with depth, ground motion prediction equations model shallower events to have smaller ground motions, when considering the same absolute hypocentral distance to the station. Induced earthquakes tend to occur at shallower depths, with respect to natural eastern US earthquakes, and may also exhibit lower stress drops, which begs the question of how these two parameters interact to control ground motion. Can the ground motions of induced earthquakes simply be understood by scaling our known source-ground motion relations to account for the shallow depth or potentially smaller stress drops of these induced earthquakes, or is there an inherently different mechanism in play for these induced earthquakes? We study peak ground-motion velocity (PGV) and acceleration (PGA) from induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas, recorded by USGS networks at source-station distances of less than 20 km, in order to model the source effects. We compare these records to those in both the NGA-West2 database (primarily from California) as well as NGA-East, which covers the central and eastern United States and Canada. Preliminary analysis indicates that the induced ground motions appear similar to those from the NGA-West2 database. However, upon consideration of their shallower depths, ground motion behavior from induced events seems to fall in between the West data and that of NGA-East, so we explore the control of stress drop and depth on ground motion in more detail.

Near-Field to Far-Field Uncertainty Propagation and Quantification of Ground Motions Generated by the Source Physics Experiments (SPE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antoun, T.; Ezzedine, S. M.; Vorobiev, O.; Pitarka, A.; Hurley, R.; Hirakawa, E. T.; Glenn, L.; Walter, W. R.

2016-12-01

LLNL has developed a framework for uncertainty propagation and quantification using HPC numerical codes to simulate end-to-end, from source to receivers, the ground motions observed during the Source Physics Experiments (SPE) conducted in fractured granitic rock at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). SPE includes six underground chemical explosions designed with different yields initiated at different depths. To date we have successfully applied this framework to explain the near-field shear motions observed in the vicinity of SPE3 thru SPE5. However, systematic uncertainty propagation to the far-field seismic receiver has not been addressed yet. In the current study, we used a coupling between the non-linear inelastic hydrodynamic regime in the near-field and the seismic elastic regime in the far-field to conduct the analysis. Several realizations of the stochastic discrete fracture network were generated conditional to the observed sparse data. These realizations were then used to calculate the ground motions generated from the SPE shots up to the elastic radius. The latter serves as the handshake interface for the far-field simulations. By creating several realizations of near-field responses one can embed those sources into the far-field elastic wave code and further the uncertainty propagation to the receivers. We will present a full assessment from end-to-end for the near- and far-field measurements. Separate analyses of the effect of the different conceptual geological models are also carried over using a nested Monte Carlo scheme. We compare the observed frequency content at several gages with the simulated ones. We conclude that both regions experience different sampling of frequencies: small features are relevant to near-field simulations while larger feature are more dominant at the far-field. We finally rank the primary sensitive parameters for both regions to drive and refine the field characterization data collection.

ARMA models for earthquake ground motions. Seismic safety margins research program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chang, M. K.; Kwiatkowski, J. W.; Nau, R. F.

1981-02-01

Four major California earthquake records were analyzed by use of a class of discrete linear time-domain processes commonly referred to as ARMA (Autoregressive/Moving-Average) models. It was possible to analyze these different earthquakes, identify the order of the appropriate ARMA model(s), estimate parameters, and test the residuals generated by these models. It was also possible to show the connections, similarities, and differences between the traditional continuous models (with parameter estimates based on spectral analyses) and the discrete models with parameters estimated by various maximum-likelihood techniques applied to digitized acceleration data in the time domain. The methodology proposed is suitable for simulatingmore » earthquake ground motions in the time domain, and appears to be easily adapted to serve as inputs for nonlinear discrete time models of structural motions. 60 references, 19 figures, 9 tables.« less

Onboard guidance system design for reusable launch vehicles in the terminal area energy management phase

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mu, Lingxia; Yu, Xiang; Zhang, Y. M.; Li, Ping; Wang, Xinmin

2018-02-01

A terminal area energy management (TAEM) guidance system for an unpowered reusable launch vehicle (RLV) is proposed in this paper. The mathematical model representing the RLV gliding motion is provided, followed by a transformation of extracting the required dynamics for reference profile generation. Reference longitudinal profiles are conceived based on the capability of maximum dive and maximum glide that a RLV can perform. The trajectory is obtained by iterating the motion equations at each node of altitude, where the angle of attack and the flight-path angle are regarded as regulating variables. An onboard ground-track predictor is constructed to generate the current range-to-go and lateral commands online. Although the longitudinal profile generation requires pre-processing using the RLV aerodynamics, the ground-track prediction can be executed online. This makes the guidance scheme adaptable to abnormal conditions. Finally, the guidance law is designed to track the reference commands. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed guidance scheme is capable of guiding the RLV to the desired touchdown conditions.

Scaling earthquake ground motions for performance-based assessment of buildings

USGS Publications Warehouse

Huang, Y.-N.; Whittaker, A.S.; Luco, N.; Hamburger, R.O.

2011-01-01

The impact of alternate ground-motion scaling procedures on the distribution of displacement responses in simplified structural systems is investigated. Recommendations are provided for selecting and scaling ground motions for performance-based assessment of buildings. Four scaling methods are studied, namely, (1)geometric-mean scaling of pairs of ground motions, (2)spectrum matching of ground motions, (3)first-mode-period scaling to a target spectral acceleration, and (4)scaling of ground motions per the distribution of spectral demands. Data were developed by nonlinear response-history analysis of a large family of nonlinear single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) oscillators that could represent fixed-base and base-isolated structures. The advantages and disadvantages of each scaling method are discussed. The relationship between spectral shape and a ground-motion randomness parameter, is presented. A scaling procedure that explicitly considers spectral shape is proposed. ?? 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.

PSHA in Israel by using the synthetic ground motions from simulated seismicity: the modified SvE procedure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meirova, T.; Shapira, A.; Eppelbaum, L.

2018-05-01

In this study, we updated and modified the SvE approach of Shapira and van Eck (Nat Hazards 8:201-215, 1993) which may be applied as an alternative to the conventional probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) in Israel and other regions of low and moderate seismicity where measurements of strong ground motions are scarce. The new computational code SvE overcomes difficulties associated with the description of the earthquake source model and regional ground-motion scaling. In the modified SvE procedure, generating suites of regional ground motion is based on the extended two-dimensional source model of Motazedian and Atkinson (Bull Seism Soc Amer 95:995-1010, 2005a) and updated regional ground-motion scaling (Meirova and Hofstteter, Bull Earth Eng 15:3417-3436, 2017). The analytical approach of Mavroeidis and Papageorgiou (Bull Seism Soc Amer 93:1099-1131, 2003) is used to simulate the near-fault acceleration with the near-fault effects. The comparison of hazard estimates obtained by using the conventional method implemented in the National Building Code for Design provisions for earthquake resistance of structures and the modified SvE procedure for rock-site conditions indicates a general agreement with some perceptible differences at the periods of 0.2 and 0.5 s. For the periods above 0.5 s, the SvE estimates are systematically greater and can increase by a factor of 1.6. For the soft-soil sites, the SvE hazard estimates at the period of 0.2 s are greater than those based on the CB2008 ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) by a factor of 1.3-1.6. We suggest that the hazard estimates for the sites with soft-soil conditions calculated by the modified SvE procedure are more reliable than those which can be found by means of the conventional PSHA. This result agrees with the opinion that the use of a standard GMPE applying the NEHRP soil classification based on the V s, 30 parameter may be inappropriate for PSHA at many sites in Israel.

SMSIM--Fortran programs for simulating ground motions from earthquakes: Version 2.0.--a revision of OFR 96-80-A

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David M.

2000-01-01

A simple and powerful method for simulating ground motions is based on the assumption that the amplitude of ground motion at a site can be specified in a deterministic way, with a random phase spectrum modified such that the motion is distributed over a duration related to the earthquake magnitude and to distance from the source. This method of simulating ground motions often goes by the name "the stochastic method." It is particularly useful for simulating the higher-frequency ground motions of most interest to engineers, and it is widely used to predict ground motions for regions of the world in which recordings of motion from damaging earthquakes are not available. This simple method has been successful in matching a variety of ground-motion measures for earthquakes with seismic moments spanning more than 12 orders of magnitude. One of the essential characteristics of the method is that it distills what is known about the various factors affecting ground motions (source, path, and site) into simple functional forms that can be used to predict ground motions. SMSIM is a set of programs for simulating ground motions based on the stochastic method. This Open-File Report is a revision of an earlier report (Boore, 1996) describing a set of programs for simulating ground motions from earthquakes. The programs are based on modifications I have made to the stochastic method first introduced by Hanks and McGuire (1981). The report contains source codes, written in Fortran, and executables that can be used on a PC. Programs are included both for time-domain and for random vibration simulations. In addition, programs are included to produce Fourier amplitude spectra for the models used in the simulations and to convert shear velocity vs. depth into frequency-dependent amplification. The revision to the previous report is needed because the input and output files have changed significantly, and a number of new programs have been included in the set.

Stochastic ground-motion simulation of two Himalayan earthquakes: seismic hazard assessment perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harbindu, Ashish; Sharma, Mukat Lal; Kamal

2012-04-01

The earthquakes in Uttarkashi (October 20, 1991, M w 6.8) and Chamoli (March 8, 1999, M w 6.4) are among the recent well-documented earthquakes that occurred in the Garhwal region of India and that caused extensive damage as well as loss of life. Using strong-motion data of these two earthquakes, we estimate their source, path, and site parameters. The quality factor ( Q β ) as a function of frequency is derived as Q β ( f) = 140 f 1.018. The site amplification functions are evaluated using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio technique. The ground motions of the Uttarkashi and Chamoli earthquakes are simulated using the stochastic method of Boore (Bull Seismol Soc Am 73:1865-1894, 1983). The estimated source, path, and site parameters are used as input for the simulation. The simulated time histories are generated for a few stations and compared with the observed data. The simulated response spectra at 5% damping are in fair agreement with the observed response spectra for most of the stations over a wide range of frequencies. Residual trends closely match the observed and simulated response spectra. The synthetic data are in rough agreement with the ground-motion attenuation equation available for the Himalayas (Sharma, Bull Seismol Soc Am 98:1063-1069, 1998).

Aerodynamics of a beetle in take-off flights

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Boogeon; Park, Hyungmin; Kim, Sun-Tae

2015-11-01

In the present study, we investigate the aerodynamics of a beetle in its take-off flights based on the three-dimensional kinematics of inner (hindwing) and outer (elytron) wings, and body postures, which are measured with three high-speed cameras at 2000 fps. To track the highly deformable wing motions, we distribute 21 morphological markers and use the modified direct linear transform algorithm for the reconstruction of measured wing motions. To realize different take-off conditions, we consider two types of take-off flights; that is, one is the take-off from a flat ground and the other is from a vertical rod mimicking a branch of a tree. It is first found that the elytron which is flapped passively due to the motion of hindwing also has non-negligible wing-kinematic parameters. With the ground, the flapping amplitude of elytron is reduced and the hindwing changes its flapping angular velocity during up and downstrokes. On the other hand, the angle of attack on the elytron and hindwing increases and decreases, respectively, due to the ground. These changes in the wing motion are critically related to the aerodynamic force generation, which will be discussed in detail. Supported by the grant to Bio-Mimetic Robot Research Center funded by Defense Acquisition Program Administration (UD130070ID).

Within-Event and Between-Events Ground Motion Variability from Earthquake Rupture Scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crempien, Jorge G. F.; Archuleta, Ralph J.

2017-09-01

Measurement of ground motion variability is essential to estimate seismic hazard. Over-estimation of variability can lead to extremely high annual hazard estimates of ground motion exceedance. We explore different parameters that affect the variability of ground motion such as the spatial correlations of kinematic rupture parameters on a finite fault and the corner frequency of the moment-rate spectra. To quantify the variability of ground motion, we simulate kinematic rupture scenarios on several vertical strike-slip faults and compute ground motion using the representation theorem. In particular, for the entire suite of rupture scenarios, we quantify the within-event and the between-events ground motion variability of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and response spectra at several periods, at 40 stations—all approximately at an equal distance of 20 and 50 km from the fault. Both within-event and between-events ground motion variability increase when the slip correlation length on the fault increases. The probability density functions of ground motion tend to truncate at a finite value when the correlation length of slip decreases on the fault, therefore, we do not observe any long-tail distribution of peak ground acceleration when performing several rupture simulations for small correlation lengths. Finally, for a correlation length of 6 km, the within-event and between-events PGA log-normal standard deviations are 0.58 and 0.19, respectively, values slightly smaller than those reported by Boore et al. (Earthq Spectra, 30(3):1057-1085, 2014). The between-events standard deviation is consistently smaller than the within-event for all correlations lengths, a feature that agrees with recent ground motion prediction equations.

Ground motion simulations in Marmara (Turkey) region from 3D finite difference method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aochi, Hideo; Ulrich, Thomas; Douglas, John

2016-04-01

In the framework of the European project MARSite (2012-2016), one of the main contributions from our research team was to provide ground-motion simulations for the Marmara region from various earthquake source scenarios. We adopted a 3D finite difference code, taking into account the 3D structure around the Sea of Marmara (including the bathymetry) and the sea layer. We simulated two moderate earthquakes (about Mw4.5) and found that the 3D structure improves significantly the waveforms compared to the 1D layer model. Simulations were carried out for different earthquakes (moderate point sources and large finite sources) in order to provide shake maps (Aochi and Ulrich, BSSA, 2015), to study the variability of ground-motion parameters (Douglas & Aochi, BSSA, 2016) as well as to provide synthetic seismograms for the blind inversion tests (Diao et al., GJI, 2016). The results are also planned to be integrated in broadband ground-motion simulations, tsunamis generation and simulations of triggered landslides (in progress by different partners). The simulations are freely shared among the partners via the internet and the visualization of the results is diffused on the project's homepage. All these simulations should be seen as a reference for this region, as they are based on the latest knowledge that obtained during the MARSite project, although their refinement and validation of the model parameters and the simulations are a continuing research task relying on continuing observations. The numerical code used, the models and the simulations are available on demand.

Implementation of NGA-West2 ground motion models in the 2014 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Maps

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rezaeian, Sanaz; Petersen, Mark D.; Moschetti, Morgan P.; Powers, Peter; Harmsen, Stephen C.; Frankel, Arthur D.

2014-01-01

The U.S. National Seismic Hazard Maps (NSHMs) have been an important component of seismic design regulations in the United States for the past several decades. These maps present earthquake ground shaking intensities at specified probabilities of being exceeded over a 50-year time period. The previous version of the NSHMs was developed in 2008; during 2012 and 2013, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey have been updating the maps based on their assessment of the “best available science,” resulting in the 2014 NSHMs. The update includes modifications to the seismic source models and the ground motion models (GMMs) for sites across the conterminous United States. This paper focuses on updates in the Western United States (WUS) due to the use of new GMMs for shallow crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions developed by the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA-West2) project. Individual GMMs, their weighted combination, and their impact on the hazard maps relative to 2008 are discussed. In general, the combined effects of lower medians and increased standard deviations in the new GMMs have caused only small changes, within 5–20%, in the probabilistic ground motions for most sites across the WUS compared to the 2008 NSHMs.

Prediction of spectral acceleration response ordinates based on PGA attenuation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graizer, V.; Kalkan, E.

2009-01-01

Developed herein is a new peak ground acceleration (PGA)-based predictive model for 5% damped pseudospectral acceleration (SA) ordinates of free-field horizontal component of ground motion from shallow-crustal earthquakes. The predictive model of ground motion spectral shape (i.e., normalized spectrum) is generated as a continuous function of few parameters. The proposed model eliminates the classical exhausted matrix of estimator coefficients, and provides significant ease in its implementation. It is structured on the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) database with a number of additions from recent Californian events including 2003 San Simeon and 2004 Parkfield earthquakes. A unique feature of the model is its new functional form explicitly integrating PGA as a scaling factor. The spectral shape model is parameterized within an approximation function using moment magnitude, closest distance to the fault (fault distance) and VS30 (average shear-wave velocity in the upper 30 m) as independent variables. Mean values of its estimator coefficients were computed by fitting an approximation function to spectral shape of each record using robust nonlinear optimization. Proposed spectral shape model is independent of the PGA attenuation, allowing utilization of various PGA attenuation relations to estimate the response spectrum of earthquake recordings.

A Little Knowledge of Ground Motion: Explaining 3-D Physics-Based Modeling to Engineers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porter, K.

2014-12-01

Users of earthquake planning scenarios require the ground-motion map to be credible enough to justify costly planning efforts, but not all ground-motion maps are right for all uses. There are two common ways to create a map of ground motion for a hypothetical earthquake. One approach is to map the median shaking estimated by empirical attenuation relationships. The other uses 3-D physics-based modeling, in which one analyzes a mathematical model of the earth's crust near the fault rupture and calculates the generation and propagation of seismic waves from source to ground surface by first principles. The two approaches produce different-looking maps. The more-familiar median maps smooth out variability and correlation. Using them in a planning scenario can lead to a systematic underestimation of damage and loss, and could leave a community underprepared for realistic shaking. The 3-D maps show variability, including some very high values that can disconcert non-scientists. So when the USGS Science Application for Risk Reduction's (SAFRR) Haywired scenario project selected 3-D maps, it was necessary to explain to scenario users—especially engineers who often use median maps—the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of the two approaches. We used authority, empirical evidence, and theory to support our choice. We prefaced our explanation with SAFRR's policy of using the best available earth science, and cited the credentials of the maps' developers and the reputation of the journal in which they published the maps. We cited recorded examples from past earthquakes of extreme ground motions that are like those in the scenario map. We explained the maps on theoretical grounds as well, explaining well established causes of variability: directivity, basin effects, and source parameters. The largest mapped motions relate to potentially unfamiliar extreme-value theory, so we used analogies to human longevity and the average age of the oldest person in samples of varying sizes to illustrate extreme values to non-scientists. We explained the importance of nonlinearity in the relationship between shaking and loss. This was the second time SAFRR encountered skeptics of 3-D maps among scenario consumers, so a short manuscript was prepared that would serve similar uses in the future.

Long-period Ground Motion Characteristics Inside and Outside of the Osaka Basin during the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Its Largest Aftershock

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sato, K.; Iwata, T.; Asano, K.; Kubo, H.; Aoi, S.

2013-12-01

The 2011 great Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9.0) occurred on March 11, 2011, and the largest aftershock (Mw 7.7) at the region adjacent to south boundary of the mainshock's source region. Long-period ground motions (1-10s) of large amplitude were observed in the Osaka sedimentary basin about 550-800km away from the source regions during both events. We studied propagation and site characteristics of these ground motions, and found some common features between these two events in the Osaka basin. (1) The amplitude of horizontal components of the ground motion at the site-specific period is amplified at each sedimentary station. The predominant period is around 7s in the bayside area where the largest pSv were observed. (2) The velocity Fourier spectra have their peak values around 7s at the bedrock sites surrounding the Osaka basin. (3) Two remarkable wave packets separated by 30s propagating from stations around the Nobi plain to the bedrock sites near the Osaka basin were seen in the pasted-up velocity waveforms from the source regions to the Osaka basin for both events (Sato et al., 2012). Therefore, large long-period ground motions in the Osaka basin are generated by the combination of propagation-path and basin effects. Firstly, we simulate ground motions due to the largest aftershock using three-dimensional FDM (GMS; Aoi and Fujiwara, 1999). The reason we focus on the largest aftershock is that this event has a relatively small rupture area and simple rupture process compared to the mainshock. The source model is based on the model estimated by Kubo et al. (2013). The velocity structure model is a three-dimensional velocity structure based on the Japan Integrated Velocity Structure Model (Koketsu et al., 2012) and the layer of Vs 350m/s in this model is replaced with one of Vs 500m/s. The minimum effective period in this computation is 3s. Then, we compare synthetic waveforms with observed ones. At CHBH14, the nearest station to the source and 60km away from the epicenter, the synthetic waveforms of the period-band 5-50s, where Kubo et al. (2013) studied, fit well to the observed ones. However, in our target period-band 5-8s, the earlier portion of the synthetic waveform of the main packet has smaller amplitude than the observation. At the bedrock sites near the Osaka basin, two wave packets which are appeared in the observation are qualitatively reproduced in the synthetics. However, the amplitudes are not well reproduced. Moreover, the amplitude ratio of horizontal components of synthetics between the rock and the bayside stations is underestimated compared to the observed one. Improvements of the source and velocity structure models for propagation-path and basin are needed. For that sake, we will analyze the characteristics of the synthetic waveforms, study how those wave packets are generated, and discuss the discrepancy between the synthetic and observed waveforms. We will also simulate the ground motion for the mainshock to study propagation characteristics of the mainshock. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We used strong motion data recorded by K-NET, KiK-net and F-net of NIED, CEORKA, BRI, JMA, and Osaka prefecture. GMS provided by NIED is used for the computation.

Representation of bidirectional ground motions for design spectra in building codes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stewart, Jonathan P.; Abrahamson, Norman A.; Atkinson, Gail M.; Beker, Jack W.; Boore, David M.; Bozorgnia, Yousef; Campbell, Kenneth W.; Comartin, Craig D.; Idriss, I.M.; Lew, Marshall; Mehrain, Michael; Moehle, Jack P.; Naeim, Farzad; Sabol, Thomas A.

2011-01-01

The 2009 NEHRP Provisions modified the definition of horizontal ground motion from the geometric mean of spectral accelerations for two components to the peak response of a single lumped mass oscillator regardless of direction. These maximum-direction (MD) ground motions operate under the assumption that the dynamic properties of the structure (e.g., stiffness, strength) are identical in all directions. This assumption may be true for some in-plan symmetric structures, however, the response of most structures is dominated by modes of vibration along specific axes (e.g., longitudinal and transverse axes in a building), and often the dynamic properties (especially stiffness) along those axes are distinct. In order to achieve structural designs consistent with the collapse risk level given in the NEHRP documents, we argue that design spectra should be compatible with expected levels of ground motion along those principal response axes. The use of MD ground motions effectively assumes that the azimuth of maximum ground motion coincides with the directions of principal structural response. Because this is unlikely, design ground motions have lower probability of occurrence than intended, with significant societal costs. We recommend adjustments to make design ground motions compatible with target risk levels.

Incremental Dynamic Analysis of Koyna Dam under Repeated Ground Motions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zainab Nik Azizan, Nik; Majid, Taksiah A.; Nazri, Fadzli Mohamed; Maity, Damodar; Abdullah, Junaidah

2018-03-01

This paper discovers the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) of concrete gravity dam under single and repeated earthquake loadings to identify the limit state of the dam. Seven ground motions with horizontal and vertical direction as seismic input considered in the nonlinear dynamic analysis based on the real repeated earthquake in the worldwide. All the ground motions convert to respond spectrum and scaled according to the developed elastic respond spectrum in order to match the characteristic of the ground motion to the soil type. The scaled was depends on the fundamental period, T1 of the dam. The Koyna dam has been selected as a case study for the purpose of the analysis by assuming that no sliding and rigid foundation, has been estimated. IDA curves for Koyna dam developed for single and repeated ground motions and the performance level of the dam identifies. The IDA curve of repeated ground motion shown stiffer rather than single ground motion. The ultimate state displacement for a single event is 45.59mm and decreased to 39.33mm under repeated events which are decreased about 14%. This showed that the performance level of the dam based on seismic loadings depend on ground motion pattern.

Cooling and heating of the quantum motion of trapped cadmium(+) ions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deslauriers, Louis

The quest for a quantum system best satisfying the stringent requirements of a quantum information processor has made tremendous progress in many fields of physics. In the last decade, trapped ions have been established as one of the most promising architectures to accomplish the task. Internal states of an ion which can have extremely long coherence time can be used to store a quantum bit, and therefore allow many gate operations before the coherence is lost. Entanglement between multiple ions can be established via Coulomb interactions mediated by appropriate laser fields. Entangling schemes usually require the ions to be initialized to near their motional ground state. The interaction of fluctuating electric fields with the motional state of the ion leads to heating and thus to decoherence for entanglement generation limiting the fidelity of quantum logic gates. Effective ground state cooling of trapped ion motion and suppression of motional heating are thus crucial to many applications of trapped ions in quantum information science. In this thesis, I describe the implementation and study of several components of a Cadmium-ion-based quantum information processor, with special emphasis on the control and decoherence of trapped ion motion. I first discuss the building and design of various ion traps that were used in this work. I also report on the use of ultrafast laser pulses to photoionize and load cadmium ions in a variety of rf Paul trap geometries. A detailed analysis of the photoionization scheme is presented, along with its dependence on controlled experimental parameters. I then describe the implementation of Raman sideband cooling on a single trapped 111Cd+ ion to the ground state of motion, where a ground state population of 97% was achieved. The efficacy of this cooling technique is discussed with respect to different initial motional state distributions and its sensitivity to the presence of motional heating. I also present an experiment where the motion of a single trapped 112Cd+ ion is sympathetically cooled by directly Doppler cooling a 114Cd+ ion in the same trap. The implications of this result are relevant to the scaling of a trapped ion quantum computer, where the unwanted motion of an ion crystal can be quenched while not affecting the internal states of the qubit ions. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Moving Object Detection Using a Parallax Shift Vector Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gural, Peter S.; Otto, Paul R.; Tedesco, Edward F.

2018-07-01

There are various algorithms currently in use to detect asteroids from ground-based observatories, but they are generally restricted to linear or mildly curved movement of the target object across the field of view. Space-based sensors in high inclination, low Earth orbits can induce significant parallax in a collected sequence of images, especially for objects at the typical distances of asteroids in the inner solar system. This results in a highly nonlinear motion pattern of the asteroid across the sensor, which requires a more sophisticated search pattern for detection processing. Both the classical pattern matching used in ground-based asteroid search and the more sensitive matched filtering and synthetic tracking techniques, can be adapted to account for highly complex parallax motion. A new shift vector generation methodology is discussed along with its impacts on commonly used detection algorithms, processing load, and responsiveness to asteroid track reporting. The matched filter, template generator, and pattern matcher source code for the software described herein are available via GitHub.

Source Model of the MJMA 6.5 Plate-Boundary Earthquake at the Nankai Trough, Southwest Japan, on April 1, 2016, Based on Strong Motion Waveform Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asano, K.

2017-12-01

An MJMA 6.5 earthquake occurred offshore the Kii peninsula, southwest Japan on April 1, 2016. This event was interpreted as a thrust-event on the plate-boundary along the Nankai trough where (Wallace et al., 2016). This event is the largest plate-boundary earthquake in the source region of the 1944 Tonankai earthquake (MW 8.0) after that event. The significant point of this event regarding to seismic observation is that this event occurred beneath an ocean-bottom seismic network called DONET1, which is jointly operated by NIED and JAMSTEC. Since moderate-to-large earthquake of this focal type is very rare in this region in the last half century, it is a good opportunity to investigate the source characteristics relating to strong motion generation of subduction-zone plate-boundary earthquakes along the Nankai trough. Knowledge obtained from the study of this earthquake would contribute to ground motion prediction and seismic hazard assessment for future megathrust earthquakes expected in the Nankai trough. In this study, the source model of the 2016 offshore the Kii peninsula earthquake was estimated by broadband strong motion waveform modeling using the empirical Green's function method (Irikura, 1986). The source model is characterized by strong motion generation area (SMGA) (Miyake et al., 2003), which is defined as a rectangular area with high-stress drop or high slip-velocity. SMGA source model based on the empirical Green's function method has great potential to reproduce ground motion time history in broadband frequency range. We used strong motion data from offshore stations (DONET1 and LTBMS) and onshore stations (NIED F-net and DPRI). The records of an MJMA 3.2 aftershock at 13:04 on April 1, 2016 were selected for the empirical Green's functions. The source parameters of SMGA are optimized by the waveform modeling in the frequency range 0.4-10 Hz. The best estimate of SMGA size is 19.4 km2, and SMGA of this event does not follow the source scaling relationship for past plate-boundary earthquakes along the Japan trench, northeast Japan. This finding implies that the source characteristics of plate-boundary events in the Nankai trough are different from those in the Japan Trench, and it could be important information to consider regional variation in ground motion prediction.

Assessing the ground vibrations produced by a heavy vehicle traversing a traffic obstacle.

PubMed

Ducarne, Loïc; Ainalis, Daniel; Kouroussis, Georges

2018-01-15

Despite advancements in alternative transport networks, road transport remains the dominant mode in many modern and developing countries. The ground-borne motions produced by the passage of a heavy vehicle over a geometric obstacle (e.g. speed hump, train tracks) pose a fundamental problem in transport annoyance in urban areas. In order to predict the ground vibrations generated by the passage of a heavy vehicle over a geometric obstacle, a two-step numerical model is developed. The first step involves simulating the dynamic loads generated by the heavy vehicle using a multibody approach, which includes the tyre-obstacle-ground interaction. The second step involves the simulation of the ground wave propagation using a three dimensional finite element model. The simulation is able to be decoupled due to the large difference in stiffness between the vehicle's tyres and the road. First, the two-step model is validated using an experimental case study available in the literature. A sensitivity analysis is then presented, examining the influence of various factors on the generated ground vibrations. Factors investigated include obstacle shape, obstacle dimensions, vehicle speed, and tyre stiffness. The developed model can be used as a tool in the early planning stages to predict the ground vibrations generated by the passage of a heavy vehicle over an obstacle in urban areas. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ground motion simulation for the 23 August 2011, Mineral, Virginia earthquake using physics-based and stochastic broadband methods

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sun, Xiaodan; Hartzell, Stephen; Rezaeian, Sanaz

2015-01-01

Three broadband simulation methods are used to generate synthetic ground motions for the 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake and compare with observed motions. The methods include a physics‐based model by Hartzell et al. (1999, 2005), a stochastic source‐based model by Boore (2009), and a stochastic site‐based model by Rezaeian and Der Kiureghian (2010, 2012). The ground‐motion dataset consists of 40 stations within 600 km of the epicenter. Several metrics are used to validate the simulations: (1) overall bias of response spectra and Fourier spectra (from 0.1 to 10 Hz); (2) spatial distribution of residuals for GMRotI50 peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity, and pseudospectral acceleration (PSA) at various periods; (3) comparison with ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for the eastern United States. Our results show that (1) the physics‐based model provides satisfactory overall bias from 0.1 to 10 Hz and produces more realistic synthetic waveforms; (2) the stochastic site‐based model also yields more realistic synthetic waveforms and performs superiorly for frequencies greater than about 1 Hz; (3) the stochastic source‐based model has larger bias at lower frequencies (<0.5  Hz) and cannot reproduce the varying frequency content in the time domain. The spatial distribution of GMRotI50 residuals shows that there is no obvious pattern with distance in the simulation bias, but there is some azimuthal variability. The comparison between synthetics and GMPEs shows similar fall‐off with distance for all three models, comparable PGA and PSA amplitudes for the physics‐based and stochastic site‐based models, and systematic lower amplitudes for the stochastic source‐based model at lower frequencies (<0.5  Hz).

A strong-motion database from the Central American subduction zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arango, Maria Cristina; Strasser, Fleur O.; Bommer, Julian J.; Hernández, Douglas A.; Cepeda, Jose M.

2011-04-01

Subduction earthquakes along the Pacific Coast of Central America generate considerable seismic risk in the region. The quantification of the hazard due to these events requires the development of appropriate ground-motion prediction equations, for which purpose a database of recordings from subduction events in the region is indispensable. This paper describes the compilation of a comprehensive database of strong ground-motion recordings obtained during subduction-zone events in Central America, focusing on the region from 8 to 14° N and 83 to 92° W, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. More than 400 accelerograms recorded by the networks operating across Central America during the last decades have been added to data collected by NORSAR in two regional projects for the reduction of natural disasters. The final database consists of 554 triaxial ground-motion recordings from events of moment magnitudes between 5.0 and 7.7, including 22 interface and 58 intraslab-type events for the time period 1976-2006. Although the database presented in this study is not sufficiently complete in terms of magnitude-distance distribution to serve as a basis for the derivation of predictive equations for interface and intraslab events in Central America, it considerably expands the Central American subduction data compiled in previous studies and used in early ground-motion modelling studies for subduction events in this region. Additionally, the compiled database will allow the assessment of the existing predictive models for subduction-type events in terms of their applicability for the Central American region, which is essential for an adequate estimation of the hazard due to subduction earthquakes in this region.

Near-field non-radial motion generation from underground chemical explosions in jointed granite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vorobiev, Oleg; Ezzedine, Souheil; Hurley, Ryan

2018-01-01

This paper describes analysis of non-radial ground motion generated by chemical explosions in a jointed rock formation during the Source Physics Experiment (SPE). Such motion makes it difficult to discriminate between various subsurface events such as explosions, implosions (i.e. mine collapse) and earthquakes. We apply 3-D numerical simulations to understand experimental data collected during the SPEs. The joints are modelled explicitly as compliant thin inclusions embedded into the rock mass. Mechanical properties of the rock and the joints as well as the joint spacing and orientation are inferred from experimental test data, and geophysical and geological characterization of the SPE site which is dominantly Climax Stock granitic outcrop. The role of various factors characterizing the joints such as joint spacing, frictional properties, orientation and persistence in generation of non-radial motion is addressed. The joints in granite at the SPE site are oriented in nearly orthogonal directions with two vertical sets dipping at 70-80 degrees with the same strike angle, one vertical set almost orthogonal to the first two and one shallow angle joint set dipping 15 degrees. In this study we establish the relationship between the joint orientation and azimuthal variations in the polarity of the observed shear motion. The majority of the shear motion is generated due to the effects of non-elastic sliding on the joints near the source, where the wave can create significant shear stress to overcome the cohesive forces at the joints. Near the surface the joints are less confined and are subject to sliding when the pressure waves are reflected. In the far field, where the cohesive forces on the joints cannot be overcome, additional shear motion can be generated due to elastic anisotropy of the rock mass given by preferred spatial orientations of compliant joints.

A 3D Human-Machine Integrated Design and Analysis Framework for Squat Exercises with a Smith Machine.

PubMed

Lee, Haerin; Jung, Moonki; Lee, Ki-Kwang; Lee, Sang Hun

2017-02-06

In this paper, we propose a three-dimensional design and evaluation framework and process based on a probabilistic-based motion synthesis algorithm and biomechanical analysis system for the design of the Smith machine and squat training programs. Moreover, we implemented a prototype system to validate the proposed framework. The framework consists of an integrated human-machine-environment model as well as a squat motion synthesis system and biomechanical analysis system. In the design and evaluation process, we created an integrated model in which interactions between a human body and machine or the ground are modeled as joints with constraints at contact points. Next, we generated Smith squat motion using the motion synthesis program based on a Gaussian process regression algorithm with a set of given values for independent variables. Then, using the biomechanical analysis system, we simulated joint moments and muscle activities from the input of the integrated model and squat motion. We validated the model and algorithm through physical experiments measuring the electromyography (EMG) signals, ground forces, and squat motions as well as through a biomechanical simulation of muscle forces. The proposed approach enables the incorporation of biomechanics in the design process and reduces the need for physical experiments and prototypes in the development of training programs and new Smith machines.

A 3D Human-Machine Integrated Design and Analysis Framework for Squat Exercises with a Smith Machine

PubMed Central

Lee, Haerin; Jung, Moonki; Lee, Ki-Kwang; Lee, Sang Hun

2017-01-01

In this paper, we propose a three-dimensional design and evaluation framework and process based on a probabilistic-based motion synthesis algorithm and biomechanical analysis system for the design of the Smith machine and squat training programs. Moreover, we implemented a prototype system to validate the proposed framework. The framework consists of an integrated human–machine–environment model as well as a squat motion synthesis system and biomechanical analysis system. In the design and evaluation process, we created an integrated model in which interactions between a human body and machine or the ground are modeled as joints with constraints at contact points. Next, we generated Smith squat motion using the motion synthesis program based on a Gaussian process regression algorithm with a set of given values for independent variables. Then, using the biomechanical analysis system, we simulated joint moments and muscle activities from the input of the integrated model and squat motion. We validated the model and algorithm through physical experiments measuring the electromyography (EMG) signals, ground forces, and squat motions as well as through a biomechanical simulation of muscle forces. The proposed approach enables the incorporation of biomechanics in the design process and reduces the need for physical experiments and prototypes in the development of training programs and new Smith machines. PMID:28178184

Relations between some horizontal‐component ground‐motion intensity measures used in practice

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David; Kishida, Tadahiro

2017-01-01

Various measures using the two horizontal components of recorded ground motions have been used in a number of studies that derive ground‐motion prediction equations and construct maps of shaking intensity. We update relations between a number of these measures, including those in Boore et al. (2006) and Boore (2010), using the large and carefully constructed global database of ground motions from crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions developed as part of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center–Next Generation Attenuation‐West2 project. The ratios from the expanded datasets generally agree to within a few percent of the previously published ratios. We also provide some ratios that were not considered before, some of which will be useful in applications such as constructing ShakeMaps. Finally, we compare two important ratios with those from a large central and eastern North American database and from many records from subduction earthquakes in Japan and Taiwan. In general, the ratios from these regions are within several percent of those from crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions.

Seismic rupture and ground accelerations induced by CO 2 injection in the shallow crust

DOE PAGES

Cappa, Frédéric; Rutqvist, Jonny

2012-09-01

We present that because of the critically stressed nature of the upper crust, the injection of large volumes of carbon dioxide (CO 2) into shallow geological reservoirs can trigger seismicity and induce ground deformations when the injection increases the fluid pressure in the vicinity of potentially seismic faults. The increased fluid pressure reduces the strength against fault slip, allowing the stored elastic energy to be released in seismic events that can produce felt ground accelerations. Here, we seek to explore the likelihood ground motions induced by a CO 2 injection using hydromechanical modelling with multiphase fluid flow and dynamic rupture,more » including fault-frictional weakening. We extend the previous work of Cappa and Rutqvist, in which activation of a normal fault at critical stress may be possible for fast rupture nucleating by localized increase in fluid pressure and large decrease in fault friction. In this paper, we include seismic wave propagation generated by the rupture. For our assumed system and injection rate, simulations show that after a few days of injection, a dynamic fault rupture of few centimetres nucleates at the base of the CO 2 reservoir and grows bilaterally, both toward the top of the reservoir and outside. The rupture is asymmetric and affects a larger zone below the reservoir where the rupture is self-propagating (without any further pressure increase) as a result of fault-strength weakening. The acceleration and deceleration of the rupture generate waves and result in ground accelerations (~0.1–0.6 g) consistent with observed ground motion records. Finally, the maximum ground acceleration is obtained near the fault, and horizontal accelerations are generally markedly higher than vertical accelerations.« less

Megaquakes, prograde surface waves and urban evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lomnitz, C.; Castaños, H.

2013-05-01

Cities grow according to evolutionary principles. They move away from soft-ground conditions and avoid vulnerable types of structures. A megaquake generates prograde surface waves that produce unexpected damage in modern buildings. The examples (Figs. 1 and 2) were taken from the 1985 Mexico City and the 2010 Concepción, Chile megaquakes. About 400 structures built under supervision according to modern building codes were destroyed in the Mexican earthquake. All were sited on soft ground. A Rayleigh wave will cause surface particles to move as ellipses in a vertical plane. Building codes assume that this motion will be retrograde as on a homogeneous elastic halfspace, but soft soils are intermediate materials between a solid and a liquid. When Poisson's ratio tends to ν→0.5 the particle motion turns prograde as it would on a homogeneous fluid halfspace. Building codes assume that the tilt of the ground is not in phase with the acceleration but we show that structures on soft ground tilt into the direction of the horizontal ground acceleration. The combined effect of gravity and acceleration may destabilize a structure when it is in resonance with its eigenfrequency. Castaños, H. and C. Lomnitz, 2013. Charles Darwin and the 1835 Chile earthquake. Seismol. Res. Lett., 84, 19-23. Lomnitz, C., 1990. Mexico 1985: the case for gravity waves. Geophys. J. Int., 102, 569-572. Malischewsky, P.G. et al., 2008. The domain of existence of prograde Rayleigh-wave particle motion. Wave Motion 45, 556-564.; Figure 1 1985 Mexico megaquake--overturned 15-story apartment building in Mexico City ; Figure 2 2010 Chile megaquake Overturned 15-story R-C apartment building in Concepción

Sources and Radiation Patterns of Volcano-Acoustic Signals Investigated with Field-Scale Chemical Explosions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowman, D. C.; Lees, J. M.; Taddeucci, J.; Graettinger, A. H.; Sonder, I.; Valentine, G.

2014-12-01

We investigate the processes that give rise to complex acoustic signals during volcanic blasts by monitoring buried chemical explosions with infrasound and audio range microphones, strong motion sensors, and high speed imagery. Acoustic waveforms vary with scaled depth of burial (SDOB, units in meters per cube root of joules), ranging from high amplitude, impulsive, gas expansion dominated signals at low SDOB to low amplitude, longer duration, ground motion dominated signals at high SDOB. Typically, the sudden upward acceleration of the substrate above the blast produces the first acoustic arrival, followed by a second pulse due to the eruption of pressurized gas at the surface. Occasionally, a third overpressure occurs when displaced material decelerates upon impact with the ground. The transition between ground motion dominated and gas release dominated acoustics ranges between 0.0038-0.0018 SDOB, respectively. For example, one explosion registering an SDOB=0.0031 produced two overpressure pulses of approximately equal amplitude, one due to ground motion, the other to gas release. Recorded volcano infrasound has also identified distinct ground motion and gas release components during explosions at Sakurajima, Santiaguito, and Karymsky volcanoes. Our results indicate that infrasound records may provide a proxy for the depth and energy of these explosions. Furthermore, while magma fragmentation models indicate the possibility of several explosions during a single vulcanian eruption (Alidibirov, Bull Volc., 1994), our results suggest that a single explosion can also produce complex acoustic signals. Thus acoustic records alone cannot be used to distinguish between single explosions and multiple closely-spaced blasts at volcanoes. Results from a series of lateral blasts during the 2014 field experiment further indicates whether vent geometry can produce directional acoustic radiation patterns like those observed at Tungarahua volcano (Kim et al., GJI, 2012). Beside infrasonic radiation, our multiparametric dataset also allowed us to investigate other acoustic processes relevant for explosive eruptions, including shock-wave generation and audible sound radiation, and to link them to the starting conditions and evolution of the blasts.

Physically based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis using broadband ground motion simulation: a case study for the Prince Islands Fault, Marmara Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mert, Aydin; Fahjan, Yasin M.; Hutchings, Lawrence J.; Pınar, Ali

2016-08-01

The main motivation for this study was the impending occurrence of a catastrophic earthquake along the Prince Island Fault (PIF) in the Marmara Sea and the disaster risk around the Marmara region, especially in Istanbul. This study provides the results of a physically based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) methodology, using broadband strong ground motion simulations, for sites within the Marmara region, Turkey, that may be vulnerable to possible large earthquakes throughout the PIF segments in the Marmara Sea. The methodology is called physically based because it depends on the physical processes of earthquake rupture and wave propagation to simulate earthquake ground motion time histories. We included the effects of all considerable-magnitude earthquakes. To generate the high-frequency (0.5-20 Hz) part of the broadband earthquake simulation, real, small-magnitude earthquakes recorded by a local seismic array were used as empirical Green's functions. For the frequencies below 0.5 Hz, the simulations were obtained by using synthetic Green's functions, which are synthetic seismograms calculated by an explicit 2D /3D elastic finite difference wave propagation routine. By using a range of rupture scenarios for all considerable-magnitude earthquakes throughout the PIF segments, we produced a hazard calculation for frequencies of 0.1-20 Hz. The physically based PSHA used here followed the same procedure as conventional PSHA, except that conventional PSHA utilizes point sources or a series of point sources to represent earthquakes, and this approach utilizes the full rupture of earthquakes along faults. Furthermore, conventional PSHA predicts ground motion parameters by using empirical attenuation relationships, whereas this approach calculates synthetic seismograms for all magnitudes of earthquakes to obtain ground motion parameters. PSHA results were produced for 2, 10, and 50 % hazards for all sites studied in the Marmara region.

Two Sources of Nonisotropic Radiation From Underground Explosions in Granite

DOE PAGES

Vorobiev, O. Yu.

2017-10-23

Significant tangential ground motion observed during underground explosions makes it difficult to distinguish them from natural earthquakes. Such motion can be generated by the source geometry and emplacement conditions, by the heterogeneous nature of the rock mass (mechanical properties may vary in space due to the presence of cracks, joints, faults, and various geologic layers) and also by the nonuniform in situ stress state. The last mechanism is increasingly important with depth when the difference in main principal stresses becomes significant. This paper is focused on the role of material strength of the rock mass in generation of nonradial motionmore » during explosions in prestressed media. Numerical modeling of underground chemical explosions in granite at various depths has been conducted to compare two possible mechanisms of shear wave generation. The first, caused by rock mass anisotropy, is important at shallow depth. The second is related to elastic-plastic relaxation around the cavity created by the explosion. As a result, tangential motions for these two mechanisms have different signatures.« less

Two Sources of Nonisotropic Radiation From Underground Explosions in Granite

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vorobiev, O. Yu.

Significant tangential ground motion observed during underground explosions makes it difficult to distinguish them from natural earthquakes. Such motion can be generated by the source geometry and emplacement conditions, by the heterogeneous nature of the rock mass (mechanical properties may vary in space due to the presence of cracks, joints, faults, and various geologic layers) and also by the nonuniform in situ stress state. The last mechanism is increasingly important with depth when the difference in main principal stresses becomes significant. This paper is focused on the role of material strength of the rock mass in generation of nonradial motionmore » during explosions in prestressed media. Numerical modeling of underground chemical explosions in granite at various depths has been conducted to compare two possible mechanisms of shear wave generation. The first, caused by rock mass anisotropy, is important at shallow depth. The second is related to elastic-plastic relaxation around the cavity created by the explosion. As a result, tangential motions for these two mechanisms have different signatures.« less

2001 Bhuj, India, earthquake engineering seismoscope recordings and Eastern North America ground-motion attenuation relations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cramer, C.H.; Kumar, A.

2003-01-01

Engineering seismoscope data collected at distances less than 300 km for the M 7.7 Bhuj, India, mainshock are compatible with ground-motion attenuation in eastern North America (ENA). The mainshock ground-motion data have been corrected to a common geological site condition using the factors of Joyner and Boore (2000) and a classification scheme of Quaternary or Tertiary sediments or rock. We then compare these data to ENA ground-motion attenuation relations. Despite uncertainties in recording method, geological site corrections, common tectonic setting, and the amount of regional seismic attenuation, the corrected Bhuj dataset agrees with the collective predictions by ENA ground-motion attenuation relations within a factor of 2. This level of agreement is within the dataset uncertainties and the normal variance for recorded earthquake ground motions.

Evaluation of seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings under near-field earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moniri, Hassan

2017-03-01

Near-field ground motions are significantly severely affected on seismic response of structure compared with far-field ground motions, and the reason is that the near-source forward directivity ground motions contain pulse-long periods. Therefore, the cumulative effects of far-fault records are minor. The damage and collapse of engineering structures observed in the last decades' earthquakes show the potential of damage in existing structures under near-field ground motions. One important subject studied by earthquake engineers as part of a performance-based approach is the determination of demand and collapse capacity under near-field earthquake. Different methods for evaluating seismic structural performance have been suggested along with and as part of the development of performance-based earthquake engineering. This study investigated the results of illustrious characteristics of near-fault ground motions on the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, by the use of Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis (IDA) method. Due to the fact that various ground motions result in different intensity-versus-response plots, this analysis is done again under various ground motions in order to achieve significant statistical averages. The OpenSees software was used to conduct nonlinear structural evaluations. Numerical modelling showed that near-source outcomes cause most of the seismic energy from the rupture to arrive in a single coherent long-period pulse of motion and permanent ground displacements. Finally, a vulnerability of RC building can be evaluated against pulse-like near-fault ground motions effects.

A revised ground-motion and intensity interpolation scheme for shakemap

USGS Publications Warehouse

Worden, C.B.; Wald, D.J.; Allen, T.I.; Lin, K.; Garcia, D.; Cua, G.

2010-01-01

We describe a weighted-average approach for incorporating various types of data (observed peak ground motions and intensities and estimates from groundmotion prediction equations) into the ShakeMap ground motion and intensity mapping framework. This approach represents a fundamental revision of our existing ShakeMap methodology. In addition, the increased availability of near-real-time macroseismic intensity data, the development of newrelationships between intensity and peak ground motions, and new relationships to directly predict intensity from earthquake source information have facilitated the inclusion of intensity measurements directly into ShakeMap computations. Our approach allows for the combination of (1) direct observations (ground-motion measurements or reported intensities), (2) observations converted from intensity to ground motion (or vice versa), and (3) estimated ground motions and intensities from prediction equations or numerical models. Critically, each of the aforementioned data types must include an estimate of its uncertainties, including those caused by scaling the influence of observations to surrounding grid points and those associated with estimates given an unknown fault geometry. The ShakeMap ground-motion and intensity estimates are an uncertainty-weighted combination of these various data and estimates. A natural by-product of this interpolation process is an estimate of total uncertainty at each point on the map, which can be vital for comprehensive inventory loss calculations. We perform a number of tests to validate this new methodology and find that it produces a substantial improvement in the accuracy of ground-motion predictions over empirical prediction equations alone.

Deficient motion-defined and texture-defined figure-ground segregation in amblyopic children.

PubMed

Wang, Jane; Ho, Cindy S; Giaschi, Deborah E

2007-01-01

Motion-defined form deficits in the fellow eye and the amblyopic eye of children with amblyopia implicate possible direction-selective motion processing or static figure-ground segregation deficits. Deficient motion-defined form perception in the fellow eye of amblyopic children may not be fully accounted for by a general motion processing deficit. This study investigates the contribution of figure-ground segregation deficits to the motion-defined form perception deficits in amblyopia. Performances of 6 amblyopic children (5 anisometropic, 1 anisostrabismic) and 32 control children with normal vision were assessed on motion-defined form, texture-defined form, and global motion tasks. Performance on motion-defined and texture-defined form tasks was significantly worse in amblyopic children than in control children. Performance on global motion tasks was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Faulty figure-ground segregation mechanisms are likely responsible for the observed motion-defined form perception deficits in amblyopia.

WE-G-207-06: 3D Fluoroscopic Image Generation From Patient-Specific 4DCBCT-Based Motion Models Derived From Physical Phantom and Clinical Patient Images

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dhou, S; Cai, W; Hurwitz, M

2015-06-15

Purpose: Respiratory-correlated cone-beam CT (4DCBCT) images acquired immediately prior to treatment have the potential to represent patient motion patterns and anatomy during treatment, including both intra- and inter-fractional changes. We develop a method to generate patient-specific motion models based on 4DCBCT images acquired with existing clinical equipment and used to generate time varying volumetric images (3D fluoroscopic images) representing motion during treatment delivery. Methods: Motion models are derived by deformably registering each 4DCBCT phase to a reference phase, and performing principal component analysis (PCA) on the resulting displacement vector fields. 3D fluoroscopic images are estimated by optimizing the resulting PCAmore » coefficients iteratively through comparison of the cone-beam projections simulating kV treatment imaging and digitally reconstructed radiographs generated from the motion model. Patient and physical phantom datasets are used to evaluate the method in terms of tumor localization error compared to manually defined ground truth positions. Results: 4DCBCT-based motion models were derived and used to generate 3D fluoroscopic images at treatment time. For the patient datasets, the average tumor localization error and the 95th percentile were 1.57 and 3.13 respectively in subsets of four patient datasets. For the physical phantom datasets, the average tumor localization error and the 95th percentile were 1.14 and 2.78 respectively in two datasets. 4DCBCT motion models are shown to perform well in the context of generating 3D fluoroscopic images due to their ability to reproduce anatomical changes at treatment time. Conclusion: This study showed the feasibility of deriving 4DCBCT-based motion models and using them to generate 3D fluoroscopic images at treatment time in real clinical settings. 4DCBCT-based motion models were found to account for the 3D non-rigid motion of the patient anatomy during treatment and have the potential to localize tumor and other patient anatomical structures at treatment time even when inter-fractional changes occur. This project was supported, in part, through a Master Research Agreement with Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA. The project was also supported, in part, by Award Number R21CA156068 from the National Cancer Institute.« less

Point-source stochastic-method simulations of ground motions for the PEER NGA-East Project

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David

2015-01-01

Ground-motions for the PEER NGA-East project were simulated using a point-source stochastic method. The simulated motions are provided for distances between of 0 and 1200 km, M from 4 to 8, and 25 ground-motion intensity measures: peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground acceleration (PGA), and 5%-damped pseudoabsolute response spectral acceleration (PSA) for 23 periods ranging from 0.01 s to 10.0 s. Tables of motions are provided for each of six attenuation models. The attenuation-model-dependent stress parameters used in the stochastic-method simulations were derived from inversion of PSA data from eight earthquakes in eastern North America.

Assessment of Simulated Ground Motions in Earthquake Engineering Practice: A Case Study for Duzce (Turkey)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karimzadeh, Shaghayegh; Askan, Aysegul; Yakut, Ahmet

2017-09-01

Simulated ground motions can be used in structural and earthquake engineering practice as an alternative to or to augment the real ground motion data sets. Common engineering applications of simulated motions are linear and nonlinear time history analyses of building structures, where full acceleration records are necessary. Before using simulated ground motions in such applications, it is important to assess those in terms of their frequency and amplitude content as well as their match with the corresponding real records. In this study, a framework is outlined for assessment of simulated ground motions in terms of their use in structural engineering. Misfit criteria are determined for both ground motion parameters and structural response by comparing the simulated values against the corresponding real values. For this purpose, as a case study, the 12 November 1999 Duzce earthquake is simulated using stochastic finite-fault methodology. Simulated records are employed for time history analyses of frame models of typical residential buildings. Next, the relationships between ground motion misfits and structural response misfits are studied. Results show that the seismological misfits around the fundamental period of selected buildings determine the accuracy of the simulated responses in terms of their agreement with the observed responses.

Cavity optomechanics -- beyond the ground state

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meystre, Pierre

2011-05-01

The coupling of coherent optical systems to micromechanical devices, combined with breakthroughs in nanofabrication and in ultracold science, has opened up the exciting new field of cavity optomechanics. Cooling of the vibrational motion of a broad range on oscillating cantilevers and mirrors near their ground state has been demonstrated, and the ground state of at least one such system has now been reached. Cavity optomechanics offers much promise in addressing fundamental physics questions and in applications such as the detection of feeble forces and fields, or the coherent control of AMO systems and of nanoscale electromechanical devices. However, these applications require taking cavity optomechanics ``beyond the ground state.'' This includes the generation and detection of squeezed and other non-classical states, the transfer of squeezing between electromagnetic fields and motional quadratures, and the development of measurement schemes for the characterization of nanomechanical structures. The talk will present recent ``beyond ground state'' developments in cavity optomechanics. We will show how the magnetic coupling between a mechanical membrane and a BEC - or between a mechanical tuning fork and a nanoscale cantilever - permits to control and monitor the center-of-mass position of the mechanical system, and will comment on the measurement back-action on the membrane motion. We will also discuss of state transfer between optical and microwave fields and micromechanical devices. Work done in collaboration with Dan Goldbaum, Greg Phelps, Keith Schwab, Swati Singh, Steve Steinke, Mehmet Tesgin, and Mukund Vengallatore and supported by ARO, DARPA, NSF, and ONR.

Correlations between ground motion and building damage. Engineering intensity scale applied to the San Fernando earthquake of February 1971

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hafen, D.; Kintzer, F.C.

1977-11-01

The correlation between ground motion and building damage was investigated for the San Fernando earthquake of 1971. A series of iso-intensity maps was compiled to summarize the ground motion in terms of the Blume Engineering Intensity Scale (EIS). This involved the analysis of ground motion records from 62 stations in the Los Angeles area. Damage information for low-rise buildings was obtained in the form of records of loans granted by the Small Business Administration to repair earthquake damage. High-rise damage evaluations were based on direct inquiry and building inspection. Damage factors (ratio of damage repair cost to building value) weremore » calculated and summarized on contour maps. A statistical study was then undertaken to determine relationships between ground motion and damage factor. Several parameters for ground motion were considered and evaluated by means of correlation coefficients.« less

The ShakeOut earthquake source and ground motion simulations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graves, R.W.; Houston, Douglas B.; Hudnut, K.W.

2011-01-01

The ShakeOut Scenario is premised upon the detailed description of a hypothetical Mw 7.8 earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault and the associated simulated ground motions. The main features of the scenario, such as its endpoints, magnitude, and gross slip distribution, were defined through expert opinion and incorporated information from many previous studies. Slip at smaller length scales, rupture speed, and rise time were constrained using empirical relationships and experience gained from previous strong-motion modeling. Using this rupture description and a 3-D model of the crust, broadband ground motions were computed over a large region of Southern California. The largest simulated peak ground acceleration (PGA) and peak ground velocity (PGV) generally range from 0.5 to 1.0 g and 100 to 250 cm/s, respectively, with the waveforms exhibiting strong directivity and basin effects. Use of a slip-predictable model results in a high static stress drop event and produces ground motions somewhat higher than median level predictions from NGA ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs).

How flexibility and dynamic ground effect could improve bio-inspired propulsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quinn, Daniel

2016-11-01

Swimming animals use complex fin motions to reach remarkable levels of efficiency, maneuverability, and stealth. Propulsion systems inspired by these motions could usher in a new generation of advanced underwater vehicles. Two aspects of bio-inspired propulsion are discussed here: flexibility and near-boundary swimming. Experimental work on flexible propulsors shows that swimming efficiency depends on wake vortex timing and boundary layer attachment, but also on fluid-structure resonance. As a result, flexible vehicles or animals could potentially improve their performance by tracking their resonance properties. Bio-inspired propulsors were also found to produce more thrust with no loss in efficiency when swimming near a solid boundary. Higher lift-to-drag ratios for near-ground fixed-wing gliders is commonly known as ground effect. This newly observed "dynamic ground effect" suggests that bio-inspired vehicles and animals could save energy by harnessing the performance gains associated with near-boundary swimming. This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research (MURI N00014-08-1-0642, Program Director Dr. Bob Brizzolara) and the National Science Foundation (DBI-1062052, PI Lisa Fauci; EFRI-0938043, PI George Lauder).

Large Subduction Earthquake Simulations using Finite Source Modeling and the Offshore-Onshore Ambient Seismic Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viens, L.; Miyake, H.; Koketsu, K.

2016-12-01

Large subduction earthquakes have the potential to generate strong long-period ground motions. The ambient seismic field, also called seismic noise, contains information about the elastic response of the Earth between two seismic stations that can be retrieved using seismic interferometry. The DONET1 network, which is composed of 20 offshore stations, has been deployed atop the Nankai subduction zone, Japan, to continuously monitor the seismotectonic activity in this highly seismically active region. The surrounding onshore area is covered by hundreds of seismic stations, which are operated the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), with a spacing of 15-20 km. We retrieve offshore-onshore Green's functions from the ambient seismic field using the deconvolution technique and use them to simulate the long-period ground motions of moderate subduction earthquakes that occurred at shallow depth. We extend the point source method, which is appropriate for moderate events, to finite source modeling to simulate the long-period ground motions of large Mw 7 class earthquake scenarios. The source models are constructed using scaling relations between moderate and large earthquakes to discretize the fault plane of the large hypothetical events into subfaults. Offshore-onshore Green's functions are spatially interpolated over the fault plane to obtain one Green's function for each subfault. The interpolated Green's functions are finally summed up considering different rupture velocities. Results show that this technique can provide additional information about earthquake ground motions that can be used with the existing physics-based simulations to improve seismic hazard assessment.

Effect of vertical ground motion on earthquake-induced derailment of railway vehicles over simply-supported bridges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Zhibin; Pei, Shiling; Li, Xiaozhen; Liu, Hongyan; Qiang, Shizhong

2016-11-01

The running safety of railway vehicles on bridges can be negatively affected by earthquake events. This phenomenon has traditionally been investigated with only the lateral ground excitation component considered. This paper presented results from a numerical investigation on the contribution of vertical ground motion component to the derailment of vehicles on simply-supported bridges. A full nonlinear wheel-rail contact model was used in the investigation together with the Hertzian contact theory and nonlinear creepage theory, which allows the wheel to jump vertically and separate from the rail. The wheel-rail relative displacement was used as the criterion for derailment events. A total of 18 ground motion records were used in the analysis to account for the uncertainty of ground motions. The results showed that inclusion of vertical ground motion will likely increase the chance of derailment. It is recommended to include vertical ground motion component in earthquake induced derailment analysis to ensure conservative estimations. The derailment event on bridges was found to be more closely related to the deck acceleration rather than the ground acceleration.

Ground-Motion Variability for a Strike-Slip Earthquake from Broadband Ground-Motion Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwaki, A.; Maeda, T.; Morikawa, N.; Fujiwara, H.

2016-12-01

One of the important issues in seismic hazard analysis is the evaluation of ground-motion variability due to the epistemic and aleatory uncertainties in various aspects of ground-motion simulations. This study investigates the within-event ground-motion variability in broadband ground-motion simulations for strike-slip events. We conduct ground-motion simulations for a past event (2000 MW6.6 Tottori earthquake) using a set of characterized source models (e.g. Irikura and Miyake, 2011) considering aleatory variability. Broadband ground motion is computed by a hybrid approach that combines a 3D finite-difference method (> 1 s) and the stochastic Green's function method (< 1 s), using the 3D velocity model J-SHIS v2. We consider various locations of the asperities, which are defined as the regions with large slip and stress drop within the fault, and the rupture nucleation point (hypocenter). Ground motion records at 29 K-NET and KiK-net stations are used to validate our simulations. By comparing the simulated and observed ground motion, we found that the performance of the simulations is acceptable under the condition that the source parameters are poorly constrained. In addition to the observation stations, we set 318 virtual receivers with the spatial intervals of 10 km for statistical analysis of the simulated ground motion. The maximum fault-distance is 160 km. Standard deviation (SD) of the simulated acceleration response spectra (Sa, 5% damped) of RotD50 component (Boore, 2010) is investigated at each receiver. SD from 50 different patterns of asperity locations is generally smaller than 0.15 in terms of log10 (0.34 in natural log). It shows dependence on distance at periods shorter than 1 s; SD increases as the distance decreases. On the other hand, SD from 39 different hypocenter locations is again smaller than 0.15 in log10, and showed azimuthal dependence at long periods; it increases as the rupture directivity parameter Xcosθ(Somerville et al. 1997) increases at periods longer than 1 s. The characteristics of ground-motion variability inferred from simulations can provide information on variability in simulation-based seismic hazard assessment for future earthquakes. We will further investigate the variability in other source parameters; rupture velocity and short-period level.

The limits of earthquake early warning: Timeliness of ground motion estimates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Minson, Sarah E.; Meier, Men-Andrin; Baltay, Annemarie S.; Hanks, Thomas C.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.

2018-01-01

The basic physics of earthquakes is such that strong ground motion cannot be expected from an earthquake unless the earthquake itself is very close or has grown to be very large. We use simple seismological relationships to calculate the minimum time that must elapse before such ground motion can be expected at a distance from the earthquake, assuming that the earthquake magnitude is not predictable. Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems are in operation or development for many regions around the world, with the goal of providing enough warning of incoming ground shaking to allow people and automated systems to take protective actions to mitigate losses. However, the question of how much warning time is physically possible for specified levels of ground motion has not been addressed. We consider a zero-latency EEW system to determine possible warning times a user could receive in an ideal case. In this case, the only limitation on warning time is the time required for the earthquake to evolve and the time for strong ground motion to arrive at a user’s location. We find that users who wish to be alerted at lower ground motion thresholds will receive more robust warnings with longer average warning times than users who receive warnings for higher ground motion thresholds. EEW systems have the greatest potential benefit for users willing to take action at relatively low ground motion thresholds, whereas users who set relatively high thresholds for taking action are less likely to receive timely and actionable information.

The limits of earthquake early warning: Timeliness of ground motion estimates

PubMed Central

Hanks, Thomas C.

2018-01-01

The basic physics of earthquakes is such that strong ground motion cannot be expected from an earthquake unless the earthquake itself is very close or has grown to be very large. We use simple seismological relationships to calculate the minimum time that must elapse before such ground motion can be expected at a distance from the earthquake, assuming that the earthquake magnitude is not predictable. Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems are in operation or development for many regions around the world, with the goal of providing enough warning of incoming ground shaking to allow people and automated systems to take protective actions to mitigate losses. However, the question of how much warning time is physically possible for specified levels of ground motion has not been addressed. We consider a zero-latency EEW system to determine possible warning times a user could receive in an ideal case. In this case, the only limitation on warning time is the time required for the earthquake to evolve and the time for strong ground motion to arrive at a user’s location. We find that users who wish to be alerted at lower ground motion thresholds will receive more robust warnings with longer average warning times than users who receive warnings for higher ground motion thresholds. EEW systems have the greatest potential benefit for users willing to take action at relatively low ground motion thresholds, whereas users who set relatively high thresholds for taking action are less likely to receive timely and actionable information. PMID:29750190

Model and parametric uncertainty in source-based kinematic models of earthquake ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hartzell, Stephen; Frankel, Arthur; Liu, Pengcheng; Zeng, Yuehua; Rahman, Shariftur

2011-01-01

Four independent ground-motion simulation codes are used to model the strong ground motion for three earthquakes: 1994 Mw 6.7 Northridge, 1989 Mw 6.9 Loma Prieta, and 1999 Mw 7.5 Izmit. These 12 sets of synthetics are used to make estimates of the variability in ground-motion predictions. In addition, ground-motion predictions over a grid of sites are used to estimate parametric uncertainty for changes in rupture velocity. We find that the combined model uncertainty and random variability of the simulations is in the same range as the variability of regional empirical ground-motion data sets. The majority of the standard deviations lie between 0.5 and 0.7 natural-log units for response spectra and 0.5 and 0.8 for Fourier spectra. The estimate of model epistemic uncertainty, based on the different model predictions, lies between 0.2 and 0.4, which is about one-half of the estimates for the standard deviation of the combined model uncertainty and random variability. Parametric uncertainty, based on variation of just the average rupture velocity, is shown to be consistent in amplitude with previous estimates, showing percentage changes in ground motion from 50% to 300% when rupture velocity changes from 2.5 to 2.9 km/s. In addition, there is some evidence that mean biases can be reduced by averaging ground-motion estimates from different methods.

Motion generation of peristaltic mobile robot with particle swarm optimization algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Homma, Takahiro; Kamamichi, Norihiro

2015-03-01

In developments of robots, bio-mimetics is attracting attention, which is a technology for the design of the structure and function inspired from biological system. There are a lot of examples of bio-mimetics in robotics such as legged robots, flapping robots, insect-type robots, fish-type robots. In this study, we focus on the motion of earthworm and aim to develop a peristaltic mobile robot. The earthworm is a slender animal moving in soil. It has a segmented body, and each segment can be shorted and lengthened by muscular actions. It can move forward by traveling expanding motions of each segment backward. By mimicking the structure and motion of the earthworm, we can construct a robot with high locomotive performance against an irregular ground or a narrow space. In this paper, to investigate the motion analytically, a dynamical model is introduced, which consist of a series-connected multi-mass model. Simple periodic patterns which mimic the motions of earthworms are applied in an open-loop fashion, and the moving patterns are verified through numerical simulations. Furthermore, to generate efficient motion of the robot, a particle swarm optimization algorithm, one of the meta-heuristic optimization, is applied. The optimized results are investigated by comparing to simple periodic patterns.

Ground-motion prediction from tremor

USGS Publications Warehouse

Baltay, Annemarie S.; Beroza, Gregory C.

2013-01-01

The widespread occurrence of tremor, coupled with its frequency content and location, provides an exceptional opportunity to test and improve strong ground-motion attenuation relations for subduction zones. We characterize the amplitude of thousands of individual 5 min tremor events in Cascadia during three episodic tremor and slip events to constrain the distance decay of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and peak ground velocity (PGV). We determine the anelastic attenuation parameter for ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) to a distance of 150 km, which is sufficient to place important constraints on ground-motion decay. Tremor PGA and PGV show a distance decay that is similar to subduction-zone-specific GMPEs developed from both data and simulations; however, the massive amount of data present in the tremor observations should allow us to refine distance-amplitude attenuation relationships for use in hazard maps, and to search for regional variations and intrasubduction zone differences in ground-motion attenuation.

Applicability of source scaling relations for crustal earthquakes to estimation of the ground motions of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irikura, Kojiro; Miyakoshi, Ken; Kamae, Katsuhiro; Yoshida, Kunikazu; Somei, Kazuhiro; Kurahashi, Susumu; Miyake, Hiroe

2017-01-01

A two-stage scaling relationship of the source parameters for crustal earthquakes in Japan has previously been constructed, in which source parameters obtained from the results of waveform inversion of strong motion data are combined with parameters estimated based on geological and geomorphological surveys. A three-stage scaling relationship was subsequently developed to extend scaling to crustal earthquakes with magnitudes greater than M w 7.4. The effectiveness of these scaling relationships was then examined based on the results of waveform inversion of 18 recent crustal earthquakes ( M w 5.4-6.9) that occurred in Japan since the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, with M w 7.0, was one of the largest earthquakes to occur since dense and accurate strong motion observation networks, such as K-NET and KiK-net, were deployed after the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. We examined the applicability of the scaling relationships of the source parameters of crustal earthquakes in Japan to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. The rupture area and asperity area were determined based on slip distributions obtained from waveform inversion of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake observations. We found that the relationship between the rupture area and the seismic moment for the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake follows the second-stage scaling within one standard deviation ( σ = 0.14). The ratio of the asperity area to the rupture area for the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake is nearly the same as ratios previously obtained for crustal earthquakes. Furthermore, we simulated the ground motions of this earthquake using a characterized source model consisting of strong motion generation areas (SMGAs) based on the empirical Green's function (EGF) method. The locations and areas of the SMGAs were determined through comparison between the synthetic ground motions and observed motions. The sizes of the SMGAs were nearly coincident with the asperities with large slip. The synthetic ground motions obtained using the EGF method agree well with the observed motions in terms of acceleration, velocity, and displacement within the frequency range of 0.3-10 Hz. These findings indicate that the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake is a standard event that follows the scaling relationship of crustal earthquakes in Japan.

Strong motion recordings of the 2008/12/23 earthquake in Northern Italy: another case of very weak motion?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabetta, F.; Zambonelli, E.

2009-04-01

On December 23 2008 an earthquake of magnitude ML=5.1 (INGV) Mw=5.4 (INGV-Harvard Global CMT) occurred in northern Italy close to the cities of Parma and Reggio Emilia. The earthquake, with a macroseismic intensity of VI MCS, caused a very slight damage (some tens of unusable buildings and some hundreds of damaged buildings), substantially lower than the damage estimated by the loss simulation scenario currently used by the Italian Civil Protection. Due to the recent upgrading of the Italian strong motion network (RAN), the event has been recorded by a great number of accelerometers (the largest ever obtained in Italy for a single shock): 21 digital and 8 analog instruments with epicentral distances ranging from 16 to 140 km. The comparison of recorded PGA, PGV, Arias intensity, and spectral values with several widely used Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) showed much lower ground motion values respect to the empirical predictions (a factor ranging from 4 to 2). A first explanation of the strong differences, in damage and ground motion, between actual data and predictions could be, at a first sight, attributed to the rather high focal depth of 27 km. However, even the adoption of GMPEs accounting for depth of the source and using hypocentral distance (Berge et al 2003, Pousse et al 2005), does not predict large differences in motions, especially at distances larger than 30 km where most of the data are concentrated and where the effect of depth on source-to-site distance is small. At the same time the adoption of the most recent GMPEs (Ambraseys et al 2005, Akkar & bommer 2007) taking into account the different magnitude scaling and the faster attenuation of small magnitudes through magnitude-dependent attenuation, does not show a better agreement with the recorded data. The real reasons of the above mentioned discrepancies need to be further investigated, however a possible explanation could be a low source rupture velocity, likewise the 2002 Molise earthquake that also generated very weak motions. Another explanation comes from the fact that the moment magnitude estimated by the INGV network on the basis of body-waves instead of surface-waves used by Harvard CMT, is 4.9 and not 5.4, providing a much better fit of recorded ground motions with GMPEs.

What can we learn from the Wells, NV earthquake sequence about seismic hazard in the intermountain west?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Petersen, M.D.; Pankow, K.L.; Biasi, G.P.; Meremonte, M.

2008-01-01

The February 21, 2008 Wells, NV earthquake (M 6) was felt throughout eastern Nevada, southern Idaho, and western Utah. The town of Wells sustained significant damage to unreinforced masonry buildings. The earthquake occurred in a region of low seismic hazard with little seismicity, low geodetic strain rates, and few mapped faults. The peak horizontal ground acceleration predicted by the USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps is about 0.2 g at 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years, with the contributions coming mostly from the Ruby Mountain fault and background seismicity (M5-7.0). The hazard model predicts that the probability of occurrence of an M>6 event within 50 km of Wells is about 15% in 100 years. Although the earthquake was inside the USArray Transportable Array network, the nearest on-scale recordings of ground motions from the mainshock were too distant to estimate accelerations in town. The University of Nevada Reno, the University of Utah, and the U.S. Geological Survey deployed portable instruments to capture the ground motions from aftershocks of this rare normal-faulting event. Shaking from a M 4.7 aftershock recorded on portable instruments at distances less than 10 km exceeded 0.3 g, and sustained accelerations above 0.1 g lasted for about 5 seconds. For a magnitude 5 earthquake at 10 km distance the NGA equations predict median peak ground accelerations about 0.1 g. Ground motions from normal faulting earthquakes are poorly represented in the ground motion prediction equations. We compare portable and Transportable Array ground-motion recordings with prediction equations. Advanced National Seismic System stations in Utah recorded ground motions 250 km from the mainshock of about 2% g. The maximum ground motion recorded in Salt Lake City was in the center of the basin. We analyze the spatial variability of ground motions (rock vs. soil) and the influence of the Salt Lake Basin in modifying the ground motions. We then compare this data with the September 28, 2004 Parkfield aftershocks to contrast the differences between strike-slip and normal ground motions.

A short note on ground-motion recordings from the M 7.9 Wenchuan, China, earthquake and ground-motion prediction equations in the Central and Eastern United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wang, Z.; Lu, M.

2011-01-01

The 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (M 7.9) occurred along the western edge of the eastern China SCR and was well recorded by modern strong-motion instruments: 93 strong-motion stations within 1.4 to 300 km rupture distance recorded the main event. Preliminary comparisons show some similarities between ground-motion attenuation in the Wenchuan region and the central and eastern United States, suggesting that ground motions from the Wenchuan earthquake could be used as a database providing constraints for developing GMPEs for large earthquakes in the central and eastern United States.

Empirical Ground Motion Characterization of Induced Seismicity in Alberta and Oklahoma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Novakovic, M.; Atkinson, G. M.; Assatourians, K.

2017-12-01

We develop empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for ground motions from induced earthquakes in Alberta and Oklahoma following the stochastic-model-based method of Atkinson et al. (2015 BSSA). The Oklahoma ground-motion database is compiled from over 13,000 small to moderate seismic events (M 1 to 5.8) recorded at 1600 seismic stations, at distances from 1 to 750 km. The Alberta database is compiled from over 200 small to moderate seismic events (M 1 to 4.2) recorded at 50 regional stations, at distances from 30 to 500 km. A generalized inversion is used to solve for regional source, attenuation and site parameters. The obtained parameters describe the regional attenuation, stress parameter and site amplification. Resolving these parameters allows for the derivation of regionally-calibrated GMPEs that can be used to compare ground motion observations between waste water injection (Oklahoma) and hydraulic fracture induced events (Alberta), and further compare induced observations with ground motions resulting from natural sources (California, NGAWest2). The derived GMPEs have applications for the evaluation of hazards from induced seismicity and can be used to track amplitudes across the regions in real time, which is useful for ground-motion-based alerting systems and traffic light protocols.

High Frequency Ground Motion from Finite Fault Rupture Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crempien, Jorge G. F.

There are many tectonically active regions on earth with little or no recorded ground motions. The Eastern United States is a typical example of regions with active faults, but with low to medium seismicity that has prevented sufficient ground motion recordings. Because of this, it is necessary to use synthetic ground motion methods in order to estimate the earthquake hazard a region might have. Ground motion prediction equations for spectral acceleration typically have geometric attenuation proportional to the inverse of distance away from the fault. Earthquakes simulated with one-dimensional layered earth models have larger geometric attenuation than the observed ground motion recordings. We show that as incident angles of rays increase at welded boundaries between homogeneous flat layers, the transmitted rays decrease in amplitude dramatically. As the receiver distance increases away from the source, the angle of incidence of up-going rays increases, producing negligible transmitted ray amplitude, thus increasing the geometrical attenuation. To work around this problem we propose a model in which we separate wave propagation for low and high frequencies at a crossover frequency, typically 1Hz. The high-frequency portion of strong ground motion is computed with a homogeneous half-space and amplified with the available and more complex one- or three-dimensional crustal models using the quarter wavelength method. We also make use of seismic coda energy density observations as scattering impulse response functions. We incorporate scattering impulse response functions into our Green's functions by convolving the high-frequency homogeneous half-space Green's functions with normalized synthetic scatterograms to reproduce scattering physical effects in recorded seismograms. This method was validated against ground motion for earthquakes recorded in California and Japan, yielding results that capture the duration and spectral response of strong ground motion.

Figure-ground segregation can rely on differences in motion direction.

PubMed

Kandil, Farid I; Fahle, Manfred

2004-12-01

If the elements within a figure move synchronously while those in the surround move at a different time, the figure is easily segregated from the surround and thus perceived. Lee and Blake (1999) [Visual form created solely from temporal structure. Science, 284, 1165-1168] demonstrated that this figure-ground separation may be based not only on time differences between motion onsets, but also on the differences between reversals of motion direction. However, Farid and Adelson (2001) [Synchrony does not promote grouping in temporally structured displays. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 875-876] argued that figure-ground segregation in the motion-reversal experiment might have been based on a contrast artefact and concluded that (a)synchrony as such was 'not responsible for the perception of form in these or earlier displays'. Here, we present experiments that avoid contrast artefacts but still produce figure-ground segregation based on purely temporal cues. Our results show that subjects can segregate figure from ground even though being unable to use motion reversals as such. Subjects detect the figure when either (i) motion stops (leading to contrast artefacts), or (ii) motion directions differ between figure and ground. Segregation requires minimum delays of about 15 ms. We argue that whatever the underlying cues and mechanisms, a second stage beyond motion detection is required to globally compare the outputs of local motion detectors and to segregate figure from ground. Since analogous changes take place in both figure and ground in rapid succession, this second stage has to detect the asynchrony with high temporal precision.

Reduction of irregular breathing artifacts in respiration-correlated CT images using a respiratory motion model.

PubMed

Hertanto, Agung; Zhang, Qinghui; Hu, Yu-Chi; Dzyubak, Oleksandr; Rimner, Andreas; Mageras, Gig S

2012-06-01

Respiration-correlated CT (RCCT) images produced with commonly used phase-based sorting of CT slices often exhibit discontinuity artifacts between CT slices, caused by cycle-to-cycle amplitude variations in respiration. Sorting based on the displacement of the respiratory signal yields slices at more consistent respiratory motion states and hence reduces artifacts, but missing image data (gaps) may occur. The authors report on the application of a respiratory motion model to produce an RCCT image set with reduced artifacts and without missing data. Input data consist of CT slices from a cine CT scan acquired while recording respiration by monitoring abdominal displacement. The model-based generation of RCCT images consists of four processing steps: (1) displacement-based sorting of CT slices to form volume images at 10 motion states over the cycle; (2) selection of a reference image without gaps and deformable registration between the reference image and each of the remaining images; (3) generation of the motion model by applying a principal component analysis to establish a relationship between displacement field and respiration signal at each motion state; (4) application of the motion model to deform the reference image into images at the 9 other motion states. Deformable image registration uses a modified fast free-form algorithm that excludes zero-intensity voxels, caused by missing data, from the image similarity term in the minimization function. In each iteration of the minimization, the displacement field in the gap regions is linearly interpolated from nearest neighbor nonzero intensity slices. Evaluation of the model-based RCCT examines three types of image sets: cine scans of a physical phantom programmed to move according to a patient respiratory signal, NURBS-based cardiac torso (NCAT) software phantom, and patient thoracic scans. Comparison in physical motion phantom shows that object distortion caused by variable motion amplitude in phase-based sorting is visibly reduced with model-based RCCT. Comparison of model-based RCCT to original NCAT images as ground truth shows best agreement at motion states whose displacement-sorted images have no missing slices, with mean and maximum discrepancies in lung of 1 and 3 mm, respectively. Larger discrepancies correlate with motion states having a larger number of missing slices in the displacement-sorted images. Artifacts in patient images at different motion states are also reduced. Comparison with displacement-sorted patient images as a ground truth shows that the model-based images closely reproduce the ground truth geometry at different motion states. Results in phantom and patient images indicate that the proposed method can produce RCCT image sets with reduced artifacts relative to phase-sorted images, without the gaps inherent in displacement-sorted images. The method requires a reference image at one motion state that has no missing data. Highly irregular breathing patterns can affect the method's performance, by introducing artifacts in the reference image (although reduced relative to phase-sorted images), or in decreased accuracy in the image prediction of motion states containing large regions of missing data. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Verifying a computational method for predicting extreme ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Harris, R.A.; Barall, M.; Andrews, D.J.; Duan, B.; Ma, S.; Dunham, E.M.; Gabriel, A.-A.; Kaneko, Y.; Kase, Y.; Aagaard, Brad T.; Oglesby, D.D.; Ampuero, J.-P.; Hanks, T.C.; Abrahamson, N.

2011-01-01

In situations where seismological data is rare or nonexistent, computer simulations may be used to predict ground motions caused by future earthquakes. This is particularly practical in the case of extreme ground motions, where engineers of special buildings may need to design for an event that has not been historically observed but which may occur in the far-distant future. Once the simulations have been performed, however, they still need to be tested. The SCEC-USGS dynamic rupture code verification exercise provides a testing mechanism for simulations that involve spontaneous earthquake rupture. We have performed this examination for the specific computer code that was used to predict maximum possible ground motion near Yucca Mountain. Our SCEC-USGS group exercises have demonstrated that the specific computer code that was used for the Yucca Mountain simulations produces similar results to those produced by other computer codes when tackling the same science problem. We also found that the 3D ground motion simulations produced smaller ground motions than the 2D simulations.

Validation of attenuation models for ground motion applications in central and eastern North America

DOE PAGES

Pasyanos, Michael E.

2015-11-01

Recently developed attenuation models are incorporated into standard one-dimensional (1-D) ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs), effectively making them two-dimensional (2-D) and eliminating the need to create different GMPEs for an increasing number of sub-regions. The model is tested against a data set of over 10,000 recordings from 81 earthquakes in North America. The use of attenuation models in GMPEs improves our ability to fit observed ground motions and should be incorporated into future national hazard maps. The improvement is most significant at higher frequencies and longer distances which have a greater number of wave cycles. This has implications for themore » rare high-magnitude earthquakes, which produce potentially damaging ground motions over wide areas, and drive the seismic hazards. Furthermore, the attenuation models can be created using weak ground motions, they could be developed for regions of low seismicity where empirical recordings of ground motions are uncommon and do not span the full range of magnitudes and distances.« less

Natural and Anthropogenic Geohazards in Greater London Observed from Geological and ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT Persistent Scatterers Ground Motion Data: Results from the EC FP7-SPACE PanGeo Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cigna, Francesca; Jordan, Hannah; Bateson, Luke; McCormack, Harry; Roberts, Claire

2015-11-01

We combine geological data and ground motion estimates from satellite ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) to delineate areas of observed natural and anthropogenic geohazards in the administrative area of Greater London (United Kingdom). This analysis was performed within the framework of the EC FP7-SPACE PanGeo project, and by conforming to the interpretation and geohazard mapping methodology extensively described in the Production Manual (cf. http://www.pangeoproject.eu). We discuss the results of the generation of the PanGeo digital geohazard mapping product for Greater London, and analyse the potential of PSI, geological data and the PanGeo methodology to identify areas of observed geohazards. Based on the analysis of PSI ground motion data sets for the years 1992-2000 and 2002-2010 and geology field campaigns, we identify 25 geohazard polygons, covering a total of ~650 km2. These include not only natural processes such as compaction of deposits on the River Thames flood plain and slope instability, but also anthropogenic instability due to groundwater management and changes in the Chalk aquifer, recent engineering works such as those for the Jubilee Line Extension project and electricity tunnelling in proximity to the River Thames, and the presence of made ground. In many instances, natural and anthropogenic observed geohazards overlap, therefore indicating interaction of different processes over the same areas. In terms of ground area covered, the dominant geohazard is anthropogenic land subsidence caused by groundwater abstraction for a total of ~300 km2, followed by natural compression of River Thames sediments over ~105 km2. Observed ground motions along the satellite line-of-sight are as high as +29.5 and -25.3 mm/year, and indicate a combination of land surface processes comprising ground subsidence and uplift, as well as downslope movements. Across the areas of observed geohazards, urban land cover types from the Copernicus (formerly GMES) EEA European Urban Atlas, e.g., continuous and discontinuous urban fabric and industrial units, show the highest average velocities away from the satellite sensor, and the smallest standard deviations (~0.7-1.0 mm/year). More rural land cover types such as agricultural, semi-natural and green areas reveal the highest spatial variability (up to ~4.4 mm/year), thus suggesting greater heterogeneity of observed motion rates within these land cover types. Areas of observed motion in the PSI data for which a geological interpretation cannot be found with sufficient degree of certainty are also identified, and their possible causes discussed. Although present in Greater London, some geohazard types such as shrink-swell clays and ground dissolution are not highlighted by the interpretation of PSI annual motion rates. Reasons for absence of evidence of the latter in the PSI data are discussed, together with difficulties related to the identification of good radar scatterers in landsliding areas.

Simulation of broad-band strong ground motion for a hypothetical Mw 7.1 earthquake on the Enriquillo Fault in Haiti

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Douilly, Roby; Mavroeidis, George P.; Calais, Eric

2017-10-01

The devastating 2010 Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake demonstrated the need to improve mitigation and preparedness for future seismic events in the region. Previous studies have shown that the earthquake did not occur on the Enriquillo Fault, the main plate boundary fault running through the heavily populated Port-au-Prince region, but on the nearby and previously unknown transpressional Léogâne Fault. Slip on that fault has increased stresses on the segment of Enriquillo Fault to the east of Léogâne, which terminates in the ˜3-million-inhabitant capital city of Port-au-Prince. In this study, we investigate ground shaking in the vicinity of Port-au-Prince, if a hypothetical rupture similar to the 2010 Haiti earthquake occurred on that segment of the Enriquillo Fault. We use a finite element method and assumptions on regional tectonic stress to simulate the low-frequency ground motion components using dynamic rupture propagation for a 52-km-long segment. We consider eight scenarios by varying parameters such as hypocentre location, initial shear stress and fault dip. The high-frequency ground motion components are simulated using the specific barrier model in the context of the stochastic modeling approach. The broad-band ground motion synthetics are subsequently obtained by combining the low-frequency components from the dynamic rupture simulation with the high-frequency components from the stochastic simulation using matched filtering at a crossover frequency of 1 Hz. Results show that rupture on a vertical Enriquillo Fault generates larger horizontal permanent displacements in Léogâne and Port-au-Prince than rupture on a south-dipping Enriquillo Fault. The mean horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA), computed at several sites of interest throughout Port-au-Prince, has a value of ˜0.45 g, whereas the maximum horizontal PGA in Port-au-Prince is ˜0.60 g. Even though we only consider a limited number of rupture scenarios, our results suggest more intense ground shaking for the city of Port-au-Prince than during the already very damaging 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Development of Maximum Considered Earthquake Ground Motion Maps

USGS Publications Warehouse

Leyendecker, E.V.; Hunt, R.J.; Frankel, A.D.; Rukstales, K.S.

2000-01-01

The 1997 NEHRP Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Buildings use a design procedure that is based on spectral response acceleration rather than the traditional peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, or zone factors. The spectral response accelerations are obtained from maps prepared following the recommendations of the Building Seismic Safety Council's (BSSC) Seismic Design Procedures Group (SDPG). The SDPG-recommended maps, the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) Ground Motion Maps, are based on the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) probabilistic hazard maps with additional modifications incorporating deterministic ground motions in selected areas and the application of engineering judgement. The MCE ground motion maps included with the 1997 NEHRP Provisions also serve as the basis for the ground motion maps used in the seismic design portions of the 2000 International Building Code and the 2000 International Residential Code. Additionally the design maps prepared for the 1997 NEHRP Provisions, combined with selected USGS probabilistic maps, are used with the 1997 NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings.

Ground Motion in Central Mexico: A Comprehensive Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramirez-Guzman, L.; Juarez, A.; Rábade, S.; Aguirre, J.; Bielak, J.

2015-12-01

This study presents a detailed analysis of the ground motion in Central Mexico based on numerical simulations, as well as broadband and strong ground motion records. We describe and evaluate a velocity model for Central Mexico derived from noise and regional earthquake cross-correlations, which is used throughout this research to estimate the ground motion in the region. The 3D crustal model includes a geotechnical structure of the Valley of Mexico (VM), subduction zone geometry, and 3D velocity distributions. The latter are based on more than 200 low magnitude (Mw < 4.5) earthquakes and two years of noise recordings. We emphasize the analysis on the ground motion in the Valley of Mexico originating from intra-slab deep events and temblors located along the Pacific coast. Also, we quantify the effects Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) and the low-velocity deposits on the ground motion. The 3D octree-based finite element wave propagation computations, valid up to 1 Hz, reveal that the inclusion of a basin with a structure as complex as the Valley of Mexico dramatically enhances the regional effects induced by the TMVB. Moreover, the basin not only produces ground motion amplification and anomalous duration, but it also favors the energy focusing into zones of Mexico City where structures typically undergo high levels of damage.

A flatfile of ground motion intensity measurements from induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rennolet, Steven B.; Moschetti, Morgan P.; Thompson, Eric M.; Yeck, William

2018-01-01

We have produced a uniformly processed database of orientation-independent (RotD50, RotD100) ground motion intensity measurements containing peak horizontal ground motions (accelerations and velocities) and 5-percent-damped pseudospectral accelerations (0.1–10 s) from more than 3,800 M ≥ 3 earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas that occurred between January 2009 and December 2016. Ground motion time series were collected from regional, national, and temporary seismic arrays out to 500 km. We relocated the majority of the earthquake hypocenters using a multiple-event relocation algorithm to produce a set of near-uniformly processed hypocentral locations. Ground motion processing followed standard methods, with the primary objective of reducing the effects of noise on the measurements. Regional wave-propagation features and the high seismicity rate required careful selection of signal windows to ensure that we captured the entire ground motion record and that contaminating signals from extraneous earthquakes did not contribute to the database. Processing was carried out with an automated scheme and resulted in a database comprising more than 174,000 records (https://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F73B5X8N). We anticipate that these results will be useful for improved understanding of earthquake ground motions and for seismic hazard applications.

Ground Motion Modeling in the Eastern Caucasus

DOE PAGES

Pitarka, Arben; Gok, Rengin; Yetirmishli, Gurban; ...

2016-05-13

In this paper, we analyzed the performance of a preliminary three-dimensional (3D) velocity model of the Eastern Caucasus covering most of the Azerbaijan. The model was developed in support to long-period ground motion simulations and seismic hazard assessment from regional earthquakes in Azerbaijan. The model’s performance was investigated by simulating ground motion from the damaging Mw 5.9, 2012 Zaqatala earthquake, which was well recorded throughout the region by broadband seismic instruments. In our simulations, we use a parallelized finite-difference method of fourth-order accuracy. The comparison between the simulated and recorded ground motion velocity in the modeled period range of 3–20more » s shows that in general, the 3D velocity model performs well. Areas in which the model needs improvements are located mainly in the central part of the Kura basin and in the Caspian Sea coastal areas. Comparisons of simulated ground motion using our 3D velocity model and corresponding 1D regional velocity model were used to locate areas with strong 3D wave propagation effects. In areas with complex underground structure, the 1D model fails to produce the observed ground motion amplitude and duration, and spatial extend of ground motion amplification caused by wave propagation effects.« less

Near-field non-radial motion generation from underground chemical explosions in jointed granite

DOE PAGES

Vorobiev, Oleg; Ezzedine, Souheil; Hurley, Ryan

2017-09-22

Here, this paper describes analysis of non-radial ground motion generated by chemical explosions in a jointed rock formation during the Source Physics Experiment (SPE). Such motion makes it difficult to discriminate between various subsurface events such as explosions, implosions (i.e. mine collapse) and earthquakes. We apply 3-D numerical simulations to understand experimental data collected during the SPEs. The joints are modelled explicitly as compliant thin inclusions embedded into the rock mass. Mechanical properties of the rock and the joints as well as the joint spacing and orientation are inferred from experimental test data, and geophysical and geological characterization of themore » SPE site which is dominantly Climax Stock granitic outcrop. The role of various factors characterizing the joints such as joint spacing, frictional properties, orientation and persistence in generation of non-radial motion is addressed. The joints in granite at the SPE site are oriented in nearly orthogonal directions with two vertical sets dipping at 70–80 degrees with the same strike angle, one vertical set almost orthogonal to the first two and one shallow angle joint set dipping 15 degrees. In this study we establish the relationship between the joint orientation and azimuthal variations in the polarity of the observed shear motion. The majority of the shear motion is generated due to the effects of non-elastic sliding on the joints near the source, where the wave can create significant shear stress to overcome the cohesive forces at the joints. Near the surface the joints are less confined and are subject to sliding when the pressure waves are reflected. In the far field, where the cohesive forces on the joints cannot be overcome, additional shear motion can be generated due to elastic anisotropy of the rock mass given by preferred spatial orientations of compliant joints.« less

Near-field non-radial motion generation from underground chemical explosions in jointed granite

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vorobiev, Oleg; Ezzedine, Souheil; Hurley, Ryan

Here, this paper describes analysis of non-radial ground motion generated by chemical explosions in a jointed rock formation during the Source Physics Experiment (SPE). Such motion makes it difficult to discriminate between various subsurface events such as explosions, implosions (i.e. mine collapse) and earthquakes. We apply 3-D numerical simulations to understand experimental data collected during the SPEs. The joints are modelled explicitly as compliant thin inclusions embedded into the rock mass. Mechanical properties of the rock and the joints as well as the joint spacing and orientation are inferred from experimental test data, and geophysical and geological characterization of themore » SPE site which is dominantly Climax Stock granitic outcrop. The role of various factors characterizing the joints such as joint spacing, frictional properties, orientation and persistence in generation of non-radial motion is addressed. The joints in granite at the SPE site are oriented in nearly orthogonal directions with two vertical sets dipping at 70–80 degrees with the same strike angle, one vertical set almost orthogonal to the first two and one shallow angle joint set dipping 15 degrees. In this study we establish the relationship between the joint orientation and azimuthal variations in the polarity of the observed shear motion. The majority of the shear motion is generated due to the effects of non-elastic sliding on the joints near the source, where the wave can create significant shear stress to overcome the cohesive forces at the joints. Near the surface the joints are less confined and are subject to sliding when the pressure waves are reflected. In the far field, where the cohesive forces on the joints cannot be overcome, additional shear motion can be generated due to elastic anisotropy of the rock mass given by preferred spatial orientations of compliant joints.« less

Initiation of a Database of CEUS Ground Motions for NGA East

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cramer, C. H.

2007-12-01

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has funded the first stage of development of a database of central and eastern US (CEUS) broadband and accelerograph records, along the lines of the existing Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) database for active tectonic areas. This database will form the foundation of an NGA East project for the development of CEUS ground-motion prediction equations that include the effects of soils. This initial effort covers the development of a database design and the beginning of data collection to populate the database. It also includes some processing for important source parameters (Brune corner frequency and stress drop) and site parameters (kappa, Vs30). Besides collecting appropriate earthquake recordings and information, existing information about site conditions at recording sites will also be gathered, including geology and geotechnical information. The long-range goal of the database development is to complete the database and make it available in 2010. The database design is centered on CEUS ground motion information needs but is built on the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center's (PEER) NGA experience. Documentation from the PEER NGA website was reviewed and relevant fields incorporated into the CEUS database design. CEUS database tables include ones for earthquake, station, component, record, and references. As was done for NGA, a CEUS ground- motion flat file of key information will be extracted from the CEUS database for use in attenuation relation development. A short report on the CEUS database and several initial design-definition files are available at https://umdrive.memphis.edu:443/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-7843974_docstore1. Comments and suggestions on the database design can be sent to the author. More details will be presented in a poster at the meeting.

Macroscopic Source Properties from Dynamic Rupture Styles in Plastic Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabriel, A.; Ampuero, J. P.; Dalguer, L. A.; Mai, P. M.

2011-12-01

High stress concentrations at earthquake rupture fronts may generate an inelastic off-fault response at the rupture tip, leading to increased energy absorption in the damage zone. Furthermore, the induced asymmetric plastic strain field in in-plane rupture modes may produce bimaterial interfaces that can increase radiation efficiency and reduce frictional dissipation. Off-fault inelasticity thus plays an important role for realistic predictions of near-fault ground motion. Guided by our previous studies in the 2D elastic case, we perform rupture dynamics simulations including rate-and-state friction and off-fault plasticity to investigate the effects on the rupture properties. We quantitatively analyze macroscopic source properties for different rupture styles, ranging from cracks to pulses and subshear to supershear ruptures, and their transitional mechanisms. The energy dissipation due to off-fault inelasticity modifies the conditions to obtain each rupture style and alters macroscopic source properties. We examine apparent fracture energy, rupture and healing front speed, peak slip and peak slip velocity, dynamic stress drop and size of the process and plastic zones, slip and plastic seismic moment, and their connection to ground motion. This presentation focuses on the effects of rupture style and off-fault plasticity on the resulting ground motion patterns, especially on characteristic slip velocity function signatures and resulting seismic moments. We aim at developing scaling rules for equivalent elastic models, as function of background stress and frictional parameters, that may lead to improved "pseudo-dynamic" source parameterizations for ground-motion calculation. Moreover, our simulations provide quantitative relations between off-fault energy dissipation and macroscopic source properties. These relations might provide a self-consistent theoretical framework for the study of the earthquake energy balance based on observable earthquake source parameters.

Ground-motion signature of dynamic ruptures on rough faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mai, P. Martin; Galis, Martin; Thingbaijam, Kiran K. S.; Vyas, Jagdish C.

2016-04-01

Natural earthquakes occur on faults characterized by large-scale segmentation and small-scale roughness. This multi-scale geometrical complexity controls the dynamic rupture process, and hence strongly affects the radiated seismic waves and near-field shaking. For a fault system with given segmentation, the question arises what are the conditions for producing large-magnitude multi-segment ruptures, as opposed to smaller single-segment events. Similarly, for variable degrees of roughness, ruptures may be arrested prematurely or may break the entire fault. In addition, fault roughness induces rupture incoherence that determines the level of high-frequency radiation. Using HPC-enabled dynamic-rupture simulations, we generate physically self-consistent rough-fault earthquake scenarios (M~6.8) and their associated near-source seismic radiation. Because these computations are too expensive to be conducted routinely for simulation-based seismic hazard assessment, we thrive to develop an effective pseudo-dynamic source characterization that produces (almost) the same ground-motion characteristics. Therefore, we examine how variable degrees of fault roughness affect rupture properties and the seismic wavefield, and develop a planar-fault kinematic source representation that emulates the observed dynamic behaviour. We propose an effective workflow for improved pseudo-dynamic source modelling that incorporates rough-fault effects and its associated high-frequency radiation in broadband ground-motion computation for simulation-based seismic hazard assessment.

What do data used to develop ground-motion prediction equations tell us about motions near faults?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David M.

2014-01-01

A large database of ground motions from shallow earthquakes occurring in active tectonic regions around the world, recently developed in the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center’s NGA-West2 project, has been used to investigate what such a database can say about the properties and processes of crustal fault zones. There are a relatively small number of near-rupture records, implying that few recordings in the database are within crustal fault zones, but the records that do exist emphasize the complexity of ground-motion amplitudes and polarization close to individual faults. On average over the whole data set, however, the scaling of ground motions with magnitude at a fixed distance, and the distance dependence of the ground motions, seem to be largely consistent with simple seismological models of source scaling, path propagation effects, and local site amplification. The data show that ground motions close to large faults, as measured by elastic response spectra, tend to saturate and become essentially constant for short periods. This saturation seems to be primarily a geometrical effect, due to the increasing size of the rupture surface with magnitude, and not due to a breakdown in self similarity.

What Do Data Used to Develop Ground-Motion Prediction Equations Tell Us About Motions Near Faults?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boore, David M.

2014-11-01

A large database of ground motions from shallow earthquakes occurring in active tectonic regions around the world, recently developed in the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center's NGA-West2 project, has been used to investigate what such a database can say about the properties and processes of crustal fault zones. There are a relatively small number of near-rupture records, implying that few recordings in the database are within crustal fault zones, but the records that do exist emphasize the complexity of ground-motion amplitudes and polarization close to individual faults. On average over the whole data set, however, the scaling of ground motions with magnitude at a fixed distance, and the distance dependence of the ground motions, seem to be largely consistent with simple seismological models of source scaling, path propagation effects, and local site amplification. The data show that ground motions close to large faults, as measured by elastic response spectra, tend to saturate and become essentially constant for short periods. This saturation seems to be primarily a geometrical effect, due to the increasing size of the rupture surface with magnitude, and not due to a breakdown in self similarity.

Seismic Monitoring with NetQuakes: The First 75 in the Pacific Northwest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bodin, P.; Vidale, J. E.; Luetgert, J. H.; Malone, S. D.; Delorey, A. A.; Steele, W. P.; Gibbons, D. A.; Walsh, L. K.

2011-12-01

NetQuakes accelerographs are relatively inexpensive Internet-aware appliances that we are using as part of our regional seismic monitoring program in the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). To date we have deployed approximately 65 units. By the end of 2011, we will have at least 75 systems sited and operating. The instruments are made by Swiss manufacturer GeoSig, Ltd., and have been obtained by PNSN through several cooperative programs with the US Geological Survey (USGS). The NetQuakes systems have increased the number of strong-motion stations in the Pacific Northwest by ~50%. NetQuakes instruments connect to the Internet via wired or wireless telemetry, obtain accurate timing vie Network Time Protocol, and are designed to be located in the ground floor of houses or small buildings. At PNSN we have concentrated on finding NetQuakes hosts by having technologically savvy homeowners self-identify as a response to news reports about the NetQuakes project. Potential hosts are prioritized by their proximity to target sites provided by a regional panel of experts who studied the region's strong-ground-motion monitoring needs. Recorded waveforms, triggered by strong motion or retrieved from a buffer of continuous data, are transmitted to Menlo Park, and then on to PNSN in Seattle. Data are available with latency of a few minutes to a little over an hour, and are automatically incorporated with the rest of PNSN network data for analysis and the generation of earthquake products. Triggered data may also be viewed by the public via the USGS website, [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/netquakes/map/pacnw]. We present examples of ground motion recordings returned to date. Local earthquakes up to M4 (at a distance of ~60 km) reveal interesting patterns of local site effects. The 11 March M9 Tohoku, Japan earthquake produced ground motions recorded on the PNSN accelerographs, including many NetQuakes systems, that reveal the extent and severity of basin-related shaking amplification.

Ground-motion modeling of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, part I: Validation using the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aagaard, Brad T.; Brocher, T.M.; Dolenc, D.; Dreger, D.; Graves, R.W.; Harmsen, S.; Hartzell, S.; Larsen, S.; Zoback, M.L.

2008-01-01

We compute ground motions for the Beroza (1991) and Wald et al. (1991) source models of the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake using four different wave-propagation codes and recently developed 3D geologic and seismic velocity models. In preparation for modeling the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, we use this well-recorded earthquake to characterize how well our ground-motion simulations reproduce the observed shaking intensities and amplitude and durations of recorded motions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. All of the simulations generate ground motions consistent with the large-scale spatial variations in shaking associated with rupture directivity and the geologic structure. We attribute the small variations among the synthetics to the minimum shear-wave speed permitted in the simulations and how they accommodate topography. Our long-period simulations, on average, under predict shaking intensities by about one-half modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) units (25%-35% in peak velocity), while our broadband simulations, on average, under predict the shaking intensities by one-fourth MMI units (16% in peak velocity). Discrepancies with observations arise due to errors in the source models and geologic structure. The consistency in the synthetic waveforms across the wave-propagation codes for a given source model suggests the uncertainty in the source parameters tends to exceed the uncertainty in the seismic velocity structure. In agreement with earlier studies, we find that a source model with slip more evenly distributed northwest and southeast of the hypocenter would be preferable to both the Beroza and Wald source models. Although the new 3D seismic velocity model improves upon previous velocity models, we identify two areas needing improvement. Nevertheless, we find that the seismic velocity model and the wave-propagation codes are suitable for modeling the 1906 earthquake and scenario events in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Analysis of the Source and Ground Motions from the 2017 M8.2 Tehuantepec and M7.1 Puebla Earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Melgar, D.; Sahakian, V. J.; Perez-Campos, X.; Quintanar, L.; Ramirez-Guzman, L.; Spica, Z.; Espindola, V. H.; Ruiz-Angulo, A.; Cabral-Cano, E.; Baltay, A.; Geng, J.

2017-12-01

The September 2017 Tehuantepec and Puebla earthquakes were intra-slab earthquakes that together caused significant damage in broad regions of Mexico, including the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Morelos, Puebla, Mexico, and Mexico City. Ground motions in Mexico City have approximately the same angle of incidence from both earthquakes and potentially sample similar paths close to the city. We examine site effects and source terms by analysis of residuals between Ground-Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) and observed ground motions for both of these events at stations from the Servicio Sismólogico Nacional, Instituto de Ingeniería, and the Instituto de Geofísica Red del Valle de Mexico networks. GMPEs are a basis for seismic design, but also provide median ground motion values to act as a basis for comparison of individual earthquakes and site responses. First, we invert for finite-fault slip inversions for Tehuantepec with high-rate GPS, static GPS, tide gauge and DART buoy data, and for Puebla with high-rate GPS and strong motion data. Using the distance from the stations with ground motion observations to the derived slip models, we use the GMPEs of Garcia et al. (2005), Zhao et al. (2006), and Abrahamson, Silva and Kamai (2014), to compute predicted values of peak ground acceleration and velocity (PGA and PGV) and response spectral accelerations (SA). Residuals between observed and predicted ground motion parameters are then computed for each recording, and are decomposed into event and site components using a mixed effects regression. We analyze these residuals as an adjustment away from median ground motions in the region to glean information about the earthquake source properties, as well as local site response in and outside of the Mexico City basin. The event and site terms are then compared with available values of stress drop for the two earthquakes, and Vs30 values for the sites, respectively. This analysis is useful in determining which GMPE is most appropriate in the central Mexico region, important for future ground motion studies and rapid response products such as ShakeMap.

Ground motions from induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas and the implications for seismic hazard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moschetti, M. P.; Rennolet, S.; Thompson, E.; Yeck, W.; McNamara, D. E.; Herrmann, R. B.; Powers, P.; Hoover, S. M.

2016-12-01

Recent efforts to characterize the seismic hazard resulting from increased seismicity rates in Oklahoma and Kansas highlight the need for a regionalized ground motion characterization. To support these efforts, we measure and compile strong ground motions and compare these average ground motions intensity measures (IMs) with existing ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs). IMs are computed for available broadband and strong-motion records from M≥3 earthquakes occurring January 2009-April 2016, using standard strong motion processing guidelines. We verified our methods by comparing results from specific earthquakes to other standard procedures such as the USGS Shakemap system. The large number of records required an automated processing scheme, which was complicated by the extremely high rate of small-magnitude earthquakes 2014-2016. Orientation-independent IMs include peak ground motions (acceleration and velocity) and pseudo-spectral accelerations (5 percent damping, 0.1-10 s period). Metadata for the records included relocated event hypocenters. The database includes more than 160,000 records from about 3200 earthquakes. Estimates of the mean and standard deviation of the IMs are computed by distance binning at intervals of 2 km. Mean IMs exhibit a clear break in geometrical attenuation at epicentral distances of about 50-70 km, which is consistent with previous studies in the CEUS. Comparisons of these ground motions with modern GMPEs provide some insight into the relative IMs of induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas relative to the western U.S. and the central and eastern U.S. The site response for these stations is uncertain because very little is known about shallow seismic velocity in the region, and we make no attempt to correct observed IMs to a reference site conditions. At close distances, the observed IMs are lower than the predictions of the seed GMPEs of the NGA-East project (and about consistent with NGA-West-2 ground motions). This ground motion database may be used to inform future seismic hazard forecast models and in the development of regionally appropriate GMPEs.

MINEMOTION3D: A new set of Programs for Predicting Ground Motion From Explosions in Complex 3D Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tibuleac, I. M.; Bonner, J. L.; Orrey, J. L.; Yang, X.

2004-12-01

Predicting ground motion from complicated mining explosions is important for mines developing new blasting programs in regions where vibrations must be kept below certain levels. Additionally, predicting ground motion from mining explosions in complex 3D media is important for moment estimation for nuclear test treaty monitoring. Both problems have been addressed under the development of a new series of numerical prediction programs called MINEMOTION3D including 1) Generalized Fourier Methods to generate Green's functions in 3D media for a moment tensor source implementation and 2) MineSeis3D, a program that simulates seismograms for delay-fired mining explosions with a linear relationship between signals from small size individual shots. To test the programs, local recordings (5 - 23 km) of three production shots at a mine in northern Minnesota were compared to synthetic waveforms in 3D media. A non-zero value of the moment tensor component M12 was considered, to introduce a horizontal spall component into the waveform synthesis when the Green's functions were generated for each model. Methods using seismic noise crosscorrelation for improved inter-element subsurface structure estimation were also evaluated. Comparison of the observed and synthetic waveforms shows promising results. The shape and arrival times of the normalized synthetic and observed waveforms are similar for most of the stations. The synthetic and observed waveform amplitude fit is best for the vertical components in the mean 3D model and worst for the transversal components. The observed effect of spall on the waveform spectra was weak in the case of fragmentation delay fired commercial explosions. Commercial applications of the code could provide data needed for designing explosions which do not exceed ground vibration requirements posed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Surface Mining.

Use of multitemporal InSAR data to develop geohazard scenarios for Bandung, Western Java, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salvi, Stefano; Tolomei, Cristiano; Duro, Javier; Pezzo, Giuseppe; Koudogbo, Fifamè

2015-04-01

The Greater Bandung metropolitan area is the second largest urban area in Indonesia, with a population of 8.6 million. It is subject to a variety of geohazards: volcanic hazards from seven active volcanoes within a radius of 50 km; high flood hazards, seismic hazard due to crustal active faults, the best known being the 30-km long Lembang fault, 10 km North of the city centre; subsidence hazards due to strong aquifer depletion; landslide hazard in the surrounding high country. In the framework of the FP7 RASOR project, multitemporal satellite SAR data have been processed over Bandung, Western Java. We used the SBAS InSAR technique (Berardino et al., 2002) to process two ALOS-1 datasets, to investigate the various sources of surface deformation acting in the area in the period 2008-2011. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) has also been applied to achieve ground motion measurements with millimetric precision and high accuracy. The PSI processing technique considers a system of points that reflect the radar signal from the satellite continuously through the time. It makes use of differential interferometric phase measurements to generate long term terrain deformation and digital surface model maps. The GlobalSARTM algorithms developed by Altamira Information are applied to COSMO-SkyMed data acquired to measure ground motion over the area of interest. Strong ground displacements (up to 7 cm/yr) due to groundwater abstraction have been measured in the Bandung basin. The identification of long wavelength signals from tectonic sources is difficult due to the limited InSAR coherence outside of the urban environment. Limited deformation is observed also in the Tangkuban Perahu volcano to the north. The spatial and temporal distribution of the ground motion is important supporting information for the generation of long term subsidence and flood hazard scenarios.

Tsunami generation and associated waves in the water column and seabed due to an asymmetric earthquake motion within an anisotropic substratum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bagheri, Amirhossein; Greenhalgh, Stewart; Khojasteh, Ali; Rahimian, Mohammad; Attarnejad, Reza

2016-10-01

In this paper, closed-form integral expressions are derived to describe how surface gravity waves (tsunamis) are generated when general asymmetric ground displacement (due to earthquake rupturing), involving both horizontal and vertical components of motion, occurs at arbitrary depth within the interior of an anisotropic subsea solid beneath the ocean. In addition, we compute the resultant hydrodynamic pressure within the seawater and the elastic wavefield within the seabed at any position. The method of potential functions and an integral transform approach, accompanied by a special contour integration scheme, are adopted to handle the equations of motion and produce the numerical results. The formulation accounts for any number of possible acoustic-gravity modes and is valid for both shallow and deep water situations as well as for any focal depth of the earthquake source. Phase and group velocity dispersion curves are developed for surface gravity (tsunami mode), acoustic-gravity, Rayleigh, and Scholte waves. Several asymptotic cases which arise from the general analysis are discussed and compared to existing solutions. The role of effective parameters such as hypocenter location and frequency of excitation is examined and illustrated through several figures which show the propagation pattern in the vertical and horizontal directions. Attention is directed to the unexpected contribution from the horizontal ground motion. The results have important application in several fields such as tsunami hazard prediction, marine seismology, and offshore and coastal engineering. In a companion paper, we examine the effect of ocean stratification on the appearance and character of internal and surface gravity waves.

Ground Motion Prediction Models for Caucasus Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jorjiashvili, Nato; Godoladze, Tea; Tvaradze, Nino; Tumanova, Nino

2016-04-01

Ground motion prediction models (GMPMs) relate ground motion intensity measures to variables describing earthquake source, path, and site effects. Estimation of expected ground motion is a fundamental earthquake hazard assessment. The most commonly used parameter for attenuation relation is peak ground acceleration or spectral acceleration because this parameter gives useful information for Seismic Hazard Assessment. Since 2003 development of Georgian Digital Seismic Network has started. In this study new GMP models are obtained based on new data from Georgian seismic network and also from neighboring countries. Estimation of models is obtained by classical, statistical way, regression analysis. In this study site ground conditions are additionally considered because the same earthquake recorded at the same distance may cause different damage according to ground conditions. Empirical ground-motion prediction models (GMPMs) require adjustment to make them appropriate for site-specific scenarios. However, the process of making such adjustments remains a challenge. This work presents a holistic framework for the development of a peak ground acceleration (PGA) or spectral acceleration (SA) GMPE that is easily adjustable to different seismological conditions and does not suffer from the practical problems associated with adjustments in the response spectral domain.

Unmanned aerial vehicle-based structure from motion biomass inventory estimates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bedell, Emily; Leslie, Monique; Fankhauser, Katie; Burnett, Jonathan; Wing, Michael G.; Thomas, Evan A.

2017-04-01

Riparian vegetation restoration efforts require cost-effective, accurate, and replicable impact assessments. We present a method to use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a GoPro digital camera to collect photogrammetric data of a 0.8-ha riparian restoration. A three-dimensional point cloud was created from the photos using "structure from motion" techniques. The point cloud was analyzed and compared to traditional, ground-based monitoring techniques. Ground-truth data were collected on 6.3% of the study site and averaged across the entire site to report stem heights in stems/ha in three height classes. The project site was divided into four analysis sections, one for derivation of parameters used in the UAV data analysis and the remaining three sections reserved for method validation. Comparing the ground-truth data to the UAV generated data produced an overall error of 21.6% and indicated an R2 value of 0.98. A Bland-Altman analysis indicated a 95% probability that the UAV stems/section result will be within 61 stems/section of the ground-truth data. The ground-truth data are reported with an 80% confidence interval of ±1032 stems/ha thus, the UAV was able to estimate stems well within this confidence interval.

Integrated Verification Experiment data collected as part of the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Source Region Program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fitzgerald, T.J.; Carlos, R.C.; Argo, P.E.

As part of the integrated verification experiment (IVE), we deployed a network of hf ionospheric sounders to detect the effects of acoustic waves generated by surface ground motion following underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. The network sampled up to four geographic locations in the ionosphere from almost directly overhead of the surface ground zero out to a horizontal range of 60 km. We present sample results for four of the IVEs: Misty Echo, Texarkana, Mineral Quarry, and Bexar.

Seismically induced rock slope failures resulting from topographic amplification of strong ground motions: The case of Pacoima Canyon, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sepulveda, S.A.; Murphy, W.; Jibson, R.W.; Petley, D.N.

2005-01-01

The 1994 Northridge earthquake (Mw = 6.7) triggered extensive rock slope failures in Pacoima Canyon, immediately north of Los Angeles, California. Pacoima Canyon is a narrow and steep canyon incised in gneissic and granitic rocks. Peak accelerations of nearly 1.6 g were recorded at a ridge that forms the left abutment of Pacoima Dam; peak accelerations at the bottom of the canyon were less than 0.5 g, suggesting the occurrence of topographic amplification. Topographic effects have been previously suggested to explain similarly high ground motions at the site during the 1971 (Mw = 6.7) San Fernando earthquake. Furthermore, high landslide concentrations observed in the area have been attributed to unusually strong ground motions rather than higher susceptibility to sliding compared with nearby zones. We conducted field investigations and slope stability back-analyses to confirm the impact of topographic amplification on the triggering of landslides during the 1994 earthquake. Our results suggest that the observed extensive rock sliding and falling would have not been possible under unamplified seismic conditions, which would have generated a significantly lower number of areas affected by landslides. In contrast, modelling slope stability using amplified ground shaking predicts slope failure distributions matching what occurred in 1994. This observation confirms a significant role for topographic amplification on the triggering of landslides at the site, and emphasises the need to select carefully the inputs for seismic slope stability analyses. ?? 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ultrahigh-resolution mapping of peatland microform using ground-based structure from motion with multiview stereo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mercer, Jason J.; Westbrook, Cherie J.

2016-11-01

Microform is important in understanding wetland functions and processes. But collecting imagery of and mapping the physical structure of peatlands is often expensive and requires specialized equipment. We assessed the utility of coupling computer vision-based structure from motion with multiview stereo photogrammetry (SfM-MVS) and ground-based photos to map peatland topography. The SfM-MVS technique was tested on an alpine peatland in Banff National Park, Canada, and guidance was provided on minimizing errors. We found that coupling SfM-MVS with ground-based photos taken with a point and shoot camera is a viable and competitive technique for generating ultrahigh-resolution elevations (i.e., <0.01 m, mean absolute error of 0.083 m). In evaluating 100+ viable SfM-MVS data collection and processing scenarios, vegetation was found to considerably influence accuracy. Vegetation class, when accounted for, reduced absolute error by as much as 50%. The logistic flexibility of ground-based SfM-MVS paired with its high resolution, low error, and low cost makes it a research area worth developing as well as a useful addition to the wetland scientists' toolkit.

Rupture Dynamics and Seismic Radiation on Rough Faults for Simulation-Based PSHA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mai, P. M.; Galis, M.; Thingbaijam, K. K. S.; Vyas, J. C.; Dunham, E. M.

2017-12-01

Simulation-based ground-motion predictions may augment PSHA studies in data-poor regions or provide additional shaking estimations, incl. seismic waveforms, for critical facilities. Validation and calibration of such simulation approaches, based on observations and GMPE's, is important for engineering applications, while seismologists push to include the precise physics of the earthquake rupture process and seismic wave propagation in 3D heterogeneous Earth. Geological faults comprise both large-scale segmentation and small-scale roughness that determine the dynamics of the earthquake rupture process and its radiated seismic wavefield. We investigate how different parameterizations of fractal fault roughness affect the rupture evolution and resulting near-fault ground motions. Rupture incoherence induced by fault roughness generates realistic ω-2 decay for high-frequency displacement amplitude spectra. Waveform characteristics and GMPE-based comparisons corroborate that these rough-fault rupture simulations generate realistic synthetic seismogram for subsequent engineering application. Since dynamic rupture simulations are computationally expensive, we develop kinematic approximations that emulate the observed dynamics. Simplifying the rough-fault geometry, we find that perturbations in local moment tensor orientation are important, while perturbations in local source location are not. Thus, a planar fault can be assumed if the local strike, dip, and rake are maintained. The dynamic rake angle variations are anti-correlated with local dip angles. Based on a dynamically consistent Yoffe source-time function, we show that the seismic wavefield of the approximated kinematic rupture well reproduces the seismic radiation of the full dynamic source process. Our findings provide an innovative pseudo-dynamic source characterization that captures fault roughness effects on rupture dynamics. Including the correlations between kinematic source parameters, we present a new pseudo-dynamic rupture modeling approach for computing broadband ground-motion time-histories for simulation-based PSHA

Instrumental intensity distribution for the Hector Mine, California, and the Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquakes: Comparison of two methods

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sokolov, V.; Wald, D.J.

2002-01-01

We compare two methods of seismic-intensity estimation from ground-motion records for the two recent strong earthquakes: the 1999 (M 7.1) Hector Mine, California, and the 1999 (M 7.6) Chi-Chi, Taiwan. The first technique utilizes the peak ground acceleration (PGA) and velocity (PGV), and it is used for rapid generation of the instrumental intensity map in California. The other method is based on the revised relationships between intensity and Fourier amplitude spectrum (FAS). The results of using the methods are compared with independently observed data and between the estimations from the records. For the case of the Hector Mine earthquake, the calculated intensities in general agree with the observed values. For the case of the Chi-Chi earthquake, the areas of maximum calculated intensity correspond to the areas of the greatest damage and highest number of fatalities. However, the FAS method producees higher-intensity values than those of the peak amplitude method. The specific features of ground-motion excitation during the large, shallow, thrust earthquake may be considered a reason for the discrepancy. The use of PGA and PGV is simple; however, the use of FAS provides a natural consideration of site amplification by means of generalized or site-specific spectral ratios. Because the calculation of seismic-intensity maps requires rapid processing of data from a large network, it is very practical to generate a "first-order" map from the recorded peak motions. Then, a "second-order" map may be compiled using an amplitude-spectra method on the basis of available records and numerical modeling of the site-dependent spectra for the regions of sparse station spacing.

Ground Motion Characteristics of Induced Earthquakes in Central North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atkinson, G. M.; Assatourians, K.; Novakovic, M.

2017-12-01

The ground motion characteristics of induced earthquakes in central North America are investigated based on empirical analysis of a compiled database of 4,000,000 digital ground-motion records from events in induced-seismicity regions (especially Oklahoma). Ground-motion amplitudes are characterized non-parametrically by computing median amplitudes and their variability in magnitude-distance bins. We also use inversion techniques to solve for regional source, attenuation and site response effects. Ground motion models are used to interpret the observations and compare the source and attenuation attributes of induced earthquakes to those of their natural counterparts. Significant conclusions are that the stress parameter that controls the strength of high-frequency radiation is similar for induced earthquakes (depth of h 5 km) and shallow (h 5 km) natural earthquakes. By contrast, deeper natural earthquakes (h 10 km) have stronger high-frequency ground motions. At distances close to the epicenter, a greater focal depth (which increases distance from the hypocenter) counterbalances the effects of a larger stress parameter, resulting in motions of similar strength close to the epicenter, regardless of event depth. The felt effects of induced versus natural earthquakes are also investigated using USGS "Did You Feel It?" reports; 400,000 reports from natural events and 100,000 reports from induced events are considered. The felt reports confirm the trends that we expect based on ground-motion modeling, considering the offsetting effects of the stress parameter versus focal depth in controlling the strength of motions near the epicenter. Specifically, felt intensity for a given magnitude is similar near the epicenter, on average, for all event types and depths. At distances more than 10 km from the epicenter, deeper events are felt more strongly than shallow events. These ground-motion attributes imply that the induced-seismicity hazard is most critical for facilities in close proximity (<10 km) to oil and gas operations.

Near-Fault Strong Ground Motions during the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwata, T.; Asano, K.

2016-12-01

The 2016 Kumamoto mainshock (Mw7.0) produced a surface ruptured fault of about 20km long with maximum 2m offset, and identified as a surface ruptured event. Two strong motion records were observed near the surface ruptured fault at Mashiki town hall and Nishihara village hall. We investigated characteristics of those strong ground motions. As the acceleration records consisted of the baseline errors caused by nonzero initial acceleration and tilting of the accelerograph, we carefully removed the baseline errors (c.f. Chiu, 2001, Boore and Bommer, 2005) so as to obtain velocity and displacements. The observed permanent displacements were about 1.2m in horizontal direction and about 0.7m sinking in vertical direction at Mashiki town hall, and about 1.7m and 1.8m, respectively, at Nishihara village hall. Those permanent displacements almost coincide to results by GNSS and InSAR analysis (e.g., GSI, 2016). It takes about only 3 s to reach the permanent displacement. Somerville (2003) pointed out that ground motions from earthquakes producing large surface ruptures appeared to have systematically weaker ground motions than ground motions from earthquakes whose rupture were confined to the subsurface using the Ground Motion Prediction Equation (GMPE) for response spectra (Abrahamson and Silva, 1997). We calculated the response spectra of those records, compared them to the GMPE with the same manner and found two records were systematically larger than the expected from the GMPE in the period range of 0.3 s to 5 s. We need to re-consider the working hypothesis that the near-fault ground motions are weaker and to separate the near-fault and site effects on ground motions. Strong motions in the longer period range would be mainly caused by the near-fault (near-field term) effect.We used the acceleration data of the Kumamoto seismic intensity information network, provided by JMA.

Neo-deterministic seismic hazard scenarios for India—a preventive tool for disaster mitigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parvez, Imtiyaz A.; Magrin, Andrea; Vaccari, Franco; Ashish; Mir, Ramees R.; Peresan, Antonella; Panza, Giuliano Francesco

2017-11-01

Current computational resources and physical knowledge of the seismic wave generation and propagation processes allow for reliable numerical and analytical models of waveform generation and propagation. From the simulation of ground motion, it is easy to extract the desired earthquake hazard parameters. Accordingly, a scenario-based approach to seismic hazard assessment has been developed, namely the neo-deterministic seismic hazard assessment (NDSHA), which allows for a wide range of possible seismic sources to be used in the definition of reliable scenarios by means of realistic waveforms modelling. Such reliable and comprehensive characterization of expected earthquake ground motion is essential to improve building codes, particularly for the protection of critical infrastructures and for land use planning. Parvez et al. (Geophys J Int 155:489-508, 2003) published the first ever neo-deterministic seismic hazard map of India by computing synthetic seismograms with input data set consisting of structural models, seismogenic zones, focal mechanisms and earthquake catalogues. As described in Panza et al. (Adv Geophys 53:93-165, 2012), the NDSHA methodology evolved with respect to the original formulation used by Parvez et al. (Geophys J Int 155:489-508, 2003): the computer codes were improved to better fit the need of producing realistic ground shaking maps and ground shaking scenarios, at different scale levels, exploiting the most significant pertinent progresses in data acquisition and modelling. Accordingly, the present study supplies a revised NDSHA map for India. The seismic hazard, expressed in terms of maximum displacement (Dmax), maximum velocity (Vmax) and design ground acceleration (DGA), has been extracted from the synthetic signals and mapped on a regular grid over the studied territory.

A source model of the 2014 South Napa Earthquake by the EGF broad-band strong ground motion simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwata, T.; Asano, K.; Kubo, H.

2014-12-01

The source model of the 2014 South Napa earthquake (Mw6.0) is estimated using broad band strong ground motion simulation by the empirical Green's function method (Irikura, 1986, Irikura et al., 1997). We used the CESMD strong motion data. Aftershock ground motion records of Mw3.6 which occurred at 05:33 on 24th August (PDT), are used as an empirical Green's function. We refer to the finite source model by Dreger et al. (2014) for setting the geometry of the source fault plane and the rupture velocity. We assume a single rectangular strong motion generation area (e.g. Miyake et al., 2003; Asano and Iwata, 2012). The seismic moment ratio between the target and EGF events is fixed from the moment magnitudes. As only five station data are available for the aftershock records, the size of SMGA area, rupture starting point, and the rise time on the SMGA are determined by the trial and error.　Preliminary SMGA model is 6x6km2 and the rupture mainly propagates WNW and shallower directions. The SMGA size we obtained follows the empirical relationship of Mw and SMGA size for the inland crustal events (Irikura and Miyake, 2011). Waveform fittings are fairly well at the near source station NHC (Huichica creek) and 68150 (Napa Collage), where as the fitting is not good at the south-side stations, 68206 (Crockett - Carquinez Br. Geotech Array) and 68310 (Vallejo - Hwy 37/Napa River E Geo. Array). Particularly, we did not succeed in explaining the high PGA at the 68206 surface station. We will try to improve our SMGA model and will discuss the origin of the high PGA observed at that station.

Response of pendulums to complex input ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graizer, V.; Kalkan, E.

2008-01-01

Dynamic response of most seismological instruments and many engineering structures to ground shaking can be represented via response of a pendulum (single-degree-of-freedom oscillator). In most studies, pendulum response is simplified by considering the input from uni-axial translational motion alone. Complete ground motion however, includes not only translational components but also rotations (tilt and torsion). In this paper, complete equations of motion for three following types of pendulum are described: (i) conventional (mass-on-rod), (ii) mass-on-spring type, and (iii) inverted (astatic), then their response sensitivities to each component of complex ground motion are examined. The results of this study show that a horizontal pendulum similar to an accelerometer used in strong motion measurements is practically sensitive to translational motion and tilt only, while inverted pendulum commonly utilized to idealize multi-degree-of-freedom systems is sensitive not only to translational components, but also to angular accelerations and tilt. For better understanding of the inverted pendulum's dynamic behavior under complex ground excitation, relative contribution of each component of motion on response variants is carefully isolated. The systematically applied loading protocols indicate that vertical component of motion may create time-dependent variations on pendulum's oscillation period; yet most dramatic impact on response is produced by the tilting (rocking) component. ?? 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recovery of Near-Fault Ground Motion by Introducing Rotational Motions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiu, H. C.

2014-12-01

Near-fault ground motion is the key data to seismologists for revealing the seismic faulting and earthquake physics and strong-motion data is the only near-fault seismogram that can keep on-scale recording in a major earthquake. Unfortunately, this type of data might be contaminated by the rotation induced effects such as the centrifugal acceleration and the gravity effects. We analyze these effects based on a set of collocated rotation-translation data of small to moderate earthquakes. Results show these rotation effects could be negligible in small ground motion, but they might have a radical growing in the near-fault/extremely large ground motions. In order to extract more information from near-fault seismogram for improving our understating of seismic faulting and earthquake physics, it requires six-component collocated rotation-translation records to reduce or remove these effects.

Application of nonlinear adaptive motion washout to transport ground-handling simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parrish, R. V.; Martin, D. J., Jr.

1983-01-01

The application of a nonlinear coordinated adaptive motion washout to the transport ground-handling environment is documented. Additions to both the aircraft math model and the motion washout system are discussed. The additions to the simulated-aircraft math model provided improved modeling fidelity for braking and reverse-thrust application, and the additions to the motion-base washout system allowed transition from the desired flight parameters to the less restrictive ground parameters of the washout.

Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment for the effect of vertical ground motions on seismic response of highway bridges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yilmaz, Zeynep

Typically, the vertical component of the ground motion is not considered explicitly in seismic design of bridges, but in some cases the vertical component can have a significant effect on the structural response. The key question of when the vertical component should be incorporated in design is answered by the probabilistic seismic hazard assessment study incorporating the probabilistic seismic demand models and ground motion models. Nonlinear simulation models with varying configurations of an existing bridge in California were considered in the analytical study. The simulation models were subjected to the set of selected ground motions in two stages: at first, only horizontal components of the motion were applied; while in the second stage the structures were subjected to both horizontal and vertical components applied simultaneously and the ground motions that produced the largest adverse effects on the bridge system were identified. Moment demand in the mid-span and at the support of the longitudinal girder and the axial force demand in the column are found to be significantly affected by the vertical excitations. These response parameters can be modeled using simple ground motion parameters such as horizontal spectral acceleration and vertical spectral acceleration within 5% to 30% error margin depending on the type of the parameter and the period of the structure. For a complete hazard assessment, both of these ground motion parameters explaining the structural behavior should also be modeled. For the horizontal spectral acceleration, Abrahamson and Silva (2008) model was used within many available standard model. A new NGA vertical ground motion model consistent with the horizontal model was constructed. These models are combined in a vector probabilistic seismic hazard analyses. Series of hazard curves developed and presented for different locations in Bay Area for soil site conditions to provide a roadmap for the prediction of these features for future earthquakes. Findings from this study will contribute to the development of revised guidelines to address vertical ground motion effects, particularly in the near fault regions, in the seismic design of highway bridges.

Should ground-motion records be rotated to fault-normal/parallel or maximum direction for response history analysis of buildings?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reyes, Juan C.; Kalkan, Erol

2012-01-01

In the United States, regulatory seismic codes (for example, California Building Code) require at least two sets of horizontal ground-motion components for three-dimensional (3D) response history analysis (RHA) of building structures. For sites within 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of an active fault, these records should be rotated to fault-normal and fault-parallel (FN/FP) directions, and two RHAs should be performed separately—when FN and then FP direction are aligned with transverse direction of the building axes. This approach is assumed to lead to two sets of responses that envelope the range of possible responses over all nonredundant rotation angles. The validity of this assumption is examined here using 3D computer models of single-story structures having symmetric (torsionally stiff) and asymmetric (torsionally flexible) layouts subjected to an ensemble of near-fault ground motions with and without apparent velocity pulses. In this parametric study, the elastic vibration period is varied from 0.2 to 5 seconds, and yield-strength reduction factors, R, are varied from a value that leads to linear-elastic design to 3 and 5. Further validations are performed using 3D computer models of 9-story structures having symmetric and asymmetric layouts subjected to the same ground-motion set. The influence of the ground-motion rotation angle on several engineering demand parameters (EDPs) is examined in both linear-elastic and nonlinear-inelastic domains to form benchmarks for evaluating the use of the FN/FP directions and also the maximum direction (MD). The MD ground motion is a new definition for horizontal ground motions for use in site-specific ground-motion procedures for seismic design according to provisions of the American Society of Civil Engineers/Seismic Engineering Institute (ASCE/SEI) 7-10. The results of this study have important implications for current practice, suggesting that ground motions rotated to MD or FN/FP directions do not necessarily provide the most critical EDPs in nonlinear-inelastic domain; however, they tend to produce larger EDPs than as-recorded (arbitrarily oriented) motions.

Regional-specific Stochastic Simulation of Spatially-distributed Ground-motion Time Histories using Wavelet Packet Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, D.; Wang, G.

2014-12-01

Stochastic simulation of spatially distributed ground-motion time histories is important for performance-based earthquake design of geographically distributed systems. In this study, we develop a novel technique to stochastically simulate regionalized ground-motion time histories using wavelet packet analysis. First, a transient acceleration time history is characterized by wavelet-packet parameters proposed by Yamamoto and Baker (2013). The wavelet-packet parameters fully characterize ground-motion time histories in terms of energy content, time- frequency-domain characteristics and time-frequency nonstationarity. This study further investigates the spatial cross-correlations of wavelet-packet parameters based on geostatistical analysis of 1500 regionalized ground motion data from eight well-recorded earthquakes in California, Mexico, Japan and Taiwan. The linear model of coregionalization (LMC) is used to develop a permissible spatial cross-correlation model for each parameter group. The geostatistical analysis of ground-motion data from different regions reveals significant dependence of the LMC structure on regional site conditions, which can be characterized by the correlation range of Vs30 in each region. In general, the spatial correlation and cross-correlation of wavelet-packet parameters are stronger if the site condition is more homogeneous. Using the regional-specific spatial cross-correlation model and cokriging technique, wavelet packet parameters at unmeasured locations can be best estimated, and regionalized ground-motion time histories can be synthesized. Case studies and blind tests demonstrated that the simulated ground motions generally agree well with the actual recorded data, if the influence of regional-site conditions is considered. The developed method has great potential to be used in computational-based seismic analysis and loss estimation in a regional scale.

Predicted Attenuation Relation and Observed Ground Motion of Gorkha Nepal Earthquake of 25 April 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, R. P.; Ahmad, R.

2015-12-01

A comparison of recent observed ground motion parameters of recent Gorkha Nepal earthquake of 25 April 2015 (Mw 7.8) with the predicted ground motion parameters using exitsing attenuation relation of the Himalayan region will be presented. The recent earthquake took about 8000 lives and destroyed thousands of poor quality of buildings and the earthquake was felt by millions of people living in Nepal, China, India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. The knowledge of ground parameters are very important in developing seismic code of seismic prone regions like Himalaya for better design of buildings. The ground parameters recorded in recent earthquake event and aftershocks are compared with attenuation relations for the Himalayan region, the predicted ground motion parameters show good correlation with the observed ground parameters. The results will be of great use to Civil engineers in updating existing building codes in the Himlayan and surrounding regions and also for the evaluation of seismic hazards. The results clearly show that the attenuation relation developed for the Himalayan region should be only used, other attenuation relations based on other regions fail to provide good estimate of observed ground motion parameters.

Newly discovered geological features and their potential impact on Darlington and Pickering. Report No. INFO-0342

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wallach, J.L.

1990-01-01

The design basis seismic ground motion for the nuclear generating stations at Darlington and at Pickering were determined solely through the assessment of previous earthquakes with no geological, or any other geophysical, input. Since then geophysical maps, showing a north-northwest oriented linear feature with some possible associated seismic activity, were examined. This report discusses the impact of these new discoveries on the Darlington and Pickering nuclear generating stations and on the already known geophysical features of the area.

Engineering uses of physics-based ground motion simulations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Baker, Jack W.; Luco, Nicolas; Abrahamson, Norman A.; Graves, Robert W.; Maechling, Phillip J.; Olsen, Kim B.

2014-01-01

This paper summarizes validation methodologies focused on enabling ground motion simulations to be used with confidence in engineering applications such as seismic hazard analysis and dynmaic analysis of structural and geotechnical systems. Numberical simullation of ground motion from large erthquakes, utilizing physics-based models of earthquake rupture and wave propagation, is an area of active research in the earth science community. Refinement and validatoin of these models require collaboration between earthquake scientists and engineering users, and testing/rating methodolgies for simulated ground motions to be used with confidence in engineering applications. This paper provides an introduction to this field and an overview of current research activities being coordinated by the Souther California Earthquake Center (SCEC). These activities are related both to advancing the science and computational infrastructure needed to produce ground motion simulations, as well as to engineering validation procedures. Current research areas and anticipated future achievements are also discussed.

Beyond SaGMRotI: Conversion to SaArb, SaSN, and SaMaxRot

USGS Publications Warehouse

Watson-Lamprey, J. A.; Boore, D.M.

2007-01-01

In the seismic design of structures, estimates of design forces are usually provided to the engineer in the form of elastic response spectra. Predictive equations for elastic response spectra are derived from empirical recordings of ground motion. The geometric mean of the two orthogonal horizontal components of motion is often used as the response value in these predictive equations, although it is not necessarily the most relevant estimate of forces within the structure. For some applications it is desirable to estimate the response value on a randomly chosen single component of ground motion, and in other applications the maximum response in a single direction is required. We give adjustment factors that allow converting the predictions of geometric-mean ground-motion predictions into either of these other two measures of seismic ground-motion intensity. In addition, we investigate the relation of the strike-normal component of ground motion to the maximum response values. We show that the strike-normal component of ground motion seldom corresponds to the maximum horizontal-component response value (in particular, at distances greater than about 3 km from faults), and that focusing on this case in exclusion of others can result in the underestimation of the maximum component. This research provides estimates of the maximum response value of a single component for all cases, not just near-fault strike-normal components. We provide modification factors that can be used to convert predictions of ground motions in terms of the geometric mean to the maximum spectral acceleration (SaMaxRot) and the random component of spectral acceleration (SaArb). Included are modification factors for both the mean and the aleatory standard deviation of the logarithm of the motions.

Early Site Permit Demonstration Program: Guidelines for determining design basis ground motions. Volume 2, Appendices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

This report develops and applies a methodology for estimating strong earthquake ground motion. The motivation was to develop a much needed tool for use in developing the seismic requirements for structural designs. An earthquake`s ground motion is a function of the earthquake`s magnitude, and the physical properties of the earth through which the seismic waves travel from the earthquake fault to the site of interest. The emphasis of this study is on ground motion estimation in Eastern North America (east of the Rocky Mountains), with particular emphasis on the Eastern United States and southeastern Canada. Eastern North America is amore » stable continental region, having sparse earthquake activity with rare occurrences of large earthquakes. While large earthquakes are of interest for assessing seismic hazard, little data exists from the region to empirically quantify their effects. The focus of the report is on the attributes of ground motion in Eastern North America that are of interest for the design of facilities such as nuclear power plants. This document, Volume II, contains Appendices 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 covering the following topics: Eastern North American Empirical Ground Motion Data; Examination of Variance of Seismographic Network Data; Soil Amplification and Vertical-to-Horizontal Ratios from Analysis of Strong Motion Data From Active Tectonic Regions; Revision and Calibration of Ou and Herrmann Method; Generalized Ray Procedure for Modeling Ground Motion Attenuation; Crustal Models for Velocity Regionalization; Depth Distribution Models; Development of Generic Site Effects Model; Validation and Comparison of One-Dimensional Site Response Methodologies; Plots of Amplification Factors; Assessment of Coupling Between Vertical & Horizontal Motions in Nonlinear Site Response Analysis; and Modeling of Dynamic Soil Properties.« less

Estimation of slip scenarios of mega-thrust earthquakes and strong motion simulations for Central Andes, Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulido, N.; Tavera, H.; Aguilar, Z.; Chlieh, M.; Calderon, D.; Sekiguchi, T.; Nakai, S.; Yamazaki, F.

2012-12-01

We have developed a methodology for the estimation of slip scenarios for megathrust earthquakes based on a model of interseismic coupling (ISC) distribution in subduction margins obtained from geodetic data, as well as information of recurrence of historical earthquakes. This geodetic slip model (GSM) delineates the long wavelength asperities within the megathrust. For the simulation of strong ground motion it becomes necessary to introduce short wavelength heterogeneities to the source slip to be able to efficiently simulate high frequency ground motions. To achieve this purpose we elaborate "broadband" source models constructed by combining the GSM with several short wavelength slip distributions obtained from a Von Karman PSD function with random phases. Our application of the method to Central Andes in Peru, show that this region has presently the potential of generating an earthquake with moment magnitude of 8.9, with a peak slip of 17 m and a source area of approximately 500 km along strike and 165 km along dip. For the strong motion simulations we constructed 12 broadband slip models, and consider 9 possible hypocenter locations for each model. We performed strong motion simulations for the whole central Andes region (Peru), spanning an area from the Nazca ridge (16^o S) to the Mendana fracture (9^o S). For this purpose we use the hybrid strong motion simulation method of Pulido et al. (2004), improved to handle a general slip distribution. Our simulated PGA and PGV distributions indicate that a region of at least 500 km along the coast of central Andes is subjected to a MMI intensity of approximately 8, for the slip model that yielded the largest ground motions among the 12 slip models considered, averaged for all assumed hypocenter locations. This result is in agreement with the macroseismic intensity distribution estimated for the great 1746 earthquake (M~9) in central Andes (Dorbath et al. 1990). Our results indicate that the simulated PGA and PGV for all scenario slips for central Andes, and for an average soil condition, exhibit similar amplitudes and attenuation characteristics with distance as the PGA and PGV values observed during the 2010 Maule (Mw 8.8), and 2011 Tohoku-oki (Mw 9.0) earthquakes. Our results clearly indicate that the simulated ground motions for scenarios with deep rupture nucleations (~40 km) are consistently smaller than the ground motions obtained for shallower rupture nucleations. We also performed strong ground motion simulations in metropolitan Lima by using the aforementioned slip scenarios, and incorporating site amplifications obtained from several microtremors array surveys conducted at representative geotechnical zones in this city. Our simulated PGA and PGV in Lima reach values of 1000 cm/s^2 and 80 cm/s. Our results show that the largest values of PGA (at Puente Piedra district, Northern Lima) are related with short period site effects, whereas the largest values of PGV are related with large site amplifications for periods from 1s to 1.5s (at Callao, Villa el Salvador and La Molina districts). Our results also indicate that the simulated PGA and PGV in central Lima (Parque de la Reserva) are in average 2~3 times larger than the values recorded by a strong motion instrument installed at this location, during the 1974 (Mw8.0) and 1966 (Mw8.0) earthquakes off-shore Lima.

Neo-deterministic definition of earthquake hazard scenarios: a multiscale application to India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peresan, Antonella; Magrin, Andrea; Parvez, Imtiyaz A.; Rastogi, Bal K.; Vaccari, Franco; Cozzini, Stefano; Bisignano, Davide; Romanelli, Fabio; Panza, Giuliano F.; Ashish, Mr; Mir, Ramees R.

2014-05-01

The development of effective mitigation strategies requires scientifically consistent estimates of seismic ground motion; recent analysis, however, showed that the performances of the classical probabilistic approach to seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) are very unsatisfactory in anticipating ground shaking from future large earthquakes. Moreover, due to their basic heuristic limitations, the standard PSHA estimates are by far unsuitable when dealing with the protection of critical structures (e.g. nuclear power plants) and cultural heritage, where it is necessary to consider extremely long time intervals. Nonetheless, the persistence in resorting to PSHA is often explained by the need to deal with uncertainties related with ground shaking and earthquakes recurrence. We show that current computational resources and physical knowledge of the seismic waves generation and propagation processes, along with the improving quantity and quality of geophysical data, allow nowadays for viable numerical and analytical alternatives to the use of PSHA. The advanced approach considered in this study, namely the NDSHA (neo-deterministic seismic hazard assessment), is based on the physically sound definition of a wide set of credible scenario events and accounts for uncertainties and earthquakes recurrence in a substantially different way. The expected ground shaking due to a wide set of potential earthquakes is defined by means of full waveforms modelling, based on the possibility to efficiently compute synthetic seismograms in complex laterally heterogeneous anelastic media. In this way a set of scenarios of ground motion can be defined, either at national and local scale, the latter considering the 2D and 3D heterogeneities of the medium travelled by the seismic waves. The efficiency of the NDSHA computational codes allows for the fast generation of hazard maps at the regional scale even on a modern laptop computer. At the scenario scale, quick parametric studies can be easily performed to understand the influence of the model characteristics on the computed ground shaking scenarios. For massive parametric tests, or for the repeated generation of large scale hazard maps, the methodology can take advantage of more advanced computational platforms, ranging from GRID computing infrastructures to HPC dedicated clusters up to Cloud computing. In such a way, scientists can deal efficiently with the variety and complexity of the potential earthquake sources, and perform parametric studies to characterize the related uncertainties. NDSHA provides realistic time series of expected ground motion readily applicable for seismic engineering analysis and other mitigation actions. The methodology has been successfully applied to strategic buildings, lifelines and cultural heritage sites, and for the purpose of seismic microzoning in several urban areas worldwide. A web application is currently being developed that facilitates the access to the NDSHA methodology and the related outputs by end-users, who are interested in reliable territorial planning and in the design and construction of buildings and infrastructures in seismic areas. At the same, the web application is also shaping up as an advanced educational tool to explore interactively how seismic waves are generated at the source, propagate inside structural models, and build up ground shaking scenarios. We illustrate the preliminary results obtained from a multiscale application of NDSHA approach to the territory of India, zooming from large scale hazard maps of ground shaking at bedrock, to the definition of local scale earthquake scenarios for selected sites in the Gujarat state (NW India). The study aims to provide the community (e.g. authorities and engineers) with advanced information for earthquake risk mitigation, which is particularly relevant to Gujarat in view of the rapid development and urbanization of the region.

Recording ground motions where people live

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cranswick, E.; Gardner, B.; Hammond, S.; Banfill, R.

The 1989 Loma Prieta, Calif., earthquake caused spectacular damage to structures up to 100 km away in the San Francisco Bay sedimentary basin, including the Cypress Street viaduct overpass, the Bay Bridge, and buildings in the San Francisco Marina district. Although the few mainshock ground motions recorded in the northern San Francisco Bay area were “significantly larger … than would be expected from the pre-existing data set,” none were recorded at the sites of these damaged structures [Hanks and Krawinkler, 1991].Loma Prieta aftershocks produced order-of-magnitude variations of ground motions related to sedimentary basin response over distances of 1-2 km and less [Cranswick et al., 1990]. In densely populated neighborhoods, these distances can encompass the residences of thousands of people, but it is very unlikely that these neighborhoods are monitored by even one seismograph. In the last decade, the complexity of computer models used to simulate high-frequency ground motions has increased by several orders of magnitude [e.g., Frankel and Vidale, 1992], but the number of seismograph stations—hence, the spatial density of the sampling of ground motion data—has remained relatively unchanged. Seismologists must therefore infer the nature of the ground motions in the great unknown regions between observation points.

New Intensity Attenuation in Georgia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsereteli, N. S.; Varazanashvili, O.; Tibaldi, A.; Bonali, F.; Gogoladze, Z.; Kvavadze, N.; Kvedelidze, I.

2016-12-01

In seismic-prone zones, increase of urbanization and infrastructures in turn produces increase of seismic risk that is mainly related to: the level of seismic hazard itself, the seismic resistance of dwelling houses, and many other factors. The relevant objectives of the present work is to improve the regional seismic hazard maps of Georgia, by implementing state-of-the art probabilistic seismic hazard assessment techniques and outputs from recent national and international collaborations. Seismic zoning is the identification of zones of similar levels of earthquake hazard. With reference to seismic zoning by ground motion assessment, the shaking intensity essentially depends on i) regional seismicity, ii) attenuation of ground motion with distance, iii) local site effects on ground motion. In the last decade, seismic hazard assessment is presented in terms of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), Peak Ground Velocity (PGV), or other recorded parameters. But there are very limited strong motion dataset in Georgia. Furthermore, vulnerability of buildings still is estimated for intensity, and there are no information about correlation between the distribution of ground motion recorded parameters and damage. So, macroseimic Intensity is still a very important parameter for strong ground motion evaluation. In the present work, we calibrated intensity prediction equations (IPE) for the Georgian dataset based on about 78 reviewed earthquakes. Metadata for Intensity (MSK 64 scale) were constrained and predictionequations for various types of distance (epicentral and hypocentral distance, Joyner-Boore distance, closest distance to the fault rupture plane) were calibrated. Relations between intensity and PGA values were derived. For this we used hybrid-empirical ground motion equation derived for Georgia and run scenario earthquakes for events with macroseismic data.

49 CFR 510.9 - Motions to modify, limit, or quash process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... before the return date. Any motion must set forth the grounds and theories of why and how the party... support those grounds and theories. (2) The Deputy Administrator may, upon receiving a motion filed...

49 CFR 510.9 - Motions to modify, limit, or quash process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... before the return date. Any motion must set forth the grounds and theories of why and how the party... support those grounds and theories. (2) The Deputy Administrator may, upon receiving a motion filed...

49 CFR 510.9 - Motions to modify, limit, or quash process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... before the return date. Any motion must set forth the grounds and theories of why and how the party... support those grounds and theories. (2) The Deputy Administrator may, upon receiving a motion filed...

Analysis of strong ground motions and site effects at Kantipath, Kathmandu, from 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake and its aftershocks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhakal, Yadab P.; Kubo, Hisahiko; Suzuki, Wataru; Kunugi, Takashi; Aoi, Shin; Fujiwara, Hiroyuki

2016-04-01

Strong ground motions from the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake and its eight aftershocks recorded by a strong-motion seismograph at Kantipath (KATNP), Kathmandu, were analyzed to assess the ground-motion characteristics and site effects at this location. Remarkably large elastic pseudo-velocity responses exceeding 300 cm/s at 5 % critical damping were calculated for the horizontal components of the mainshock recordings at peak periods of 4-5 s. Conversely, the short-period ground motions of the mainshock were relatively weak despite the proximity of the site to the source fault. The horizontal components of all large-magnitude (Mw ≥ 6.3) aftershock recordings showed peak pseudo-velocity responses at periods of 3-4 s. Ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) describing the Nepal Himalaya region have not yet been developed. A comparison of the observational data with GMPEs for Japan showed that with the exception of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) of the mainshock, the observed PGAs and peak ground velocities at the KATNP site are generally well described by the GMPEs for crustal and plate interface events. A comparison of the horizontal-to-vertical ( H/ V) spectral ratios for the S-waves of the mainshock and aftershock recordings suggested that the KATNP site experienced a considerable nonlinear site response, which resulted in the reduced amplitudes of short-period ground motions. The GMPEs were found to underestimate the response values at the peak periods (approximately 4-5 s) of the large-magnitude events. The deep subsurface velocity model of the Kathmandu basin has not been well investigated. Therefore, a one-dimensional velocity model was constructed for the deep sediments beneath the recording station based on an analysis of the H/ V spectral ratios for S-wave coda from aftershock recordings, and it was revealed that the basin sediments strongly amplified the long-period components of the ground motions of the mainshock and large-magnitude aftershocks.

Analysis of the ground motions from the MW 7.8 Gorkha and MW 7.3 Dolakha earthquakes in Nepal in 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, S. S.; Hough, S. E.; Gahalaut, V. K.; Joshi, A.; Landes, M.; Bossu, R.

2016-12-01

While the 25 April 2015 MW7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake took a heavy toll in Nepal, damage and fatalities were lower than expected. There is thus an urgent need to understand ground motions from the mainshock and largest aftershock. We collected 3,831 accounts of macroseismic effects that include sufficient information to assign intensities. To assess intensities reliably, we apply EMS guidelines with an appreciation for issues associated with macroseismic effects of earthquakes in the Indian subcontinent. We as also analyze 21 available strong motion recordings. Available data are consistent with the peak ground acceleration (PGA) versus intensity relationship of Worden et al. (2012). We use this relationship to estimate peak ground acceleration (PGAEMS) from all intensities. For nearest-fault distances (RRUP<200km), PGAEMS is consistent with the Atkinson and Boore (2003) (AB03) subduction zone ground motion prediction equation (GMPE); at greater distances, instrumental PGA values are consistent with AB03, while PGAEMS is systematically higher. We use PGAEMS values within 200 km to investigate the variability of ground motions using the AB03 GMPE as a baseline. Across the near-field region, PGAEMS is higher by a factor of 2.0-2.5 towards the northern edge of the rupture compared to the near-field region nearer to the southern, up-dip edge of the rupture. Inferred de-amplification in the deepest part of the Kathmandu valley supports the conclusion that former lake-bed sediments experienced a pervasive non-linear response during the mainshock (Dixit et al., 2015). Ground motions were amplified in the southern Gangetic basin, but were relatively low in the northern basin. The overall distribution of ground motions and damage during the Gorkha earthquake thus reflects a combination of complex source, path, and site effects. We also analyze ground motions for the 12 May 2015 Dolakha aftershock, which we conclude was likely a high stress-drop event.

Fast Computation of Ground Motion Shaking Map base on the Modified Stochastic Finite Fault Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, W.; Zhong, Q.; Shi, B.

2012-12-01

Rapidly regional MMI mapping soon after a moderate-large earthquake is crucial to loss estimation, emergency services and planning of emergency action by the government. In fact, many countries show different degrees of attention on the technology of rapid estimation of MMI , and this technology has made significant progress in earthquake-prone countries. In recent years, numerical modeling of strong ground motion has been well developed with the advances of computation technology and earthquake science. The computational simulation of strong ground motion caused by earthquake faulting has become an efficient way to estimate the regional MMI distribution soon after earthquake. In China, due to the lack of strong motion observation in network sparse or even completely missing areas, the development of strong ground motion simulation method has become an important means of quantitative estimation of strong motion intensity. In many of the simulation models, stochastic finite fault model is preferred to rapid MMI estimating for its time-effectiveness and accuracy. In finite fault model, a large fault is divided into N subfaults, and each subfault is considered as a small point source. The ground motions contributed by each subfault are calculated by the stochastic point source method which is developed by Boore, and then summed at the observation point to obtain the ground motion from the entire fault with a proper time delay. Further, Motazedian and Atkinson proposed the concept of Dynamic Corner Frequency, with the new approach, the total radiated energy from the fault and the total seismic moment are conserved independent of subfault size over a wide range of subfault sizes. In current study, the program EXSIM developed by Motazedian and Atkinson has been modified for local or regional computations of strong motion parameters such as PGA, PGV and PGD, which are essential for MMI estimating. To make the results more reasonable, we consider the impact of V30 for the ground shaking intensity, and the results of the comparisons between the simulated and observed MMI for the 2004 Mw 6.0 Parkfield earthquake, the 2008 Mw 7.9Wenchuan earthquake and the 1976 Mw 7.6Tangshan earthquake is fairly well. Take Parkfield earthquake as example, the simulative result reflect the directivity effect and the influence of the shallow velocity structure well. On the other hand, the simulative data is in good agreement with the network data and NGA (Next Generation Attenuation). The consumed time depends on the number of the subfaults and the number of the grid point. For the 2004 Mw 6.0 Parkfield earthquake, the grid size we calculated is 2.5° × 2.5°, the grid space is 0.025°, and the total time consumed is about 1.3hours. For the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, the grid size calculated is 10° × 10°, the grid space is 0.05°, the total number of grid point is more than 40,000, and the total time consumed is about 7.5 hours. For t the 1976 Mw 7.6 Tangshan earthquake, the grid size we calculated is 4° × 6°, the grid space is 0.05°, and the total time consumed is about 2.1 hours. The CPU we used is 3.40GHz, and such computational time could further reduce by using GPU computing technique and other parallel computing technique. This is also our next focus.

Simulation-Based Rule Generation Considering Readability

PubMed Central

Yahagi, H.; Shimizu, S.; Ogata, T.; Hara, T.; Ota, J.

2015-01-01

Rule generation method is proposed for an aircraft control problem in an airport. Designing appropriate rules for motion coordination of taxiing aircraft in the airport is important, which is conducted by ground control. However, previous studies did not consider readability of rules, which is important because it should be operated and maintained by humans. Therefore, in this study, using the indicator of readability, we propose a method of rule generation based on parallel algorithm discovery and orchestration (PADO). By applying our proposed method to the aircraft control problem, the proposed algorithm can generate more readable and more robust rules and is found to be superior to previous methods. PMID:27347501

Adapting Surface Ground Motion Relations to Underground conditions: A case study for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babaie Mahani, A.; Eaton, D. W.

2013-12-01

Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) are widely used in Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) to estimate ground-motion amplitudes at Earth's surface as a function of magnitude and distance. Certain applications, such as hazard assessment for caprock integrity in the case of underground storage of CO2, waste disposal sites, and underground pipelines, require subsurface estimates of ground motion; at present, such estimates depend upon theoretical modeling and simulations. The objective of this study is to derive correction factors for GMPEs to enable estimation of amplitudes in the subsurface. We use a semi-analytic approach along with finite-difference simulations of ground-motion amplitudes for surface and underground motions. Spectral ratios of underground to surface motions are used to calculate the correction factors. Two predictive methods are used. The first is a semi-analytic approach based on a quarter-wavelength method that is widely used for earthquake site-response investigations; the second is a numerical approach based on elastic finite-difference simulations of wave propagation. Both methods are evaluated using recordings of regional earthquakes by broadband seismometers installed at the surface and at depths of 1400 m and 2100 m in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, Canada. Overall, both methods provide a reasonable fit to the peaks and troughs observed in the ratios of real data. The finite-difference method, however, has the capability to simulate ground motion ratios more accurately than the semi-analytic approach.

Infrasound Generation from the HH Seismic Hammer.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, Kyle Richard

2014-10-01

The HH Seismic hammer is a large, "weight-drop" source for active source seismic experiments. This system provides a repetitive source that can be stacked for subsurface imaging and exploration studies. Although the seismic hammer was designed for seismological studies it was surmised that it might produce energy in the infrasonic frequency range due to the ground motion generated by the 13 metric ton drop mass. This study demonstrates that the seismic hammer generates a consistent acoustic source that could be used for in-situ sensor characterization, array evaluation and surface-air coupling studies for source characterization.

Segmental and Kinetic Contributions in Vertical Jumps Performed with and without an Arm Swing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feltner, Michael E.; Bishop, Elijah J.; Perez, Cassandra M.

2004-01-01

To determine the contributions of the motions of the body segments to the vertical ground reaction force ([F.sub.z]), the joint torques produced by the leg muscles, and the time course of vertical velocity generation during a vertical jump, 15 men were videotaped performing countermovement vertical jumps from a force plate with and without an arm…

Monitoring volcanic activity using correlation patterns between infrasound and ground motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ichihara, M.; Takeo, M.; Yokoo, A.; Oikawa, J.; Ohminato, T.

2012-02-01

This paper presents a simple method to distinguish infrasonic signals from wind noise using a cross-correlation function of signals from a microphone and a collocated seismometer. The method makes use of a particular feature of the cross-correlation function of vertical ground motion generated by infrasound, and the infrasound itself. Contribution of wind noise to the correlation function is effectively suppressed by separating the microphone and the seismometer by several meters because the correlation length of wind noise is much shorter than wavelengths of infrasound. The method is applied to data from two recent eruptions of Asama and Shinmoe-dake volcanoes, Japan, and demonstrates that the method effectively detects not only the main eruptions, but also minor activity generating weak infrasound hardly visible in the wave traces. In addition, the correlation function gives more information about volcanic activity than infrasound alone, because it reflects both features of incident infrasonic and seismic waves. Therefore, a graphical presentation of temporal variation in the cross-correlation function enables one to see qualitative changes of eruptive activity at a glance. This method is particularly useful when available sensors are limited, and will extend the utility of a single microphone and seismometer in monitoring volcanic activity.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kennedy, R.P.; Kincaid, R.H.; Short, S.A.

This report presents the results of part of a two-task study on the engineering characterization of earthquake ground motion for nuclear power plant design. Task I of the study, which is presented in NUREG/CR-3805, Vol. 1, developed a basis for selecting design response spectra taking into account the characteristics of free-field ground motion found to be significant in causing structural damage. Task II incorporates additional considerations of effects of spatial variations of ground motions and soil-structure interaction on foundation motions and structural response. The results of Task II are presented in four parts: (1) effects of ground motion characteristics onmore » structural response of a typical PWR reactor building with localized nonlinearities and soil-structure interaction effects; (2) empirical data on spatial variations of earthquake ground motion; (3) soil-structure interaction effects on structural response; and (4) summary of conclusions and recommendations based on Tasks I and II studies. This report presents the results of the first part of Task II. The results of the other parts will be presented in NUREG/CR-3805, Vols. 3 to 5.« less

SENSITIVITY OF STRUCTURAL RESPONSE TO GROUND MOTION SOURCE AND SITE PARAMETERS.

USGS Publications Warehouse

Safak, Erdal; Brebbia, C.A.; Cakmak, A.S.; Abdel Ghaffar, A.M.

1985-01-01

Designing structures to withstand earthquakes requires an accurate estimation of the expected ground motion. While engineers use the peak ground acceleration (PGA) to model the strong ground motion, seismologists use physical characteristics of the source and the rupture mechanism, such as fault length, stress drop, shear wave velocity, seismic moment, distance, and attenuation. This study presents a method for calculating response spectra from seismological models using random vibration theory. It then investigates the effect of various source and site parameters on peak response. Calculations are based on a nonstationary stochastic ground motion model, which can incorporate all the parameters both in frequency and time domains. The estimation of the peak response accounts for the effects of the non-stationarity, bandwidth and peak correlations of the response.

Hazard assessment of long-period ground motions for the Nankai Trough earthquakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maeda, T.; Morikawa, N.; Aoi, S.; Fujiwara, H.

2013-12-01

We evaluate a seismic hazard for long-period ground motions associated with the Nankai Trough earthquakes (M8~9) in southwest Japan. Large interplate earthquakes occurring around the Nankai Trough have caused serious damages due to strong ground motions and tsunami; most recent events were in 1944 and 1946. Such large interplate earthquake potentially causes damages to high-rise and large-scale structures due to long-period ground motions (e.g., 1985 Michoacan earthquake in Mexico, 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake in Japan). The long-period ground motions are amplified particularly on basins. Because major cities along the Nankai Trough have developed on alluvial plains, it is therefore important to evaluate long-period ground motions as well as strong motions and tsunami for the anticipated Nankai Trough earthquakes. The long-period ground motions are evaluated by the finite difference method (FDM) using 'characterized source models' and the 3-D underground structure model. The 'characterized source model' refers to a source model including the source parameters necessary for reproducing the strong ground motions. The parameters are determined based on a 'recipe' for predicting strong ground motion (Earthquake Research Committee (ERC), 2009). We construct various source models (~100 scenarios) giving the various case of source parameters such as source region, asperity configuration, and hypocenter location. Each source region is determined by 'the long-term evaluation of earthquakes in the Nankai Trough' published by ERC. The asperity configuration and hypocenter location control the rupture directivity effects. These parameters are important because our preliminary simulations are strongly affected by the rupture directivity. We apply the system called GMS (Ground Motion Simulator) for simulating the seismic wave propagation based on 3-D FDM scheme using discontinuous grids (Aoi and Fujiwara, 1999) to our study. The grid spacing for the shallow region is 200 m and 100 m in horizontal and vertical, respectively. The grid spacing for the deep region is three times coarser. The total number of grid points is about three billion. The 3-D underground structure model used in the FD simulation is the Japan integrated velocity structure model (ERC, 2012). Our simulation is valid for period more than two seconds due to the lowest S-wave velocity and grid spacing. However, because the characterized source model may not sufficiently support short period components, we should be interpreted the reliable period of this simulation with caution. Therefore, we consider the period more than five seconds instead of two seconds for further analysis. We evaluate the long-period ground motions using the velocity response spectra for the period range between five and 20 second. The preliminary simulation shows a large variation of response spectra at a site. This large variation implies that the ground motion is very sensitive to different scenarios. And it requires studying the large variation to understand the seismic hazard. Our further study will obtain the hazard curves for the Nankai Trough earthquake (M 8~9) by applying the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis to the simulation results.

Accounting for Fault Roughness in Pseudo-Dynamic Ground-Motion Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mai, P. Martin; Galis, Martin; Thingbaijam, Kiran K. S.; Vyas, Jagdish C.; Dunham, Eric M.

2017-09-01

Geological faults comprise large-scale segmentation and small-scale roughness. These multi-scale geometrical complexities determine the dynamics of the earthquake rupture process, and therefore affect the radiated seismic wavefield. In this study, we examine how different parameterizations of fault roughness lead to variability in the rupture evolution and the resulting near-fault ground motions. Rupture incoherence naturally induced by fault roughness generates high-frequency radiation that follows an ω-2 decay in displacement amplitude spectra. Because dynamic rupture simulations are computationally expensive, we test several kinematic source approximations designed to emulate the observed dynamic behavior. When simplifying the rough-fault geometry, we find that perturbations in local moment tensor orientation are important, while perturbations in local source location are not. Thus, a planar fault can be assumed if the local strike, dip, and rake are maintained. We observe that dynamic rake angle variations are anti-correlated with the local dip angles. Testing two parameterizations of dynamically consistent Yoffe-type source-time function, we show that the seismic wavefield of the approximated kinematic ruptures well reproduces the radiated seismic waves of the complete dynamic source process. This finding opens a new avenue for an improved pseudo-dynamic source characterization that captures the effects of fault roughness on earthquake rupture evolution. By including also the correlations between kinematic source parameters, we outline a new pseudo-dynamic rupture modeling approach for broadband ground-motion simulation.

Study of Site Response in the Seattle and Tacoma Basins, Washington, Using Spectral Ratio Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keshvardoost, R.; Wolf, L. W.

2014-12-01

Sedimentary basins are known to have a pronounced influence on earthquake-generated ground motions, affecting both predominant frequencies and wave amplification. These site characteristics are important elements in estimating ground shaking and seismic hazard. In this study, we use three-component broadband and strong motion seismic data from three recent earthquakes to determine site response characteristics in the Seattle and Tacoma basins, Washington. Resonant frequencies and relative amplification of ground motions were determined using Fourier spectral ratios of velocity and acceleration records from the 2012 Mw 6.1 Vancouver Island earthquake, the 2012 Mw 7.8 Queen Charlotte Island earthquake, and the 2014 Mw 6.6 Vancouver Island earthquake. Recordings from sites within and adjacent to the Seattle and Tacoma basins were selected for the study based on their signal to noise ratios. Both the Standard Spectral Ratio (SSR) and the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) methods were used in the analysis, and results from each were compared to examine their agreement and their relation to local geology. Although 57% of the sites (27 out of 48) exhibited consistent results between the two methods, other sites varied considerably. In addition, we use data from the Seattle Liquefaction Array (SLA) to evaluate the site response at 4 different depths. Results indicate that resonant frequencies remain the same at different depths but amplification decreases significantly over the top 50 m.

Spitzer Opens New Path to Break Classic Degeneracy for Jupiter-mass Microlensing Planet OGLE-2017-BLG-1140Lb

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calchi Novati, S.; Skowron, J.; Jung, Y. K.; Beichman, C.; Bryden, G.; Carey, S.; Gaudi, B. S.; Henderson, C. B.; Shvartzvald, Y.; Yee, J. C.; Zhu, W.; Spitzer Team; Udalski, A.; Szymański, M. K.; Mróz, P.; Poleski, R.; Soszyński, I.; Kozłowski, S.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Ulaczyk, K.; Pawlak, M.; Rybicki, K.; Iwanek, P.; OGLE Collaboration; Albrow, M. D.; Chung, S.-J.; Gould, A.; Han, C.; Hwang, K.-H.; Ryu, Y.-H.; Shin, I.-G.; Zang, W.; Cha, S.-M.; Kim, D.-J.; Kim, H.-W.; Kim, S.-L.; Lee, C.-U.; Lee, D.-J.; Lee, Y.; Park, B.-G.; Pogge, R. W.; KMTNet Collaboration

2018-06-01

We analyze the combined Spitzer and ground-based data for OGLE-2017-BLG-1140 and show that the event was generated by a Jupiter-class ({m}p≃ 1.6 {M}{{J}{{u}}{{p}}}) planet orbiting a mid-late M dwarf (M≃ 0.2 {M}ȯ ) that lies {D}LS}≃ 1.0 {kpc} in the foreground of the microlensed Galactic-bar source star. The planet–host projected separation is {a}\\perp ≃ 1.0 {au}, i.e., well beyond the snow line. By measuring the source proper motion {{\\boldsymbol{μ }}}s from ongoing long-term OGLE imaging and combining this with the lens-source relative proper motion {{\\boldsymbol{μ }}}rel} derived from the microlensing solution, we show that the lens proper motion {{\\boldsymbol{μ }}}l={{\\boldsymbol{μ }}}rel}+{{\\boldsymbol{μ }}}s is consistent with the lens lying in the Galactic disk, although a bulge lens is not ruled out. We show that while the Spitzer and ground-based data are comparably well fitted by planetary (i.e., binary-lens (2L1S)) and binary-source (1L2S) models, the combination of Spitzer and ground-based data decisively favors the planetary model. This is a new channel to resolve the 2L1S/1L2S degeneracy, which can be difficult to break in some cases.

Strong ground motion from the November 12, 2017, M 7.3 Kermanshah earthquake in western Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babaie Mahani, Alireza; Kazemian, Javad

2018-05-01

In this paper, we analyzed the strong ground motion from the November 12, 2017, Kermanshah earthquake in western Iran with moment magnitude (M) of 7.3. Nonlinear and linear amplification of ground motion amplitudes were observed at stations with soft soil condition at hypocentral distances below and above 100 km, respectively. Observation of large ground motion amplitudes dominated with long-period pulses on the strike-normal component of the velocity time series suggests a right-lateral component of movement and propagation of rupture towards southeast. Comparison of the horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA) from the M 7.3 earthquake with global PGA values showed a similar decay in ground motion amplitudes, although it seems that PGA from the M 7.3 Kermanshah earthquake is higher than global values for NEHRP site class B. We also found that the bracketed duration (D b) was higher in the velocity domain than in the acceleration domain for the same modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) threshold. For example, D b reached 30 s at the maximum PGA while it was 50 s at the maximum peak ground velocity above the threshold of MMI = 5. Although the standard design spectrum from Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings (standard No. 2800) seems to include appropriate values for the design of structures with fundamental period of 1 s and higher, it is underestimated for near-field ground motions at lower periods.

Using pad‐stripped acausally filtered strong‐motion data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David; Sisi, Aida Azari; Akkar, Sinan

2012-01-01

Most strong‐motion data processing involves acausal low‐cut filtering, which requires the addition of sometimes lengthy zero pads to the data. These padded sections are commonly removed by organizations supplying data, but this can lead to incompatibilities in measures of ground motion derived in the usual way from the padded and the pad‐stripped data. One way around this is to use the correct initial conditions in the pad‐stripped time series when computing displacements, velocities, and linear oscillator response. Another way of ensuring compatibility is to use postprocessing of the pad‐stripped acceleration time series. Using 4071 horizontal and vertical acceleration time series from the Turkish strong‐motion database, we show that the procedures used by two organizations—ITACA (ITalian ACcelerometric Archive) and PEER NGA (Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center–Next Generation Attenuation)—lead to little bias and distortion of derived seismic‐intensity measures.

Real-Time Generation of the Footprints both on Floor and Ground

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirano, Yousuke; Tanaka, Toshimitsu; Sagawa, Yuji

This paper presents a real-time method for generating various footprints in relation to state of walking. In addition, the method is expanded to cover both on hard floor and soft ground. Results of the previous method were not so realistic, because the method places same simple foot prints on the motion path. Our method runs filters on the original pattern of footprint on GPU. And then our method gradates intensity of the pattern to two directions, in order to create partially dark footprints. Here parameters of the filter and the gradation are changed by move speed and direction. The pattern is mapped on a polygon. If the walker is pigeon-toed or bandy-legged, the polygon is rotated inside or outside, respectively. Finally, it is placed on floor. Footprints on soft ground are concavity and convexity caused by walking. Thus an original pattern of footprints on ground is defined as a height map. The height map is modified using the filter and the gradation operation developed for floor footprints. The height map is converted to a bump map to fast display the concavity and convexity of footprints.

Dynamic strain and rotation ground motions of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake from dense high-rate GPS observations in Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, B. S.; Rau, R. J.; Lin, C. J.; Kuo, L. C.

2017-12-01

Seismic waves generated by the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku, Japan earthquake were well recorded by continuous GPS in Taiwan. Those GPS were operated in one hertz sampling rate and densely distributed in Taiwan Island. Those continuous GPS observations and the precise point positioning technique provide an opportunity to estimate spatial derivatives from absolute ground motions of this giant teleseismic event. In this study, we process and investigate more than one and half hundred high-rate GPS displacements and its spatial derivatives, thus strain and rotations, to compare to broadband seismic and rotational sensor observations. It is shown that continuous GPS observations are highly consistent with broadband seismic observations during its surface waves across Taiwan Island. Several standard Geodesy and seismic array analysis techniques for spatial gradients have been applied to those continuous GPS time series to determine its dynamic strain and rotation time histories. Results show that those derivate GPS vertical axis ground rotations are consistent to seismic array determined rotations. However, vertical rotation-rate observations from the R1 rotational sensors have low resolutions and could not compared with GPS observations for this special event. For its dese spatial distribution of GPS stations in Taiwan Island, not only wavefield gradient time histories at individual site was obtained but also 2-D spatial ground motion fields were determined in this study also. In this study, we will report the analyzed results of those spatial gradient wavefields of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake across Taiwan Island and discuss its geological implications.

Comparison Virtual Landing Gear Drop Test for Commuter Aircraft Utilize MSC ADAMS And Solidworks Motion Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hidayat, Dony; Istiyanto, Jos; Agus Sumarsono, Danardono

2018-04-01

Loads at main landing gear while touchdown impact is function of aircraft weight and ground reaction load factor. In regulation states ground reaction load factor at Vsink = 3.05 m/s is below 3. Contact/impact force from simulation using MSC ADAMS is 94680 N, while using Solidworks Motion Analysis is 97691 N. The difference between MSC ADAMS and Solidworks Motion Analysis is 3.08%. The ground reaction load factor in MSC ADAMS is 2.78 while in Solidworks Motion Analysis is 2.87.

Integrated Verification Experiment data collected as part of the Los Alamos National Laboratory`s Source Region Program. Appendix D: Ionospheric measurements for IVEs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fitzgerald, T.J.; Carlos, R.C.; Argo, P.E.

As part of the integrated verification experiment (IVE), we deployed a network of hf ionospheric sounders to detect the effects of acoustic waves generated by surface ground motion following underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. The network sampled up to four geographic locations in the ionosphere from almost directly overhead of the surface ground zero out to a horizontal range of 60 km. We present sample results for four of the IVEs: Misty Echo, Texarkana, Mineral Quarry, and Bexar.

An atlas of ShakeMaps for selected global earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Trevor I.; Wald, David J.; Hotovec, Alicia J.; Lin, Kuo-Wan; Earle, Paul S.; Marano, Kristin D.

2008-01-01

An atlas of maps of peak ground motions and intensity 'ShakeMaps' has been developed for almost 5,000 recent and historical global earthquakes. These maps are produced using established ShakeMap methodology (Wald and others, 1999c; Wald and others, 2005) and constraints from macroseismic intensity data, instrumental ground motions, regional topographically-based site amplifications, and published earthquake-rupture models. Applying the ShakeMap methodology allows a consistent approach to combine point observations with ground-motion predictions to produce descriptions of peak ground motions and intensity for each event. We also calculate an estimated ground-motion uncertainty grid for each earthquake. The Atlas of ShakeMaps provides a consistent and quantitative description of the distribution and intensity of shaking for recent global earthquakes (1973-2007) as well as selected historic events. As such, the Atlas was developed specifically for calibrating global earthquake loss estimation methodologies to be used in the U.S. Geological Survey Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) Project. PAGER will employ these loss models to rapidly estimate the impact of global earthquakes as part of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center's earthquake-response protocol. The development of the Atlas of ShakeMaps has also led to several key improvements to the Global ShakeMap system. The key upgrades include: addition of uncertainties in the ground motion mapping, introduction of modern ground-motion prediction equations, improved estimates of global seismic-site conditions (VS30), and improved definition of stable continental region polygons. Finally, we have merged all of the ShakeMaps in the Atlas to provide a global perspective of earthquake ground shaking for the past 35 years, allowing comparison with probabilistic hazard maps. The online Atlas and supporting databases can be found at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/shakemap/atlas.php/.

Physical limits on ground motion at Yucca Mountain

USGS Publications Warehouse

Andrews, D.J.; Hanks, T.C.; Whitney, J.W.

2007-01-01

Physical limits on possible maximum ground motion at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the designated site of a high-level radioactive waste repository, are set by the shear stress available in the seismogenic depth of the crust and by limits on stress change that can propagate through the medium. We find in dynamic deterministic 2D calculations that maximum possible horizontal peak ground velocity (PGV) at the underground repository site is 3.6 m/sec, which is smaller than the mean PGV predicted by the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) at annual exceedance probabilities less than 10-6 per year. The physical limit on vertical PGV, 5.7 m/sec, arises from supershear rupture and is larger than that from the PSHA down to 10-8 per year. In addition to these physical limits, we also calculate the maximum ground motion subject to the constraint of known fault slip at the surface, as inferred from paleoseismic studies. Using a published probabilistic fault displacement hazard curve, these calculations provide a probabilistic hazard curve for horizontal PGV that is lower than that from the PSHA. In all cases the maximum ground motion at the repository site is found by maximizing constructive interference of signals from the rupture front, for physically realizable rupture velocity, from all parts of the fault. Vertical PGV is maximized for ruptures propagating near the P-wave speed, and horizontal PGV is maximized for ruptures propagating near the Rayleigh-wave speed. Yielding in shear with a Mohr-Coulomb yield condition reduces ground motion only a modest amount in events with supershear rupture velocity, because ground motion consists primarily of P waves in that case. The possibility of compaction of the porous unsaturated tuffs at the higher ground-motion levels is another attenuating mechanism that needs to be investigated.

Empirical development of ground acceleration, velocity, and displacement for accidental explosions at J5 or the proposed large altitude rocket cell at Arnold Engineering Development Center

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Davis, B.C.

This study is an assessment of the ground shock which may be generated in the event of an accidental explosion at J5 or the Proposed Large Altitude Rocket Cell (LARC) at the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC). The assessment is accomplished by reviewing existing empirical relationships for predicting ground motion from ground shock. These relationships are compared with data for surface explosions at sites with similar geology and with yields similar to expected conditions at AEDC. Empirical relationships are developed from these data and a judgment made whether to use existing empirical relationships or the relationships developed in this study.more » An existing relationship (Lipner et al.) is used to predict velocity; the empirical relationships developed in the course of this study are used to predict acceleration and displacement. The ground motions are presented in table form and as contour plots. Included also is a discussion of damage criteria from blast and earthquake studies. This report recommends using velocity rather than acceleration as an indicator of structural blast damage. It is recommended that v = 2 ips (v = .167 fps) be used as the damage threshold value (no major damage for v less than or equal to 2 ips). 13 references, 25 figures, 6 tables.« less

Modal-pushover-based ground-motion scaling procedure

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kalkan, Erol; Chopra, Anil K.

2011-01-01

Earthquake engineering is increasingly using nonlinear response history analysis (RHA) to demonstrate the performance of structures. This rigorous method of analysis requires selection and scaling of ground motions appropriate to design hazard levels. This paper presents a modal-pushover-based scaling (MPS) procedure to scale ground motions for use in a nonlinear RHA of buildings. In the MPS method, the ground motions are scaled to match to a specified tolerance, a target value of the inelastic deformation of the first-mode inelastic single-degree-of-freedom (SDF) system whose properties are determined by the first-mode pushover analysis. Appropriate for first-mode dominated structures, this approach is extended for structures with significant contributions of higher modes by considering elastic deformation of second-mode SDF systems in selecting a subset of the scaled ground motions. Based on results presented for three actual buildings-4, 6, and 13-story-the accuracy and efficiency of the MPS procedure are established and its superiority over the ASCE/SEI 7-05 scaling procedure is demonstrated.

Estimation of Source and Attenuation Parameters from Ground Motion Observations for Induced Seismicity in Alberta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Novakovic, M.; Atkinson, G. M.

2015-12-01

We use a generalized inversion to solve for site response, regional source and attenuation parameters, in order to define a region-specific ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) from ground motion observations in Alberta, following the method of Atkinson et al. (2015 BSSA). The database is compiled from over 200 small to moderate seismic events (M 1 to 4.2) recorded at ~50 regional stations (distances from 30 to 500 km), over the last few years; almost all of the events have been identified as being induced by oil and gas activity. We remove magnitude scaling and geometric spreading functions from observed ground motions and invert for stress parameter, regional attenuation and site amplification. Resolving these parameters allows for the derivation of a regionally-calibrated GMPE that can be used to accurately predict amplitudes across the region in real time, which is useful for ground-motion-based alerting systems and traffic light protocols. The derived GMPE has further applications for the evaluation of hazards from induced seismicity.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pasyanos, Michael E.

Recently developed attenuation models are incorporated into standard one-dimensional (1-D) ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs), effectively making them two-dimensional (2-D) and eliminating the need to create different GMPEs for an increasing number of sub-regions. The model is tested against a data set of over 10,000 recordings from 81 earthquakes in North America. The use of attenuation models in GMPEs improves our ability to fit observed ground motions and should be incorporated into future national hazard maps. The improvement is most significant at higher frequencies and longer distances which have a greater number of wave cycles. This has implications for themore » rare high-magnitude earthquakes, which produce potentially damaging ground motions over wide areas, and drive the seismic hazards. Furthermore, the attenuation models can be created using weak ground motions, they could be developed for regions of low seismicity where empirical recordings of ground motions are uncommon and do not span the full range of magnitudes and distances.« less

Free Swimming in Ground Effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cochran-Carney, Jackson; Wagenhoffer, Nathan; Zeyghami, Samane; Moored, Keith

2017-11-01

A free-swimming potential flow analysis of unsteady ground effect is conducted for two-dimensional airfoils via a method of images. The foils undergo a pure pitching motion about their leading edge, and the positions of the body in the streamwise and cross-stream directions are determined by the equations of motion of the body. It is shown that the unconstrained swimmer is attracted to a time-averaged position that is mediated by the flow interaction with the ground. The robustness of this fluid-mediated equilibrium position is probed by varying the non-dimensional mass, initial conditions and kinematic parameters of motion. Comparisons to the foil's fixed-motion counterpart are also made to pinpoint the effect that free swimming near the ground has on wake structures and the fluid-mediated forces over time. Optimal swimming regimes for near-boundary swimming are determined by examining asymmetric motions.

A simple model for strong ground motions and response spectra

USGS Publications Warehouse

Safak, Erdal; Mueller, Charles; Boatwright, John

1988-01-01

A simple model for the description of strong ground motions is introduced. The model shows that response spectra can be estimated by using only four parameters of the ground motion, the RMS acceleration, effective duration and two corner frequencies that characterize the effective frequency band of the motion. The model is windowed band-limited white noise, and is developed by studying the properties of two functions, cumulative squared acceleration in the time domain, and cumulative squared amplitude spectrum in the frequency domain. Applying the methods of random vibration theory, the model leads to a simple analytical expression for the response spectra. The accuracy of the model is checked by using the ground motion recordings from the aftershock sequences of two different earthquakes and simulated accelerograms. The results show that the model gives a satisfactory estimate of the response spectra.

A comparison of observed and predicted ground motions from the 2015 MW7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hough, Susan E.; Martin, Stacey S.; Gahalaut, V.; Joshi, A.; Landes, M.; Bossu, R.

2016-01-01

We use 21 strong motion recordings from Nepal and India for the 25 April 2015 moment magnitude (MW) 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake together with the extensive macroseismic intensity data set presented by Martin et al. (Seism Res Lett 87:957–962, 2015) to analyse the distribution of ground motions at near-field and regional distances. We show that the data are consistent with the instrumental peak ground acceleration (PGA) versus macroseismic intensity relationship developed by Worden et al. (Bull Seism Soc Am 102:204–221, 2012), and use this relationship to estimate peak ground acceleration from intensities (PGAEMS). For nearest-fault distances (RRUP < 200 km), PGAEMS is consistent with the Atkinson and Boore (Bull Seism Soc Am 93:1703–1729, 2003) subduction zone ground motion prediction equation (GMPE). At greater distances (RRUP > 200 km), instrumental PGA values are consistent with this GMPE, while PGAEMS is systematically higher. We suggest the latter reflects a duration effect whereby effects of weak shaking are enhanced by long-duration and/or long-period ground motions from a large event at regional distances. We use PGAEMS values within 200 km to investigate the variability of high-frequency ground motions using the Atkinson and Boore (Bull Seism Soc Am 93:1703–1729, 2003) GMPE as a baseline. Across the near-field region, PGAEMS is higher by a factor of 2.0–2.5 towards the northern, down-dip edge of the rupture compared to the near-field region nearer to the southern, up-dip edge of the rupture. Inferred deamplification in the deepest part of the Kathmandu valley supports the conclusion that former lake-bed sediments experienced a pervasive nonlinear response during the mainshock (Dixit et al. in Seismol Res Lett 86(6):1533–1539, 2015; Rajaure et al. in Tectonophysics, 2016. Ground motions were significantly amplified in the southern Gangetic basin, but were relatively low in the northern basin. The overall distribution of ground motions and damage during the Gorkha earthquake thus reflects a combination of complex source, path, and site effects. We also present a macroseismic intensity data set and analysis of ground motions for the MW7.3 Dolakha aftershock on 12 May 2015, which we compare to the Gorkha mainshock and conclude was likely a high stress-drop event.

Site effects in the city of Port au Prince (Haiti) : A combined use of spectral ratio methods and empirical Greens functions simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

St Fleur, S.; Courboulex, F.; Bertrand, E.; Deschamps, A.; Mercier de Lepinay, B.; Prepetit, C.; Hough, S. E.

2013-12-01

Haiti was struck in January 2010 by a strong Mw=7 earthquake that caused extensive damages in the city of Port au Prince. At this time, very few seismological stations were working in Haiti and the only one that recorded the mainshock in Port au Prince was saturated. Thus, there were no direct measurements of the ground motion produced by this large event. Quickly after the 2010 event, several permanent accelerometric stations were installed by the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) and the BME (Bureau des Mines et de l'Energie d'Haiti) as well as broad-band stations by the GSC (Geological Survey of Canada). Since their installation, these stations recorded several tens of aftershocks. The aim of our work is to take advantage of this new dataset to better understand the ground motions generated by earthquakes in the city of Port au Prince. We have used first spectral ratio methods to obtain the transfer function of each station, and then an empirical Green's Function simulation approach to combine source and site effects. In order to estimate site effects under each station, we have used classical spectral ratio methods. In a first step, the H/V (Horizontal/Vertical) method was used to select a reference station (in Port au Prince) that should be ideally a station without any site effects. We selected two stations, HCEA and PAPH, as reference stations, as even if the shape of their H/V curves is not always equal to 1 in the entire frequency band. In a second step, we computed the transfer function at each station by a ratio between the spectra of each earthquake at each station and the spectra obtained at the reference station (we use successively HCEA, PAPH and a combination of both). The results were kept only for the frequencies where the signal to noise was larger than 3. In the frequency range 1 to 20 Hz, we found site/reference ratios that reach values from 3 to 8 and a large variability from one station to another one. In the low frequency band 0.5 to 1 Hz a peak is present at almost all the stations in Port au Prince, which may indicate an amplification due to a deep interface. However, these values have a large variability from one earthquake recording to the other. This may indicate that the observed amplification depends not only on the effect of local site, but also on the source or the propagation direction. We then used the recordings of two earthquakes (Mw 4.3 and Mw 4.4) that occurred on the Leogane fault as Empirical Green's Functions (EGF) in order to simulate the ground motions generated by a virtual Mw 6.8 earthquake. For this simulation a stochastic EGF summation method was used. The results obtained using the two events are surprisingly very different. Using the first EGF, nearly the same ground motion was obtained at each station in Port-au-Prince, whereas with the second EGF, the results highlight large differences. Finally, the estimated site response (site/reference) was used in combination with a direct estimation of the rock site motion (HCEA simulation) in order to reproduce the ground motions which were compared to the EGF simulation method. The comparison confirms the large variability in the modeled ground shaking which can be due to both site and source effects and the low frequency amplification on the plain of Port-au-Prince.

Data Files for Ground-Motion Simulations of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Scenario Earthquakes on the Northern San Andreas Fault

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aagaard, Brad T.; Barall, Michael; Brocher, Thomas M.; Dolenc, David; Dreger, Douglas; Graves, Robert W.; Harmsen, Stephen; Hartzell, Stephen; Larsen, Shawn; McCandless, Kathleen; Nilsson, Stefan; Petersson, N. Anders; Rodgers, Arthur; Sjogreen, Bjorn; Zoback, Mary Lou

2009-01-01

This data set contains results from ground-motion simulations of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, seven hypothetical earthquakes on the northern San Andreas Fault, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The bulk of the data consists of synthetic velocity time-histories. Peak ground velocity on a 1/60th degree grid and geodetic displacements from the simulations are also included. Details of the ground-motion simulations and analysis of the results are discussed in Aagaard and others (2008a,b).

3D ground‐motion simulations of Mw 7 earthquakes on the Salt Lake City segment of the Wasatch fault zone: Variability of long‐period (T≥1  s) ground motions and sensitivity to kinematic rupture parameters

USGS Publications Warehouse

Moschetti, Morgan P.; Hartzell, Stephen; Ramirez-Guzman, Leonardo; Frankel, Arthur; Angster, Stephen J.; Stephenson, William J.

2017-01-01

We examine the variability of long‐period (T≥1  s) earthquake ground motions from 3D simulations of Mw 7 earthquakes on the Salt Lake City segment of the Wasatch fault zone, Utah, from a set of 96 rupture models with varying slip distributions, rupture speeds, slip velocities, and hypocenter locations. Earthquake ruptures were prescribed on a 3D fault representation that satisfies geologic constraints and maintained distinct strands for the Warm Springs and for the East Bench and Cottonwood faults. Response spectral accelerations (SA; 1.5–10 s; 5% damping) were measured, and average distance scaling was well fit by a simple functional form that depends on the near‐source intensity level SA0(T) and a corner distance Rc:SA(R,T)=SA0(T)(1+(R/Rc))−1. Period‐dependent hanging‐wall effects manifested and increased the ground motions by factors of about 2–3, though the effects appeared partially attributable to differences in shallow site response for sites on the hanging wall and footwall of the fault. Comparisons with modern ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs) found that the simulated ground motions were generally consistent, except within deep sedimentary basins, where simulated ground motions were greatly underpredicted. Ground‐motion variability exhibited strong lateral variations and, at some sites, exceeded the ground‐motion variability indicated by GMPEs. The effects on the ground motions of changing the values of the five kinematic rupture parameters can largely be explained by three predominant factors: distance to high‐slip subevents, dynamic stress drop, and changes in the contributions from directivity. These results emphasize the need for further characterization of the underlying distributions and covariances of the kinematic rupture parameters used in 3D ground‐motion simulations employed in probabilistic seismic‐hazard analyses.

Regionally Adaptable Ground Motion Prediction Equation (GMPE) from Empirical Models of Fourier and Duration of Ground Motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bora, Sanjay; Scherbaum, Frank; Kuehn, Nicolas; Stafford, Peter; Edwards, Benjamin

2016-04-01

The current practice of deriving empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) involves using ground motions recorded at multiple sites. However, in applications like site-specific (e.g., critical facility) hazard ground motions obtained from the GMPEs are need to be adjusted/corrected to a particular site/site-condition under investigation. This study presents a complete framework for developing a response spectral GMPE, within which the issue of adjustment of ground motions is addressed in a manner consistent with the linear system framework. The present approach is a two-step process in which the first step consists of deriving two separate empirical models, one for Fourier amplitude spectra (FAS) and the other for a random vibration theory (RVT) optimized duration (Drvto) of ground motion. In the second step the two models are combined within the RVT framework to obtain full response spectral amplitudes. Additionally, the framework also involves a stochastic model based extrapolation of individual Fourier spectra to extend the useable frequency limit of the empirically derived FAS model. The stochastic model parameters were determined by inverting the Fourier spectral data using an approach similar to the one as described in Edwards and Faeh (2013). Comparison of median predicted response spectra from present approach with those from other regional GMPEs indicates that the present approach can also be used as a stand-alone model. The dataset used for the presented analysis is a subset of the recently compiled database RESORCE-2012 across Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean region.

Kinematic ground motion simulations on rough faults including effects of 3D stochastic velocity perturbations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graves, Robert; Pitarka, Arben

2016-01-01

We describe a methodology for generating kinematic earthquake ruptures for use in 3D ground‐motion simulations over the 0–5 Hz frequency band. Our approach begins by specifying a spatially random slip distribution that has a roughly wavenumber‐squared fall‐off. Given a hypocenter, the rupture speed is specified to average about 75%–80% of the local shear wavespeed and the prescribed slip‐rate function has a Kostrov‐like shape with a fault‐averaged rise time that scales self‐similarly with the seismic moment. Both the rupture time and rise time include significant local perturbations across the fault surface specified by spatially random fields that are partially correlated with the underlying slip distribution. We represent velocity‐strengthening fault zones in the shallow (<5  km) and deep (>15  km) crust by decreasing rupture speed and increasing rise time in these regions. Additional refinements to this approach include the incorporation of geometric perturbations to the fault surface, 3D stochastic correlated perturbations to the P‐ and S‐wave velocity structure, and a damage zone surrounding the shallow fault surface characterized by a 30% reduction in seismic velocity. We demonstrate the approach using a suite of simulations for a hypothetical Mw 6.45 strike‐slip earthquake embedded in a generalized hard‐rock velocity structure. The simulation results are compared with the median predictions from the 2014 Next Generation Attenuation‐West2 Project ground‐motion prediction equations and show very good agreement over the frequency band 0.1–5 Hz for distances out to 25 km from the fault. Additionally, the newly added features act to reduce the coherency of the radiated higher frequency (f>1  Hz) ground motions, and homogenize radiation‐pattern effects in this same bandwidth, which move the simulations closer to the statistical characteristics of observed motions as illustrated by comparison with recordings from the 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake.

Kinematic Ground-Motion Simulations on Rough Faults Including Effects of 3D Stochastic Velocity Perturbations

DOE PAGES

Graves, Robert; Pitarka, Arben

2016-08-23

Here, we describe a methodology for generating kinematic earthquake ruptures for use in 3D ground–motion simulations over the 0–5 Hz frequency band. Our approach begins by specifying a spatially random slip distribution that has a roughly wavenumber–squared fall–off. Given a hypocenter, the rupture speed is specified to average about 75%–80% of the local shear wavespeed and the prescribed slip–rate function has a Kostrov–like shape with a fault–averaged rise time that scales self–similarly with the seismic moment. Both the rupture time and rise time include significant local perturbations across the fault surface specified by spatially random fields that are partially correlatedmore » with the underlying slip distribution. We represent velocity–strengthening fault zones in the shallow (<5 km) and deep (>15 km) crust by decreasing rupture speed and increasing rise time in these regions. Additional refinements to this approach include the incorporation of geometric perturbations to the fault surface, 3D stochastic correlated perturbations to the P– and S–wave velocity structure, and a damage zone surrounding the shallow fault surface characterized by a 30% reduction in seismic velocity. We demonstrate the approach using a suite of simulations for a hypothetical Mw 6.45 strike–slip earthquake embedded in a generalized hard–rock velocity structure. The simulation results are compared with the median predictions from the 2014 Next Generation Attenuation–West2 Project ground–motion prediction equations and show very good agreement over the frequency band 0.1–5 Hz for distances out to 25 km from the fault. Additionally, the newly added features act to reduce the coherency of the radiated higher frequency (f>1 Hz) ground motions, and homogenize radiation–pattern effects in this same bandwidth, which move the simulations closer to the statistical characteristics of observed motions as illustrated by comparison with recordings from the 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake.« less

Characteristics of ground motion at permafrost sites along the Qinghai-Tibet railway

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wang, L.; Wu, Z.; Sun, Jielun; Liu, Xiuying; Wang, Z.

2009-01-01

Based on 14 typical drilling holes distributed in the permafrost areas along the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the distribution of wave velocities of soils in the permafrost regions were determined. Using results of dynamic triaxial tests, the results of dynamic triaxiality test and time histories of ground motion acceleration in this area, characteristics of ground motion response were analyzed for these permafrost sites for time histories of ground accelerations with three exceedance probabilities (63%, 10% and 2%). The influence of ground temperature on the seismic displacement, velocity, acceleration and response spectrum on the surface of permafrost were also studied. ?? 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aerodynamic forces and flow structures of the leading edge vortex on a flapping wing considering ground effect.

PubMed

Van Truong, Tien; Byun, Doyoung; Kim, Min Jun; Yoon, Kwang Joon; Park, Hoon Cheol

2013-09-01

The aim of this work is to provide an insight into the aerodynamic performance of the beetle during takeoff, which has been estimated in previous investigations. We employed a scaled-up electromechanical model flapping wing to measure the aerodynamic forces and the three-dimensional flow structures on the flapping wing. The ground effect on the unsteady forces and flow structures were also characterized. The dynamically scaled wing model could replicate the general stroke pattern of the beetle's hind wing kinematics during takeoff flight. Two wing kinematic models have been studied to examine the influences of wing kinematics on unsteady aerodynamic forces. In the first model, the angle of attack is asymmetric and varies during the translational motion, which is the flapping motion of the beetle's hind wing. In the second model, the angle of attack is constant during the translational motion. The instantaneous aerodynamic forces were measured for four strokes during the beetle's takeoff by the force sensor attached at the wing base. Flow visualization provided a general picture of the evolution of the three-dimensional leading edge vortex (LEV) on the beetle hind wing model. The LEV is stable during each stroke, and increases radically from the root to the tip, forming a leading-edge spiral vortex. The force measurement results show that the vertical force generated by the hind wing is large enough to lift the beetle. For the beetle hind wing kinematics, the total vertical force production increases 18.4% and 8.6% for the first and second strokes, respectively, due to the ground effect. However, for the model with a constant angle of attack during translation, the vertical force is reduced during the first stroke. During the third and fourth strokes, the ground effect is negligible for both wing kinematic patterns. This finding suggests that the beetle's flapping mechanism induces a ground effect that can efficiently lift its body from the ground during takeoff.

Fake ballistics and real explosions: field-scale experiments on the ejection and emplacement of volcanic bombs during vent-clearing explosive activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taddeucci, J.; Valentine, G.; Gaudin, D.; Graettinger, A. H.; Lube, G.; Kueppers, U.; Sonder, I.; White, J. D.; Ross, P.; Bowman, D. C.

2013-12-01

Ballistics - bomb-sized pyroclasts that travel from volcanic source to final emplacement position along ballistic trajectories - represent a prime source of volcanic hazard, but their emplacement range, size, and density is useful to inverse model key eruption parameters related to their initial ejection velocity. Models and theory, however, have so far focused on the trajectory of ballistics after leaving the vent, neglecting the complex dynamics of their initial acceleration phase in the vent/conduit. Here, we use field-scale buried explosion experiments to study the ground-to-ground ballistic emplacement of particles through their entire acceleration-deceleration cycle. Twelve blasts were performed at the University at Buffalo Large Scale Experimental Facility with a range of scaled depths (burial depth divided by the cubic root of the energy of the explosive charge) and crater configurations. In all runs, ballistic analogs were placed on the ground surface at variable distance from the vertical projection of the buried charge, resulting in variable ejection angle. The chosen analogs are tennis and ping-pong balls filled with different materials, covering a limited range of sizes and densities. The analogs are tracked in multiple high-speed and high-definition videos, while Particle Image Velocimetry is used to detail ground motion in response to the buried blasts. In addition, after each blast the emplacement position of all analog ballistics was mapped with respect to the blast location. Preliminary results show the acceleration history of ballistics to be quite variable, from very short and relatively simple acceleration coupled with ground motion, to more complex, multi-stage accelerations possibly affected not only by the initial ground motion but also by variable coupling with the gas-particle mixture generated by the blasts. Further analysis of the experimental results is expected to provide new interpretative tools for ballistic deposits and better hazard assessment, with particular emphasis for the case of vent-opening eruptions driven by explosive gas expansion beneath loose debris.

Near-Fault Ground Motion Velocity Pulses Input and Its Non-Stationary Characteristics from 2015 Gorkha Nepal Mw7.8 Earthquake KATNP Station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Bo; Wen, Zengping; Wang, Fang

2017-04-01

Using near-fault strong motions from Nepal Mw7.8 earthquake at KATNP station in the city center of Kathmandu, velocity-pulse and non-stationary characteristics of the strong motions are shown, and the reason and potential effect on earthquake damage for intense non-stationary characteristics of near fault velocity-pulse strong motions are mainly studied. The observed strong ground motions of main shock were collected from KATNP station located in 76 kilometers south-east away from epicenter along with forward direction of the rupture fault at an inter-montane basin of the Himalaya. Large velocity pulse show the period of velocity pulse reach up to 6.6s and peak ground velocity of the pulse ground motion is 120 cm/s. Compared with the median spectral acceleration value of NGA prediction equation, significant long-period amplification effect due to velocity pulse is detected at period more than 3.2s. Wavelet analysis shows that the two horizontal component of ground motion is intensely concentration of energy in a short time range of 25-38s and period range of 4-8s. The maximum wavelet-coefficient of horizontal component is 2455, which is about four time of vertical component of strong ground motion. On the perspective of this study, large velocity pulses are identified from two orthogonal components using wavelet method. Intense non-stationary characteristics amplitude and frequency content are mainly caused by site conditions and fault rupture mechanism, which will help to understand the damage evaluation and serve local seismic design.

Sampling of Stochastic Input Parameters for Rockfall Calculations and for Structural Response Calculations Under Vibratory Ground Motion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

M. Gross

2004-09-01

The purpose of this scientific analysis is to define the sampled values of stochastic (random) input parameters for (1) rockfall calculations in the lithophysal and nonlithophysal zones under vibratory ground motions, and (2) structural response calculations for the drip shield and waste package under vibratory ground motions. This analysis supplies: (1) Sampled values of ground motion time history and synthetic fracture pattern for analysis of rockfall in emplacement drifts in nonlithophysal rock (Section 6.3 of ''Drift Degradation Analysis'', BSC 2004 [DIRS 166107]); (2) Sampled values of ground motion time history and rock mechanical properties category for analysis of rockfall inmore » emplacement drifts in lithophysal rock (Section 6.4 of ''Drift Degradation Analysis'', BSC 2004 [DIRS 166107]); (3) Sampled values of ground motion time history and metal to metal and metal to rock friction coefficient for analysis of waste package and drip shield damage to vibratory motion in ''Structural Calculations of Waste Package Exposed to Vibratory Ground Motion'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 167083]) and in ''Structural Calculations of Drip Shield Exposed to Vibratory Ground Motion'' (BSC 2003 [DIRS 163425]). The sampled values are indices representing the number of ground motion time histories, number of fracture patterns and rock mass properties categories. These indices are translated into actual values within the respective analysis and model reports or calculations. This report identifies the uncertain parameters and documents the sampled values for these parameters. The sampled values are determined by GoldSim V6.04.007 [DIRS 151202] calculations using appropriate distribution types and parameter ranges. No software development or model development was required for these calculations. The calculation of the sampled values allows parameter uncertainty to be incorporated into the rockfall and structural response calculations that support development of the seismic scenario for the Total System Performance Assessment for the License Application (TSPA-LA). The results from this scientific analysis also address project requirements related to parameter uncertainty, as specified in the acceptance criteria in ''Yucca Mountain Review Plan, Final Report'' (NRC 2003 [DIRS 163274]). This document was prepared under the direction of ''Technical Work Plan for: Regulatory Integration Modeling of Drift Degradation, Waste Package and Drip Shield Vibratory Motion and Seismic Consequences'' (BSC 2004 [DIRS 170528]) which directed the work identified in work package ARTM05. This document was prepared under procedure AP-SIII.9Q, ''Scientific Analyses''. There are no specific known limitations to this analysis.« less

Digital Imagery Compression Best Practices Guide - A Motion Imagery Standards Profile (MISP) Compliant Architecture

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-01

MISP) COMPLIANT ARCHITECTURE WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE REAGAN TEST SITE YUMA PROVING GROUND DUGWAY PROVING GROUND ABERDEEN TEST CENTER...DIGITAL MOTION IMAGERY COMPRESSION BEST PRACTICES GUIDE – A MOTION IMAGERY STANDARDS PROFILE (MISP) COMPLIANT ARCHITECTURE ...delivery, and archival purposes. These practices are based on a Motion Imagery Standards Profile (MISP) compliant architecture , which has been defined

Control of the Effective Free-Energy Landscape in a Frustrated Magnet by a Field Pulse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, Yuan; Moessner, Roderich

2017-10-01

Thermal fluctuations can lift the degeneracy of a ground state manifold, producing a free-energy landscape without accidentally degenerate minima. In a process known as order by disorder, a subset of states incorporating symmetry breaking may be selected. Here, we show that such a free-energy landscape can be controlled in a nonequilibrium setting as the slow motion within the ground state manifold is governed by the fast modes out of it. For the paradigmatic case of the classical pyrochlore X Y antiferromagnet, we show that a uniform magnetic field pulse can excite these fast modes to generate a tunable effective free-energy landscape with minima at thermodynamically unstable portions of the ground state manifold.

Control of the Effective Free-Energy Landscape in a Frustrated Magnet by a Field Pulse.

PubMed

Wan, Yuan; Moessner, Roderich

2017-10-20

Thermal fluctuations can lift the degeneracy of a ground state manifold, producing a free-energy landscape without accidentally degenerate minima. In a process known as order by disorder, a subset of states incorporating symmetry breaking may be selected. Here, we show that such a free-energy landscape can be controlled in a nonequilibrium setting as the slow motion within the ground state manifold is governed by the fast modes out of it. For the paradigmatic case of the classical pyrochlore XY antiferromagnet, we show that a uniform magnetic field pulse can excite these fast modes to generate a tunable effective free-energy landscape with minima at thermodynamically unstable portions of the ground state manifold.

Ground Motion Synthetics For Spontaneous Versus Prescribed Rupture On A 45(o) Thrust Fault

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gottschämmer, E.; Olsen, K. B.

We have compared prescribed (kinematic) and spontaneous dynamic rupture propaga- tion on a 45(o) dipping thrust fault buried up to 5 km in a half-space model, as well as ground motions on the free surface for frequencies less than 1 Hz. The computa- tions are carried out using a 3D finite-difference method with rate-and-state friction on a planar, 20 km by 20 km fault. We use a slip-weakening distance of 15 cm and a slip- velocity weakening distance of 9.2 cm/s, similar to those for the dynamic study for the 1994 M6.7 Northridge earthquake by Nielsen and Olsen (2000) which generated satis- factory fits to selected strong motion data in the San Fernando Valley. The prescribed rupture propagation was designed to mimic that of the dynamic simulation at depth in order to isolate the dynamic free-surface effects. In this way, the results reflect the dy- namic (normal-stress) interaction with the free surface for various depths of burial of the fault. We find that the moment, peak slip and peak sliprate for the rupture breaking the surface are increased by up to 60%, 80%, and 10%, respectively, compared to the values for the scenario buried 5 km. The inclusion of these effects increases the peak displacements and velocities above the fault by factors up 3.4 and 2.9 including the increase in moment due to normal-stress effects at the free surface, and up to 2.1 and 2.0 when scaled to a Northridge-size event with surface rupture. Similar differences were found by Aagaard et al. (2001). Significant dynamic effects on the ground mo- tions include earlier arrival times caused by super-shear rupture velocities (break-out phases), in agreement with the dynamic finite-element simulations by Oglesby et al. (1998, 2000). The presence of shallow low-velocity layers tend to increase the rup- ture time and the sliprate. In particular, they promote earlier transitions to super-shear velocities and decrease the rupture velocity within the layers. Our results suggest that dynamic interaction with the free surface can significantly affect the ground motion for faults buried less than 1-3 km. We therefore recommend that strong ground motion for these scenarios be computed including such dynamic rupture effects.

3D Ground-Motion Simulations for Magnitude 9 Earthquakes on the Cascadia Megathrust: Sedimentary Basin Amplification, Rupture Directivity, and Ground-Motion Variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frankel, A. D.; Wirth, E. A.; Marafi, N.; Vidale, J. E.; Stephenson, W. J.

2017-12-01

We have produced broadband (0-10 Hz) synthetic seismograms for Mw 9 earthquakes on the Cascadia subduction zone by combining synthetics from 3D finite-difference simulations at low frequencies (≤ 1 Hz) and stochastic synthetics at high frequencies (≥ 1 Hz). These synthetic ground motions are being used to evaluate building response, liquefaction, and landslides, as part of the M9 Project of the University of Washington, in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey. The kinematic rupture model is composed of high stress drop sub-events with Mw 8, similar to those observed in the Mw 9.0 Tohoku, Japan and Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile earthquakes, superimposed on large background slip with lower slip velocities. The 3D velocity model is based on active and passive-source seismic tomography studies, seismic refraction and reflection surveys, and geologic constraints. The Seattle basin portion of the model has been validated by simulating ground motions from local earthquakes. We have completed 50 3D simulations of Mw 9 earthquakes using a variety of hypocenters, slip distributions, sub-event locations, down-dip limits of rupture, and other parameters. For sites not in deep sedimentary basins, the response spectra of the synthetics for 0.1-6.0 s are similar, on average, to the values from the BC Hydro ground motion prediction equations (GMPE). For periods of 7-10 s, the synthetic response spectra exceed these GMPE, partially due to the shallow dip of the plate interface. We find large amplification factors of 2-5 for response spectra at periods of 1-10 s for locations in the Seattle and Tacoma basins, relative to sites outside the basins. This amplification depends on the direction of incoming waves and rupture directivity. The basin amplification is caused by surface waves generated at basin edges from incoming S-waves, as well as amplification and focusing of S-waves and surface waves by the 3D basin structure. The inter-event standard deviation of response spectral amplitudes from the synthetics is larger for sites nearer the coast, because of their higher sensitivity to the sub-event locations and rupture directivity. The total standard deviations of spectral accelerations from 30 simulations for periods greater than 2 s are similar to those determined in the BC Hydro GMPE from strong-motion recordings in subduction zones.

Observed and simulated ground motions in the San Bernardino basin region for the Hector Mine, California, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graves, R.W.; Wald, D.J.

2004-01-01

During the MW 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake, peak ground velocities recorded at sites in the central San Bernardino basin region were up to 2 times larger and had significantly longer durations of strong shaking than sites just outside the basin. To better understand the effects of 3D structure on the long-period ground-motion response in this region, we have performed finite-difference simulations for this earthquake. The simulations are numerically accurate for periods of 2 sec and longer and incorporate the detailed spatial and temporal heterogeneity of source rupture, as well as complex 3D basin structure. Here, we analyze three models of the San Bernardino basin: model A (with structural constraints from gravity and seismic reflection data), model F (water well and seismic refraction data), and the Southern California Earthquake Center version 3 model (hydrologic and seismic refraction data). Models A and F are characterized by a gradual increase in sediment thickness toward the south with an abrupt step-up in the basement surface across the San Jacinto fault. The basin structure in the SCEC version 3 model has a nearly uniform sediment thickness of 1 km with little basement topography along the San Jacinto fault. In models A and F, we impose a layered velocity structure within the sediments based on the seismic refraction data and an assumed depth-dependent Vp/Vs ratio. Sediment velocities within the SCEC version 3 model are given by a smoothly varying rule-based function that is calibrated to the seismic refraction measurements. Due to computational limitations, the minimum shear-wave velocity is fixed at 600 m/sec in all of the models. Ground-motion simulations for both models A and F provide a reasonably good match to the amplitude and waveform characteristics of the recorded motions. In these models, surface waves are generated as energy enters the basin through the gradually sloping northern margin. Due to the basement step along the San Jacinto fault, the surface wave energy is confined to the region north of this structure, consistent with the observations. The SCEC version 3 model, lacking the basin geometry complexity present in the other two models, fails to provide a satisfactory match to the characteristics of the observed motions. Our study demonstrates the importance of using detailed and accurate basin geometry for predicting ground motions and also highlights the utility of integrating geological, geophysical, and seismological observations in the development and validation of 3D velocity models.

3-D simulations of M9 earthquakes on the Cascadia Megathrust: Key parameters and uncertainty

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wirth, Erin; Frankel, Arthur; Vidale, John; Marafi, Nasser A.; Stephenson, William J.

2017-01-01

Geologic and historical records indicate that the Cascadia subduction zone is capable of generating large, megathrust earthquakes up to magnitude 9. The last great Cascadia earthquake occurred in 1700, and thus there is no direct measure on the intensity of ground shaking or specific rupture parameters from seismic recordings. We use 3-D numerical simulations to generate broadband (0-10 Hz) synthetic seismograms for 50 M9 rupture scenarios on the Cascadia megathrust. Slip consists of multiple high-stress drop subevents (~M8) with short rise times on the deeper portion of the fault, superimposed on a background slip distribution with longer rise times. We find a >4x variation in the intensity of ground shaking depending upon several key parameters, including the down-dip limit of rupture, the slip distribution and location of strong-motion-generating subevents, and the hypocenter location. We find that extending the down-dip limit of rupture to the top of the non-volcanic tremor zone results in a ~2-3x increase in peak ground acceleration for the inland city of Seattle, Washington, compared to a completely offshore rupture. However, our simulations show that allowing the rupture to extend to the up-dip limit of tremor (i.e., the deepest rupture extent in the National Seismic Hazard Maps), even when tapering the slip to zero at the down-dip edge, results in multiple areas of coseismic coastal uplift. This is inconsistent with coastal geologic evidence (e.g., buried soils, submerged forests), which suggests predominantly coastal subsidence for the 1700 earthquake and previous events. Defining the down-dip limit of rupture as the 1 cm/yr locking contour (i.e., mostly offshore) results in primarily coseismic subsidence at coastal sites. We also find that the presence of deep subevents can produce along-strike variations in subsidence and ground shaking along the coast. Our results demonstrate the wide range of possible ground motions from an M9 megathrust earthquake in Cascadia, and the potential to further constrain key rupture parameters using geologic and geophysical observations, ultimately improving our estimation of seismic hazard associated with the Cascadia megathrust.

Strong ground motion prediction using virtual earthquakes.

PubMed

Denolle, M A; Dunham, E M; Prieto, G A; Beroza, G C

2014-01-24

Sedimentary basins increase the damaging effects of earthquakes by trapping and amplifying seismic waves. Simulations of seismic wave propagation in sedimentary basins capture this effect; however, there exists no method to validate these results for earthquakes that have not yet occurred. We present a new approach for ground motion prediction that uses the ambient seismic field. We apply our method to a suite of magnitude 7 scenario earthquakes on the southern San Andreas fault and compare our ground motion predictions with simulations. Both methods find strong amplification and coupling of source and structure effects, but they predict substantially different shaking patterns across the Los Angeles Basin. The virtual earthquake approach provides a new approach for predicting long-period strong ground motion.

Ground Motion Studies for Large Future Accelerator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeda, Shigeru; Oide, Katsunobu

1997-05-01

The future large accelerator, such as TeV linear collider, should have extremely small emittance to perform the required luminosity. Precise alignment of machine components is essential to prevent emittance dilution. The ground motion spoils alignment of accelerator elements and results in emittance growth. The ground motion in the frequency range of seismic vibration is mostly coherent in the related accelerator. But the incoherent diffusive or Brownian like motion becomes dominant at frequency region less than seismic vibration [1, 2, 3]. Slow ground motion with respect to the machine performance is discussed including the method of tunnel construction. Our experimental results and recent excavated results clarify that application of TBMs is better excavating method than NATM (Drill + Blast) for accelerator tunnel to prevent emittance dilution. ([1] V. Shiltsev, Proc. of IWAA95 Tsukuba, 1995. [2] Shigeru Takeda et al., Proc. of EPAC96, 1996. [3] A. Sery, Proc. of LINAC96, 1996.)

Bipedal locomotion in granular media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kingsbury, Mark; Zhang, Tingnan; Goldman, Daniel

Bipedal walking, locomotion characterized by alternating swing and double support phase, is well studied on ground where feet do not penetrate the substrate. On granular media like sand however, intrusion and extrusion phases also occur. In these phases, relative motion of the two feet requires that one or both feet slip through the material, degrading performance. To study walking in these phases, we designed and studied a planarized bipedal robot (1.6 kg, 42 cm) that walked in a fluidized bed of poppy seeds. We also simulated the robot in a multibody software environment (Chrono) using granular resistive force theory (RFT) to calculate foot forces. In experiment and simulation, the robot experienced slip during the intrusion phase, with the experiment presenting additional slip due to motor control error during the double support phase. This exaggerated slip gave insight (through analysis of ground reaction forces in simulation) into how slip occurs when relative motion exists between the two feet in the granular media, where the foot with higher relative drag forces (from its instantaneous orientation, rotation, relative direction of motion, and depth) remains stationary. With this relationship, we generated walking gaits for the robot to walk with minimal slip.

Surface wave site characterization at 27 locations near Boston, Massachusetts, including 2 strong-motion stations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thompson, Eric M.; Carkin, Bradley A.; Baise, Laurie G.; Kayen, Robert E.

2014-01-01

The geotechnical properties of the soils in and around Boston, Massachusetts, have been extensively studied. This is partly due to the importance of the Boston Blue Clay and the extent of landfill in the Boston area. Although New England is not a region that is typically associated with seismic hazards, there have been several historical earthquakes that have caused significant ground shaking (for example, see Street and Lacroix, 1979; Ebel, 1996; Ebel, 2006). The possibility of strong ground shaking, along with heightened vulnerability from unreinforced masonry buildings, motivates further investigation of seismic hazards throughout New England. Important studies that are pertinent to seismic hazards in New England include source-parameter studies (Somerville and others, 1987; Boore and others, 2010), wave-propagation studies (Frankel, 1991; Viegas and others, 2010), empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPE) for computing ground-motion intensity (Tavakoli and Pezeshk, 2005; Atkinson and Boore, 2006), site-response studies (Hayles and others, 2001; Ebel and Kim, 2006), and liquefaction studies (Brankman and Baise, 2008). The shear-wave velocity (VS) profiles collected for this report are pertinent to the GMPE, site response, and liquefaction aspects of seismic hazards in the greater Boston area. Besides the application of these data for the Boston region, the data may be applicable throughout New England, through correlations with geologic units (similar to Ebel and Kim, 2006) or correlations with topographic slope (Wald and Allen, 2007), because few VS measurements are available in stable tectonic regions.Ebel and Hart (2001) used felt earthquake reports to infer amplification patterns throughout the greater Boston region and noted spatial correspondence with the dominant period and amplification factors obtained from ambient noise (horizontal-to-vertical ratios) by Kummer (1998). Britton (2003) compiled geotechnical borings in the area and produced a microzonation map based on generalized velocity profiles, where the amplifications were computed using Shake (Schnable and others, 1972), along with an assumed input ground motion. The velocities were constrained by only a few local measurements associated with the Central Artery/Tunnel project. The additional VS measurements presented in this report provide a number of benefits. First, these measurements provide improved spatial coverage. Second, the larger sample size provides better constraints on the mean and variance of the VS distribution for each layer, which may be paired with a three-dimensional (3D) model of the stratigraphy to generate one-dimensional (1D) profiles for use in a standard site-response analysis (for example, Britton, 2003). Third, the velocity profiles may also be used, along with a 3D model of the stratigraphy, as input into a 3D simulation of the ground motion to investigate the effects of basin-generated surface waves and the potential focusing of seismic waves.This report begins with a short review of the geology of the study area and the field methods that we used to estimate the velocity profiles. The raw data, processed data, and the interpreted VS profiles are given in appendix 1. Photographs and descriptions of the sites are provided in appendix 2.

A study of surface and subsurface ground motions at Calico Hills, Nevada Test Site

USGS Publications Warehouse

King, Kenneth W.

1982-01-01

A study of earthquake ground motions recorded at depth in a drill hole and at the ground surface has derived the surface to subsurface transfer functions such as might be expected at a potential nuclear waste repository in a similar setting. The site under investigation has small seismic velocity contrasts in the layers of rock between the surface and the subsurface seismometer location. The subsurface seismic motions were similar in spectral characteristics to the surface motions and were lower in amplitude across the recorded band-width by a factor of 1.5.

Source process of the MW7.8 2016 Kaikoura earthquake in New Zealand and the characteristics of the near-fault strong ground motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, L.; Zang, Y.; Zhou, L.; Han, Y.

2017-12-01

The MW7.8 New Zealand earthquake of 2016 occurred near the Kaikoura area in the South Island, New Zealand with the epicenter of 173.13°E and 42.78°S. The MW7.8 Kaikoura earthquake occurred on the transform boundary faults between the Pacific plate and the Australian plate and with the thrust focal mechanism solution. The Kaikoura earthquake is a complex event because the significant difference, especially between the magnitude, seismic moment, radiated energy and the casualties. Only two people were killed, and twenty people injured and no more than twenty buildings are destroyed during this earthquake, the damage level is not so severe in consideration about the huge magnitude. We analyzed the rupture process according to the source parameters, it can be confirmed that the radiated energy and the apparent stress of the Kaikoura earthquake are small and minor. The results indicate a frictional overshoot behavior in the dynamic source process of Kaikoura earthquake, which is actually with sufficient rupture and more affluent moderate aftershocks. It is also found that the observed horizontal Peak Ground Acceleration of the strong ground motion is generally small comparing with the Next Generation Attenuation relationship. We further studied the characteristics of the observed horizontal PGAs at the 6 near fault stations, which are located in the area less than 10 km to the main fault. The relatively high level strong ground motion from the 6 stations may be produced by the higher slip around the asperity area rather than the initial rupture position on the main plane. Actually, the huge surface displacement at the northern of the rupture fault plane indicated why aftershocks are concentrated in the north. And there are more damage in Wellington than in Christchurch, even which is near the south of the epicenter. In conclusion, the less damage level of Kaikoura earthquake in New Zealand may probably because of the smaller strong ground motion and the rare population in the near fault area, with the most severe surface destruction. This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41404045).

Sensitivity analysis of the FEMA HAZUS-MH MR4 Earthquake Model using seismic events affecting King County Washington

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neighbors, C.; Noriega, G. R.; Caras, Y.; Cochran, E. S.

2010-12-01

HAZUS-MH MR4 (HAZards U. S. Multi-Hazard Maintenance Release 4) is a risk-estimation software developed by FEMA to calculate potential losses due to natural disasters. Federal, state, regional, and local government use the HAZUS-MH Earthquake Model for earthquake risk mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery planning (FEMA, 2003). In this study, we examine several parameters used by the HAZUS-MH Earthquake Model methodology to understand how modifying the user-defined settings affect ground motion analysis, seismic risk assessment and earthquake loss estimates. This analysis focuses on both shallow crustal and deep intraslab events in the American Pacific Northwest. Specifically, the historic 1949 Mw 6.8 Olympia, 1965 Mw 6.6 Seattle-Tacoma and 2001 Mw 6.8 Nisqually normal fault intraslab events and scenario large-magnitude Seattle reverse fault crustal events are modeled. Inputs analyzed include variations of deterministic event scenarios combined with hazard maps and USGS ShakeMaps. This approach utilizes the capacity of the HAZUS-MH Earthquake Model to define landslide- and liquefaction- susceptibility hazards with local groundwater level and slope stability information. Where Shakemap inputs are not used, events are run in combination with NEHRP soil classifications to determine site amplification effects. The earthquake component of HAZUS-MH applies a series of empirical ground motion attenuation relationships developed from source parameters of both regional and global historical earthquakes to estimate strong ground motion. Ground motion and resulting ground failure due to earthquakes are then used to calculate, direct physical damage for general building stock, essential facilities, and lifelines, including transportation systems and utility systems. Earthquake losses are expressed in structural, economic and social terms. Where available, comparisons between recorded earthquake losses and HAZUS-MH earthquake losses are used to determine how region coordinators can most effectively utilize their resources for earthquake risk mitigation. This study is being conducted in collaboration with King County, WA officials to determine the best model inputs necessary to generate robust HAZUS-MH models for the Pacific Northwest.

The Las Vegas Valley Seismic Response Project: Ground Motions in Las Vegas Valley from Nuclear Explosions at the Nevada Test Site

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rodgers, A; Tkalcic, H; McCallen, D

2005-03-18

Between 2001-2004 the Las Vegas Seismic Response Project has sought to understand the response of Las Vegas Valley (LVV) to seismic excitation. In this study, the author report the findings of this project with an emphasis on ground motions in LVV from nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). These ground motions are used to understand building structural response and damage as well as human perception. Historical nuclear explosion observations are augmented with earthquake recordings from a temporary deployment of seismometers to improve spatial coverage of LVV. The nuclear explosions were conducted between 1968 and 1989 and were recordedmore » at various sites within Las Vegas. The data from past nuclear tests were used to constrain ground motions in LVV and to gain a predictive capability of ground motions for possible future nuclear tests at NTS. Analysis of ground motion data includes peak ground motions (accelerations and velocities) and amplification of basin sites relative to hard rock sites (site response). Site response was measured with the Standard Spectral Ratios (SSR) technique relative to hard rock reference sites on the periphery of LVV. The site response curves indicate a strong basin amplification of up to a factor of ten at frequencies between 0.5-2 Hz. Amplifications are strongest in the central and northern portions of LVV, where the basin is deeper than 1 km based on the reported basin depths of Langenheim et al (2001a). They found a strong correlation between amplification and basin depth and shallow shear wave velocities. Amplification below 1 Hz is strongly controlled by slowness-averaged shear velocities to depths of 30 and 100 meters. Depth averaged shear velocities to 10 meters has modest control of amplifications between 1-3 Hz. Modeling reveals that low velocity material in the shallow layers (< 200 m) effectively controls amplification. They developed a method to scale nuclear explosion ground motion time series to sites around LVV that have no historical record of explosions. The method is also used to scale nuclear explosion ground motions to different yields. They also present a range of studies to understand basin structure and response performed on data from the temporary deployment.« less

Modeling the topography of shallow braided rivers using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Javernick, L.; Brasington, J.; Caruso, B.

2014-05-01

Recent advances in computer vision and image analysis have led to the development of a novel, fully automated photogrammetric method to generate dense 3d point cloud data. This approach, termed Structure-from-Motion or SfM, requires only limited ground-control and is ideally suited to imagery obtained from low-cost, non-metric cameras acquired either at close-range or using aerial platforms. Terrain models generated using SfM have begun to emerge recently and with a growing spectrum of software now available, there is an urgent need to provide a robust quality assessment of the data products generated using standard field and computational workflows. To address this demand, we present a detailed error analysis of sub-meter resolution terrain models of two contiguous reaches (1.6 and 1.7 km long) of the braided Ahuriri River, New Zealand, generated using SfM. A six stage methodology is described, involving: i) hand-held image acquisition from an aerial platform, ii) 3d point cloud extraction modeling using Agisoft PhotoScan, iii) georeferencing on a redundant network of GPS-surveyed ground-control points, iv) point cloud filtering to reduce computational demand as well as reduce vegetation noise, v) optical bathymetric modeling of inundated areas; and vi) data fusion and surface modeling to generate sub-meter raster terrain models. Bootstrapped geo-registration as well as extensive distributed GPS and sonar-based bathymetric check-data were used to quantify the quality of the models generated after each processing step. The results obtained provide the first quantified analysis of SfM applied to model the complex terrain of a braided river. Results indicate that geo-registration errors of 0.04 m (planar) and 0.10 m (elevation) and vertical surface errors of 0.10 m in non-vegetation areas can be achieved from a dataset of photographs taken at 600 m and 800 m above the ground level. These encouraging results suggest that this low-cost, logistically simple method can deliver high quality terrain datasets competitive with those obtained with significantly more expensive laser scanning, and suitable for geomorphic change detection and hydrodynamic modeling.

Empirical recurrence rates for ground motion signals on planetary surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lorenz, Ralph D.; Panning, Mark

2018-03-01

We determine the recurrence rates of ground motion events as a function of sensed velocity amplitude at several terrestrial locations, and make a first interplanetary comparison with measurements on the Moon, Mars, Venus and Titan. This empirical approach gives an intuitive order-of-magnitude guide to the observed ground motion (including both tectonic and ocean- and atmosphere-forced signals) of these locations as a guide to instrument expectations on future missions, without invoking interior models and specific sources: for example a Venera-14 observation of possible ground motion indicates a microseismic environment mid-way between noisy and quiet terrestrial locations. Quiet terrestrial regions see a peak velocity amplitude in mm/s roughly equal to 0.3*N(-0.7), where N is the number of "events" (half-hour intervals in which a given peak ground motion is exceeded) observed per year. The Apollo data show endogenous seismic signals for a given recurrence rate that are typically about 10,000 times smaller in amplitude than a quiet site on Earth, although local thermally-induced moonquakes are much more common. Viking data masked for low-wind periods appear comparable with a quiet terrestrial site, whereas a Venera observation of microseisms suggests ground motion more similar to a more active terrestrial location. Recurrence rate plots from in-situ measurements provide a context for seismic instrumentation on future planetary missions, e.g. to guide formulation of data compression schemes. While even small geophones can discriminate terrestrial activity rates, observations with guidance accelerometers are typically too insensitive to provide meaningful constraints (i.e. a non-zero number of "events") on actual ground motion observations unless operated for very long periods.

Spatial correlation of probabilistic earthquake ground motion and loss

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wesson, R.L.; Perkins, D.M.

2001-01-01

Spatial correlation of annual earthquake ground motions and losses can be used to estimate the variance of annual losses to a portfolio of properties exposed to earthquakes A direct method is described for the calculations of the spatial correlation of earthquake ground motions and losses. Calculations for the direct method can be carried out using either numerical quadrature or a discrete, matrix-based approach. Numerical results for this method are compared with those calculated from a simple Monte Carlo simulation. Spatial correlation of ground motion and loss is induced by the systematic attenuation of ground motion with distance from the source, by common site conditions, and by the finite length of fault ruptures. Spatial correlation is also strongly dependent on the partitioning of the variability, given an event, into interevent and intraevent components. Intraevent variability reduces the spatial correlation of losses. Interevent variability increases spatial correlation of losses. The higher the spatial correlation, the larger the variance in losses to a port-folio, and the more likely extreme values become. This result underscores the importance of accurately determining the relative magnitudes of intraevent and interevent variability in ground-motion studies, because of the strong impact in estimating earthquake losses to a portfolio. The direct method offers an alternative to simulation for calculating the variance of losses to a portfolio, which may reduce the amount of calculation required.

Recent updates in developing a statistical pseudo-dynamic source-modeling framework to capture the variability of earthquake rupture scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Seok Goo; Kwak, Sangmin; Lee, Kyungbook; Park, Donghee

2017-04-01

It is a critical element to predict the intensity and variability of strong ground motions in seismic hazard assessment. The characteristics and variability of earthquake rupture process may be a dominant factor in determining the intensity and variability of near-source strong ground motions. Song et al. (2014) demonstrated that the variability of earthquake rupture scenarios could be effectively quantified in the framework of 1-point and 2-point statistics of earthquake source parameters, constrained by rupture dynamics and past events. The developed pseudo-dynamic source modeling schemes were also validated against the recorded ground motion data of past events and empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) at the broadband platform (BBP) developed by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). Recently we improved the computational efficiency of the developed pseudo-dynamic source-modeling scheme by adopting the nonparametric co-regionalization algorithm, introduced and applied in geostatistics initially. We also investigated the effect of earthquake rupture process on near-source ground motion characteristics in the framework of 1-point and 2-point statistics, particularly focusing on the forward directivity region. Finally we will discuss whether the pseudo-dynamic source modeling can reproduce the variability (standard deviation) of empirical GMPEs and the efficiency of 1-point and 2-point statistics to address the variability of ground motions.

Validation of simulated earthquake ground motions based on evolution of intensity and frequency content

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rezaeian, Sanaz; Zhong, Peng; Hartzell, Stephen; Zareian, Farzin

2015-01-01

Simulated earthquake ground motions can be used in many recent engineering applications that require time series as input excitations. However, applicability and validation of simulations are subjects of debate in the seismological and engineering communities. We propose a validation methodology at the waveform level and directly based on characteristics that are expected to influence most structural and geotechnical response parameters. In particular, three time-dependent validation metrics are used to evaluate the evolving intensity, frequency, and bandwidth of a waveform. These validation metrics capture nonstationarities in intensity and frequency content of waveforms, making them ideal to address nonlinear response of structural systems. A two-component error vector is proposed to quantify the average and shape differences between these validation metrics for a simulated and recorded ground-motion pair. Because these metrics are directly related to the waveform characteristics, they provide easily interpretable feedback to seismologists for modifying their ground-motion simulation models. To further simplify the use and interpretation of these metrics for engineers, it is shown how six scalar key parameters, including duration, intensity, and predominant frequency, can be extracted from the validation metrics. The proposed validation methodology is a step forward in paving the road for utilization of simulated ground motions in engineering practice and is demonstrated using examples of recorded and simulated ground motions from the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake.

Tilts in strong ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Graizer, V.

2006-01-01

Most instruments used in seismological practice to record ground motion are pendulum seismographs, velocigraphs, or accelerographs. In most cases it is assumed that seismic instruments are only sensitive to the translational motion of the instrument's base. In this study the full equation of pendulum motion, including the inputs of rotations and tilts, is considered. It is shown that tilting the accelerograph's base can severely impact its response to the ground motion. The method of tilt evaluation using uncorrected strong-motion accelerograms was first suggested by Graizer (1989), and later tested in several laboratory experiments with different strong-motion instruments. The method is based on the difference in the tilt sensitivity of the horizontal and vertical pendulums. The method was applied to many of the strongest records of the Mw 6.7 Northridge earthquake of 1994. Examples are shown when relatively large tilts of up to a few degrees occurred during strong earthquake ground motion. Residual tilt extracted from the strong-motion record at the Pacoima Dam-Upper Left Abutment reached 3.1?? in N45??E direction, and was a result of local earthquake-induced tilting due to high-amplitude shaking. This value is in agreement with the residual tilt measured by using electronic level a few days after the earthquake. The method was applied to the building records from the Northridge earthquake. According to the estimates, residual tilt reached 2.6?? on the ground floor of the 12-story Hotel in Ventura. Processing of most of the strongest records of the Northridge earthquake shows that tilts, if happened, were within the error of the method, or less than about 0.5??.

Understanding the magnitude dependence of PGA and PGV in NGA-West 2 data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Baltay, Annemarie S.; Hanks, Thomas C.

2014-01-01

The Next Generation Attenuation‐West 2 (NGA‐West 2) 2014 ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs) model ground motions as a function of magnitude and distance, using empirically derived coefficients (e.g., Bozorgniaet al., 2014); as such, these GMPEs do not clearly employ earthquake source parameters beyond moment magnitude (M) and focal mechanism. To better understand the magnitude‐dependent trends in the GMPEs, we build a comprehensive earthquake source‐based model to explain the magnitude dependence of peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity in the NGA‐West 2 ground‐motion databases and GMPEs. Our model employs existing models (Hanks and McGuire, 1981; Boore, 1983, 1986; Anderson and Hough, 1984) that incorporate a point‐source Brune model, including a constant stress drop and the high‐frequency attenuation parameter κ0, random vibration theory, and a finite‐fault assumption at the large magnitudes to describe the data from magnitudes 3 to 8. We partition this range into four different magnitude regions, each of which has different functional dependences on M. Use of the four magnitude partitions separately allows greater understanding of what happens in any one subrange, as well as the limiting conditions between the subranges. This model provides a remarkably good fit to the NGA data for magnitudes from 3

Decoupling the Roles of Inertia and Gravity on Particle Dispersion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Groszmann, D. E.; Thompson, J. H.; Coppen, S. W.; Rogers, C. B.

1999-01-01

Inertial and gravitational forces determine a particle's motion in a turbulent flow field. Gravity plays the dominant role in this motion by pulling the particles through adjacent regions of fluid turbulence. To better understand and model how a particle's inertia effects its displacement, one must examine the dispersion in a turbulent flow in the absence of gravity. In this paper, we present the particle experiments planned for NASA's KC-135 Reduced-Gravity Aircraft, which generates microgravity conditions for about 20 seconds. We also predict the particle behavior using simulation and ground-based experiments. We will release particles with Stokes numbers of 0.1, 1, and 10 into an enclosed tank of near-isotropic, stationary, and homogenous turbulence. These particle Stoke numbers cover a broad range of flow regimes of interest. Two opposed grids oscillating back and forth generate the turbulent field in the tank with a range of turbulence scales that covers about three orders of magnitude and with turbulence intensities of about ten times the mean velocity. The motion of the particles will be tracked using a stereo image velocimetry technique.

Ground-motion parameters of the southwestern Indiana earthquake of 18 June 2002 and the disparity between the observed and predicted values

USGS Publications Warehouse

Street, R.; Wiegand, J.; Woolery, E.W.; Hart, P.

2005-01-01

The M 4.5 southwestern Indiana earthquake of 18 June 2002 triggered 46 blast monitors in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. The resulting free-field particle velocity records, along with similar data from previous earthquakes in the study area, provide a clear standard for judging the reliability of current maps for predicting ground motions greater than 2 Hz in southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois. Peak horizontal accelerations and velocities, and 5% damped pseudo-accelerations for the earthquake, generally exceeded ground motions predicted for the top of the bedrock by factors of 2 or more, even after soil amplifications were taken into consideration. It is suggested, but not proven, that the low shear-wave velocity and weathered bedrock in the area are also amplifying the higher-frequency ground motions that have been repeatedly recorded by the blast monitors in the study area. It is also shown that there is a good correlation between the peak ground motions and 5% pseudo-accelerations recorded for the event, and the Modified Mercalli intensities interpreted for the event by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Evaluation of the recorded ground motions for the unusual earthquake of 13 August 2006 ( M w 5.3) in Michoacán México

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramírez-Gaytán, Alejandro; Jaimes, Miguel A.; Bandy, William L.; Huerfano, Victor M.; Salido-Ruiz, Ricardo A.

2015-10-01

The focal mechanism of the moderate earthquake of 13 August 2006 M w = 5.3, which occurred in the border coastal area between Michoacán and Colima, México, is unusual. As shown by the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) project and the Servicio Sismológico Nacional de Mexico (SSN), the thrust mechanism is striking almost perpendicularly to the majority of earthquakes occurring along the subduction zone of the Mexican Pacific continental margin which commonly strike nearly parallel to the trench. The purpose of this study is to analyze the observed ground motions of this particular event relative to those of the common events. First, we apply the H/V technique to verify that the stations involved in this study are nearly free of site effects. Then, we compare the observed ground motions with (i) three empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) appropriate for the region, (ii) ground motions of four real earthquakes with the common mechanism, and (iii) the Fourier spectrum of a selected common event.

Nonlinear soil response in the vicinity of the Van Norman Complex following the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cultrera, G.; Boore, D.M.; Joyner, W.B.; Dietel, C.M.

1999-01-01

Ground-motion recordings obtained at the Van Norman Complex from the 1994 Northridge, California, mainshock and its aftershocks constitute an excellent data set for the analysis of soil response as a function of ground-motion amplitude. We searched for nonlinear response by comparing the Fourier spectral ratios of two pairs of sites for ground motions of different levels, using data from permanent strong-motion recorders and from specially deployed portable instruments. We also compared the amplitude dependence of the observed ratios with the amplitude dependence of the theoretical ratios obtained from 1-D linear and 1-D equivalent-linear transfer functions, using recently published borehole velocity profiles at the sites to provide the low-strain material properties. One pair of sites was at the Jensen Filtration Plant (JFP); the other pair was the Rinaldi Receiving Station (RIN) and the Los Angeles Dam (LAD). Most of the analysis was concentrated on the motions at the Jensen sites. Portable seismometers were installed at the JFP to see if the motions inside the structures housing the strong-motion recorders differed from nearby free-field motions. We recorded seven small earthquakes and found that the high-frequency, low-amplitude motions in the administration building were about 0.3 of those outside the building. This means that the lack of high frequencies on the strong-motion recordings in the administration building relative to the generator building is not due solely to nonlinear soil effects. After taking into account the effects of the buildings, however, analysis of the suite of strong- and weak-motion recordings indicates that nonlinearity occurred at the JFP. As predicted by equivalent-linear analysis, the largest events (the mainshock and the 20 March 1994 aftershock) show a significant deamplification of the high-frequency motion relative to the weak motions from aftershocks occurring many months after the mainshock. The weak-motion aftershocks recorded within 12 hours of the mainshock, however, show a relative deamplification similar to that in the mainshock. The soil behavior may be a consequence of a pore pressure buildup during large-amplitude motion that was not dissipated until sometime later. The motions at (RIN) and (LAD) are from free-field sites. The comparison among spectral ratios of the mainshock, weak-motion coda waves of the mainshock, and an aftershock within ten minutes of the mainshock indicate that some nonlinearity occurred, presumably at (RIN) because it is the softer site. The spectral ratio for the mainshock is between that calculated for pure linear response and that calculated from the equivalent-linear method, using commonly used modulus reduction and damping ratio curves. In contrast to the Jensen sites, the ratio of motions soon after the high-amplitude portion of the mainshock differs from the ratio of the mainshock motions, indicating the mechanical properties of the soil returned to the low-strain values as the high-amplitude motion ended. This may indicate a type of nonlinear soil response different from that affecting motion at the Jensen administration building.

Figure-ground segregation modulates apparent motion.

PubMed

Ramachandran, V S; Anstis, S

1986-01-01

We explored the relationship between figure-ground segmentation and apparent motion. Results suggest that: static elements in the surround can eliminate apparent motion of a cluster of dots in the centre, but only if the cluster and surround have similar "grain" or texture; outlines that define occluding surfaces are taken into account by the motion mechanism; the brain uses a hierarchy of precedence rules in attributing motion to different segments of the visual scene. Being designated as "figure" confers a high rank in this scheme of priorities.

Source parameters of the 2013 Lushan, Sichuan, Ms7.0 earthquake and estimation of the near-fault strong ground motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, L.; Zhou, L.; Liu, J.

2013-12-01

Abstract: The April 20, 2013 Ms 7.0 earthquake in Lushan city, Sichuan province of China occurred as the result of east-west oriented reverse-type motion on a north-south striking fault. The source location suggests the event occurred on the Southern part of Longmenshan fault at a depth of 13km. The Lushan earthquake caused a great of loss of property and 196 deaths. The maximum intensity is up to VIII to IX at Boxing and Lushan city, which are located in the meizoseismal area. In this study, we analyzed the dynamic source process and calculated source spectral parameters, estimated the strong ground motion in the near-fault field based on the Brune's circle model at first. A dynamical composite source model (DCSM) has been developed further to simulate the near-fault strong ground motion with associated fault rupture properties at Boxing and Lushan city, respectively. The results indicate that the frictional undershoot behavior in the dynamic source process of Lushan earthquake, which is actually different from the overshoot activity of the Wenchuan earthquake. Based on the simulated results of the near-fault strong ground motion, described the intensity distribution of the Lushan earthquake field. The simulated intensity indicated that, the maximum intensity value is IX, and region with and above VII almost 16,000km2, which is consistence with observation intensity published online by China Earthquake Administration (CEA) on April 25. Moreover, the numerical modeling developed in this study has great application in the strong ground motion prediction and intensity estimation for the earthquake rescue purpose. In fact, the estimation methods based on the empirical relationship and numerical modeling developed in this study has great application in the strong ground motion prediction for the earthquake source process understand purpose. Keywords: Lushan, Ms7.0 earthquake; near-fault strong ground motion; DCSM; simulated intensity

Strike-slip earthquakes can also be detected in the ionosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Astafyeva, Elvira; Rolland, Lucie M.; Sladen, Anthony

2014-11-01

It is generally assumed that co-seismic ionospheric disturbances are generated by large vertical static displacements of the ground during an earthquake. Consequently, it is expected that co-seismic ionospheric disturbances are only observable after earthquakes with a significant dip-slip component. Therefore, earthquakes dominated by strike-slip motion, i.e. with very little vertical co-seismic component, are not expected to generate ionospheric perturbations. In this work, we use total electron content (TEC) measurements from ground-based GNSS-receivers to study ionospheric response to six recent largest strike-slip earthquakes: the Mw7.8 Kunlun earthquake of 14 November 2001, the Mw8.1 Macquarie earthquake of 23 December 2004, the Sumatra earthquake doublet, Mw8.6 and Mw8.2, of 11 April 2012, the Mw7.7 Balochistan earthquake of 24 September 2013 and the Mw 7.7 Scotia Sea earthquake of 17 November 2013. We show that large strike-slip earthquakes generate large ionospheric perturbations of amplitude comparable with those induced by dip-slip earthquakes of equivalent magnitude. We consider that in the absence of significant vertical static co-seismic displacements of the ground, other seismological parameters (primarily the magnitude of co-seismic horizontal displacements, seismic fault dimensions, seismic slip) may contribute in generation of large-amplitude ionospheric perturbations.

Using a Full Complex Site Transfer Function to Estimate Strong Ground Motion in Port-au-Prince (Haiti).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

ST Fleur, S.; Courboulex, F.; Bertrand, E.; Mercier De Lepinay, B. F.; Hough, S. E.; Boisson, D.; Momplaisir, R.

2017-12-01

To assess the possible impact of a future earthquake in the urban area of Port-au-Prince (Haiti), we have implemented a simulation approach for complex ground motions produced by an earthquake. To this end, we have integrated local site effect in the prediction of strong ground motions in Port-au-Prince using the complex transfer functions method, which takes into account amplitude changes as well as phase changes. This technique is particularly suitable for basins where a conventional 1D digital approach proves inadequate, as is the case in Port-au-Prince. To do this, we use the results of the Standard Spectral Ratio (SSR) approach of St Fleur et al. (2016) to estimate the amplitude of the response of the site to a nearby rock site. Then, we determine the phase difference between sites, interpreted as changes in the phase of the signal related to local site conditions, using the signals of the 2010 earthquake aftershocks records. Finally, the accelerogram of the simulated earthquake is obtain using the technique of the inverse Fourier transform. The results of this study showed that the strongest soil motions are expected in neighborhoods of downtown Port-au-Prince and adjacent hills. In addition, this simulation method by complex transfer functions was validated by comparison with recorded actual data. Our simulated response spectra reproduce very well both the amplitude and the shape of the response spectra of recorded earthquakes. This new approach allowed to reproduce the lengthening of the signal that could be generated by surface waves at certain stations in the city of Port-au-Prince. However, two points of vigilance must be considered: (1) a good signal-to-noise ratio is necessary to obtain a robust estimate of the site-reference phase shift (ratio at least equal to 10); (2) unless the amplitude and phase changes are measured on strong motion records, this technique does not take non-linear effects into account.

Seismoacoustic Coupled Signals From Earthquakes in Central Italy: Epicentral and Secondary Sources of Infrasound

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shani-Kadmiel, Shahar; Assink, Jelle D.; Smets, Pieter S. M.; Evers, Läslo G.

2018-01-01

In this study we analyze infrasound signals from three earthquakes in central Italy. The Mw 6.0 Amatrice, Mw 5.9 Visso, and Mw 6.5 Norcia earthquakes generated significant epicentral ground motions that couple to the atmosphere and produce infrasonic waves. Epicentral seismic and infrasonic signals are detected at I26DE; however, a third type of signal, which arrives after the seismic wave train and before the epicentral infrasound signal, is also detected. This peculiar signal propagates across the array at acoustic wave speeds, but the celerity associated with it is 3 times the speed of sound. Atmosphere-independent backprojections and full 3-D ray tracing using atmospheric conditions of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts are used to demonstrate that this apparently fast-arriving infrasound signal originates from ground motions more than 400 km away from the epicenter. The location of the secondary infrasound patch coincides with the closest bounce point to I26DE as depicted by ray tracing backprojections.

Source parameters of the 2013, Ms 7.0, Lushan earthquake and the characteristics of the near-fault strong ground motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Fengfan; Meng, Lingyuan

2016-04-01

The April 20, 2013 Ms 7.0, earthquake in Lushan city, Sichuan province of China occurred as the result of east-west oriented reverse-type motion on a north-south striking fault. The source location suggests the event occurred on the Southern part of Longmenshan fault at a depth of 13km. The maximum intensity is up to VIII to IX at Boxing and Lushan city, which are located in the meizoseismal area. In this study, we analyzed the dynamic source process with the source mechanism and empirical relationships, estimated the strong ground motion in the near-fault field based on the Brune's circle model. A dynamical composite source model (DCSM) has been developed to simulate the near-fault strong ground motion with associated fault rupture properties at Boxing and Lushan city, respectively. The results indicate that the frictional undershoot behavior in the dynamic source process of Lushan earthquake, which is actually different from the overshoot activity of the Wenchuan earthquake. Moreover, we discussed the characteristics of the strong ground motion in the near-fault field, that the broadband synthetic seismogram ground motion predictions for Boxing and Lushan city produced larger peak values, shorter durations and higher frequency contents. It indicates that the factors in near-fault strong ground motion was under the influence of higher effect stress drop and asperity slip distributions on the fault plane. This work is financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41404045) and by Science for Earthquake Resilience of CEA (XH14055Y).

Chapter D. The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Earth Structures and Engineering Characterization of Ground Motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holzer, Thomas L.

1998-01-01

This chapter contains two papers that summarize the performance of engineered earth structures, dams and stabilized excavations in soil, and two papers that characterize for engineering purposes the attenuation of ground motion with distance during the Loma Prieta earthquake. Documenting the field performance of engineered structures and confirming empirically based predictions of ground motion are critical for safe and cost effective seismic design of future structures as well as the retrofitting of existing ones.

10 CFR 72.103 - Geological and seismological characteristics for applications for dry cask modes of storage on or...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

..., and that are not in areas of known seismic activity, a standardized design earthquake ground motion... motion, tectonic surface deformation, nontectonic deformation, earthquake recurrence rates, fault... of the Design Earthquake Ground Motion (DE). The DE for the site is characterized by both horizontal...

10 CFR 72.103 - Geological and seismological characteristics for applications for dry cask modes of storage on or...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

..., and that are not in areas of known seismic activity, a standardized design earthquake ground motion... motion, tectonic surface deformation, nontectonic deformation, earthquake recurrence rates, fault... of the Design Earthquake Ground Motion (DE). The DE for the site is characterized by both horizontal...

10 CFR 72.103 - Geological and seismological characteristics for applications for dry cask modes of storage on or...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

..., and that are not in areas of known seismic activity, a standardized design earthquake ground motion... motion, tectonic surface deformation, nontectonic deformation, earthquake recurrence rates, fault... of the Design Earthquake Ground Motion (DE). The DE for the site is characterized by both horizontal...

10 CFR 72.103 - Geological and seismological characteristics for applications for dry cask modes of storage on or...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

..., and that are not in areas of known seismic activity, a standardized design earthquake ground motion... motion, tectonic surface deformation, nontectonic deformation, earthquake recurrence rates, fault... of the Design Earthquake Ground Motion (DE). The DE for the site is characterized by both horizontal...

10 CFR 72.103 - Geological and seismological characteristics for applications for dry cask modes of storage on or...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

..., and that are not in areas of known seismic activity, a standardized design earthquake ground motion... motion, tectonic surface deformation, nontectonic deformation, earthquake recurrence rates, fault... of the Design Earthquake Ground Motion (DE). The DE for the site is characterized by both horizontal...

SU-C-209-02: 3D Fluoroscopic Image Generation From Patient-Specific 4DCBCT-Based Motion Models Derived From Clinical Patient Images

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dhou, S; Cai, W; Hurwitz, M

Purpose: We develop a method to generate time varying volumetric images (3D fluoroscopic images) using patient-specific motion models derived from four-dimensional cone-beam CT (4DCBCT). Methods: Motion models are derived by selecting one 4DCBCT phase as a reference image, and registering the remaining images to it. Principal component analysis (PCA) is performed on the resultant displacement vector fields (DVFs) to create a reduced set of PCA eigenvectors that capture the majority of respiratory motion. 3D fluoroscopic images are generated by optimizing the weights of the PCA eigenvectors iteratively through comparison of measured cone-beam projections and simulated projections generated from the motionmore » model. This method was applied to images from five lung-cancer patients. The spatial accuracy of this method is evaluated by comparing landmark positions in the 3D fluoroscopic images to manually defined ground truth positions in the patient cone-beam projections. Results: 4DCBCT motion models were shown to accurately generate 3D fluoroscopic images when the patient cone-beam projections contained clearly visible structures moving with respiration (e.g., the diaphragm). When no moving anatomical structure was clearly visible in the projections, the 3D fluoroscopic images generated did not capture breathing deformations, and reverted to the reference image. For the subset of 3D fluoroscopic images generated from projections with visibly moving anatomy, the average tumor localization error and the 95th percentile were 1.6 mm and 3.1 mm respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that 4DCBCT-based 3D fluoroscopic images can accurately capture respiratory deformations in a patient dataset, so long as the cone-beam projections used contain visible structures that move with respiration. For clinical implementation of 3D fluoroscopic imaging for treatment verification, an imaging field of view (FOV) that contains visible structures moving with respiration should be selected. If no other appropriate structures are visible, the images should include the diaphragm. This project was supported, in part, through a Master Research Agreement with Varian Medical Systems, Inc, Palo Alto, CA.« less

Ground-Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) from a global dataset: the PEERPEER NGA equations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David M.; Akkar, Sinan; Gulkan, Polat; van Eck, Torild

2011-01-01

The PEER NGA ground-motion prediction equation s (GMPEs) were derived by five developer teams over several years, resulting in five sets of GMPEs. The teams used various subsets of a global database of ground motions and metadata from shallow earthquakes in tectonically active regions in the development of the equations. Since their publication, the predicted motions from these GMPEs have been compared with data from various parts of the world – data that largely were not used in the development of the GMPEs. The comparisons suggest that the NGA GMPEs are applicable globally for shallow earthquakes in tectonically active regions.

Upper and lower bounds of ground-motion variabilities: implication for source properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cotton, Fabrice; Reddy-Kotha, Sreeram; Bora, Sanjay; Bindi, Dino

2017-04-01

One of the key challenges of seismology is to be able to analyse the physical factors that control earthquakes and ground-motion variabilities. Such analysis is particularly important to calibrate physics-based simulations and seismic hazard estimations at high frequencies. Within the framework of the development of ground-motion prediction equation (GMPE) developments, ground-motions residuals (differences between recorded ground motions and the values predicted by a GMPE) are computed. The exponential growth of seismological near-source records and modern GMPE analysis technics allow to partition these residuals into between- and a within-event components. In particular, the between-event term quantifies all those repeatable source effects (e.g. related to stress-drop or kappa-source variability) which have not been accounted by the magnitude-dependent term of the model. In this presentation, we first discuss the between-event variabilities computed both in the Fourier and Response Spectra domains, using recent high-quality global accelerometric datasets (e.g. NGA-west2, Resorce, Kiknet). These analysis lead to the assessment of upper bounds for the ground-motion variability. Then, we compare these upper bounds with lower bounds estimated by analysing seismic sequences which occurred on specific fault systems (e.g., located in Central Italy or in Japan). We show that the lower bounds of between-event variabilities are surprisingly large which indicates a large variability of earthquake dynamic properties even within the same fault system. Finally, these upper and lower bounds of ground-shaking variability are discussed in term of variability of earthquake physical properties (e.g., stress-drop and kappa_source).

Spatial Based Integrated Assessment of Bedrock and Ground Motions, Fault Offsets, and Their Effects for the October-November 2002 Earthquake Sequence on the Denali Fault, Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vinson, T. S.; Carlson, R.; Hansen, R.; Hulsey, L.; Ma, J.; White, D.; Barnes, D.; Shur, Y.

2003-12-01

A National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Grant Exploratory Research Grant was awarded to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to archive bedrock and ground motions and fault offsets and their effects for the October-November 2002 earthquake sequence on the Denali Fault, Alaska. The scope of work included the accumulation of all strong motion records, satellite imagery, satellite remote sensing data, aerial and ground photographs, and structural response (both measured and anecdotal) that would be useful to achieve the objective. Several interesting data sets were archived including ice cover, lateral movement of stream channels, landslides, avalanches, glacial fracturing, "felt" ground motions, and changes in water quantity and quality. The data sources may be spatially integrated to provide a comprehensive assessment of the bedrock and ground motions and fault offsets for the October-November 2002 earthquake sequence. In the aftermath of the October-November 2002 earthquake sequence on the Denali fault, the Alaskan engineering community expressed a strong interest to understand why their structures and infrastructure were not substantially damaged by the ground motions they experienced during the October-November 2002 Earthquake Sequence on the Denali Fault. The research work proposed under this NSF Grant is a necessary prerequisite to this understanding. Furthermore, the proposed work will facilitate a comparison of Denali events with the Loma Prieta and recent Kocelli and Dozce events in Turkey, all of which were associated with strike-slip faulting. Finally, the spatially integrated data will provide the basis for research work that is truly innovative. For example, is may be possible to predict the observed (1) landsliding and avalanches, (2) changes in water quantity and quality, (3) glacial fracturing, and (4) the widespread liquefaction and lateral spreading, which occurred along the Tok cutoff and Northway airport, with the bedrock and ground motions and fault offsets extrapolated from the product of the research. An integrated assessment of the composite effects may be performed to better understand the bedrock and ground motions and fault offset regime that existed during the earthquake sequence.

Prediction of earthquake ground motion at rock sites in Japan: evaluation of empirical and stochastic approaches for the PEGASOS Refinement Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Benjamin; Fäh, Donat

2017-11-01

Strong ground-motion databases used to develop ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) and calibrate stochastic simulation models generally include relatively few recordings on what can be considered as engineering rock or hard rock. Ground-motion predictions for such sites are therefore susceptible to uncertainty and bias, which can then propagate into site-specific hazard and risk estimates. In order to explore this issue we present a study investigating the prediction of ground motion at rock sites in Japan, where a wide range of recording-site types (from soil to very hard rock) are available for analysis. We employ two approaches: empirical GMPEs and stochastic simulations. The study is undertaken in the context of the PEGASOS Refinement Project (PRP), a Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee (SSHAC) Level 4 probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of Swiss nuclear power plants, commissioned by swissnuclear and running from 2008 to 2013. In order to reduce the impact of site-to-site variability and expand the available data set for rock and hard-rock sites we adjusted Japanese ground-motion data (recorded at sites with 110 m s-1 < Vs30 < 2100 m s-1) to a common hard-rock reference. This was done through deconvolution of: (i) empirically derived amplification functions and (ii) the theoretical 1-D SH amplification between the bedrock and surface. Initial comparison of a Japanese GMPE's predictions with data recorded at rock and hard-rock sites showed systematic overestimation of ground motion. A further investigation of five global GMPEs' prediction residuals as a function of quarter-wavelength velocity showed that they all presented systematic misfit trends, leading to overestimation of median ground motions at rock and hard-rock sites in Japan. In an alternative approach, a stochastic simulation method was tested, allowing the direct incorporation of site-specific Fourier amplification information in forward simulations. We use an adjusted version of the model developed for Switzerland during the PRP. The median simulation prediction at true rock and hard-rock sites (Vs30 > 800 m s-1) was found to be comparable (within expected levels of epistemic uncertainty) to predictions using an empirical GMPE, with reduced residual misfit. As expected, due to including site-specific information in the simulations, the reduction in misfit could be isolated to a reduction in the site-related within-event uncertainty. The results of this study support the use of finite or pseudo-finite fault stochastic simulation methods in estimating strong ground motions in regions of weak and moderate seismicity, such as central and northern Europe. Furthermore, it indicates that weak-motion data has the potential to allow estimation of between- and within-site variability in ground motion, which is a critical issue in site-specific seismic hazard analysis, particularly for safety critical structures.

Human Modeling for Ground Processing Human Factors Engineering Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stambolian, Damon B.; Lawrence, Brad A.; Stelges, Katrine S.; Steady, Marie-Jeanne O.; Ridgwell, Lora C.; Mills, Robert E.; Henderson, Gena; Tran, Donald; Barth, Tim

2011-01-01

There have been many advancements and accomplishments over the last few years using human modeling for human factors engineering analysis for design of spacecraft. The key methods used for this are motion capture and computer generated human models. The focus of this paper is to explain the human modeling currently used at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), and to explain the future plans for human modeling for future spacecraft designs

Implementation of the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) ground-motion prediction equations in Fortran and R

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kaklamanos, James; Boore, David M.; Thompson, Eric M.; Campbell, Kenneth W.

2010-01-01

Although these programs have been used by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Tufts University, and others, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by Tufts or the USGS as to the accuracy or functioning of the programs and related material, nor shall the fact of distribution constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by Tufts or the USGS in connection therewith.

Adjoint Inversion for Extended Earthquake Source Kinematics From Very Dense Strong Motion Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ampuero, J. P.; Somala, S.; Lapusta, N.

2010-12-01

Addressing key open questions about earthquake dynamics requires a radical improvement of the robustness and resolution of seismic observations of large earthquakes. Proposals for a new generation of earthquake observation systems include the deployment of “community seismic networks” of low-cost accelerometers in urban areas and the extraction of strong ground motions from high-rate optical images of the Earth's surface recorded by a large space telescope in geostationary orbit. Both systems could deliver strong motion data with a spatial density orders of magnitude higher than current seismic networks. In particular, a “space seismometer” could sample the seismic wave field at a spatio-temporal resolution of 100 m, 1 Hz over areas several 100 km wide with an amplitude resolution of few cm/s in ground velocity. The amount of data to process would be immensely larger than what current extended source inversion algorithms can handle, which hampers the quantitative assessment of the cost-benefit trade-offs that can guide the practical design of the proposed earthquake observation systems. We report here on the development of a scalable source imaging technique based on iterative adjoint inversion and its application to the proof-of-concept of a space seismometer. We generated synthetic ground motions for M7 earthquake rupture scenarios based on dynamic rupture simulations on a vertical strike-slip fault embedded in an elastic half-space. A range of scenarios include increasing levels of complexity and interesting features such as supershear rupture speed. The resulting ground shaking is then processed accordingly to what would be captured by an optical satellite. Based on the resulting data, we perform source inversion by an adjoint/time-reversal method. The gradient of a cost function quantifying the waveform misfit between data and synthetics is efficiently obtained by applying the time-reversed ground velocity residuals as surface force sources, back-propagating onto the locked fault plane through a seismic wave simulation and recording the fault shear stress, which is the adjoint field of the fault slip-rate. Restricting the procedure to a single iteration is known as imaging. The source reconstructed by imaging reproduces the original forward model quite well in the shallow part of the fault. However, the deeper part of the earthquake source is not well reproduced, due to the lack of data on the side and bottom boundaries of our computational domain. To resolve this issue, we are implementing the complete iterative procedure and we will report on the convergence aspects of the adjoint iterations. Our current work is also directed towards addressing the lack of data on other boundaries of our domain and improving the source reconstruction by including teleseismic data for those boundaries and non-negativity constraints on the dominant slip-rate component.

Validation of the Passenger Ride Quality Apparatus (PRQA) for simulation of aircraft motions for ride-quality research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bigler, W. B., II

1977-01-01

The NASA passenger ride quality apparatus (PRQA), a ground based motion simulator, was compared to the total in flight simulator (TIFS). Tests were made on PRQA with varying stimuli: motions only; motions and noise; motions, noise, and visual; and motions and visual. Regression equations for the tests were obtained and subsequent t-testing of the slopes indicated that ground based simulator tests produced comfort change rates similar to actual flight data. It was recommended that PRQA be used in the ride quality program for aircraft and that it be validated for other transportation modes.

Shaking Table Experiment of Trampoline Effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoi, S.; Kunugi, T.; Fujiwara, H.

2010-12-01

It has been widely thought that soil response to ground shaking do not experience asymmetry in ground motion. An extreme vertical acceleration near four times gravity was recorded during the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi earthquake at IWTH25 station. This record is distinctly asymmetric in shape; the waveform envelope amplitude is about 1.6 times larger in the upward direction compared to the downward direction. To explain this phenomenon, Aoi et al. (2008) proposed a simple model of a mass bouncing on a trampoline. In this study we perform a shaking table experiment of a soil prototype to try to reproduce the asymmetric ground motion and to investigate the physics of this asymmetric behavior. A soil chamber made of an acrylic resin cylinder with 200 mm in diameter and 500 mm in height was tightly anchored to the shaking table and vertically shaken. We used four different sample materials; Toyoura standard sands, grass beads (particle size of 0.1 and 0.4 mm) and sawdust. Sample was uniformly stacked to a depth of 450 mm and, to measure the vertical motions, accelerometers was installed inside the material (at depths of 50, 220, and 390 mm) and on the frame of the chamber. Pictures were taken from a side by a high speed camera (1000 frames/sec) to capture the motions of particles. The chamber was shaken by sinusoidal wave (5, 10, and 20 Hz) with maximum amplitudes from 0.1 to 4.0 g. When the accelerations roughly exceeded gravity, for all samples, granular behaviors of sample materials became dominant and the asymmetric motions were successfully reproduced. Pictures taken by the high speed camera showed that the motions of the particles are clearly different from the motion of the chamber which is identical to the sinusoidal motion of the shaking table (input motion). Particles are rapidly flung up and freely pulled down by gravity, and the downward motion of the particles is slower than the upward motion. It was also observed that the timing difference of the falling motions indicate a dependence with depth. Our results show that the shape of time histories of recorded motions by the accelerometers within the sample, becomes increasingly different than the input sinusoidal wave for sensors at shallower depths. When sands or grass beads are used as fill material, the observed waveforms under large accelerations are the summation of a warped sine-like function and one or few sharp pulses, which might be caused by the shocks generated by the 'landing' of the free-falling material. For sawdust, the observed waveforms have much more smooth shapes which are also asymmetric; larger and narrower for upward direction and smaller and broader for downward direction. The reason why the waveforms of the sawdust experiments are different from the sand or grass bead cases is mainly due to the different elastic deformation characteristics of each material. The impacts of the 'landing' are reduced by the resilience of the sawdust and the shape pulses become blunt. Our experiments show that within all tested materials the sawdust is the one that somehow reproduces waveforms with the largest similarities to the observed asymmetric waveform at IWTH25. This shows that both the granularity and the elasticity may play an important role when the vertical ground motions become asymmetric.

Satellite radar interferometry for monitoring ice sheet motion: application to an antarctic ice stream.

PubMed

Goldstein, R M; Engelhardt, H; Kamb, B; Frolich, R M

1993-12-03

Satellite radar interferometry (SRI) provides a sensitive means of monitoring the flow velocities and grounding-line positions of ice streams, which are indicators of response of the ice sheets to climatic change or internal instability. The detection limit is about 1.5 millimeters for vertical motions and about 4 millimeters for horizontal motions in the radar beam direction. The grounding line, detected by tidal motions where the ice goes afloat, can be mapped at a resolution of approximately 0.5 kilometer. The SRI velocities and grounding line of the Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica, agree fairly well with earlier ground-based data. The combined use of SRI and other satellite methods is expected to provide data that will enhance the understanding of ice stream mechanics and help make possible the prediction of ice sheet behavior.

Probabilistic seismic demand analysis using advanced ground motion intensity measures

USGS Publications Warehouse

Tothong, P.; Luco, N.

2007-01-01

One of the objectives in performance-based earthquake engineering is to quantify the seismic reliability of a structure at a site. For that purpose, probabilistic seismic demand analysis (PSDA) is used as a tool to estimate the mean annual frequency of exceeding a specified value of a structural demand parameter (e.g. interstorey drift). This paper compares and contrasts the use, in PSDA, of certain advanced scalar versus vector and conventional scalar ground motion intensity measures (IMs). One of the benefits of using a well-chosen IM is that more accurate evaluations of seismic performance are achieved without the need to perform detailed ground motion record selection for the nonlinear dynamic structural analyses involved in PSDA (e.g. record selection with respect to seismic parameters such as earthquake magnitude, source-to-site distance, and ground motion epsilon). For structural demands that are dominated by a first mode of vibration, using inelastic spectral displacement (Sdi) can be advantageous relative to the conventionally used elastic spectral acceleration (Sa) and the vector IM consisting of Sa and epsilon (??). This paper demonstrates that this is true for ordinary and for near-source pulse-like earthquake records. The latter ground motions cannot be adequately characterized by either Sa alone or the vector of Sa and ??. For structural demands with significant higher-mode contributions (under either of the two types of ground motions), even Sdi (alone) is not sufficient, so an advanced scalar IM that additionally incorporates higher modes is used.

Performance assessment of conventional and base-isolated nuclear power plants for earthquake and blast loadings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Yin-Nan

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) are required by code and regulations to be designed for a family of extreme events, including very rare earthquake shaking, loss of coolant accidents, and tornado-borne missile impacts. Blast loading due to malevolent attack became a design consideration for NPPs and SNF after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The studies presented in this dissertation assess the performance of sample conventional and base isolated NPP reactor buildings subjected to seismic effects and blast loadings. The response of the sample reactor building to tornado-borne missile impacts and internal events (e.g., loss of coolant accidents) will not change if the building is base isolated and so these hazards were not considered. The sample NPP reactor building studied in this dissertation is composed of containment and internal structures with a total weight of approximately 75,000 tons. Four configurations of the reactor building are studied, including one conventional fixed-base reactor building and three base-isolated reactor buildings using Friction Pendulum(TM), lead rubber and low damping rubber bearings. The seismic assessment of the sample reactor building is performed using a new procedure proposed in this dissertation that builds on the methodology presented in the draft ATC-58 Guidelines and the widely used Zion method, which uses fragility curves defined in terms of ground-motion parameters for NPP seismic probabilistic risk assessment. The new procedure improves the Zion method by using fragility curves that are defined in terms of structural response parameters since damage and failure of NPP components are more closely tied to structural response parameters than to ground motion parameters. Alternate ground motion scaling methods are studied to help establish an optimal procedure for scaling ground motions for the purpose of seismic performance assessment. The proposed performance assessment procedure is used to evaluate the vulnerability of the conventional and base-isolated NPP reactor buildings. The seismic performance assessment confirms the utility of seismic isolation at reducing spectral demands on secondary systems. Procedures to reduce the construction cost of secondary systems in isolated reactor buildings are presented. A blast assessment of the sample reactor building is performed for an assumed threat of 2000 kg of TNT explosive detonated on the surface with a closest distance to the reactor building of 10 m. The air and ground shock waves produced by the design threat are generated and used for performance assessment. The air blast loading to the sample reactor building is computed using a Computational Fluid Dynamics code Air3D and the ground shock time series is generated using an attenuation model for soil/rock response. Response-history analysis of the sample conventional and base isolated reactor buildings to external blast loadings is performed using the hydrocode LS-DYNA. The spectral demands on the secondary systems in the isolated reactor building due to air blast loading are greater than those for the conventional reactor building but much smaller than those spectral demands associated with Safe Shutdown Earthquake shaking. The isolators are extremely effective at filtering out high acceleration, high frequency ground shock loading.

Head-bobbing behavior in foraging Whooping Cranes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cronin, T.; Kinloch, M.; Olsen, Glenn H.

2006-01-01

Many species of cursorial birds 'head-bob', that is, they alternately thrust the head forward, then hold it stiII as they walk. Such a motion stabilizes visual fields intermittently and could be critical for visual search; yet the time available for stabilization vs. forward thrust varies with walking speed. Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) are extremely tall birds that visually search the ground for seeds, berries, and small prey. We examined head movements in unrestrained Whooping Cranes using digital video subsequently analyzed with a computer graphical overlay. When foraging, the cranes walk at speeds that allow the head to be held still for at least 50% of the time. This behavior is thought to balance the two needs for covering as much ground as possible and for maximizing the time for visual fixation of the ground in the search for prey. Our results strongly suggest that in cranes, and probably many other bird species, visual fixation of the ground is required for object detection and identification. The thrust phase of the head-bobbing cycle is probably also important for vision. As the head moves forward, the movement generates visual flow and motion parallax, providing visual cues for distances and the relative locations of objects. The eyes commonly change their point of fixation when the head is moving too, suggesting that they remain visually competent throughout the entire cycle of thrust and stabilization.

Identifying natural and anthropogenically-induced geohazards from satellite ground motion and geospatial data: Stoke-on-Trent, UK

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jordan, Hannah; Cigna, Francesca; Bateson, Luke

2017-12-01

Determining the location and nature of hazardous ground motion resulting from natural and anthropogenic processes such as landslides, tectonic movement and mining is essential for hazard mitigation and sustainable resource use. Ground motion estimates from satellite ERS-1/2 persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) were combined with geospatial data to identify areas of observed geohazards in Stoke-on-Trent, UK. This investigation was performed within the framework of the EC FP7-SPACE PanGeo project which aimed to provide free and open access to geohazard information for 52 urban areas across Europe. Geohazards identified within the city of Stoke-on-Trent and neighbouring rural areas are presented here alongside an examination of the PanGeo methodology. A total of 14 areas experiencing ground instability caused by natural and anthropogenic processes have been defined, covering 122.35 km2. These are attributed to a range of geohazards, including landslides, ground dissolution, made ground and mining activities. The dominant geohazard (by area) is ground movement caused by post-mining groundwater recharge and mining-related subsidence (93.19% of total geohazard area), followed by landsliding (5.81%). Observed ground motions along the satellite line-of-sight reach maxima of +35.23 mm/yr and -22.57 mm/yr. A combination of uplift, subsidence and downslope movement is displayed. 'Construction sites' and 'continuous urban fabric' (European Urban Atlas land use types) form the land uses most affected (by area) by ground motion and 'discontinuous very low density urban fabric' the least. Areas of 'continuous urban fabric' also show the highest average velocity towards the satellite (5.08 mm/yr) and the highest PS densities (1262.92 points/km2) along with one of the lowest standard deviations. Rural land uses tend to result in lower PS densities and higher standard deviations, a consequence of fewer suitable reflectors in these regions. PSI is also limited in its ability to identify especially rapid ground motion. As a consequence the supporting geospatial data proved especially useful for the identification of landslides and some areas of ground dissolution. The mapped areas of instability are also compared with modelled potential geohazards (the BGS GeoSure dataset).

Documenting Western Burrowing Owl Reproduction and Activity Patterns Using Motion-Activated Cameras

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hall, Derek B.; Greger, Paul D.

We used motion-activated cameras to monitor the reproduction and patterns of activity of the Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) above ground at 45 burrows in south-central Nevada during the breeding seasons of 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2005. The 37 broods, encompassing 180 young, raised over the four years represented an average of 4.9 young per successful breeding pair. Young and adult owls were detected at the burrow entrance at all times of the day and night, but adults were detected more frequently during afternoon/early evening than were young. Motion-activated cameras require less effort to implement than other techniques. Limitations include photographingmore » only a small percentage of owl activity at the burrow; not detecting the actual number of eggs, young, or number fledged; and not being able to track individual owls over time. Further work is also necessary to compare the accuracy of productivity estimates generated from motion-activated cameras with other techniques.« less

Widespread ground motion distribution caused by rupture directivity during the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koketsu, Kazuki; Miyake, Hiroe; Guo, Yujia; Kobayashi, Hiroaki; Masuda, Tetsu; Davuluri, Srinagesh; Bhattarai, Mukunda; Adhikari, Lok Bijaya; Sapkota, Soma Nath

2016-06-01

The ground motion and damage caused by the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake can be characterized by their widespread distributions to the east. Evidence from strong ground motions, regional acceleration duration, and teleseismic waveforms indicate that rupture directivity contributed significantly to these distributions. This phenomenon has been thought to occur only if a strike-slip or dip-slip rupture propagates to a site in the along-strike or updip direction, respectively. However, even though the earthquake was a dip-slip faulting event and its source fault strike was nearly eastward, evidence for rupture directivity is found in the eastward direction. Here, we explore the reasons for this apparent inconsistency by performing a joint source inversion of seismic and geodetic datasets, and conducting ground motion simulations. The results indicate that the earthquake occurred on the underthrusting Indian lithosphere, with a low dip angle, and that the fault rupture propagated in the along-strike direction at a velocity just slightly below the S-wave velocity. This low dip angle and fast rupture velocity produced rupture directivity in the along-strike direction, which caused widespread ground motion distribution and significant damage extending far eastwards, from central Nepal to Mount Everest.

Stochastic Earthquake Rupture Modeling Using Nonparametric Co-Regionalization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Kyungbook; Song, Seok Goo

2017-09-01

Accurate predictions of the intensity and variability of ground motions are essential in simulation-based seismic hazard assessment. Advanced simulation-based ground motion prediction methods have been proposed to complement the empirical approach, which suffers from the lack of observed ground motion data, especially in the near-source region for large events. It is important to quantify the variability of the earthquake rupture process for future events and to produce a number of rupture scenario models to capture the variability in simulation-based ground motion predictions. In this study, we improved the previously developed stochastic earthquake rupture modeling method by applying the nonparametric co-regionalization, which was proposed in geostatistics, to the correlation models estimated from dynamically derived earthquake rupture models. The nonparametric approach adopted in this study is computationally efficient and, therefore, enables us to simulate numerous rupture scenarios, including large events ( M > 7.0). It also gives us an opportunity to check the shape of true input correlation models in stochastic modeling after being deformed for permissibility. We expect that this type of modeling will improve our ability to simulate a wide range of rupture scenario models and thereby predict ground motions and perform seismic hazard assessment more accurately.

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

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stewart, Jonathan P.; Midorikawa, Saburoh; Graves, Robert W.; Khodaverdi, Khatareh; Kishida, Tadahiro; Miura, Hiroyuki; Bozorgnia, Yousef; Campbell, Kenneth W.

2013-01-01

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.

Figure-ground modulation in awake primate thalamus.

PubMed

Jones, Helen E; Andolina, Ian M; Shipp, Stewart D; Adams, Daniel L; Cudeiro, Javier; Salt, Thomas E; Sillito, Adam M

2015-06-02

Figure-ground discrimination refers to the perception of an object, the figure, against a nondescript background. Neural mechanisms of figure-ground detection have been associated with feedback interactions between higher centers and primary visual cortex and have been held to index the effect of global analysis on local feature encoding. Here, in recordings from visual thalamus of alert primates, we demonstrate a robust enhancement of neuronal firing when the figure, as opposed to the ground, component of a motion-defined figure-ground stimulus is located over the receptive field. In this paradigm, visual stimulation of the receptive field and its near environs is identical across both conditions, suggesting the response enhancement reflects higher integrative mechanisms. It thus appears that cortical activity generating the higher-order percept of the figure is simultaneously reentered into the lowest level that is anatomically possible (the thalamus), so that the signature of the evolving representation of the figure is imprinted on the input driving it in an iterative process.

Figure-ground modulation in awake primate thalamus

PubMed Central

Jones, Helen E.; Andolina, Ian M.; Shipp, Stewart D.; Adams, Daniel L.; Cudeiro, Javier; Salt, Thomas E.; Sillito, Adam M.

2015-01-01

Figure-ground discrimination refers to the perception of an object, the figure, against a nondescript background. Neural mechanisms of figure-ground detection have been associated with feedback interactions between higher centers and primary visual cortex and have been held to index the effect of global analysis on local feature encoding. Here, in recordings from visual thalamus of alert primates, we demonstrate a robust enhancement of neuronal firing when the figure, as opposed to the ground, component of a motion-defined figure-ground stimulus is located over the receptive field. In this paradigm, visual stimulation of the receptive field and its near environs is identical across both conditions, suggesting the response enhancement reflects higher integrative mechanisms. It thus appears that cortical activity generating the higher-order percept of the figure is simultaneously reentered into the lowest level that is anatomically possible (the thalamus), so that the signature of the evolving representation of the figure is imprinted on the input driving it in an iterative process. PMID:25901330

The effect of sinusoidal rolling ground motion on lifting biomechanics.

PubMed

Ning, Xiaopeng; Mirka, Gary A

2010-12-01

The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of ground surface motion on the biomechanical responses of a person performing a lifting task. A boat motion simulator (BMS) was built to provide a sinusoidal ground motion (simultaneous vertical linear translation and a roll angular displacement) that simulates the deck motion on a small fishing boat. Sixteen participants performed lifting, lowering and static holding tasks under conditions of two levels of mass (5 and 10 kg) and five ground moving conditions. Each ground moving condition was specified by its ground angular displacement and instantaneous vertical acceleration: A): +6°, -0.54 m/s(2); B): +3°, -0.27 m/s(2); C): 0°, 0m/s(2); D): -3°, 0.27 m/s(2); and E): -6°, 0.54 m/s(2). As they performed these tasks, trunk kinematics were captured using the lumbar motion monitor and trunk muscle activities were evaluated through surface electromyography. The results showed that peak sagittal plane angular acceleration was significantly higher in Condition A than in Conditions C, D and E (698°/s(2) vs. 612-617°/s(2)) while peak sagittal plane angular deceleration during lowering was significantly higher in moving conditions (conditions A and E) than in the stationary condition C (538-542°/s(2) vs. 487°/s(2)). The EMG results indicate that the boat motions tend to amplify the effects of the slant of the lifting surface and the external oblique musculature plays an important role in stabilizing the torso during these dynamic lifting tasks. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Hybrid Ground-Motion Prediction Equation for Earthquakes in Western Alberta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spriggs, N.; Yenier, E.; Law, A.; Moores, A. O.

2015-12-01

Estimation of ground-motion amplitudes that may be produced by future earthquakes constitutes the foundation of seismic hazard assessment and earthquake-resistant structural design. This is typically done by using a prediction equation that quantifies amplitudes as a function of key seismological variables such as magnitude, distance and site condition. In this study, we develop a hybrid empirical prediction equation for earthquakes in western Alberta, where evaluation of seismic hazard associated with induced seismicity is of particular interest. We use peak ground motions and response spectra from recorded seismic events to model the regional source and attenuation attributes. The available empirical data is limited in the magnitude range of engineering interest (M>4). Therefore, we combine empirical data with a simulation-based model in order to obtain seismologically informed predictions for moderate-to-large magnitude events. The methodology is two-fold. First, we investigate the shape of geometrical spreading in Alberta. We supplement the seismic data with ground motions obtained from mining/quarry blasts, in order to gain insights into the regional attenuation over a wide distance range. A comparison of ground-motion amplitudes for earthquakes and mining/quarry blasts show that both event types decay at similar rates with distance and demonstrate a significant Moho-bounce effect. In the second stage, we calibrate the source and attenuation parameters of a simulation-based prediction equation to match the available amplitude data from seismic events. We model the geometrical spreading using a trilinear function with attenuation rates obtained from the first stage, and calculate coefficients of anelastic attenuation and site amplification via regression analysis. This provides a hybrid ground-motion prediction equation that is calibrated for observed motions in western Alberta and is applicable to moderate-to-large magnitude events.

International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems European Conference (5th) Held in Budapest, Hungary on September 4-6, 1991: Proceedings, Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

spatial rigid - body equations of motion . The predicted data was accurately correlated with the experimental data of scale model tests in the soil bin...models on hard level ground [1, 2] and on soft level ground [3]. For spatial motion on nonlevel ground a rigid - body mobility model was recently developed...Vehicles (1) Kinematics of the vehicle and coordinate systems A spatial motion of a tracked vehicle represented as a rigid body in a Euclidian 3-space

Seismic Data for Evaluation of Ground Motion Hazards in Las Vegas in Support of Test Site Readiness Ground Motion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rodgers, A

2008-01-16

In this report we describe the data sets used to evaluate ground motion hazards in Las Vegas from nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. This analysis is presented in Rodgers et al. (2005, 2006) and includes 13 nuclear explosions recorded at the John Blume and Associates network, the Little Skull Mountain earthquake and a temporary deployment of broadband station in Las Vegas. The data are available in SAC format on CD-ROM as an appendix to this report.

Effects of motion speed in action representations

PubMed Central

van Dam, Wessel O.; Speed, Laura J.; Lai, Vicky T.; Vigliocco, Gabriella; Desai, Rutvik H.

2017-01-01

Grounded cognition accounts of semantic representation posit that brain regions traditionally linked to perception and action play a role in grounding the semantic content of words and sentences. Sensory-motor systems are thought to support partially abstract simulations through which conceptual content is grounded. However, which details of sensory-motor experience are included in, or excluded from these simulations, is not well understood. We investigated whether sensory-motor brain regions are differentially involved depending on the speed of actions described in a sentence. We addressed this issue by examining the neural signature of relatively fast (The old lady scurried across the road) and slow (The old lady strolled across the road) action sentences. The results showed that sentences that implied fast motion modulated activity within the right posterior superior temporal sulcus and the angular and middle occipital gyri, areas associated with biological motion and action perception. Sentences that implied slow motion resulted in greater signal within the right primary motor cortex and anterior inferior parietal lobule, areas associated with action execution and planning. These results suggest that the speed of described motion influences representational content and modulates the nature of conceptual grounding. Fast motion events are represented more visually whereas motor regions play a greater role in representing conceptual content associated with slow motion. PMID:28160739

Two terminal micropower radar sensor

DOEpatents

McEwan, Thomas E.

1995-01-01

A simple, low power ultra-wideband radar motion sensor/switch configuration connects a power source and load to ground. The switch is connected to and controlled by the signal output of a radar motion sensor. The power input of the motion sensor is connected to the load through a diode which conducts power to the motion sensor when the switch is open. A storage capacitor or rechargeable battery is connected to the power input of the motion sensor. The storage capacitor or battery is charged when the switch is open and powers the motion sensor when the switch is closed. The motion sensor and switch are connected between the same two terminals between the source/load and ground.

Two terminal micropower radar sensor

DOEpatents

McEwan, T.E.

1995-11-07

A simple, low power ultra-wideband radar motion sensor/switch configuration connects a power source and load to ground. The switch is connected to and controlled by the signal output of a radar motion sensor. The power input of the motion sensor is connected to the load through a diode which conducts power to the motion sensor when the switch is open. A storage capacitor or rechargeable battery is connected to the power input of the motion sensor. The storage capacitor or battery is charged when the switch is open and powers the motion sensor when the switch is closed. The motion sensor and switch are connected between the same two terminals between the source/load and ground. 3 figs.

MO-FG-CAMPUS-JeP3-04: Feasibility Study of Real-Time Ultrasound Monitoring for Abdominal Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Su, Lin; Kien Ng, Sook; Zhang, Ying

Purpose: Ultrasound is ideal for real-time monitoring in radiotherapy with high soft tissue contrast, non-ionization, portability, and cost effectiveness. Few studies investigated clinical application of real-time ultrasound monitoring for abdominal stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). This study aims to demonstrate the feasibility of real-time monitoring of 3D target motion using 4D ultrasound. Methods: An ultrasound probe holding system was designed to allow clinician to freely move and lock ultrasound probe. For phantom study, an abdominal ultrasound phantom was secured on a 2D programmable respiratory motion stage. One side of the stage was elevated than another side to generate 3D motion.more » The motion stage made periodic breath-hold movement. Phantom movement tracked by infrared camera was considered as ground truth. For volunteer study three healthy subjects underwent the same setup for abdominal SBRT with active breath control (ABC). 4D ultrasound B-mode images were acquired for both phantom and volunteers for real-time monitoring. 10 breath-hold cycles were monitored for each experiment. For phantom, the target motion tracked by ultrasound was compared with motion tracked by infrared camera. For healthy volunteers, the reproducibility of ABC breath-hold was evaluated. Results: Volunteer study showed the ultrasound system fitted well to the clinical SBRT setup. The reproducibility for 10 breath-holds is less than 2 mm in three directions for all three volunteers. For phantom study the motion between inspiration and expiration captured by camera (ground truth) is 2.35±0.02 mm, 1.28±0.04 mm, 8.85±0.03 mm in LR, AP, SI directly, respectively. The motion monitored by ultrasound is 2.21±0.07 mm, 1.32±0.12mm, 9.10±0.08mm, respectively. The motion monitoring error in any direction is less than 0.5 mm. Conclusion: The volunteer study proved the clinical feasibility of real-time ultrasound monitoring for abdominal SBRT. The phantom and volunteer ABC studies demonstrated sub-millimeter accuracy of 3D motion movement monitoring.« less

Mechanisms of time-based figure-ground segregation.

PubMed

Kandil, Farid I; Fahle, Manfred

2003-11-01

Figure-ground segregation can rely on purely temporal information, that is, on short temporal delays between positional changes of elements in figure and ground (Kandil, F.I. & Fahle, M. (2001) Eur. J. Neurosci., 13, 2004-2008). Here, we investigate the underlying mechanisms by measuring temporal segregation thresholds for various kinds of motion cues. Segregation can rely on monocular first-order motion (based on luminance modulation) and second-order motion cues (contrast modulation) with a high temporal resolution of approximately 20 ms. The mechanism can also use isoluminant motion with a reduced temporal resolution of 60 ms. Figure-ground segregation can be achieved even at presentation frequencies too high for human subjects to inspect successive frames individually. In contrast, when stimuli are presented dichoptically, i.e. separately to both eyes, subjects are unable to perceive any segregation, irrespective of temporal frequency. We propose that segregation in these displays is detected by a mechanism consisting of at least two stages. On the first level, standard motion or flicker detectors signal local positional changes (flips). On the second level, a segregation mechanism combines the local activities of the low-level detectors with high temporal precision. Our findings suggest that the segregation mechanism can rely on monocular detectors but not on binocular mechanisms. Moreover, the results oppose the idea that segregation in these displays is achieved by motion detectors of a higher order (motion-from-motion), but favour mechanisms sensitive to short temporal delays even without activation of higher-order motion detectors.

Stochastic ground-motion simulations for the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Long; Chen, Guangqi; Wu, Yanqiang; Jiang, Han

2016-11-01

On April 15, 2016, Kumamoto, Japan, was struck by a large earthquake sequence, leading to severe casualty and building damage. The stochastic finite-fault method based on a dynamic corner frequency has been applied to perform ground-motion simulations for the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. There are 53 high-quality KiK-net stations available in the Kyushu region, and we employed records from all stations to determine region-specific source, path and site parameters. The calculated S-wave attenuation for the Kyushu region beneath the volcanic and non-volcanic areas can be expressed in the form of Q s = (85.5 ± 1.5) f 0.68±0.01 and Q s = (120 ± 5) f 0.64±0.05, respectively. The effects of lateral S-wave velocity and attenuation heterogeneities on the ground-motion simulations were investigated. Site amplifications were estimated using the corrected cross-spectral ratios technique. Zero-distance kappa filter was obtained to be the value of 0.0514 ± 0.0055 s, using the spectral decay method. The stress drop of the mainshock based on the USGS slip model was estimated optimally to have a value of 64 bars. Our finite-fault model with optimized parameters was validated through the good agreement of observations and simulations at all stations. The attenuation characteristics of the simulated peak ground accelerations were also successfully captured by the ground-motion prediction equations. Finally, the ground motions at two destructively damaged regions, Kumamoto Castle and Minami Aso village, were simulated. We conclude that the stochastic finite-fault method with well-determined parameters can reproduce the ground-motion characteristics of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake in both the time and frequency domains. This work is necessary for seismic hazard assessment and mitigation.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

Probabilistic Relationships between Ground‐Motion Parameters and Modified Mercalli Intensity in California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Worden, C.B.; Wald, David J.; Rhoades, D.A.

2012-01-01

We use a database of approximately 200,000 modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) observations of California earthquakes collected from USGS "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) reports, along with a comparable number of peak ground-motion amplitudes from California seismic networks, to develop probabilistic relationships between MMI and peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground acceleration (PGA), and 0.3-s, 1-s, and 3-s 5% damped pseudospectral acceleration (PSA). After associating each ground-motion observation with an MMI computed from all the DYFI responses within 2 km of the observation, we derived a joint probability distribution between MMI and ground motion. We then derived reversible relationships between MMI and each ground-motion parameter by using a total least squares regression to fit a bilinear function to the median of the stacked probability distributions. Among the relationships, the fit to peak ground velocity has the smallest errors, though linear combinations of PGA and PGV give nominally better results. We also find that magnitude and distance terms reduce the overall residuals and are justifiable on an information theoretic basis. For intensities MMI≥5, our results are in close agreement with the relations of Wald, Quitoriano, Heaton, and Kanamori (1999); for lower intensities, our results fall midway between Wald, Quitoriano, Heaton, and Kanamori (1999) and those of Atkinson and Kaka (2007). The earthquakes in the study ranged in magnitude from 3.0 to 7.3, and the distances ranged from less than a kilometer to about 400 km from the source.

Human pose tracking from monocular video by traversing an image motion mapped body pose manifold

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basu, Saurav; Poulin, Joshua; Acton, Scott T.

2010-01-01

Tracking human pose from monocular video sequences is a challenging problem due to the large number of independent parameters affecting image appearance and nonlinear relationships between generating parameters and the resultant images. Unlike the current practice of fitting interpolation functions to point correspondences between underlying pose parameters and image appearance, we exploit the relationship between pose parameters and image motion flow vectors in a physically meaningful way. Change in image appearance due to pose change is realized as navigating a low dimensional submanifold of the infinite dimensional Lie group of diffeomorphisms of the two dimensional sphere S2. For small changes in pose, image motion flow vectors lie on the tangent space of the submanifold. Any observed image motion flow vector field is decomposed into the basis motion vector flow fields on the tangent space and combination weights are used to update corresponding pose changes in the different dimensions of the pose parameter space. Image motion flow vectors are largely invariant to style changes in experiments with synthetic and real data where the subjects exhibit variation in appearance and clothing. The experiments demonstrate the robustness of our method (within +/-4° of ground truth) to style variance.

FootFall: A Ground Based Operations Toolset Enabling Walking for the ATHLETE Rover

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

SunSpiral, Vytas; Chavez-Clemente, Daniel; Broxton, Michael; Keely, Leslie; Mihelich, Patrick; Mittman, David; Collins, Curtis

2008-01-01

The ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) vehicle consists of six identical, six degree of freedom limbs. FootFall is a ground tool for ATHLETE intended to provide an operator with integrated situational awareness, terrain reconstruction, stability and safety analysis, motion planning, and decision support capabilities to enable the efficient generation of flight software command sequences for walking. FootFall has been under development at NASA Ames for the last year, and having accomplished the initial integration, it is being used to generate command sequences for single footfalls. In this paper, the architecture of FootFall in its current state will be presented, results from the recent Human Robotic Systems Project?s Integrated Field Test (Moses Lake, Washington, June, 2008) will be discussed, and future plans for extending the capabilities of FootFall to enable ATHLETE to walk across a boulder field in real time will be described.

Uncertainties in Earthquake Loss Analysis: A Case Study From Southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahdyiar, M.; Guin, J.

2005-12-01

Probabilistic earthquake hazard and loss analyses play important roles in many areas of risk management, including earthquake related public policy and insurance ratemaking. Rigorous loss estimation for portfolios of properties is difficult since there are various types of uncertainties in all aspects of modeling and analysis. It is the objective of this study to investigate the sensitivity of earthquake loss estimation to uncertainties in regional seismicity, earthquake source parameters, ground motions, and sites' spatial correlation on typical property portfolios in Southern California. Southern California is an attractive region for such a study because it has a large population concentration exposed to significant levels of seismic hazard. During the last decade, there have been several comprehensive studies of most regional faults and seismogenic sources. There have also been detailed studies on regional ground motion attenuations and regional and local site responses to ground motions. This information has been used by engineering seismologists to conduct regional seismic hazard and risk analysis on a routine basis. However, one of the more difficult tasks in such studies is the proper incorporation of uncertainties in the analysis. From the hazard side, there are uncertainties in the magnitudes, rates and mechanisms of the seismic sources and local site conditions and ground motion site amplifications. From the vulnerability side, there are considerable uncertainties in estimating the state of damage of buildings under different earthquake ground motions. From an analytical side, there are challenges in capturing the spatial correlation of ground motions and building damage, and integrating thousands of loss distribution curves with different degrees of correlation. In this paper we propose to address some of these issues by conducting loss analyses of a typical small portfolio in southern California, taking into consideration various source and ground motion uncertainties. The approach is designed to integrate loss distribution functions with different degrees of correlation for portfolio analysis. The analysis is based on USGS 2002 regional seismicity model.

Stochastic point-source modeling of ground motions in the Cascadia region

USGS Publications Warehouse

Atkinson, G.M.; Boore, D.M.

1997-01-01

A stochastic model is used to develop preliminary ground motion relations for the Cascadia region for rock sites. The model parameters are derived from empirical analyses of seismographic data from the Cascadia region. The model is based on a Brune point-source characterized by a stress parameter of 50 bars. The model predictions are compared to ground-motion data from the Cascadia region and to data from large earthquakes in other subduction zones. The point-source simulations match the observations from moderate events (M 100 km). The discrepancy at large magnitudes suggests further work on modeling finite-fault effects and regional attenuation is warranted. In the meantime, the preliminary equations are satisfactory for predicting motions from events of M < 7 and provide conservative estimates of motions from larger events at distances less than 100 km.

Response analysis of curved bridge with unseating failure control system under near-fault ground motions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuo, Ye; Sun, Guangjun; Li, Hongjing

2018-01-01

Under the action of near-fault ground motions, curved bridges are prone to pounding, local damage of bridge components and even unseating. A multi-scale fine finite element model of a typical three-span curved bridge is established by considering the elastic-plastic behavior of piers and pounding effect of adjacent girders. The nonlinear time-history method is used to study the seismic response of the curved bridge equipped with unseating failure control system under the action of near-fault ground motion. An in-depth analysis is carried to evaluate the control effect of the proposed unseating failure control system. The research results indicate that under the near-fault ground motion, the seismic response of the curved bridge is strong. The unseating failure control system perform effectively to reduce the pounding force of the adjacent girders and the probability of deck unseating.

Visualizing the ground motions of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chourasia, A.; Cutchin, S.; Aagaard, Brad T.

2008-01-01

With advances in computational capabilities and refinement of seismic wave-propagation models in the past decade large three-dimensional simulations of earthquake ground motion have become possible. The resulting datasets from these simulations are multivariate, temporal and multi-terabyte in size. Past visual representations of results from seismic studies have been largely confined to static two-dimensional maps. New visual representations provide scientists with alternate ways of viewing and interacting with these results potentially leading to new and significant insight into the physical phenomena. Visualizations can also be used for pedagogic and general dissemination purposes. We present a workflow for visual representation of the data from a ground motion simulation of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. We have employed state of the art animation tools for visualization of the ground motions with a high degree of accuracy and visual realism. ?? 2008 Elsevier Ltd.

Analytical approach to calculation of response spectra from seismological models of ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Safak, Erdal

1988-01-01

An analytical approach to calculate response spectra from seismological models of ground motion is presented. Seismological models have three major advantages over empirical models: (1) they help in an understanding of the physics of earthquake mechanisms, (2) they can be used to predict ground motions for future earthquakes and (3) they can be extrapolated to cases where there are no data available. As shown with this study, these models also present a convenient form for the calculation of response spectra, by using the methods of random vibration theory, for a given magnitude and site conditions. The first part of the paper reviews the past models for ground motion description, and introduces the available seismological models. Then, the random vibration equations for the spectral response are presented. The nonstationarity, spectral bandwidth and the correlation of the peaks are considered in the calculation of the peak response.

Seismic hazard in the Nation's breadbasket

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boyd, Oliver; Haller, Kathleen; Luco, Nicolas; Moschetti, Morgan P.; Mueller, Charles; Petersen, Mark D.; Rezaeian, Sanaz; Rubinstein, Justin L.

2015-01-01

The USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps were updated in 2014 and included several important changes for the central United States (CUS). Background seismicity sources were improved using a new moment-magnitude-based catalog; a new adaptive, nearest-neighbor smoothing kernel was implemented; and maximum magnitudes for background sources were updated. Areal source zones developed by the Central and Eastern United States Seismic Source Characterization for Nuclear Facilities project were simplified and adopted. The weighting scheme for ground motion models was updated, giving more weight to models with a faster attenuation with distance compared to the previous maps. Overall, hazard changes (2% probability of exceedance in 50 years, across a range of ground-motion frequencies) were smaller than 10% in most of the CUS relative to the 2008 USGS maps despite new ground motion models and their assigned logic tree weights that reduced the probabilistic ground motions by 5–20%.

Comparisons of ground motions from five aftershocks of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake with empirical predictions largely based on data from California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wang, G.-Q.; Boore, D.M.; Igel, H.; Zhou, X.-Y.

2004-01-01

The observed ground motions from five large aftershocks of the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, earthquake are compared with predictions from four equations based primarily on data from California. The four equations for active tectonic regions are those developed by Abrahamson and Silva (1997), Boore et al. (1997), Campbell (1997, 2001), and Sadigh et al. (1997). Comparisons are made for horizontal-component peak ground accelerations and 5%-damped pseudoacceleration response spectra at periods between 0.02 sec and 5 sec. The observed motions are in reasonable agreement with the predictions, particularly for distances from 10 to 30 km. This is in marked contrast to the motions from the Chi-Chi mainshock, which are much lower than the predicted motions for periods less than about 1 sec. The results indicate that the low motions in the mainshock are not due to unusual, localized absorption of seismic energy, because waves from the mainshock and the aftershocks generally traverse the same section of the crust and are recorded at the same stations. The aftershock motions at distances of 30-60 km are somewhat lower than the predictions (but not nearly by as small a factor as those for the mainshock), suggesting that the ground motion attenuates more rapidly in this region of Taiwan than it does in the areas we compare with it. We provide equations for the regional attenuation of response spectra, which show increasing decay of motion with distance for decreasing oscillator periods. This observational study also demonstrates that ground motions have large earthquake-location-dependent variability for a specific site. This variability reduces the accuracy with which an earthquake-specific prediction of site response can be predicted. Online Material: PGAs and PSAs from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake and five aftershocks.

An event database for rotational seismology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salvermoser, Johannes; Hadziioannou, Celine; Hable, Sarah; Chow, Bryant; Krischer, Lion; Wassermann, Joachim; Igel, Heiner

2016-04-01

The ring laser sensor (G-ring) located at Wettzell, Germany, routinely observes earthquake-induced rotational ground motions around a vertical axis since its installation in 2003. Here we present results from a recently installed event database which is the first that will provide ring laser event data in an open access format. Based on the GCMT event catalogue and some search criteria, seismograms from the ring laser and the collocated broadband seismometer are extracted and processed. The ObsPy-based processing scheme generates plots showing waveform fits between rotation rate and transverse acceleration and extracts characteristic wavefield parameters such as peak ground motions, noise levels, Love wave phase velocities and waveform coherence. For each event, these parameters are stored in a text file (json dictionary) which is easily readable and accessible on the website. The database contains >10000 events starting in 2007 (Mw>4.5). It is updated daily and therefore provides recent events at a time lag of max. 24 hours. The user interface allows to filter events for epoch, magnitude, and source area, whereupon the events are displayed on a zoomable world map. We investigate how well the rotational motions are compatible with the expectations from the surface wave magnitude scale. In addition, the website offers some python source code examples for downloading and processing the openly accessible waveforms.

Progress Towards a Comprehensive Site Database for Taiwan Strong Motion Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuo, C. H.; Lin, C. M.; Chang, S. C.; Wen, K. L.

2016-12-01

Site effect is usually treated as a simple site parameter like Vs30, which is a value of average shear wave velocity for the top 30 m of layers, in Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) and engineering seismology. Although debates on usage of Vs30 for its advantage and disadvantage are still an open question, it has become the most widely be used site parameter in ground motion prediction, seismic hazard analysis, and building codes. Depth to the horizons with shear wave velocity of larger than 1.0 km/s (or 1.5 km/s, 2.5 km/s), the so called Z1.0 (or Z1.5, Z2.5), was recently introduced to the GMPEs of the Next Generation of Attenuation Equations (NGA) project in order to make up for the insufficient of Vs30 especially in regions covered by large thickness of sediments. However this kind of data is still rare and quite difficult to be acquired. This parameter is only available in Japan, California, and part region of Turkey at present. The high-frequency attenuation factor, i.e. kappa, is considered a significant parameter controlling attenuation of high-frequency seismic waves. High correlation is believed between kappa and local site conditions. S-wave velocity profiles of the Engineering Geology Database for TSMIP (EGDT) were measured using suspension PS-logging at more than 450 strong ground motion stations throughout Taiwan. Accurate Vs30 is therefore provided by the site database. Although the depths of most stations were only 35 m, Z1.0 still can be derived at dozens of stations near basin edges or piedmont area from EGDT. Several techniques including microtremor array, receiver function, and HVSR inversion have been used to obtain S-wave velocity profiles at strong motion stations and thus the parameter Z1.0 can be derived. A relationship between Vs30 and Z1.0 for Taiwan is consequently evaluated and further compared with those for Japan and California. Kappa at strong motion stations was calculated and a special correlation with Vs30 is found. The achievement in the progress toward a comprehensive site database for a national strong motion network is quite important for engineering seismology and national seismic hazard analysis.

Strong Motion Recording in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Archuleta, R. J.; Fletcher, J. B.; Shakal, A. F.

2014-12-01

The United States strong motion program began in 1932 when the Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS) installed eight strong motion accelerographs in California. During the March 1933 Long Beach earthquake, three of these produced the first strong motion records. With this success the C&GS expanded the number of accelerographs to 71 by 1964. With development of less expensive, mass-produced accelerographs the number of strong motion accelerographs expanded to ~575 by 1972. Responsibilities for operating the network and disseminating data were transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1970 and then to the U.S. Geological Survey in 1973. In 1972 the California Legislature established the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP). CSMIP operates accelerographs at 812 ground stations, with multi-channel accelerographs in 228 buildings, 125 lifelines and 37 geotechnical arrays, in California. The USGS and the ANSS effort operate accelerographs at 1584 ground stations, 96 buildings, 14 bridges, 70 dams, and 15 multi-channel geotechnical arrays. The USC Los Angeles array has 78 ground stations; UCSB operates 5 geotechnical arrays; other government and private institutions also operate accelerographs. Almost all accelerographs are now digital with a sampling rate of 200 Hz. Most of the strong motion data can be downloaded from the Center for Engineering Strong Motion Data (http://strongmotioncenter.org). As accelerographs have become more sophisticated, the concept of what constitutes strong motion has blurred because small earthquakes (M ~3) are well recorded on accelerometers as well as seismometers. However, when accelerations are over ~10%g and velocities over ~1 cm/s, the accelerometers remain on scale, providing the unclipped data necessary to analyze the ground motion and its consequences. Strong motion data are essential to the development of ground motion prediction equations, understanding structural response, performance based engineering, soil response, and inversions for earthquake rupture parameters. While an important number of stations have been installed, many areas of the US are significantly deficient, e.g., recordings were obtained from only 2 stations within 60 km of the Mineral earthquake that damaged the nation's capital and other areas.

Stress accumulation in the Marmara Sea estimated through ground-motion simulations from dynamic rupture scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aochi, Hideo; Douglas, John; Ulrich, Thomas

2017-03-01

We compare ground motions simulated from dynamic rupture scenarios, for the seismic gap along the North Anatolian Fault under the Marmara Sea (Turkey), to estimates from empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs). Ground motions are simulated using a finite difference method and a 3-D model of the local crustal structure. They are analyzed at more than a thousand locations in terms of horizontal peak ground velocity. Characteristics of probable earthquake scenarios are strongly dependent on the hypothesized level of accumulated stress, in terms of a normalized stress parameter T. With respect to the GMPEs, it is found that simulations for many scenarios systematically overestimate the ground motions at all distances. Simulations for only some scenarios, corresponding to moderate stress accumulation, match the estimates from the GMPEs. The difference between the simulations and the GMPEs is used to quantify the relative probabilities of each scenario and, therefore, to revise the probability of the stress field. A magnitude Mw7+ operating at moderate prestress field (0.6 < T ≤ 0.7) is statistically more probable, as previously assumed in the logic tree of probabilistic assessment of rupture scenarios. This approach of revising the mechanical hypothesis by means of comparison to an empirical statistical model (e.g., a GMPE) is useful not only for practical seismic hazard assessments but also to understand crustal dynamics.

Strong-motion data from the two Pingtung, Taiwan, earthquakes of 26 December 2006

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, C.-F.; Lee, W.H.K.; Boore, D.M.

2008-01-01

1016 strong-motion records at 527 free-field stations and 131 records at 42 strong-motion arrays at buildings and bridges were obtained for the Pingtung earthquake doublet from the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau's dense, digital strong-motion network. We carried out standard processing of these strong-motion records at free-field stations. A data set, including the originally recorded files, processed data files, and supporting software and information, is archived online http:// tecdc.earth.sinica.edu.tw/data/EQ2006Pingtung/. We have not yet completed the processing of the strong-motion array data at buildings and bridges. However, some preliminary results and the strong-motion array data recorded at the second nearest instrumented building to the Pingtung earthquake doublet are shown. This paper is intended to document our data processing procedures and the online archived data files, so that researchers can efficiently use the data. We also include two preliminary analyses: (1) a comparison of ground motions recorded by multiple accelerographs at a common site, the TAP 117 station in Taipei, and (2) attenuation of the horizontal ground motions (peak acceleration and response spectra at periods of 0.2, 1.0, and 3.0 s) with respect to distance. Our comparison study of multiple recordings at TAP 117 indicates that waveform coherence among 20- and 24-bit accelerograph records is much higher as compared to records from 16-bit or 12-bit accelerographs, suggesting that the former are of better quality. For the 20- and 24-bit accelerographs, waveform coherence is nearly 1 over the frequency range 1 to 8 Hz for all components, and is greater than about 0.9 from 8 to 20 Hz for the horizontal component, but only from 8 to 12 Hz for the vertical component. Plots of pseudo-acceleration response spectra (PSA) as a function of distance, however, show no clear indication for a difference related to the performance level of the accelerographs. The ground-motions of the first event (Mw = 7.0) are comparable, or even somewhat lower, than those from the smaller second event (Mw = 6.9), consistent with the relative difference of the local magnitudes (ML = 6.96 and 6.99 for the first and second events, respectively). The ground motions from the first event are generally lower than those predicted from equations based on other in-slab subduction earthquakes, whereas the ground motions from the second event are closer to the predictions. Ground-motions for soil sites are generally larger than those from rock sites.

Significance of rotating ground motions on nonlinear behavior of symmetric and asymmetric buildings in near fault sites

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kalkan, Erol; ,

2012-01-01

Building codes in the U.S. require at least two horizontal ground motion components for three-dimensional (3D) response history analysis (RHA) of structures. For sites within 5 km of an active fault, these records should be rotated to fault-normal/fault-parallel (FN/FP) directions, and two RHA analyses should be performed separately (when FN and then FP are aligned with transverse direction of the structural axes). It is assumed that this approach will lead to two sets of responses that envelope the range of possible responses over all non-redundant rotation angles. This assumption is examined here using 3D computer models of a single-story structure having symmetric (that is, torsionally-stiff) and asymmetric (that is, torsionally flexible) layouts subjected to an ensemble of bi-directional near-fault strong ground motions with and without apparent velocity pulses. In this parametric study, the elastic vibration period of the structures is varied from 0.2 to 5 seconds, and yield strength reduction factors R is varied from a value that leads to linear-elastic design to 3 and 5. The influence that the rotation angle of the ground motion has on several engineering demand parameters (EDPs) is examined in linear-elastic and nonlinear-inelastic domains to form a benchmark for evaluating the use of the FN/FP directions as well as the maximum-direction (MD) ground motion, a new definition of horizontal ground motions for use in the seismic design of structures according to the 2009 NEHRP Provisions and Commentary.

Strong ground motion of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoi, S.; Kunugi, T.; Suzuki, W.; Kubo, H.; Morikawa, N.; Fujiwara, H.

2016-12-01

The 2016 Kumamoto earthquake that is composed of Mw 6.1 and Mw 7.1 earthquakes respectively occurred in the Kumamoto region at 21:26 on April 14 and 28 hours later at 1:25 on April 16, 2016 (JST). These earthquakes are considered to rupture mainly the Hinagu fault zone for the Mw 6.1 event and the Futagawa fault zone for the Mw 7.1 event, respectively, where the Headquarter for Earthquake Research Promotion performed the long-term evaluation as well as seismic hazard assessment prior to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Strong shakings with seismic intensity 7 in the JMA scale were observed at four times in total: Mashiki town for the Mw 6.1 and Mw 7.1 events, Nishihara village for the Mw 7.1 event, and NIED/KiK-net Mashiki (KMMH16) for the Mw 7.1 event. KiK-net Mashiki (KMMH16) recorded peak ground acceleration more than 1000 cm/s/s, and Nishihara village recorded peak ground velocity more than 250 cm/s. Ground motions were observed wider area for the Mw 7.1 event than the Mw 6.1 event. Peak ground accelerations and peak ground velocities of K-NET/KiK-net stations are consistent with the ground motion prediction equations by Si and Midorikawa (1999). Peak ground velocities at longer distance than 200 km attenuate slowly, which can be attributed to the large Love wave with a dominant period around 10 seconds. 5%-damped pseudo spectral velocity of the Mashiki town shows a peak at period of 1-2 s that exceeds ground motion response of JR Takatori of the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the Kawaguchi town of the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake. 5%-damped pseudo spectral velocity of the Nishihara village shows 350 cm/s peak at period of 3-4 s that is similar to the several stations in Kathmandu basin by Takai et al. (2016) during the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. Ground motions at several stations in Oita exceed the ground motion prediction equations due to an earthquake induced by the Mw 7.1 event. Peak ground accelerations of K-NET Yufuin (OIT009) records 90 cm/s/s for the Mw 7.1 event and 723 cm/s/s for the near-by induced event.

Earthquake scenario ground motions for the urban area of Evansville, Indiana

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haase, Jennifer S.; Nowack, Robert L.; Cramer, Chris H.; Boyd, Oliver S.; Bauer, Robert A.

2011-01-01

The Wabash Valley seismic zone and the New Madrid seismic zone are the closest large earthquake source zones to Evansville, Indiana. The New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812, over 180 kilometers (km) from Evansville, produced ground motions with a Modified Mercalli Intensity of VII near Evansville, the highest intensity observed in Indiana. Liquefaction evidence has been documented less than 40 km away from Evansville resulting from two large earthquakes in the past 12,000 years in the Wabash Valley. Two earthquake scenarios are described in this paper that demonstrate the expected ground motions for a 33×42-km region around Evansville based on a repeat earthquake from each of these source regions. We perform a one-dimensional analysis for a grid of sites that takes into account the amplification or deamplification of ground motion in the unconsolidated soil layer using a new three-dimensional model of seismic velocity and bedrock depth. There are significant differences in the calculated amplification from that expected for National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program site class D conditions, with deamplification at many locations within the ancient bedrock valley underlying Evansville. Ground motions relative to the acceleration of gravity (g) in the Evansville area from a simulation of a magnitude (M) 7.7 New Madrid earthquake range from 0.15 to 0.25 g for peak ground acceleration, 0.14 to 0.7 g for 0.2-second (s) spectral acceleration, and 0.05 to 0.25 g for 1.0-s spectral acceleration. Ground motions from a M6.8 Wabash Valley earthquake centered 40 km northwest of the city produce ground motions that decrease with distance from 1.5 to 0.3 g for 0.2-s spectral acceleration when they reach the main part of Evansville, but then increase in amplitude from 0.3 to 0.6 g south of the city and the Ohio River. The densest urbanization in Evansville and Henderson, Ky., is within the area of preferential amplification at 1.0-s period for both scenarios, but the area experiences relatively less amplification than surrounding areas at 0.2 s, consistent with expected resonance periods based on the soil profiles.

Analysis of ground-motion simulation big data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maeda, T.; Fujiwara, H.

2016-12-01

We developed a parallel distributed processing system which applies a big data analysis to the large-scale ground motion simulation data. The system uses ground-motion index values and earthquake scenario parameters as input. We used peak ground velocity value and velocity response spectra as the ground-motion index. The ground-motion index values are calculated from our simulation data. We used simulated long-period ground motion waveforms at about 80,000 meshes calculated by a three dimensional finite difference method based on 369 earthquake scenarios of a great earthquake in the Nankai Trough. These scenarios were constructed by considering the uncertainty of source model parameters such as source area, rupture starting point, asperity location, rupture velocity, fmax and slip function. We used these parameters as the earthquake scenario parameter. The system firstly carries out the clustering of the earthquake scenario in each mesh by the k-means method. The number of clusters is determined in advance using a hierarchical clustering by the Ward's method. The scenario clustering results are converted to the 1-D feature vector. The dimension of the feature vector is the number of scenario combination. If two scenarios belong to the same cluster the component of the feature vector is 1, and otherwise the component is 0. The feature vector shows a `response' of mesh to the assumed earthquake scenario group. Next, the system performs the clustering of the mesh by k-means method using the feature vector of each mesh previously obtained. Here the number of clusters is arbitrarily given. The clustering of scenarios and meshes are performed by parallel distributed processing with Hadoop and Spark, respectively. In this study, we divided the meshes into 20 clusters. The meshes in each cluster are geometrically concentrated. Thus this system can extract regions, in which the meshes have similar `response', as clusters. For each cluster, it is possible to determine particular scenario parameters which characterize the cluster. In other word, by utilizing this system, we can obtain critical scenario parameters of the ground-motion simulation for each evaluation point objectively. This research was supported by CREST, JST.

Quantifying and Qualifying USGS ShakeMap Uncertainty

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wald, David J.; Lin, Kuo-Wan; Quitoriano, Vincent

2008-01-01

We describe algorithms for quantifying and qualifying uncertainties associated with USGS ShakeMap ground motions. The uncertainty values computed consist of latitude/longitude grid-based multiplicative factors that scale the standard deviation associated with the ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) used within the ShakeMap algorithm for estimating ground motions. The resulting grid-based 'uncertainty map' is essential for evaluation of losses derived using ShakeMaps as the hazard input. For ShakeMap, ground motion uncertainty at any point is dominated by two main factors: (i) the influence of any proximal ground motion observations, and (ii) the uncertainty of estimating ground motions from the GMPE, most notably, elevated uncertainty due to initial, unconstrained source rupture geometry. The uncertainty is highest for larger magnitude earthquakes when source finiteness is not yet constrained and, hence, the distance to rupture is also uncertain. In addition to a spatially-dependant, quantitative assessment, many users may prefer a simple, qualitative grading for the entire ShakeMap. We developed a grading scale that allows one to quickly gauge the appropriate level of confidence when using rapidly produced ShakeMaps as part of the post-earthquake decision-making process or for qualitative assessments of archived or historical earthquake ShakeMaps. We describe an uncertainty letter grading ('A' through 'F', for high to poor quality, respectively) based on the uncertainty map. A middle-range ('C') grade corresponds to a ShakeMap for a moderate-magnitude earthquake suitably represented with a point-source location. Lower grades 'D' and 'F' are assigned for larger events (M>6) where finite-source dimensions are not yet constrained. The addition of ground motion observations (or observed macroseismic intensities) reduces uncertainties over data-constrained portions of the map. Higher grades ('A' and 'B') correspond to ShakeMaps with constrained fault dimensions and numerous stations, depending on the density of station/data coverage. Due to these dependencies, the letter grade can change with subsequent ShakeMap revisions if more data are added or when finite-faulting dimensions are added. We emphasize that the greatest uncertainties are associated with unconstrained source dimensions for large earthquakes where the distance term in the GMPE is most uncertain; this uncertainty thus scales with magnitude (and consequently rupture dimension). Since this distance uncertainty produces potentially large uncertainties in ShakeMap ground-motion estimates, this factor dominates over compensating constraints for all but the most dense station distributions.

Required number of records for ASCE/SEI 7 ground-motion scaling procedure

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reyes, Juan C.; Kalkan, Erol

2011-01-01

The procedures and criteria in 2006 IBC (International Council of Building Officials, 2006) and 2007 CBC (International Council of Building Officials, 2007) for the selection and scaling ground-motions for use in nonlinear response history analysis (RHA) of structures are based on ASCE/SEI 7 provisions (ASCE, 2005, 2010). According to ASCE/SEI 7, earthquake records should be selected from events of magnitudes, fault distance, and source mechanisms that comply with the maximum considered earthquake, and then scaled so that the average value of the 5-percent-damped response spectra for the set of scaled records is not less than the design response spectrum over the period range from 0.2Tn to 1.5Tn sec (where Tn is the fundamental vibration period of the structure). If at least seven ground-motions are analyzed, the design values of engineering demand parameters (EDPs) are taken as the average of the EDPs determined from the analyses. If fewer than seven ground-motions are analyzed, the design values of EDPs are taken as the maximum values of the EDPs. ASCE/SEI 7 requires a minimum of three ground-motions. These limits on the number of records in the ASCE/SEI 7 procedure are based on engineering experience, rather than on a comprehensive evaluation. This study statistically examines the required number of records for the ASCE/SEI 7 procedure, such that the scaled records provide accurate, efficient, and consistent estimates of" true" structural responses. Based on elastic-perfectly-plastic and bilinear single-degree-of-freedom systems, the ASCE/SEI 7 scaling procedure is applied to 480 sets of ground-motions. The number of records in these sets varies from three to ten. The records in each set were selected either (i) randomly, (ii) considering their spectral shapes, or (iii) considering their spectral shapes and design spectral-acceleration value, A(Tn). As compared to benchmark (that is, "true") responses from unscaled records using a larger catalog of ground-motions, it is demonstrated that the ASCE/SEI 7 scaling procedure is overly conservative if fewer than seven ground-motions are employed. Utilizing seven or more randomly selected records provides a more accurate estimate of the EDPs accompanied by reduced record-to-record variability of the responses. Consistency in accuracy and efficiency is achieved only if records are selected on the basis of their spectral shape and A(Tn).

An alternative approach to probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in the Aegean region using Monte Carlo simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weatherill, Graeme; Burton, Paul W.

2010-09-01

The Aegean is the most seismically active and tectonically complex region in Europe. Damaging earthquakes have occurred here throughout recorded history, often resulting in considerable loss of life. The Monte Carlo method of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) is used to determine the level of ground motion likely to be exceeded in a given time period. Multiple random simulations of seismicity are generated to calculate, directly, the ground motion for a given site. Within the seismic hazard analysis we explore the impact of different seismic source models, incorporating both uniform zones and distributed seismicity. A new, simplified, seismic source model, derived from seismotectonic interpretation, is presented for the Aegean region. This is combined into the epistemic uncertainty analysis alongside existing source models for the region, and models derived by a K-means cluster analysis approach. Seismic source models derived using the K-means approach offer a degree of objectivity and reproducibility into the otherwise subjective approach of delineating seismic sources using expert judgment. Similar review and analysis is undertaken for the selection of peak ground acceleration (PGA) attenuation models, incorporating into the epistemic analysis Greek-specific models, European models and a Next Generation Attenuation model. Hazard maps for PGA on a "rock" site with a 10% probability of being exceeded in 50 years are produced and different source and attenuation models are compared. These indicate that Greek-specific attenuation models, with their smaller aleatory variability terms, produce lower PGA hazard, whilst recent European models and Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) model produce similar results. The Monte Carlo method is extended further to assimilate epistemic uncertainty into the hazard calculation, thus integrating across several appropriate source and PGA attenuation models. Site condition and fault-type are also integrated into the hazard mapping calculations. These hazard maps are in general agreement with previous maps for the Aegean, recognising the highest hazard in the Ionian Islands, Gulf of Corinth and Hellenic Arc. Peak Ground Accelerations for some sites in these regions reach as high as 500-600 cm s -2 using European/NGA attenuation models, and 400-500 cm s -2 using Greek attenuation models.

Convexities move because they contain matter.

PubMed

Barenholtz, Elan

2010-09-22

Figure-ground assignment to a contour is a fundamental stage in visual processing. The current paper introduces a novel, highly general dynamic cue to figure-ground assignment: "Convex Motion." Across six experiments, subjects showed a strong preference to assign figure and ground to a dynamically deforming contour such that the moving contour segment was convex rather than concave. Experiments 1 and 2 established the preference across two different kinds of deformational motion. Additional experiments determined that this preference was not due to fixation (Experiment 3) or attentional mechanisms (Experiment 4). Experiment 5 found a similar, but reduced bias for rigid-as opposed to deformational-motion, and Experiment 6 demonstrated that the phenomenon depends on the global motion of the effected contour. An explanation of this phenomenon is presented on the basis of typical natural deformational motion, which tends to involve convex contour projections that contain regions consisting of physical "matter," as opposed to concave contour indentations that contain empty space. These results highlight the fundamental relationship between figure and ground, perceived shape, and the inferred physical properties of an object.

Effects of deep basins on structural collapse during large subduction earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marafi, Nasser A.; Eberhard, Marc O.; Berman, Jeffrey W.; Wirth, Erin A.; Frankel, Arthur

2017-01-01

Deep sedimentary basins are known to increase the intensity of ground motions, but this effect is implicitly considered in seismic hazard maps used in U.S. building codes. The basin amplification of ground motions from subduction earthquakes is particularly important in the Pacific Northwest, where the hazard at long periods is dominated by such earthquakes. This paper evaluates the effects of basins on spectral accelerations, ground-motion duration, spectral shape, and structural collapse using subduction earthquake recordings from basins in Japan that have similar depths as the Puget Lowland basin. For three of the Japanese basins and the Puget Lowland basin, the spectral accelerations were amplified by a factor of 2 to 4 for periods above 2.0 s. The long-duration subduction earthquakes and the effects of basins on spectral shape combined, lower the spectral accelerations at collapse for a set of building archetypes relative to other ground motions. For the hypothetical case in which these motions represent the entire hazard, the archetypes would need to increase up to 3.3 times its strength to compensate for these effects.

Seismic hazard and risk assessment in the intraplate environment: The New Madrid seismic zone of the central United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wang, Z.

2007-01-01

Although the causes of large intraplate earthquakes are still not fully understood, they pose certain hazard and risk to societies. Estimating hazard and risk in these regions is difficult because of lack of earthquake records. The New Madrid seismic zone is one such region where large and rare intraplate earthquakes (M = 7.0 or greater) pose significant hazard and risk. Many different definitions of hazard and risk have been used, and the resulting estimates differ dramatically. In this paper, seismic hazard is defined as the natural phenomenon generated by earthquakes, such as ground motion, and is quantified by two parameters: a level of hazard and its occurrence frequency or mean recurrence interval; seismic risk is defined as the probability of occurrence of a specific level of seismic hazard over a certain time and is quantified by three parameters: probability, a level of hazard, and exposure time. Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), a commonly used method for estimating seismic hazard and risk, derives a relationship between a ground motion parameter and its return period (hazard curve). The return period is not an independent temporal parameter but a mathematical extrapolation of the recurrence interval of earthquakes and the uncertainty of ground motion. Therefore, it is difficult to understand and use PSHA. A new method is proposed and applied here for estimating seismic hazard in the New Madrid seismic zone. This method provides hazard estimates that are consistent with the state of our knowledge and can be easily applied to other intraplate regions. ?? 2007 The Geological Society of America.

Postures and Motions Library Development for Verification of Ground Crew Human Systems Integration Requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, Mariea Dunn; Dischinger, Charles; Stambolian, Damon; Henderson, Gena

2012-01-01

Spacecraft and launch vehicle ground processing activities require a variety of unique human activities. These activities are being documented in a Primitive motion capture library. The Library will be used by the human factors engineering in the future to infuse real to life human activities into the CAD models to verify ground systems human factors requirements. As the Primitive models are being developed for the library the project has selected several current human factors issues to be addressed for the SLS and Orion launch systems. This paper explains how the Motion Capture of unique ground systems activities are being used to verify the human factors analysis requirements for ground system used to process the STS and Orion vehicles, and how the primitive models will be applied to future spacecraft and launch vehicle processing.

Postures and Motions Library Development for Verification of Ground Crew Human Factors Requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stambolian, Damon; Henderson, Gena; Jackson, Mariea Dunn; Dischinger, Charles

2013-01-01

Spacecraft and launch vehicle ground processing activities require a variety of unique human activities. These activities are being documented in a primitive motion capture library. The library will be used by human factors engineering analysts to infuse real to life human activities into the CAD models to verify ground systems human factors requirements. As the primitive models are being developed for the library, the project has selected several current human factors issues to be addressed for the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion launch systems. This paper explains how the motion capture of unique ground systems activities is being used to verify the human factors engineering requirements for ground systems used to process the SLS and Orion vehicles, and how the primitive models will be applied to future spacecraft and launch vehicle processing.

Strong ground motion from the michoacan, Mexico, earthquake.

PubMed

Anderson, J G; Bodin, P; Brune, J N; Prince, J; Singh, S K; Quaas, R; Onate, M

1986-09-05

The network of strong motion accelerographs in Mexico includes instruments that were installed, under an international cooperative research program, in sites selected for the high potenial of a large earthquake. The 19 September 1985 earthquake (magnitude 8.1) occurred in a seismic gap where an earthquake was expected. As a result, there is an excellent descripton of the ground motions that caused the disaster.

Introductory Earth science education by near real time animated visualization of seismic wave propagation across Transportable Array of USArray

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Attanayake, J.; Ghosh, A.; Amosu, A.

2010-12-01

Students of this generation are markedly different from their predecessors because they grow up and learn in a world of visual technology populated by touch screens and smart boards. Recent studies have found that the attention span of university students whose medium of instruction is traditional teaching methods is roughly fifteen minutes and that there is a significant drop in the number of students paying attention over time in a lecture. On the other hand, when carefully segmented and learner-paced, animated visualizations can enhance the learning experience. Therefore, the instructors are faced with the difficult task of designing more complex teaching environments to improve learner productivity. We have developed an animated visualization of earthquake wave propagation across a generic transect of the Transportable Array of the USArray from a magnitude 6.9 event that occurred in the Gulf of California on August 3rd 2009. Despite the fact that the proto-type tool is built in MATLAB - one of the most popular programming environments among the seismology community, the movies can be run as a standalone stream with any built-in media player that supports .avi file format. We infer continuous ground motion along the transect through a projection and interpolation mechanism based on data from stations within 100 km of the transect. In the movies we identify the arrival of surface waves that have high amplitudes. However, over time, although typical Rayleigh type ground motion can be observed, the motion at any given point becomes complex owing to interference of different wave types and different seismic properties of the subsurface. This clearly is different from simple representations of seismic wave propagation in most introductory textbooks. Further, we find a noisy station that shows unusually high amplitude. We refrain from deleting this station in order to demonstrate that in a real world experiment, generally, there will be complexities arising from unexpected behavior of instruments and/or the system under investigation. Explaining such behavior and exploring ways to minimize biases arising from it is an important lesson to learn in introductory science classes. This program can generate visualizations of ground motion from events in the Gulf of California in near real time and with little further development, from events elsewhere.

Path planning and energy management of solar-powered unmanned ground vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaplan, Adam

Many of the applications pertinent to unmanned vehicles, such as environmental research and analysis, communications, and information-surveillance and reconnaissance, benefit from prolonged vehicle operation time. Conventional efforts to increase the operational time of electric-powered unmanned vehicles have traditionally focused on the design of energy-efficient components and the identification of energy efficient search patterns, while little attention has been paid to the vehicle's mission-level path plan and power management. This thesis explores the formulation and generation of integrated motion-plans and power-schedules for solar-panel equipped mobile robots operating under strict energy constraints, which cannot be effectively addressed through conventional motion planning algorithms. Transit problems are considered to design time-optimal paths using both Balkcom-Mason and Pseudo-Dubins curves. Additionally, a more complicated problem to generate mission plans for vehicles which must persistently travel between certain locations, similar to the traveling salesperson problem (TSP), is presented. A comparison between one of the common motion-planning algorithms and experimental results of the prescribed algorithms, made possible by use of a test environment and mobile robot designed and developed specifically for this research, are presented and discussed.

Practical recommendations for evaluation and mitigation of soil liquefaction in Arkansas.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-02-01

Northeastern Arkansas has some of the largest design earthquake ground motions : in the continental U.S. due to its location within the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). : These large earthquake ground motions are particularly problematic when coupled ...

Near-Source Shaking and Dynamic Rupture in Plastic Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabriel, A.; Mai, P. M.; Dalguer, L. A.; Ampuero, J. P.

2012-12-01

Recent well recorded earthquakes show a high degree of complexity at the source level that severely affects the resulting ground motion in near and far-field seismic data. In our study, we focus on investigating source-dominated near-field ground motion features from numerical dynamic rupture simulations in an elasto-visco-plastic bulk. Our aim is to contribute to a more direct connection from theoretical and computational results to field and seismological observations. Previous work showed that a diversity of rupture styles emerges from simulations on faults governed by velocity-and-state-dependent friction with rapid velocity-weakening at high slip rate. For instance, growing pulses lead to re-activation of slip due to gradual stress build-up near the hypocenter, as inferred in some source studies of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. Moreover, off-fault energy dissipation implied physical limits on extreme ground motion by limiting peak slip rate and rupture velocity. We investigate characteristic features in near-field strong ground motion generated by dynamic in-plane rupture simulations. We present effects of plasticity on source process signatures, off-fault damage patterns and ground shaking. Independent of rupture style, asymmetric damage patterns across the fault are produced that contribute to the total seismic moment, and even dominantly at high angles between the fault and the maximum principal background stress. The off-fault plastic strain fields induced by transitions between rupture styles reveal characteristic signatures of the mechanical source processes during the transition. Comparing different rupture styles in elastic and elasto-visco-plastic media to identify signatures of off-fault plasticity, we find varying degrees of alteration of near-field radiation due to plastic energy dissipation. Subshear pulses suffer more peak particle velocity reduction due to plasticity than cracks. Supershear ruptures are affected even more. The occurrence of multiple rupture fronts affect seismic potency release rate, amplitude spectra, peak particle velocity distributions and near-field seismograms. Our simulations enable us to trace features of source processes in synthetic seismograms, for example exhibiting a re-activation of slip. Such physical models may provide starting points for future investigations of field properties of earthquake source mechanisms and natural fault conditions. In the long-term, our findings may be helpful for seismic hazard analysis and the improvement of seismic source models.

Human Factors Vehicle Displacement Analysis: Engineering In Motion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atencio, Laura Ashley; Reynolds, David; Robertson, Clay

2010-01-01

While positioned on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, tall stacked launch vehicles are exposed to the natural environment. Varying directional winds and vortex shedding causes the vehicle to sway in an oscillating motion. The Human Factors team recognizes that vehicle sway may hinder ground crew operation, impact the ground system designs, and ultimately affect launch availability . The objective of this study is to physically simulate predicted oscillation envelopes identified by analysis. and conduct a Human Factors Analysis to assess the ability to carry out essential Upper Stage (US) ground operator tasks based on predicted vehicle motion.

On the Analysis of Wind-Induced Noise in Seismological Recordings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lott, Friederike F.; Ritter, Joachim R. R.; Al-Qaryouti, Mahmoud; Corsmeier, Ulrich

2017-03-01

Atmospheric processes, ranging from microscale turbulence to severe storms on the synoptic scale, impact the continuous ground motion of the earth and have the potential to induce strong broad-band noise in seismological recordings. We designed a target-oriented experiment to quantify the influence of wind on ground motion velocity in the Dead Sea valley. For the period from March 2014 to February 2015, a seismological array, consisting of 15 three-component short-period and broad-band stations, was operated near Madaba, Jordan, complemented by one meteorological tower providing synchronized, continuous three-component measurements of wind speed. Results reveal a pronounced, predominantly linear increase of the logarithmic power of ground motion velocity with rising mean horizontal wind speed at all recording stations. Measurements in rough, mountainous terrain further identify a strong dependency of wind-induced noise on surface characteristics, such as topography and, therefore, demonstrate the necessity to consider wind direction as well. To assess the noise level of seismological recordings with respect to a dynamically changing wind field, we develop a methodology to account for the dependency of power spectral density of ground motion velocity on wind speed and wind direction for long, statistically significant periods. We further introduce the quantitative measure of the ground motion susceptibility to estimate the vulnerability of seismological recordings to the presence of wind.

Ground Motion Relations While TBM Drilling in Unconsolidated Sediments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grund, Michael; Ritter, Joachim R. R.; Gehrig, Manuel

2016-05-01

The induced ground motions due to the tunnel boring machine (TBM), which has been used for the drilling of the urban metro tunnel in Karlsruhe (SW Germany), has been studied using the continuous recordings of seven seismological monitoring stations. The drilling has been undertaken in unconsolidated sediments of the Rhine River system, relatively close to the surface at 6-20 m depth and in the vicinity of many historic buildings. Compared to the reference values of DIN 4150-3 (1-80 Hz), no exceedance of the recommended peak ground velocity (PGV) limits (3-5 mm/s) was observed at the single recording site locations on building basements during the observation period between October 2014 and February 2015. Detailed analyses in the time and frequency domains helped with the detection of the sources of several specific shaking signals in the recorded time series and with the comparison of the aforementioned TBM-induced signals. The amplitude analysis allowed for the determination of a PGV attenuation relation (quality factor Q ~ 30-50) and the comparison of the TBM-induced ground motion with other artificially induced and natural ground motions of similar amplitudes.

Earthquake cycle modeling of multi-segmented faults: dynamic rupture and ground motion simulation of the 1992 Mw 7.3 Landers earthquake.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petukhin, A.; Galvez, P.; Somerville, P.; Ampuero, J. P.

2017-12-01

We perform earthquake cycle simulations to study the characteristics of source scaling relations and strong ground motions and in multi-segmented fault ruptures. For earthquake cycle modeling, a quasi-dynamic solver (QDYN, Luo et al, 2016) is used to nucleate events and the fully dynamic solver (SPECFEM3D, Galvez et al., 2014, 2016) is used to simulate earthquake ruptures. The Mw 7.3 Landers earthquake has been chosen as a target earthquake to validate our methodology. The SCEC fault geometry for the three-segmented Landers rupture is included and extended at both ends to a total length of 200 km. We followed the 2-D spatial correlated Dc distributions based on Hillers et. al. (2007) that associates Dc distribution with different degrees of fault maturity. The fault maturity is related to the variability of Dc on a microscopic scale. Large variations of Dc represents immature faults and lower variations of Dc represents mature faults. Moreover we impose a taper (a-b) at the fault edges and limit the fault depth to 15 km. Using these settings, earthquake cycle simulations are performed to nucleate seismic events on different sections of the fault, and dynamic rupture modeling is used to propagate the ruptures. The fault segmentation brings complexity into the rupture process. For instance, the change of strike between fault segments enhances strong variations of stress. In fact, Oglesby and Mai (2012) show the normal stress varies from positive (clamping) to negative (unclamping) between fault segments, which leads to favorable or unfavorable conditions for rupture growth. To replicate these complexities and the effect of fault segmentation in the rupture process, we perform earthquake cycles with dynamic rupture modeling and generate events similar to the Mw 7.3 Landers earthquake. We extract the asperities of these events and analyze the scaling relations between rupture area, average slip and combined area of asperities versus moment magnitude. Finally, the simulated ground motions will be validated by comparison of simulated response spectra with recorded response spectra and with response spectra from ground motion prediction models. This research is sponsored by the Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority.

Intensity attenuation in the Pannonian Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Győri, Erzsébet; Gráczer, Zoltán; Szanyi, Gyöngyvér

2015-04-01

Ground motion prediction equations play a key role in seismic hazard assessment. Earthquake hazard has to be expressed in macroseismic intensities in case of seismic risk estimations where a direct relation to the damage associated with ground shaking is needed. It can be also necessary for shake map generation where the map is used for prompt notification to the public, disaster management officers and insurance companies. Although only few instrumental strong motion data are recorded in the Pannonian Basin, there are numerous historical reports of past earthquakes since the 1763 Komárom earthquake. Knowing the intensity attenuation and comparing them with relations of other areas - where instrumental strong motion data also exist - can help us to choose from the existing instrumental ground motion prediction equations. The aim of this work is to determine an intensity attenuation formula for the inner part of the Pannonian Basin, which can be further used to find an adaptable ground motion prediction equation for the area. The crust below the Pannonian Basin is thin and warm and it is overlain by thick sediments. Thus the attenuation of seismic waves here is different from the attenuation in the Alp-Carpathian mountain belt. Therefore we have collected intensity data only from the inner part of the Pannonian Basin and defined the boundaries of the studied area by the crust thickness of 30 km (Windhoffer et al., 2005). 90 earthquakes from 1763 until 2014 have sufficient number of macroseismic data. Magnitude of the events varies from 3.0 to 6.6. We have used individual intensity points to eliminate the subjectivity of drawing isoseismals, the number of available intensity data is more than 3000. Careful quality control has been made on the dataset. The different types of magnitudes of the used earthquake catalogue have been converted to local and momentum magnitudes using relations determined for the Pannonian Basin. We applied the attenuation formula by Sorensen et al. (2009) using a least-squares regression method. This expression is comparable with the common type of strong-motion attenuation equations (e.g., Joyner and Boore, 1993). Joyner, W. B. and Boore, D. M. (1993). Methods for regression analysis of strong-motion data. BSSA, 83(2), 469-487. Sørensen, M. B., Stromeyer, D., Grünthal, G. (2009). Attenuation of macroseismic intensity: a new relation for the Marmara Sea region, northwest Turkey. BSSA, 99(2A), 538-553. Windhoffer, G., Dombrádi, E., Horváth, F., Székely, B., Bada, G., Szafián, P., Dövényi, P., Tóth, L., Grenerczy, Gy. and G. Timár (2005) Geodynamic Atlas of the Pannonian Basin and the Surrounding Orogens. 7th Workshop on Alpine Geological Studies, Abstract Book, p. 109.

Particles trajectories in magnetic filaments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bret, A.

2015-07-01

The motion of a particle in a spatially harmonic magnetic field is a basic problem involved, for example, in the mechanism of formation of a collisionless shock. In such settings, it is generally reasoned that particles entering a Weibel generated turbulence are trapped inside it, provided their Larmor radius in the peak field is smaller than the field coherence length. The goal of this work is to put this heuristic conclusion on firm ground by studying, both analytically and numerically, such motion. A toy model is analyzed, consisting of a relativistic particle entering a region of space occupied by a spatially harmonic field. The particle penetrates the magnetic structure in a direction aligned with the magnetic filaments. Although the conclusions are not trivial, the main result is confirmed.

Dynamical backaction cooling with free electrons.

PubMed

Niguès, A; Siria, A; Verlot, P

2015-09-18

The ability to cool single ions, atomic ensembles, and more recently macroscopic degrees of freedom down to the quantum ground state has generated considerable progress and perspectives in fundamental and technological science. These major advances have been essentially obtained by coupling mechanical motion to a resonant electromagnetic degree of freedom in what is generally known as laser cooling. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the first self-induced coherent cooling mechanism that is not mediated by an electromagnetic resonance. Using a focused electron beam, we report a 50-fold reduction of the motional temperature of a nanowire. Our result primarily relies on the sub-nanometre confinement of the electron beam and generalizes to any delayed and spatially confined interaction, with important consequences for near-field microscopy and fundamental nanoscale dissipation mechanisms.

Evaluation of the Microsoft Kinect for screening ACL injury.

PubMed

Stone, Erik E; Butler, Michael; McRuer, Aaron; Gray, Aaron; Marks, Jeffrey; Skubic, Marjorie

2013-01-01

A study was conducted to evaluate the use of the skeletal model generated by the Microsoft Kinect SDK in capturing four biomechanical measures during the Drop Vertical Jump test. These measures, which include: knee valgus motion from initial contact to peak flexion, frontal plane knee angle at initial contact, frontal plane knee angle at peak flexion, and knee-to-ankle separation ratio at peak flexion, have proven to be useful in screening for future knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries among female athletes. A marker-based Vicon motion capture system was used for ground truth. Results indicate that the Kinect skeletal model likely has acceptable accuracy for use as part of a screening tool to identify elevated risk for ACL injury.

Site-specific seismic ground motion analyses for transportation infrastructure in the New Madrid seismic zone.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-11-01

Generic, code-based design procedures cannot account for the anticipated short-period attenuation and long-period amplification of earthquake ground motions in the deep, soft sediments of the Mississippi Embayment within the New Madrid Seismic Zone (...

A prototype of the procedure of strong ground motion prediction for intraslab earthquake based on characterized source model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwata, T.; Asano, K.; Sekiguchi, H.

2011-12-01

We propose a prototype of the procedure to construct source models for strong motion prediction during intraslab earthquakes based on the characterized source model (Irikura and Miyake, 2011). The key is the characterized source model which is based on the empirical scaling relationships for intraslab earthquakes and involve the correspondence between the SMGA (strong motion generation area, Miyake et al., 2003) and the asperity (large slip area). Iwata and Asano (2011) obtained the empirical relationships of the rupture area (S) and the total asperity area (Sa) to the seismic moment (Mo) as follows, with assuming power of 2/3 dependency of S and Sa on M0, S (km**2) = 6.57×10**(-11)×Mo**(2/3) (Nm) (1) Sa (km**2) = 1.04 ×10**(-11)×Mo**(2/3) (Nm) (2). Iwata and Asano (2011) also pointed out that the position and the size of SMGA approximately corresponds to the asperity area for several intraslab events. Based on the empirical relationships, we gave a procedure for constructing source models of intraslab earthquakes for strong motion prediction. [1] Give the seismic moment, Mo. [2] Obtain the total rupture area and the total asperity area according to the empirical scaling relationships between S, Sa, and Mo given by Iwata and Asano (2011). [3] Square rupture area and asperities are assumed. [4] The source mechanism is assumed to be the same as that of small events in the source region. [5] Plural scenarios including variety of the number of asperities and rupture starting points are prepared. We apply this procedure by simulating strong ground motions for several observed events for confirming the methodology.

Assessing land leveling needs and performance with unmanned aerial system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Enciso, Juan; Jung, Jinha; Chang, Anjin; Chavez, Jose Carlos; Yeom, Junho; Landivar, Juan; Cavazos, Gabriel

2018-01-01

Land leveling is the initial step for increasing irrigation efficiencies in surface irrigation systems. The objective of this paper was to evaluate potential utilization of an unmanned aerial system (UAS) equipped with a digital camera to map ground elevations of a grower's field and compare them with field measurements. A secondary objective was to use UAS data to obtain a digital terrain model before and after land leveling. UAS data were used to generate orthomosaic images and three-dimensional (3-D) point cloud data by applying the structure for motion algorithm to the images. Ground control points (GCPs) were established around the study area, and they were surveyed using a survey grade dual-frequency GPS unit for accurate georeferencing of the geospatial data products. A digital surface model (DSM) was then generated from the 3-D point cloud data before and after laser leveling to determine the topography before and after the leveling. The UAS-derived DSM was compared with terrain elevation measurements acquired from land surveying equipment for validation. Although 0.3% error or root mean square error of 0.11 m was observed between UAS derived and ground measured ground elevation data, the results indicated that UAS could be an efficient method for determining terrain elevation with an acceptable accuracy when there are no plants on the ground, and it can be used to assess the performance of a land leveling project.

Design and Pilot Study of a Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe.

PubMed

Handzic, Ismet; Barno, Eileen M; Vasudevan, Erin V; Reed, Kyle B

2011-12-01

Hemiparesis is a frequent and disabling consequence of stroke and can lead to asymmetric and inefficient walking patterns. Training on a split-belt treadmill, which has two separate treads driving each leg at a different speed, can correct such asymmetries post-stroke. However, the effects of split-belt treadmill training only partially transfer to everyday walking over ground and extended training sessions are required to achieve long-lasting effects. Our aim is to develop an alternative device, the Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe (GEMS), that mimics the actions of the split-belt treadmill, but can be used during overground walking and in one's own home, thus enabling long-term training. The GEMS does not require any external power and is completely passive; all necessary forces are redirected from the natural forces present during walking. Three healthy subjects walked on the shoes for twenty minutes during which one GEMS generated a backward motion and the other GEMS generated a forward motion. Our preliminary experiments suggest that wearing the GEMS did cause subjects to modify coordination between the legs and these changes persisted when subjects returned to normal over-ground walking. The largest effects were observed in measures of temporal coordination (e.g., duration of double-support). These results suggest that the GEMS is capable of altering overground walking coordination in healthy controls and could potentially be used to correct gait asymmetries post-stroke.

3-D velocity structure model for long-period ground motion simulation of the hypothetical Nankai Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kagawa, T.; Petukhin, A.; Koketsu, K.; Miyake, H.; Murotani, S.; Tsurugi, M.

2010-12-01

Three dimensional velocity structure model of southwest Japan is provided to simulate long-period ground motions due to the hypothetical subduction earthquakes. The model is constructed from numerous physical explorations conducted in land and offshore areas and observational study of natural earthquakes. Any available information is involved to explain crustal structure and sedimentary structure. Figure 1 shows an example of cross section with P wave velocities. The model has been revised through numbers of simulations of small to middle earthquakes as to have good agreement with observed arrival times, amplitudes, and also waveforms including surface waves. Figure 2 shows a comparison between Observed (dash line) and simulated (solid line) waveforms. Low velocity layers have added on seismological basement to reproduce observed records. The thickness of the layer has been adjusted through iterative analysis. The final result is found to have good agreement with the results from other physical explorations; e.g. gravity anomaly. We are planning to make long-period (about 2 to 10 sec or longer) simulations of ground motion due to the hypothetical Nankai Earthquake with the 3-D velocity structure model. As the first step, we will simulate the observed ground motions of the latest event occurred in 1946 to check the source model and newly developed velocity structure model. This project is partly supported by Integrated Research Project for Long-Period Ground Motion Hazard Maps by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The ground motion data used in this study were provided by National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention Disaster (NIED). Figure 1 An example of cross section with P wave velocities Figure 2 Observed (dash line) and simulated (solid line) waveforms due to a small earthquake

Real time numerical shake prediction incorporating attenuation structure: a case for the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogiso, M.; Hoshiba, M.; Shito, A.; Matsumoto, S.

2016-12-01

Needless to say, heterogeneous attenuation structure is important for ground motion prediction, including earthquake early warning, that is, real time ground motion prediction. Hoshiba and Ogiso (2015, AGU Fall meeting) showed that the heterogeneous attenuation and scattering structure will lead to earlier and more accurate ground motion prediction in the numerical shake prediction scheme proposed by Hoshiba and Aoki (2015, BSSA). Hoshiba and Ogiso (2015) used assumed heterogeneous structure, and we discuss the effect of them in the case of 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, using heterogeneous structure estimated by actual observation data. We conducted Multiple Lapse Time Window Analysis (Hoshiba, 1993, JGR) to the seismic stations located on western part of Japan to estimate heterogeneous attenuation and scattering structure. The characteristics are similar to the previous work of Carcole and Sato (2010, GJI), e.g. strong intrinsic and scattering attenuation around the volcanoes located on the central part of Kyushu, and relatively weak heterogeneities in the other area. Real time ground motion prediction simulation for the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake was conducted using the numerical shake prediction scheme with 474 strong ground motion stations. Comparing the snapshot of predicted and observed wavefield showed a tendency for underprediction around the volcanic area in spite of the heterogeneous structure. These facts indicate the necessity of improving the heterogeneous structure for the numerical shake prediction scheme.In this study, we used the waveforms of Hi-net, K-NET, KiK-net stations operated by the NIED for estimating structure and conducting ground motion prediction simulation. Part of this study was supported by the Earthquake Research Institute, the University of Tokyo cooperative research program and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 25282114.

Ground motion modeling of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake II: Ground motion estimates for the 1906 earthquake and scenario events

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aagaard, B; Brocher, T; Dreger, D

2007-02-09

We estimate the ground motions produced by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake making use of the recently developed Song et al. (2008) source model that combines the available geodetic and seismic observations and recently constructed 3D geologic and seismic velocity models. Our estimates of the ground motions for the 1906 earthquake are consistent across five ground-motion modeling groups employing different wave propagation codes and simulation domains. The simulations successfully reproduce the main features of the Boatwright and Bundock (2005) ShakeMap, but tend to over predict the intensity of shaking by 0.1-0.5 modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) units. Velocity waveforms at sitesmore » throughout the San Francisco Bay Area exhibit characteristics consistent with rupture directivity, local geologic conditions (e.g., sedimentary basins), and the large size of the event (e.g., durations of strong shaking lasting tens of seconds). We also compute ground motions for seven hypothetical scenarios rupturing the same extent of the northern San Andreas fault, considering three additional hypocenters and an additional, random distribution of slip. Rupture directivity exerts the strongest influence on the variations in shaking, although sedimentary basins do consistently contribute to the response in some locations, such as Santa Rosa, Livermore, and San Jose. These scenarios suggest that future large earthquakes on the northern San Andreas fault may subject the current San Francisco Bay urban area to stronger shaking than a repeat of the 1906 earthquake. Ruptures propagating southward towards San Francisco appear to expose more of the urban area to a given intensity level than do ruptures propagating northward.« less

How sensitive is earthquake ground motion to source parameters? Insights from a numerical study in the Mygdonian basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaljub, Emmanuel; Maufroy, Emeline; deMartin, Florent; Hollender, Fabrice; Guyonnet-Benaize, Cédric; Manakou, Maria; Savvaidis, Alexandros; Kiratzi, Anastasia; Roumelioti, Zaferia; Theodoulidis, Nikos

2014-05-01

Understanding the origin of the variability of earthquake ground motion is critical for seismic hazard assessment. Here we present the results of a numerical analysis of the sensitivity of earthquake ground motion to seismic source parameters, focusing on the Mygdonian basin near Thessaloniki (Greece). We use an extended model of the basin (65 km [EW] x 50 km [NS]) which has been elaborated during the Euroseistest Verification and Validation Project. The numerical simulations are performed with two independent codes, both implementing the Spectral Element Method. They rely on a robust, semi-automated, mesh design strategy together with a simple homogenization procedure to define a smooth velocity model of the basin. Our simulations are accurate up to 4 Hz, and include the effects of surface topography and of intrinsic attenuation. Two kinds of simulations are performed: (1) direct simulations of the surface ground motion for real regional events having various back azimuth with respect to the center of the basin; (2) reciprocity-based calculations where the ground motion due to 980 different seismic sources is computed at a few stations in the basin. In the reciprocity-based calculations, we consider epicentral distances varying from 2.5 km to 40 km, source depths from 1 km to 15 km and we span the range of possible back-azimuths with a 10 degree bin. We will present some results showing (1) the sensitivity of ground motion parameters to the location and focal mechanism of the seismic sources; and (2) the variability of the amplification caused by site effects, as measured by standard spectral ratios, to the source characteristics

The 2018 and 2020 Updates of the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petersen, M. D.

2017-12-01

During 2018 the USGS will update the 2014 National Seismic Hazard Models by incorporating new seismicity models, ground motion models, site factors, fault inputs, and by improving weights to ground motion models using empirical and other data. We will update the earthquake catalog for the U.S. and introduce new rate models. Additional fault data will be used to improve rate estimates on active faults. New ground motion models (GMMs) and site factors for Vs30 have been released by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) and we will consider these in assessing ground motions in craton and extended margin regions of the central and eastern U.S. The USGS will also include basin-depth terms for selected urban areas of the western United States to improve long-period shaking assessments using published depth estimates to 1.0 and 2.5 km/s shear wave velocities. We will produce hazard maps for input into the building codes that span a broad range of periods (0.1 to 5 s) and site classes (shear wave velocity from 2000 m/s to 200 m/s in the upper 30 m of the crust, Vs30). In the 2020 update we plan on including: a new national crustal model that defines basin depths required in the latest GMMs, new 3-D ground motion simulations for several urban areas, new magnitude-area equations, and new fault geodetic and geologic strain rate models. The USGS will also consider including new 3-D ground motion simulations for inclusion in these long-period maps. These new models are being evaluated and will be discussed at one or more regional and topical workshops held at the beginning of 2018.

Risk-targeted versus current seismic design maps for the conterminous United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Luco, Nicolas; Ellingwood, Bruce R.; Hamburger, Ronald O.; Hooper, John D.; Kimball, Jeffrey K.; Kircher, Charles A.

2007-01-01

The probabilistic portions of the seismic design maps in the NEHRP Provisions (FEMA, 2003/2000/1997), and in the International Building Code (ICC, 2006/2003/2000) and ASCE Standard 7-05 (ASCE, 2005a), provide ground motion values from the USGS that have a 2% probability of being exceeded in 50 years. Under the assumption that the capacity against collapse of structures designed for these "uniformhazard" ground motions is equal to, without uncertainty, the corresponding mapped value at the location of the structure, the probability of its collapse in 50 years is also uniform. This is not the case however, when it is recognized that there is, in fact, uncertainty in the structural capacity. In that case, siteto-site variability in the shape of ground motion hazard curves results in a lack of uniformity. This paper explains the basis for proposed adjustments to the uniform-hazard portions of the seismic design maps currently in the NEHRP Provisions that result in uniform estimated collapse probability. For seismic design of nuclear facilities, analogous but specialized adjustments have recently been defined in ASCE Standard 43-05 (ASCE, 2005b). In support of the 2009 update of the NEHRP Provisions currently being conducted by the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC), herein we provide examples of the adjusted ground motions for a selected target collapse probability (or target risk). Relative to the probabilistic MCE ground motions currently in the NEHRP Provisions, the risk-targeted ground motions for design are smaller (by as much as about 30%) in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, near Charleston, South Carolina, and in the coastal region of Oregon, with relatively little (<15%) change almost everywhere else in the conterminous U.S.

Ground-motion modeling of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, part II: Ground-motion estimates for the 1906 earthquake and scenario events

USGS Publications Warehouse

Aagaard, Brad T.; Brocher, T.M.; Dolenc, D.; Dreger, D.; Graves, R.W.; Harmsen, S.; Hartzell, S.; Larsen, S.; McCandless, K.; Nilsson, S.; Petersson, N.A.; Rodgers, A.; Sjogreen, B.; Zoback, M.L.

2008-01-01

We estimate the ground motions produce by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake making use of the recently developed Song et al. (2008) source model that combines the available geodetic and seismic observations and recently constructed 3D geologic and seismic velocity models. Our estimates of the ground motions for the 1906 earthquake are consistent across five ground-motion modeling groups employing different wave propagation codes and simulation domains. The simulations successfully reproduce the main features of the Boatwright and Bundock (2005) ShakeMap, but tend to over predict the intensity of shaking by 0.1-0.5 modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) units. Velocity waveforms at sites throughout the San Francisco Bay Area exhibit characteristics consistent with rupture directivity, local geologic conditions (e.g., sedimentary basins), and the large size of the event (e.g., durations of strong shaking lasting tens of seconds). We also compute ground motions for seven hypothetical scenarios rupturing the same extent of the northern San Andreas fault, considering three additional hypocenters and an additional, random distribution of slip. Rupture directivity exerts the strongest influence on the variations in shaking, although sedimentary basins do consistently contribute to the response in some locations, such as Santa Rosa, Livermore, and San Jose. These scenarios suggest that future large earthquakes on the northern San Andreas fault may subject the current San Francisco Bay urban area to stronger shaking than a repeat of the 1906 earthquake. Ruptures propagating southward towards San Francisco appear to expose more of the urban area to a given intensity level than do ruptures propagating northward.

Strike-parallel and strike-normal coordinate system around geometrically complicated rupture traces: use by NGA-West2 and further improvements

USGS Publications Warehouse

Spudich, Paul A.; Chiou, Brian

2015-01-01

We present a two-dimensional system of generalized coordinates for use with geometrically complex fault ruptures that are neither straight nor continuous. The coordinates are a generalization of the conventional strike-normal and strike-parallel coordinates of a single straight fault. The presented conventions and formulations are applicable to a single curved trace, as well as multiple traces representing the rupture of branching faults or noncontiguous faults. An early application of our generalized system is in the second round of the Next Generation of Ground-Motion Attenuation Model project for the Western United States (NGA-West2), where they were used in the characterization of the hanging-wall effects. We further improve the NGA-West2 strike-parallel formulation for multiple rupture traces with a more intuitive definition of the nominal strike direction. We also derive an analytical expression for the gradient of the generalized strike-normal coordinate. The direction of this gradient may be used as the strike-normal direction in the study of polarization effects on ground motions.

Effect of Ground Motion Characteristics on the Seismic Response of a Monumental Concrete Arch Bridge

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Caglayan, B. Ozden; Ozakgul, Kadir; Tezer, Ovunc

2008-07-08

Railway network in Turkey dates back to more than a hundred years ago and according to official records, there are approximately 18,000 railway bridges with spans varying between 50 cm up to 150 meters. One of them is a monumental concrete arch bridge with a total length of 210 meters having three major spans of 30 meters and a height of 65 meters, located in an earthquake-prone region in southern part of the country. Three-dimensional finite element model of the bridge was generated using a commercially available general finite element analysis software and based on the outcomes of a seriesmore » of in-depth acceleration measurements that were conducted on-site, the model was refined. Types of ground motion records were used to investigate the seismic response and vulnerability of this massive structure in order to provide information regarding (i) damage-susceptible regions of the structure for monitoring purposes, and, (ii) seismic loads to be taken into account during evaluation and possible strengthening phases for this type of structures.« less

Lattice Boltzmann approach for hydro-acoustic waves generated by tsunamigenic sea bottom displacement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prestininzi, P.; Abdolali, A.; Montessori, A.; Kirby, J. T.; La Rocca, Michele

2016-11-01

Tsunami waves are generated by sea bottom failures, landslides and faults. The concurrent generation of hydro-acoustic waves (HAW), which travel much faster than the tsunami, has received much attention, motivated by their possible exploitation as precursors of tsunamis. This feature makes the detection of HAW particularly well-suited for building an early-warning system. Accuracy and efficiency of the modeling approaches for HAW thus play a pivotal role in the design of such systems. Here, we present a Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for the generation and propagation of HAW resulting from tsunamigenic ground motions and verify it against commonly employed modeling solutions. LBM is well known for providing fast and accurate solutions to both hydrodynamics and acoustics problems, thus it naturally becomes a candidate as a comprehensive computational tool for modeling generation and propagation of HAW.

29 CFR 102.65 - Motions; interventions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 29 Labor 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Motions; interventions. 102.65 Section 102.65 Labor... Act § 102.65 Motions; interventions. (a) All motions, including motions for intervention pursuant to... any proceeding shall make a motion for intervention, stating the grounds upon which such person claims...

29 CFR 102.65 - Motions; interventions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 29 Labor 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Motions; interventions. 102.65 Section 102.65 Labor... Act § 102.65 Motions; interventions. (a) All motions, including motions for intervention pursuant to... any proceeding shall make a motion for intervention, stating the grounds upon which such person claims...

29 CFR 102.65 - Motions; interventions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 29 Labor 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Motions; interventions. 102.65 Section 102.65 Labor... Act § 102.65 Motions; interventions. (a) All motions, including motions for intervention pursuant to... any proceeding shall make a motion for intervention, stating the grounds upon which such person claims...

29 CFR 102.65 - Motions; interventions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 29 Labor 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Motions; interventions. 102.65 Section 102.65 Labor... Act § 102.65 Motions; interventions. (a) All motions, including motions for intervention pursuant to... any proceeding shall make a motion for intervention, stating the grounds upon which such person claims...

The effect of sampling rate and anti-aliasing filters on high-frequency response spectra

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boore, David M.; Goulet, Christine

2013-01-01

The most commonly used intensity measure in ground-motion prediction equations is the pseudo-absolute response spectral acceleration (PSA), for response periods from 0.01 to 10 s (or frequencies from 0.1 to 100 Hz). PSAs are often derived from recorded ground motions, and these motions are usually filtered to remove high and low frequencies before the PSAs are computed. In this article we are only concerned with the removal of high frequencies. In modern digital recordings, this filtering corresponds at least to an anti-aliasing filter applied before conversion to digital values. Additional high-cut filtering is sometimes applied both to digital and to analog records to reduce high-frequency noise. Potential errors on the short-period (high-frequency) response spectral values are expected if the true ground motion has significant energy at frequencies above that of the anti-aliasing filter. This is especially important for areas where the instrumental sample rate and the associated anti-aliasing filter corner frequency (above which significant energy in the time series is removed) are low relative to the frequencies contained in the true ground motions. A ground-motion simulation study was conducted to investigate these effects and to develop guidance for defining the usable bandwidth for high-frequency PSA. The primary conclusion is that if the ratio of the maximum Fourier acceleration spectrum (FAS) to the FAS at a frequency fsaa corresponding to the start of the anti-aliasing filter is more than about 10, then PSA for frequencies above fsaa should be little affected by the recording process, because the ground-motion frequencies that control the response spectra will be less than fsaa . A second topic of this article concerns the resampling of the digital acceleration time series to a higher sample rate often used in the computation of short-period PSA. We confirm previous findings that sinc-function interpolation is preferred to the standard practice of using linear time interpolation for the resamplin

Development of guidelines for incorporation of vertical ground motion effects in seismic design of highway bridges.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-05-01

This study was undertaken with the objective of assessing the current provisions in SDC-2006 for incorporating : vertical effects of ground motions in seismic evaluation and design of ordinary highway bridges. A : comprehensive series of simulations ...

Effect of vertical ground motions on shear demand and capacity in bridge columns.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-03-01

The objective of this project was to examine the effects of axial force variation in bridge columns due to strong vertical : ground motions and the influence of these axial force fluctuations on shear strength degradation. : Two quarter scale specime...

10 CFR 100.23 - Geologic and seismic siting criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Earthquake Ground Motion, and to permit adequate engineering solutions to actual or potential geologic and..., earthquake recurrence rates, fault geometry and slip rates, site foundation material, and seismically induced... Earthquake Ground Motion for the site, the potential for surface tectonic and nontectonic deformations, the...

10 CFR 100.23 - Geologic and seismic siting criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Earthquake Ground Motion, and to permit adequate engineering solutions to actual or potential geologic and..., earthquake recurrence rates, fault geometry and slip rates, site foundation material, and seismically induced... Earthquake Ground Motion for the site, the potential for surface tectonic and nontectonic deformations, the...

10 CFR 100.23 - Geologic and seismic siting criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Earthquake Ground Motion, and to permit adequate engineering solutions to actual or potential geologic and..., earthquake recurrence rates, fault geometry and slip rates, site foundation material, and seismically induced... Earthquake Ground Motion for the site, the potential for surface tectonic and nontectonic deformations, the...

Structure-specific scalar intensity measures for near-source and ordinary earthquake ground motions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Luco, N.; Cornell, C.A.

2007-01-01

Introduced in this paper are several alternative ground-motion intensity measures (IMs) that are intended for use in assessing the seismic performance of a structure at a site susceptible to near-source and/or ordinary ground motions. A comparison of such IMs is facilitated by defining the "efficiency" and "sufficiency" of an IM, both of which are criteria necessary for ensuring the accuracy of the structural performance assessment. The efficiency and sufficiency of each alternative IM, which are quantified via (i) nonlinear dynamic analyses of the structure under a suite of earthquake records and (ii) linear regression analysis, are demonstrated for the drift response of three different moderate- to long-period buildings subjected to suites of ordinary and of near-source earthquake records. One of the alternative IMs in particular is found to be relatively efficient and sufficient for the range of buildings considered and for both the near-source and ordinary ground motions. ?? 2007, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Benefits of rotational ground motions for planetary seismology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donner, S.; Joshi, R.; Hadziioannou, C.; Nunn, C.; van Driel, M.; Schmelzbach, C.; Wassermann, J. M.; Igel, H.

2017-12-01

Exploring the internal structure of planetary objects is fundamental to understand the evolution of our solar system. In contrast to Earth, planetary seismology is hampered by the limited number of stations available, often just a single one. Classic seismology is based on the measurement of three components of translational ground motion. Its methods are mainly developed for a larger number of available stations. Therefore, the application of classical seismological methods to other planets is very limited. Here, we show that the additional measurement of three components of rotational ground motion could substantially improve the situation. From sparse or single station networks measuring translational and rotational ground motions it is possible to obtain additional information on structure and source. This includes direct information on local subsurface seismic velocities, separation of seismic phases, propagation direction of seismic energy, crustal scattering properties, as well as moment tensor source parameters for regional sources. The potential of this methodology will be highlighted through synthetic forward and inverse modeling experiments.

Toward resolving an earthquake ground motion mystery in west Seattle, Washington State: Shallow seismic focusing may cause anomalous chimney damage

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stephenson, W.J.; Frankel, A.D.; Odum, J.K.; Williams, R.A.; Pratt, T.L.

2006-01-01

A shallow bedrock fold imaged by a 1.3-km long high-resolution shear-wave seismic reflection profile in west Seattle focuses seismic waves arriving from the south. This focusing may cause a pocket of amplified ground shaking and the anomalous chimney damage observed in earthquakes of 1949, 1965 and 2001. The 200-m bedrock fold at ???300-m depth is caused by deformation across an inferred fault within the Seattle fault zone. Ground motion simulations, using the imaged geologic structure and northward-propagating north-dipping plane wave sources, predict a peak horizontal acceleration pattern that matches that observed in strong motion records of the 2001 Nisqually event. Additionally, a pocket of chimney damage reported for both the 1965 and the 2001 earthquakes generally coincides with a zone of simulated amplification caused by focusing. This study further demonstrates the significant impact shallow (<1km) crustal structures can have on earthquake ground-motion variability.

Mean and modal ϵ in the deaggregation of probabilistic ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Harmsen, Stephen C.

2001-01-01

Mean and modal ϵ exhibit a wide variation geographically for any specified PE. Modal ϵ for the 2% in 50 yr PE exceeds 2 near the most active western California faults, is less than –1 near some less active faults of the western United States (principally in the Basin and Range), and may be less than 0 in areal fault zones of the central and eastern United States (CEUS). This geographic variation is useful for comparing probabilistic ground motions with ground motions from scenario earthquakes on dominating faults, often used in seismic-resistant provisions of building codes. An interactive seismic-hazard deaggregation menu item has been added to the USGS probabilistic seismic-hazard analysis Web site, http://geohazards.cr.usgs.gov/eq/, allowing visitors to compute mean and modal distance, magnitude, and ϵ corresponding to ground motions having mean return times from 250 to 5000 yr for any site in the United States.

Construction of Source Model of Huge Subduction Earthquakes for Strong Ground Motion Prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwata, T.; Asano, K.; Kubo, H.

2013-12-01

It is a quite important issue for strong ground motion prediction to construct the source model of huge subduction earthquakes. Iwata and Asano (2012, AGU) summarized the scaling relationships of large slip area of heterogeneous slip model and total SMGA sizes on seismic moment for subduction earthquakes and found the systematic change between the ratio of SMGA to the large slip area and the seismic moment. They concluded this tendency would be caused by the difference of period range of source modeling analysis. In this paper, we try to construct the methodology of construction of the source model for strong ground motion prediction for huge subduction earthquakes. Following to the concept of the characterized source model for inland crustal earthquakes (Irikura and Miyake, 2001; 2011) and intra-slab earthquakes (Iwata and Asano, 2011), we introduce the proto-type of the source model for huge subduction earthquakes and validate the source model by strong ground motion modeling.

How many records should be used in ASCE/SEI-7 ground motion scaling procedure?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reyes, Juan C.; Kalkan, Erol

2012-01-01

U.S. national building codes refer to the ASCE/SEI-7 provisions for selecting and scaling ground motions for use in nonlinear response history analysis of structures. Because the limiting values for the number of records in the ASCE/SEI-7 are based on engineering experience, this study examines the required number of records statistically, such that the scaled records provide accurate, efficient, and consistent estimates of “true” structural responses. Based on elastic–perfectly plastic and bilinear single-degree-of-freedom systems, the ASCE/SEI-7 scaling procedure is applied to 480 sets of ground motions; the number of records in these sets varies from three to ten. As compared to benchmark responses, it is demonstrated that the ASCE/SEI-7 scaling procedure is conservative if fewer than seven ground motions are employed. Utilizing seven or more randomly selected records provides more accurate estimate of the responses. Selecting records based on their spectral shape and design spectral acceleration increases the accuracy and efficiency of the procedure.

Figure–ground discrimination behavior in Drosophila. I. Spatial organization of wing-steering responses

PubMed Central

Fox, Jessica L.; Aptekar, Jacob W.; Zolotova, Nadezhda M.; Shoemaker, Patrick A.; Frye, Mark A.

2014-01-01

The behavioral algorithms and neural subsystems for visual figure–ground discrimination are not sufficiently described in any model system. The fly visual system shares structural and functional similarity with that of vertebrates and, like vertebrates, flies robustly track visual figures in the face of ground motion. This computation is crucial for animals that pursue salient objects under the high performance requirements imposed by flight behavior. Flies smoothly track small objects and use wide-field optic flow to maintain flight-stabilizing optomotor reflexes. The spatial and temporal properties of visual figure tracking and wide-field stabilization have been characterized in flies, but how the two systems interact spatially to allow flies to actively track figures against a moving ground has not. We took a systems identification approach in flying Drosophila and measured wing-steering responses to velocity impulses of figure and ground motion independently. We constructed a spatiotemporal action field (STAF) – the behavioral analog of a spatiotemporal receptive field – revealing how the behavioral impulse responses to figure tracking and concurrent ground stabilization vary for figure motion centered at each location across the visual azimuth. The figure tracking and ground stabilization STAFs show distinct spatial tuning and temporal dynamics, confirming the independence of the two systems. When the figure tracking system is activated by a narrow vertical bar moving within the frontal field of view, ground motion is essentially ignored despite comprising over 90% of the total visual input. PMID:24198267

3D Modeling of Strong Ground Motion in the Pacific Northwest From Large Earthquakes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olsen, K. B.; Geisselmeyer, A.; Stephenson, W. J.; Mai, P. M.

2007-12-01

The Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest, USA, generates Great (megathrust) earthquakes with a recurrence period of about 500 years, most recently the M~9 event on January 26, 1700. Since no earthquake of such magnitude has occurred in the Pacific Northwest since the deployment of strong ground motion instruments, a large uncertainty is associated with the ground motions expected from such event. To decrease this uncertainty, we have carried out the first 3D simulations of megathrust earthquakes (Mw8.5 and Mw9.0) rupturing along the Cascadia subduction zone. The simulations were carried out in a recently developed 3D velocity model of the region of dimensions 1050 km by 550 km, discretized into 2 billion 250 m3 cubes with a minimum S-wave velocity of 625 m/s. The model includes the subduction slab, accretionary sediments, local sedimentary basins, and the ocean layer. About 6 minutes of wave propagation for each scenario consumed about 24 Wall-clock hours using a parallel fourth-order finite-difference method with 1600 processors on the San Diego Supercomputer Center Datastar supercomputer. The source descriptions for the Mw9.0 scenarios were designed by mapping the inversion results for the December 26, 2004 M9+ Sumatra-Andaman Islands earthquake (Ji, 2006) onto a 950 km by 150 km large rupture for the Pacific Northwest model. Simulations were carried out for hypocenters located toward the northern and southern ends of the subduction zone. In addition, we simulated two M8.5 events with a source area of 275 km by 150 km located in the northern and central parts of the model area. The sources for the M8.5 events were generated using the pseudo-dynamic model by Guatteri et al. (2004). All sources used spatially-variable slip, rise time and rupture velocity. Three major metropolitan areas are located in the model region, namely Seattle (3 million+ people), Vancouver (2 million+ people), and Portland (2 million+ people), all located above sedimentary basins amplifying the waves incident from the subduction zone. The estimated peak ground velocities (PGVs) for frequencies less than 0.5 Hz vary significantly with the assumed rise time. Using a mean rise of 32 s, as estimated from source inversion of the 2004 M9+ Sumatra-Andeman event (Ji, 2006), PGVs reached 40 cm/s in Seattle and 10 cm/s in Vancouver and Portland. However, if the mean rise time is decreased to about 14 s, as suggested by the empirical regression by Somerville et al. (1999), PGVs are increased by 2-3 times at these locations. For the Mw8.5 events, PGVs would reach about 10 cm/s in Seattle, and about 5 cm/s in Vancouver and Portland. Combined with extended duration of the shaking exceeding 1 minute for the Mw8.5 events and 2 minutes for the Mw9 events, these long-period ground motions may inflict significant damage on the built environment, in particular on the highrises in downtown Seattle. However, the strongest shaking arrives 1-2 minutes after the earthquake nucleates, indicating that an early warning system in place may help mitigate loss of life in case of a megathrust earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. Additional efforts should analyse the simulated displacements on the ocean bottom for tsunami generation potential.

Rapid mapping of ultrafine fault zone topography with structure from motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnson, Kendra; Nissen, Edwin; Saripalli, Srikanth; Arrowsmith, J. Ramón; McGarey, Patrick; Scharer, Katherine M.; Williams, Patrick; Blisniuk, Kimberly

2014-01-01

Structure from Motion (SfM) generates high-resolution topography and coregistered texture (color) from an unstructured set of overlapping photographs taken from varying viewpoints, overcoming many of the cost, time, and logistical limitations of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and other topographic surveying methods. This paper provides the first investigation of SfM as a tool for mapping fault zone topography in areas of sparse or low-lying vegetation. First, we present a simple, affordable SfM workflow, based on an unmanned helium balloon or motorized glider, an inexpensive camera, and semiautomated software. Second, we illustrate the system at two sites on southern California faults covered by existing airborne or terrestrial LiDAR, enabling a comparative assessment of SfM topography resolution and precision. At the first site, an ∼0.1 km2 alluvial fan on the San Andreas fault, a colored point cloud of density mostly >700 points/m2 and a 3 cm digital elevation model (DEM) and orthophoto were produced from 233 photos collected ∼50 m above ground level. When a few global positioning system ground control points are incorporated, closest point vertical distances to the much sparser (∼4 points/m2) airborne LiDAR point cloud are mostly 530 points/m2 and a 2 cm DEM and orthophoto were produced from 450 photos taken from ∼60 m above ground level. Closest point vertical distances to existing terrestrial LiDAR data of comparable density are mostly <6 cm. Each SfM survey took ∼2 h to complete and several hours to generate the scene topography and texture. SfM greatly facilitates the imaging of subtle geomorphic offsets related to past earthquakes as well as rapid response mapping or long-term monitoring of faulted landscapes.

Practical Considerations before Installing Ground-Based Geodetic Infrastructure for Integrated InSAR and cGNSS Monitoring of Vertical Land Motion.

PubMed

Parker, Amy L; Featherstone, Will E; Penna, Nigel T; Filmer, Mick S; Garthwaite, Matt C

2017-07-31

Continuously operating Global Navigation Satellite Systems (cGNSS) can be used to convert relative values of vertical land motion (VLM) derived from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to absolute values in a global or regional reference frame. Artificial trihedral corner reflectors (CRs) provide high-intensity and temporally stable reflections in SAR time series imagery, more so than naturally occurring permanent scatterers. Therefore, it is logical to co-locate CRs with cGNSS as ground-based geodetic infrastructure for the integrated monitoring of VLM. We describe the practical considerations for such co-locations using four case-study examples from Perth, Australia. After basic initial considerations such as land access, sky visibility and security, temporary test deployments of co-located CRs with cGNSS should be analysed together to determine site suitability. Signal to clutter ratios from SAR imagery are used to determine potential sites for placement of the CR. A significant concern is whether the co-location of a deliberately designed reflecting object generates unwanted multipath (reflected signals) in the cGNSS data. To mitigate against this, we located CRs >30 m from the cGNSS with no inter-visibility. Daily RMS values of the zero-difference ionosphere-free carrier-phase residuals, and ellipsoidal heights from static precise point positioning GNSS processing at each co-located site were then used to ascertain that the CR did not generate unwanted cGNSS multipath. These steps form a set of recommendations for the installation of such geodetic ground-infrastructure, which may be of use to others wishing to establish integrated InSAR-cGNSS monitoring of VLM elsewhere.

Practical Considerations before Installing Ground-Based Geodetic Infrastructure for Integrated InSAR and cGNSS Monitoring of Vertical Land Motion

PubMed Central

Featherstone, Will E.; Filmer, Mick S.

2017-01-01

Continuously operating Global Navigation Satellite Systems (cGNSS) can be used to convert relative values of vertical land motion (VLM) derived from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to absolute values in a global or regional reference frame. Artificial trihedral corner reflectors (CRs) provide high-intensity and temporally stable reflections in SAR time series imagery, more so than naturally occurring permanent scatterers. Therefore, it is logical to co-locate CRs with cGNSS as ground-based geodetic infrastructure for the integrated monitoring of VLM. We describe the practical considerations for such co-locations using four case-study examples from Perth, Australia. After basic initial considerations such as land access, sky visibility and security, temporary test deployments of co-located CRs with cGNSS should be analysed together to determine site suitability. Signal to clutter ratios from SAR imagery are used to determine potential sites for placement of the CR. A significant concern is whether the co-location of a deliberately designed reflecting object generates unwanted multipath (reflected signals) in the cGNSS data. To mitigate against this, we located CRs >30 m from the cGNSS with no inter-visibility. Daily RMS values of the zero-difference ionosphere-free carrier-phase residuals, and ellipsoidal heights from static precise point positioning GNSS processing at each co-located site were then used to ascertain that the CR did not generate unwanted cGNSS multipath. These steps form a set of recommendations for the installation of such geodetic ground-infrastructure, which may be of use to others wishing to establish integrated InSAR-cGNSS monitoring of VLM elsewhere. PMID:28758970

From Regional Hazard Assessment to Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Support - InSAR Ground Motion Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lege, T.; Kalia, A.; Gruenberg, I.; Frei, M.

2016-12-01

There are numerous scientific applications of InSAR methods in tectonics, earthquake analysis and other geologic and geophysical fields. Ground motion on local and regional scale measured and monitored via the application of the InSAR techniques provide scientists and engineers with plenty of new insights and further understanding of subsurface processes. However, the operational use of InSAR is not yet very widespread. To foster the operational utilization of the Copernicus Sentinel Satellites in the day-to-day business of federal, state and municipal work and planning BGR (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources) initiated workshops with potential user groups. Through extensive reconcilement of interests and demands with scientific, technical, economic and governmental stakeholders (e.g. Ministries, Mining Authorities, Geological Surveys, Geodetic Surveys and Environmental Agencies on federal and state level, SMEs, German Aerospace Center) BGR developed the concept of the InSAR based German National Ground Motion Service. One important backbone for the nationwide ground motion service is the so-called Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Wide Area Product (WAP) approach developed with grants of European research funds. The presentation shows the implementation of the ground motion service and examples for product developments for operational supervision of mining, water resources management and spatial planning. Furthermore the contributions of Copernicus Sentinel 1 radar data in the context of CTBT are discussed. The DInSAR processing of Sentinel 1 IW (Interferometric Wide Swath) SAR acquisitions from January 1st and 13th Jan. 2016 allow for the first time a near real time ground motion measurement of the North Korean nuclear test site. The measured ground displacements show a strong spatio-temporal correlation to the calculated epicenter measured by teleseismic stations. We are convinced this way another space technique will soon contribute even further to secure better societal information needs.

Site Amplification in the Central U.S.: Towards and understanding of factors influencing the site effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yassminh, R.; Sandvol, E. A.

2017-12-01

We have mapped site amplification using a Reverse Two Station (RTS) approach across much of the Central United States. We have found several unexpected results including a lack of amplification in Paleozoic basins such as the Illinois and Michigan basins. In general, we found that the amplification of high frequency regional waves is related to the topography. We also suggest that the HVSR spectra are primarily a function of the shallow velocity structure. The Central United States Seismic Observatory (CUSSO) is a vertical seismic array located adjacent to the central segment of the NMSZ. CUSSO data gives us the opportunity to understand the amplification of the ground motion at different depths within the uppermost crust. Simulating ground motions throughout the CUSSO borehole and examining the factors affecting the ground amplification, such as the velocity and thicknesses of the model layers and the source sizes, is an effective way to understand the role different factors playing in modifying the ground motion for both the local and regional seismic phases. We have used the spectral-element method (SEMs) with a 1D crustal velocity structure derived from logging data taken from CUSSO borehole. This model is comprised of near surface sediment layers and a Paleozoic basement. Utilizing the software package SPECFEM2D with virtual seismometers located on the surface and in the bottom of the different sediment layers, we have computed the true synthetic site amplification for frequencies between 0.01-3 Hz. For the local model, we have tested the sensitivity of the ground motion amplification to the source magnitude. For frequencies>0.6, the ground motions have been amplified with decreasing the magnitudes while for HZ<0.6 the the horizontal amplification increases with increasing the magnitudes. The effect of the velocity of the upper 30m was tested and the result shows that decreasing the Vs30m resulted in amplifying of the ground motion and decreasing of the resonant frequency. The velocity of the lower part of the sediment basin modifies the ground motion amplification and the result shows that increasing the velocity resulted in shifting the horizontal amplification peak frequency toward a lower frequency and increasing the amplification for frequencies >2Hz.

Using Tectonic Tremor to Constrain Seismic-wave Attenuation in Cascadia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Littel, G.; Thomas, A.; Baltay, A.

2017-12-01

In addition to fast, seismic slip, many subduction zones also host slow, largely aseismic slip, accompanied by a weak seismic signal known as tectonic tremor. Tremor is a small amplitude, low-frequency seismic signal that originates at the plate interface, down-dip of where large earthquakes typically occur. The Cascadia subduction zone has not seen a large megathrust earthquake since 1700, yet its recurrence interval of 350-500 years motivates heightened interest in understanding the seismic hazard of the region. Of great importance is to understand the degree to which waves are attenuated as they leave the plate interface and travel towards populated regions of interest. Ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) relate ground motion to a number of parameters, including earthquake magnitude, depth, style of faulting, and anelastic attenuation, and are typically determined empirically from earthquake ground motion recordings. In Cascadia, however, earthquakes of the moderate size typically used to constrain GMPEs occur relatively infrequently compared to tectonic tremor events, which, in contrast, occur periodically approximately every 10-19 months. Studies have shown that the abundant tectonic tremor in Cascadia, despite its small amplitudes, can be used to constrain seismic wave attenuation in GMPEs. Here we quantify seismic wave attenuation and determine its spatial variations in Cascadia by performing an inversion using tremor ground motion amplitudes, taken as peak ground acceleration (PGA) and peak ground velocity (PGV) from 1 min window waveforms of each individual tremor event. We estimate the anelastic attenuation parameter for varying regional sections along the Cascadia margin. Changes in seismic-wave attenuation along the Cascadia Subduction Zone could result in significantly different ground motions in the event of a very large earthquake, hence quantifying attenuation may help to better estimate the severity of shaking in densely populated metropolitan areas such as Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.

Rotating columns: Relating structure-from-motion, accretion/deletion, and figure/ground

PubMed Central

Froyen, Vicky; Feldman, Jacob; Singh, Manish

2013-01-01

We present a novel phenomenon involving an interaction between accretion deletion, figure-ground interpretation, and structure-from-motion. Our displays contain alternating light and dark vertical regions in which random-dot textures moved horizontally at constant speed but in opposite directions in alternating regions. This motion is consistent with all the light regions in front, with the dark regions completing amodally into a single large surface moving in the background, or vice versa. Surprisingly, the regions that are perceived as figural are also perceived as 3-D volumes rotating in depth (like rotating columns)—despite the fact that dot motion is not consistent with 3-D rotation. In a series of experiments, we found we could manipulate which set of regions is perceived as rotating volumes simply by varying known geometric cues to figure ground, including convexity, parallelism, symmetry, and relative area. Subjects indicated which colored regions they perceived as rotating. For our displays we found convexity to be a stronger cue than either symmetry or parallelism. We furthermore found a smooth monotonic decay of the proportion by which subjects perceive symmetric regions as figural, as a function of their relative area. Our results reveal an intriguing new interaction between accretion-deletion, figure-ground, and 3-D motion that is not captured by existing models. They also provide an effective tool for measuring figure-ground perception. PMID:23946432

Rotating columns: relating structure-from-motion, accretion/deletion, and figure/ground.

PubMed

Froyen, Vicky; Feldman, Jacob; Singh, Manish

2013-08-14

We present a novel phenomenon involving an interaction between accretion deletion, figure-ground interpretation, and structure-from-motion. Our displays contain alternating light and dark vertical regions in which random-dot textures moved horizontally at constant speed but in opposite directions in alternating regions. This motion is consistent with all the light regions in front, with the dark regions completing amodally into a single large surface moving in the background, or vice versa. Surprisingly, the regions that are perceived as figural are also perceived as 3-D volumes rotating in depth (like rotating columns)-despite the fact that dot motion is not consistent with 3-D rotation. In a series of experiments, we found we could manipulate which set of regions is perceived as rotating volumes simply by varying known geometric cues to figure ground, including convexity, parallelism, symmetry, and relative area. Subjects indicated which colored regions they perceived as rotating. For our displays we found convexity to be a stronger cue than either symmetry or parallelism. We furthermore found a smooth monotonic decay of the proportion by which subjects perceive symmetric regions as figural, as a function of their relative area. Our results reveal an intriguing new interaction between accretion-deletion, figure-ground, and 3-D motion that is not captured by existing models. They also provide an effective tool for measuring figure-ground perception.

Low-Frequency Amplitudes Observed in a Set of the Strongest Recorded Ground Motions (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, J. G.; Koketsu, K.; Miyake, H.

2010-12-01

Anderson (2010) compiled a set of “exceptional” ground motion characterized by peak acceleration that exceeds 500 gal on at least one component or peak velocity that exceeds 50 cm/s on at least one component. With the addition of more recent data, there are now over 280 openly available records that meet these criteria. These data are examined to find to the empirical upper bound of observed pseudo-acceleration (PSA) response spectra and smoothed Fourier amplitude spectra. Statistics of amplitudes of PSA and of low-pass filtered acceleration and velocity have also been determined. Amplitudes recorded at the Kawaguchi-cho station (40 km) at 5-6 second period from the 1964 Niigata earthquake (Mw=8.3) are within ~20% of the current empirical limit of ground motions observed from all earthquakes in the data set including those from the near field. An even more impressive example is that amplitudes recorded at the SCT station (~300 km from the fault) with period of about 2 seconds, during the 1985 Michoacan, Mexico, earthquake (Mw=8.0), are about the same as the current empirical limit of ground motions observed from near field records. These examples support the idea that the hazard caused by long-period ground motions, amplified by basins and site conditions, is not sufficiently appreciated. Reference: Anderson, J. G. (2010), Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 100, 1-36.

Experimental evaluation of four ground-motion scaling methods for dynamic response-history analysis of nonlinear structures

USGS Publications Warehouse

O'Donnell, Andrew P.; Kurama, Yahya C.; Kalkan, Erol; Taflanidis, Alexandros A.

2017-01-01

This paper experimentally evaluates four methods to scale earthquake ground-motions within an ensemble of records to minimize the statistical dispersion and maximize the accuracy in the dynamic peak roof drift demand and peak inter-story drift demand estimates from response-history analyses of nonlinear building structures. The scaling methods that are investigated are based on: (1) ASCE/SEI 7–10 guidelines; (2) spectral acceleration at the fundamental (first mode) period of the structure, Sa(T1); (3) maximum incremental velocity, MIV; and (4) modal pushover analysis. A total of 720 shake-table tests of four small-scale nonlinear building frame specimens with different static and dynamic characteristics are conducted. The peak displacement demands from full suites of 36 near-fault ground-motion records as well as from smaller “unbiased” and “biased” design subsets (bins) of ground-motions are included. Out of the four scaling methods, ground-motions scaled to the median MIV of the ensemble resulted in the smallest dispersion in the peak roof and inter-story drift demands. Scaling based on MIValso provided the most accurate median demands as compared with the “benchmark” demands for structures with greater nonlinearity; however, this accuracy was reduced for structures exhibiting reduced nonlinearity. The modal pushover-based scaling (MPS) procedure was the only method to conservatively overestimate the median drift demands.

Using Radars in Place of Magnetometers: Detection and Properties of Pc3-5 Wave Fields in HF Radar Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ponomarenko, P.; Menk, F. W.; Waters, C. L.

2004-12-01

SuperDARN HF radars are usually used to examine HF echoes from field-aligned ionospheric irregularity structures. However, ground scatter is also often recorded. Because the ground scatter signal is reflected from the ionosphere its Doppler shift is a sensitive indicator of ionospheric motions. We have used the TIGER radar, which operates at relatively low latitudes, to examine ground scatter returns with high time resolution. Ground scatter returns are present virtually every day and wave-like Doppler shift features are evident almost each time. Comparison with ground magnetometer data shows that these are the ionospheric signature of downgoing ULF waves. Several different types of wave features have been observed, including very large scale Pc5, harmonics of field line resonances in the Pc3-4 range, and bandlimited Pc4 at night. This paper presents examples and discusses the wave generation and propagation mechanisms. Furthermore, estimates of the ionospheric transfer function over the 10-110 mHz range are compared with results of numerical and analytical modelling.

Real-Time External Respiratory Motion Measuring Technique Using an RGB-D Camera and Principal Component Analysis †

PubMed Central

Wijenayake, Udaya; Park, Soon-Yong

2017-01-01

Accurate tracking and modeling of internal and external respiratory motion in the thoracic and abdominal regions of a human body is a highly discussed topic in external beam radiotherapy treatment. Errors in target/normal tissue delineation and dose calculation and the increment of the healthy tissues being exposed to high radiation doses are some of the unsolicited problems caused due to inaccurate tracking of the respiratory motion. Many related works have been introduced for respiratory motion modeling, but a majority of them highly depend on radiography/fluoroscopy imaging, wearable markers or surgical node implanting techniques. We, in this article, propose a new respiratory motion tracking approach by exploiting the advantages of an RGB-D camera. First, we create a patient-specific respiratory motion model using principal component analysis (PCA) removing the spatial and temporal noise of the input depth data. Then, this model is utilized for real-time external respiratory motion measurement with high accuracy. Additionally, we introduce a marker-based depth frame registration technique to limit the measuring area into an anatomically consistent region that helps to handle the patient movements during the treatment. We achieved a 0.97 correlation comparing to a spirometer and 0.53 mm average error considering a laser line scanning result as the ground truth. As future work, we will use this accurate measurement of external respiratory motion to generate a correlated motion model that describes the movements of internal tumors. PMID:28792468

The SCEC Broadband Platform: A Collaborative Open-Source Software Package for Strong Ground Motion Simulation and Validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, F.; Maechling, P. J.; Goulet, C. A.; Somerville, P.; Jordan, T. H.

2014-12-01

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform is a collaborative software development project involving geoscientists, earthquake engineers, graduate students, and the SCEC Community Modeling Environment. The SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP) is open-source scientific software that can generate broadband (0-100Hz) ground motions for earthquakes, integrating complex scientific modules that implement rupture generation, low and high-frequency seismogram synthesis, non-linear site effects calculation, and visualization into a software system that supports easy on-demand computation of seismograms. The Broadband Platform operates in two primary modes: validation simulations and scenario simulations. In validation mode, the Platform runs earthquake rupture and wave propagation modeling software to calculate seismograms for a well-observed historical earthquake. Then, the BBP calculates a number of goodness of fit measurements that quantify how well the model-based broadband seismograms match the observed seismograms for a certain event. Based on these results, the Platform can be used to tune and validate different numerical modeling techniques. In scenario mode, the Broadband Platform can run simulations for hypothetical (scenario) earthquakes. In this mode, users input an earthquake description, a list of station names and locations, and a 1D velocity model for their region of interest, and the Broadband Platform software then calculates ground motions for the specified stations. Working in close collaboration with scientists and research engineers, the SCEC software development group continues to add new capabilities to the Broadband Platform and to release new versions as open-source scientific software distributions that can be compiled and run on many Linux computer systems. Our latest release includes 5 simulation methods, 7 simulation regions covering California, Japan, and Eastern North America, the ability to compare simulation results against GMPEs, and several new data products, such as map and distance-based goodness of fit plots. As the number and complexity of scenarios simulated using the Broadband Platform increases, we have added batching utilities to substantially improve support for running large-scale simulations on computing clusters.

Reproducibility of tumor motion probability distribution function in stereotactic body radiation therapy of lung cancer.

PubMed

Zhang, Fan; Hu, Jing; Kelsey, Chris R; Yoo, David; Yin, Fang-Fang; Cai, Jing

2012-11-01

To evaluate the reproducibility of tumor motion probability distribution function (PDF) in stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) of lung cancer using cine megavoltage (MV) images. Cine MV images of 20 patients acquired during three-dimensional conformal (6-11 beams) SBRT treatments were retrospectively analyzed to extract tumor motion trajectories. For each patient, tumor motion PDFs were generated per fraction (PDF(n)) using three selected "usable" beams. Patients without at least three usable beams were excluded from the study. Fractional PDF reproducibility (R(n)) was calculated as the Dice similarity coefficient between PDF(n) to a "ground-truth" PDF (PDF(g)), which was generated using the selected beams of all fractions. The mean of R(n), labeled as R(m), was calculated for each patient and correlated to the patient's mean tumor motion rang (A(m)). Change of R(m) during the course of SBRT treatments was also evaluated. Intra- and intersubject coefficient of variation (CV) of R(m) and A(m) were determined. Thirteen patients had at least three usable beams and were analyzed. The mean of R(m) was 0.87 (range, 0.84-0.95). The mean of A(m) was 3.18 mm (range, 0.46-7.80 mm). R(m) was found to decrease as A(m) increases following an equation of R(m) = 0.17e(-0.9Am) + 0.84. R(m) also decreased slightly throughout the course of treatments. Intersubject CV of R(m) (0.05) was comparable to intrasubject CV of R(m) (range, 0.02-0.09); intersubject CV of A(m) (0.73) was significantly greater than intrasubject CV of A(m) (range, 0.09-0.24). Tumor motion PDF can be determined using cine MV images acquired during the treatments. The reproducibility of lung tumor motion PDF decreased exponentially as the tumor motion range increased and decreased slightly throughout the course of the treatments. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

3D fluoroscopic image estimation using patient-specific 4DCBCT-based motion models

PubMed Central

Dhou, Salam; Hurwitz, Martina; Mishra, Pankaj; Cai, Weixing; Rottmann, Joerg; Li, Ruijiang; Williams, Christopher; Wagar, Matthew; Berbeco, Ross; Ionascu, Dan; Lewis, John H.

2015-01-01

3D fluoroscopic images represent volumetric patient anatomy during treatment with high spatial and temporal resolution. 3D fluoroscopic images estimated using motion models built using 4DCT images, taken days or weeks prior to treatment, do not reliably represent patient anatomy during treatment. In this study we develop and perform initial evaluation of techniques to develop patient-specific motion models from 4D cone-beam CT (4DCBCT) images, taken immediately before treatment, and use these models to estimate 3D fluoroscopic images based on 2D kV projections captured during treatment. We evaluate the accuracy of 3D fluoroscopic images by comparing to ground truth digital and physical phantom images. The performance of 4DCBCT- and 4DCT- based motion models are compared in simulated clinical situations representing tumor baseline shift or initial patient positioning errors. The results of this study demonstrate the ability for 4DCBCT imaging to generate motion models that can account for changes that cannot be accounted for with 4DCT-based motion models. When simulating tumor baseline shift and patient positioning errors of up to 5 mm, the average tumor localization error and the 95th percentile error in six datasets were 1.20 and 2.2 mm, respectively, for 4DCBCT-based motion models. 4DCT-based motion models applied to the same six datasets resulted in average tumor localization error and the 95th percentile error of 4.18 and 5.4 mm, respectively. Analysis of voxel-wise intensity differences was also conducted for all experiments. In summary, this study demonstrates the feasibility of 4DCBCT-based 3D fluoroscopic image generation in digital and physical phantoms, and shows the potential advantage of 4DCBCT-based 3D fluoroscopic image estimation when there are changes in anatomy between the time of 4DCT imaging and the time of treatment delivery. PMID:25905722

49 CFR 209.17 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... officer. Each motion shall state the particular order, ruling, or action desired and the grounds therefor... 49 Transportation 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Motions. 209.17 Section 209.17 Transportation... TRANSPORTATION RAILROAD SAFETY ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES General § 209.17 Motions. Motions shall be in writing...

49 CFR 209.17 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... officer. Each motion shall state the particular order, ruling, or action desired and the grounds therefor... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Motions. 209.17 Section 209.17 Transportation... TRANSPORTATION RAILROAD SAFETY ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES General § 209.17 Motions. Motions shall be in writing...

Autogenic feedback training experiment: A preventative method for space motion sickness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cowings, Patricia S.

1993-01-01

Space motion sickness is a disorder which produces symptoms similar to those of motion sickness on Earth. This syndrome has affected approximately 50 percent of all astronauts and cosmonauts exposed to microgravity in space, but it differs from what is commonly known as motion sickness in a number of critical ways. There is currently no ground-based method for predicting susceptibility to motion sickness in space. Antimotion sickness drugs have had limited success in preventing or counteracting symptoms in space, and frequently caused debilitating side effects. The objectives were: (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of Autogenic-Feedback Training as a countermeasure for space motion sickness; (2) to compare physiological data and in-flight symptom reports to ground-based motion sickness data; and (3) to predict susceptibility to space motion sickness based on pre-flight data of each treatment group crew member.

Ground motion values for use in the seismic design of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system

USGS Publications Warehouse

Page, Robert A.; Boore, D.M.; Joyner, W.B.; Coulter, H.W.

1972-01-01

The proposed trans-Alaska oil pipeline, which would traverse the state north to south from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic coast to Valdez on Prince William Sound, will be subject to serious earthquake hazards over much of its length. To be acceptable from an environmental standpoint, the pipeline system is to be designed to minimize the potential of oil leakage resulting from seismic shaking, faulting, and seismically induced ground deformation. The design of the pipeline system must accommodate the effects of earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 5.5 to 8.5 as specified in the 'Stipulations for Proposed Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System.' This report characterizes ground motions for the specified earthquakes in terms of peak levels of ground acceleration, velocity, and displacement and of duration of shaking. Published strong motion data from the Western United States are critically reviewed to determine the intensity and duration of shaking within several kilometers of the slipped fault. For magnitudes 5 and 6, for which sufficient near-fault records are available, the adopted ground motion values are based on data. For larger earthquakes the values are based on extrapolations from the data for smaller shocks, guided by simplified theoretical models of the faulting process.

Differences in attenuation among the stable continental regions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bakun, W.H.; McGarr, A.

2002-01-01

There are systematic differences in the attenuation of damaging earthquake ground motions between different stable continental regions (SCRs). Seismic intensity and weak-motion data show that the attenuation in seismic waves for eastern North America (ENA) is less than for India, Africa, Australia, and northwest Europe. If ENA ground-motion attenuation relations are used in seismic hazard models for other SCRs, as is commonly done, then the estimated ground motions and resulting hazard may be too large. If an attenuation model that averages observations from ENA and the other SCRs is used to estimate the magnitudes of large historical earthquakes in ENA, as is the case for recent estimates of M for the 1811-1812 New Madrid, Missouri and the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina events, then the magnitude estimates for these events will be too large, as will be the resulting hazard.

Seismic displacements monitoring for 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal earthquake with GNSS data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geng, T.; Su, X.; Xie, X.

2017-12-01

The high-rate Global Positioning Satellite System (GNSS) has been recognized as one of the powerful tools for monitoring ground motions generated by seismic events. The high-rate GPS and BDS data collected during the 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal earthquake have been analyzed using two methods, that are the variometric approach and Precise point positioning (PPP). The variometric approach is based on time differenced technique using only GNSS broadcast products to estimate velocity time series from tracking observations in real time, followed by an integration procedure on the velocities to derive the seismic event induced displacements. PPP is a positioning method to calculate precise positions at centimeter- or even millimeter-level accuracy with a single GNSS receiver using precise satellite orbit and clock products. The displacement motions with accuracy of 2 cm at far-field stations and 5 cm at near-field stations with great ground motions and static offsets up to 1-2 m could be achieved. The multi-GNSS, GPS + BDS, could provide higher accuracy displacements with the increasing of satellite numbers and the improvement of the Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) values. Considering the time consumption of clock estimates and the precision of PPP solutions, 5 s GNSS satellite clock interval is suggested. In addition, the GNSS-derived displacements are in good agreement with those from strong motion data. These studies demonstrate the feasibility of real-time capturing seismic waves with multi-GNSS observations, which is of great promise for the purpose of earthquake early warning and rapid hazard assessment.

Biomechanical Analysis of T2 Exercise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeWitt, John K.; Ploutz-Snyder, Lori; Everett, Meghan; Newby, Nathaniel; Scott-Pandorf, Melissa; Guilliams, Mark E.

2010-01-01

Crewmembers regularly perform treadmill exercise on the ISS. With the implementation of T2 on ISS, there is now the capacity to obtain ground reaction force (GRF) data GRF data combined with video motion data allows biomechanical analyses to occur that generate joint torque estimates from exercise conditions. Knowledge of how speed and load influence joint torque will provide quantitative information on which exercise prescriptions can be based. The objective is to determine the joint kinematics, ground reaction forces, and joint kinetics associated with treadmill exercise on the ISS. This study will: 1) Determine if specific exercise speed and harness load combinations are superior to others in exercise benefit; and 2) Aid in the design of exercise prescriptions that will be most beneficial in maintaining crewmember health.

An MPC Algorithm with Combined Speed and Steering Control for Obstacle Avoidance in Autonomous Ground Vehicles

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-04-24

from this line to the upper left side is caused by aerodynamic drag. The data for estimating the lateral load transfer coefficients is generated by...2013. [13] J. H. Jeon, R. V. Cowlagi, S. C. Peters, S. Karaman, E. Frazzoli, P. Tsiotras, and K. Iagnemma, “Optimal motion planning with the half- car ...Elsevier, 2005. [21] A. Rucco, G. Notarstefano, and J. Hauser, “Optimal control based dynamics exploration of a rigid car with longitudinal load

Operation SNAPPER, Project 3.1. Vulnerability of Parked Aircraft to Atomic Bombs

DTIC Science & Technology

1953-02-01

Portable Calibrator which was used at the Nevada Proving Grounds. The 6-101A consisted of a shake table which generated a sinusoidal motion having a...calibrator was similar to the 6-101A, with the exception that it was sitaller and had a fixed shake table amplitude. The calibration proce- dure was to...mount the accelerometer to be calibrated on the table sind shake it at various frequencies. The output of the accelerometer, which was channeled

Attenuation of Outdoor Sound Propagation Levels by a Snow Cover

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-11-01

20 kN s m-4. Calculations of ground motion induced by the atmospheric sound waves were made using a viscoelastic model of the ground and the... Models of ground impedance. Past predictions of the material : effective flow resistivity a, porosity Q, acoustic pulse waveforms (Don and Cramond 1987...fibrous absorbent materials . Applied particle motion induced by a point source above a Acoustics, 3: 105-116. poroelastic half-space. Journal of the

Generation of Magnetohydrodynamic Waves in Low Solar Atmospheric Flux Tubes by Photospheric Motions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mumford, S. J.; Fedun, V.; Erdélyi, R.

2015-01-01

Recent ground- and space-based observations reveal the presence of small-scale motions between convection cells in the solar photosphere. In these regions, small-scale magnetic flux tubes are generated via the interaction of granulation motion and the background magnetic field. This paper studies the effects of these motions on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wave excitation from broadband photospheric drivers. Numerical experiments of linear MHD wave propagation in a magnetic flux tube embedded in a realistic gravitationally stratified solar atmosphere between the photosphere and the low choromosphere (above β = 1) are performed. Horizontal and vertical velocity field drivers mimic granular buffeting and solar global oscillations. A uniform torsional driver as well as Archimedean and logarithmic spiral drivers mimic observed torsional motions in the solar photosphere. The results are analyzed using a novel method for extracting the parallel, perpendicular, and azimuthal components of the perturbations, which caters to both the linear and non-linear cases. Employing this method yields the identification of the wave modes excited in the numerical simulations and enables a comparison of excited modes via velocity perturbations and wave energy flux. The wave energy flux distribution is calculated to enable the quantification of the relative strengths of excited modes. The torsional drivers primarily excite Alfvén modes (≈60% of the total flux) with small contributions from the slow kink mode, and, for the logarithmic spiral driver, small amounts of slow sausage mode. The horizontal and vertical drivers primarily excite slow kink or fast sausage modes, respectively, with small variations dependent upon flux surface radius.

A neural model of the temporal dynamics of figure-ground segregation in motion perception.

PubMed

Raudies, Florian; Neumann, Heiko

2010-03-01

How does the visual system manage to segment a visual scene into surfaces and objects and manage to attend to a target object? Based on psychological and physiological investigations, it has been proposed that the perceptual organization and segmentation of a scene is achieved by the processing at different levels of the visual cortical hierarchy. According to this, motion onset detection, motion-defined shape segregation, and target selection are accomplished by processes which bind together simple features into fragments of increasingly complex configurations at different levels in the processing hierarchy. As an alternative to this hierarchical processing hypothesis, it has been proposed that the processing stages for feature detection and segregation are reflected in different temporal episodes in the response patterns of individual neurons. Such temporal epochs have been observed in the activation pattern of neurons as low as in area V1. Here, we present a neural network model of motion detection, figure-ground segregation and attentive selection which explains these response patterns in an unifying framework. Based on known principles of functional architecture of the visual cortex, we propose that initial motion and motion boundaries are detected at different and hierarchically organized stages in the dorsal pathway. Visual shapes that are defined by boundaries, which were generated from juxtaposed opponent motions, are represented at different stages in the ventral pathway. Model areas in the different pathways interact through feedforward and modulating feedback, while mutual interactions enable the communication between motion and form representations. Selective attention is devoted to shape representations by sending modulating feedback signals from higher levels (working memory) to intermediate levels to enhance their responses. Areas in the motion and form pathway are coupled through top-down feedback with V1 cells at the bottom end of the hierarchy. We propose that the different temporal episodes in the response pattern of V1 cells, as recorded in recent experiments, reflect the strength of modulating feedback signals. This feedback results from the consolidated shape representations from coherent motion patterns and the attentive modulation of responses along the cortical hierarchy. The model makes testable predictions concerning the duration and delay of the temporal episodes of V1 cell responses as well as their response variations that were caused by modulating feedback signals. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the relation of earthquake stress drop and ground motion variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oth, Adrien; Miyake, Hiroe; Bindi, Dino

2017-07-01

One of the key parameters for earthquake source physics is stress drop since it can be directly linked to the spectral level of ground motion. Stress drop estimates from moment corner frequency analysis have been shown to be extremely variable, and this to a much larger degree than expected from the between-event ground motion variability. This discrepancy raises the question whether classically determined stress drop variability is too large, which would have significant consequences for seismic hazard analysis. We use a large high-quality data set from Japan with well-studied stress drop data to address this issue. Nonparametric and parametric reference ground motion models are derived, and the relation of between-event residuals for Japan Meteorological Agency equivalent seismic intensity and peak ground acceleration with stress drop is analyzed for crustal earthquakes. We find a clear correlation of the between-event residuals with stress drops estimates; however, while the island of Kyushu is characterized by substantially larger stress drops than Honshu, the between-event residuals do not reflect this observation, leading to the appearance of two event families with different stress drop levels yet similar range of between-event residuals. Both the within-family and between-family stress drop variations are larger than expected from the ground motion between-event variability. A systematic common analysis of these parameters holds the potential to provide important constraints on the relative robustness of different groups of data in the different parameter spaces and to improve our understanding on how much of the observed source parameter variability is likely to be true source physics variability.

Uncertainty in Vs30-based site response

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thompson, Eric M.; Wald, David J.

2016-01-01

Methods that account for site response range in complexity from simple linear categorical adjustment factors to sophisticated nonlinear constitutive models. Seismic‐hazard analysis usually relies on ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs); within this framework site response is modeled statistically with simplified site parameters that include the time‐averaged shear‐wave velocity to 30 m (VS30) and basin depth parameters. Because VS30 is not known in most locations, it must be interpolated or inferred through secondary information such as geology or topography. In this article, we analyze a subset of stations for which VS30 has been measured to address effects of VS30 proxies on the uncertainty in the ground motions as modeled by GMPEs. The stations we analyze also include multiple recordings, which allow us to compute the repeatable site effects (or empirical amplification factors [EAFs]) from the ground motions. Although all methods exhibit similar bias, the proxy methods only reduce the ground‐motion standard deviations at long periods when compared to GMPEs without a site term, whereas measured VS30 values reduce the standard deviations at all periods. The standard deviation of the ground motions are much lower when the EAFs are used, indicating that future refinements of the site term in GMPEs have the potential to substantially reduce the overall uncertainty in the prediction of ground motions by GMPEs.

Rotational Seismology: AGU Session, Working Group, and Website

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lee, William H.K.; Igel, Heiner; Todorovska, Maria I.; Evans, John R.

2007-01-01

Introduction Although effects of rotational motions due to earthquakes have long been observed (e. g., Mallet, 1862), nevertheless Richter (1958, p. 213) stated that: 'Perfectly general motion would also involve rotations about three perpendicular axes, and three more instruments for these. Theory indicates, and observation confirms, that such rotations are negligible.' However, Richter provided no references for this claim. Seismology is based primarily on the observation and modeling of three-component translational ground motions. Nevertheless, theoretical seismologists (e.g., Aki and Richards, 1980, 2002) have argued for decades that the rotational part of ground motions should also be recorded. It is well known that standard seismometers are quite sensitive to rotations and therefore subject to rotation-induced errors. The paucity of observations of rotational motions is mainly the result of a lack, until recently, of affordable rotational sensors of sufficient resolution. Nevertheless, in the past decade, a number of authors have reported direct observations of rotational motions and rotations inferred from rigid-body rotations in short baseline accelerometer arrays, creating a burgeoning library of rotational data. For example, ring laser gyros in Germany and New Zealand have led to the first significant and consistent observations of rotational motions from distant earthquakes (Igel et al., 2005, 2007). A monograph on Earthquake Source Asymmetry, Structural Media and Rotation Effects was published recently as well by Teisseyre et al. (2006). Measurement of rotational motions has implications for: (1) recovering the complete ground-displacement history from seismometer recordings; (2) further constraining earthquake rupture properties; (3) extracting information about subsurface properties; and (4) providing additional ground motion information to earthquake engineers for seismic design. A special session on Rotational Motions in Seismology was convened by H. Igel, W.H.K. Lee, and M. Todorovska during the 2006 AGU Fall Meeting. The goal of this session was to discuss rotational sensors, observations, modeling, theoretical aspects, and potential applications of rotational ground motions. The session was accompanied by the inauguration of an International Working Group on Rotational Seismology (IWGoRS) which aims to promote investigations of all aspects of rotational motions in seismology and their implications for related fields such as earthquake engineering, geodesy, strong-motion seismology, and tectonics, as well as to share experience, data, software, and results in an open Web-based environment. The primary goal of this article is to make the Earth Science Community aware of the emergence of the field of rotational seismology.

Three-dimensional data-tracking dynamic optimization simulations of human locomotion generated by direct collocation.

PubMed

Lin, Yi-Chung; Pandy, Marcus G

2017-07-05

The aim of this study was to perform full-body three-dimensional (3D) dynamic optimization simulations of human locomotion by driving a neuromusculoskeletal model toward in vivo measurements of body-segmental kinematics and ground reaction forces. Gait data were recorded from 5 healthy participants who walked at their preferred speeds and ran at 2m/s. Participant-specific data-tracking dynamic optimization solutions were generated for one stride cycle using direct collocation in tandem with an OpenSim-MATLAB interface. The body was represented as a 12-segment, 21-degree-of-freedom skeleton actuated by 66 muscle-tendon units. Foot-ground interaction was simulated using six contact spheres under each foot. The dynamic optimization problem was to find the set of muscle excitations needed to reproduce 3D measurements of body-segmental motions and ground reaction forces while minimizing the time integral of muscle activations squared. Direct collocation took on average 2.7±1.0h and 2.2±1.6h of CPU time, respectively, to solve the optimization problems for walking and running. Model-computed kinematics and foot-ground forces were in good agreement with corresponding experimental data while the calculated muscle excitation patterns were consistent with measured EMG activity. The results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing direct collocation on a detailed neuromusculoskeletal model with foot-ground contact to accurately and efficiently generate 3D data-tracking dynamic optimization simulations of human locomotion. The proposed method offers a viable tool for creating feasible initial guesses needed to perform predictive simulations of movement using dynamic optimization theory. The source code for implementing the model and computational algorithm may be downloaded at http://simtk.org/home/datatracking. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

29 CFR 1921.5 - Motions and requests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... motion or request shall state the particular order, ruling, or action desired, and the grounds therefor... 29 Labor 7 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Motions and requests. 1921.5 Section 1921.5 Labor... WORKERS' COMPENSATION ACT Prehearing Procedures § 1921.5 Motions and requests. Motions or requests shall...

24 CFR 26.16 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... a motion. All motions from the commencement of the action until the issuance of a decision shall be... written motions shall state the particular order, ruling, or action desired and the grounds for granting... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Motions. 26.16 Section 26.16...

19 CFR 210.15 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... action desired and the grounds therefor. (c) Responses to motions. Within 10 days after service of any... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Motions. 210.15 Section 210.15 Customs Duties... ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Motions § 210.15 Motions. (a) Presentation and disposition. (1) During the period...

29 CFR 1921.5 - Motions and requests.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... motion or request shall state the particular order, ruling, or action desired, and the grounds therefor... 29 Labor 7 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Motions and requests. 1921.5 Section 1921.5 Labor... WORKERS' COMPENSATION ACT Prehearing Procedures § 1921.5 Motions and requests. Motions or requests shall...

19 CFR 210.15 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... action desired and the grounds therefor. (c) Responses to motions. Within 10 days after service of any... 19 Customs Duties 3 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Motions. 210.15 Section 210.15 Customs Duties... ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Motions § 210.15 Motions. (a) Presentation and disposition. (1) During the period...

24 CFR 26.16 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... a motion. All motions from the commencement of the action until the issuance of a decision shall be... written motions shall state the particular order, ruling, or action desired and the grounds for granting... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Motions. 26.16 Section 26.16...

Proceedings of Workshop XVI; The dynamic characteristics of faulting inferred from recordings of strong ground motion

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boatwright, John; Jacobson, Muriel L.

1982-01-01

The strong ground motions radiated by earthquake faulting are controlled by the dynamic characteristics of the faulting process. Although this assertion seems self-evident, seismologists have only recently begun to derive and test quantitative relations between common measures of strong ground motion and the dynamic characteristics of faulting. Interest in this problem has increased dramatically in past several years, however, resulting in a number of important advances. The research presented in this workshop is a significant part of this scientific development. Watching this development occur through the work of many scientists is exciting; to be able to gather a number of these scientists together in one workshop is a remarkable opportunity.

Real-time neural network earthquake profile predictor

DOEpatents

Leach, R.R.; Dowla, F.U.

1996-02-06

A neural network has been developed that uses first-arrival energy to predict the characteristics of impending earthquake seismograph signals. The propagation of ground motion energy through the earth is a highly nonlinear function. This is due to different forms of ground motion as well as to changes in the elastic properties of the media throughout the propagation path. The neural network is trained using seismogram data from earthquakes. Presented with a previously unseen earthquake, the neural network produces a profile of the complete earthquake signal using data from the first seconds of the signal. This offers a significant advance in the real-time monitoring, warning, and subsequent hazard minimization of catastrophic ground motion. 17 figs.

Real-time neural network earthquake profile predictor

DOEpatents

Leach, Richard R.; Dowla, Farid U.

1996-01-01

A neural network has been developed that uses first-arrival energy to predict the characteristics of impending earthquake seismograph signals. The propagation of ground motion energy through the earth is a highly nonlinear function. This is due to different forms of ground motion as well as to changes in the elastic properties of the media throughout the propagation path. The neural network is trained using seismogram data from earthquakes. Presented with a previously unseen earthquake, the neural network produces a profile of the complete earthquake signal using data from the first seconds of the signal. This offers a significant advance in the real-time monitoring, warning, and subsequent hazard minimization of catastrophic ground motion.

3D landslide motion from a UAV-derived time-series of morphological attributes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valasia Peppa, Maria; Mills, Jon Philip; Moore, Philip; Miller, Pauline; Chambers, Jon

2017-04-01

Landslides are recognised as dynamic and significantly hazardous phenomena. Time-series observations can improve the understanding of a landslide's complex behaviour and aid assessment of its geometry and kinematics. Conventional quantification of landslide motion involves the installation of survey markers into the ground at discrete locations and periodic observations over time. However, such surveying is labour intensive, provides limited spatial resolution, is occasionally hazardous for steep terrain, or even impossible for inaccessible mountainous areas. The emergence of mini unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with off-the-shelf compact cameras, alongside the structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetric pipeline and modern pixel-based matching approaches, has expedited the automatic generation of high resolution digital elevation models (DEMs). Moreover, cross-correlation functions applied to finely co-registered consecutive orthomosaics and/or DEMs have been widely used to determine the displacement of moving features in an automated way, resulting in high spatial resolution motion vectors. This research focuses on estimating the 3D displacement field of an active slow moving earth-slide earth-flow landslide located in Lias mudrocks of North Yorkshire, UK, with the ultimate aim of assessing landslide deformation patterns. The landslide extends approximately 290 m E-W and 230 m N-S, with an average slope of 12˚ and 50 m elevation difference from N-S. Cross-correlation functions were applied to an eighteen-month duration, UAV-derived, time-series of morphological attributes in order to determine motion vectors for subsequent landslide analysis. A self-calibrating bundle adjustment was firstly incorporated into the SfM pipeline and utilised to process imagery acquired using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 compact camera from a mini fixed-wing Quest 300 UAV, with 2 m wingspan and maximum 5 kg payload. Data from six field campaigns were used to generate a DEM time-series at 6 cm spatial resolution. DEMs were georeferenced into a common reference frame using control information from surveyed ground control points. The accuracy of the co-registration was estimated from planimetric and vertical RMS errors at independent checkpoints as 4 cm and 3 cm respectively. Afterwards, various morphological attributes, including shaded relief, curvature and openness were calculated from the UAV-derived DEMs. These attributes are indicative of the local structures of discernible geomorphological features (e.g. scarps, ridges, cracks, etc.), the motion of which can be monitored using the cross-correlation algorithm. Multiple experiments were conducted to test the performance of the cross-correlation function implemented on successive epochs. Two benchmark datasets were used for validation of the cross-correlation results: a) the motion vectors generated from the surveyed 3D position of installed markers; b) the calculated displacements of features, manually tracked from successive UAV-derived orthomosaics. Both benchmark datasets detected a maximum planimetric displacement of approximately 1 m at the foot of the landslide, with a dominant N-S orientation, between December 2014 and May 2016. Preliminary cross-correlation results illustrated a similar planimetric motion in both magnitude and orientation, however user intervention was required to filter spurious displacement vectors.

Particles trajectories in magnetic filaments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bret, A.; Instituto de Investigaciones Energéticas y Aplicaciones Industriales, Campus Universitario de Ciudad Real, 13071 Ciudad Real

2015-07-15

The motion of a particle in a spatially harmonic magnetic field is a basic problem involved, for example, in the mechanism of formation of a collisionless shock. In such settings, it is generally reasoned that particles entering a Weibel generated turbulence are trapped inside it, provided their Larmor radius in the peak field is smaller than the field coherence length. The goal of this work is to put this heuristic conclusion on firm ground by studying, both analytically and numerically, such motion. A toy model is analyzed, consisting of a relativistic particle entering a region of space occupied by amore » spatially harmonic field. The particle penetrates the magnetic structure in a direction aligned with the magnetic filaments. Although the conclusions are not trivial, the main result is confirmed.« less

Dynamical backaction cooling with free electrons

PubMed Central

Niguès, A.; Siria, A.; Verlot, P.

2015-01-01

The ability to cool single ions, atomic ensembles, and more recently macroscopic degrees of freedom down to the quantum ground state has generated considerable progress and perspectives in fundamental and technological science. These major advances have been essentially obtained by coupling mechanical motion to a resonant electromagnetic degree of freedom in what is generally known as laser cooling. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the first self-induced coherent cooling mechanism that is not mediated by an electromagnetic resonance. Using a focused electron beam, we report a 50-fold reduction of the motional temperature of a nanowire. Our result primarily relies on the sub-nanometre confinement of the electron beam and generalizes to any delayed and spatially confined interaction, with important consequences for near-field microscopy and fundamental nanoscale dissipation mechanisms. PMID:26381454

49 CFR 511.23 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... order, ruling, or action desired and the grounds therefor. If a motion is supported by memoranda... 49 Transportation 6 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Motions. 511.23 Section 511.23 Transportation..., DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ADJUDICATIVE PROCEDURES Prehearing Procedures; Motions; Interlocutory Appeals...

49 CFR 511.23 - Motions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... order, ruling, or action desired and the grounds therefor. If a motion is supported by memoranda... 49 Transportation 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Motions. 511.23 Section 511.23 Transportation..., DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ADJUDICATIVE PROCEDURES Prehearing Procedures; Motions; Interlocutory Appeals...

Strong motion simulation by the composite source modeling: A case study of 1679 M8.0 Sanhe-Pinggu earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Bo-Yan; Shi, Bao-Ping; Zhang, Jian

2007-05-01

In this study, a composite source model has been used to calculate the realistic strong ground motions in Beijing area, caused by 1679 M S8.0 earthquake in Sanhe-Pinggu. The results could provide us the useful physical parameters for the future seismic hazard analysis in this area. Considering the regional geological/geophysical background, we simulated the scenario earthquake with an associated ground motions in the area ranging from 39.3°N to 41.1°N in latitude and from 115.35°E to 117.55°E in longitude. Some of the key factors which could influence the characteristics of strong ground motion have been discussed, and the resultant peak ground acceleration (PGA) distribution and the peak ground velocity (PGV) distribution around Beijing area also have been made as well. A comparison of the simulated result with the results derived from the attenuation relation has been made, and a sufficient discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of composite source model also has been given in this study. The numerical results, such as the PGA, PGV, peak ground displacement (PGD), and the three-component time-histories developed for Beijing area, have a potential application in earthquake engineering field and building code design, especially for the evaluation of critical constructions, government decision making and the seismic hazard assessment by financial/insurance companies.

Nonlinear coseismic infrasound waves in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chum, J.; Liu, J. Y.; Cabrera, M. A.

2017-12-01

Vertical motion of the ground surface caused by seismic waves generates acoustic waves that propagate nearly vertically upward because of supersonic speed of seismic waves. As the air density decreases with height, the amplitude of acoustic waves increases to conserve the energy flux. If the initial perturbation is large enough (larger than 10 mm/s) and the period of waves is long (>10 s), then the amplitude reaches significant values in the upper atmosphere (e.g. oscillation velocities of the air particles become comparable with sound speed) and the nonlinear phenomena start to play an important role before the wave is dissipated. The nonlinear phenomena lead to changes of spectral content of the wave packet. The energy is transferred to lower frequencies, which can cause the formation of roughly bipolar N-shaped pulse in the vicinity of the epicenters (up to distance about 1000-1500 km) of strong, M>7, earthquakes. The nonlinear propagation is studied on the basis of numerical solution of continuity, momentum and heat equations in 1D (along vertical axis) for viscous compressible atmosphere. Boundary conditions on the ground are determined by real measurements of the vertical motion of the ground surface. The results of numerical simulations are in a good agreement with atmospheric fluctuations observed by continuous Doppler sounding at heights of about 200 km and epicenter distance around 800 km. In addition, the expected fluctuations of GSP-TEC are calculated.

Analysis of exceptionally large tremors in two gold mining districts of South Africa

USGS Publications Warehouse

McGarr, A.; Bicknell, J.; Sembera, E.; Green, R.W.E.

1989-01-01

An investigation of ground motion, recorded using broad-band, wide dynamic-range digital seismographs, of large mine tremors from two South African mining districts with different geologic settings, reveals some essential differences in both seismic source and ground motion parameters. In the Klerksdorp district where the strata are offset by major throughgoing normal faults, the largest tremors, with magnitudes ranging as high as 5.2, tend to be associated with slip on these pre-existing faults. Moreover, the seismic source and ground motion parameters are quite similar to those of natural crustal earthquakes. In the Carletonville district, by contrast, where substantial faults do not exist, the large-magnitude tremors appear to result from the failure of relatively intact rock and cause seismic stress drops and ground motion parameters higher than normally observed for natural shocks. Additionally, there appears to be an upper magnitude limit of about 4 in the Carletonville district. Detailed analyses of an exceptionally large event recorded locally from each of these districts serve to highlight these contrasts. ?? 1989 Birkha??user Verlag.

Toward Exascale Earthquake Ground Motion Simulations for Near-Fault Engineering Analysis

DOE PAGES

Johansen, Hans; Rodgers, Arthur; Petersson, N. Anders; ...

2017-09-01

Modernizing SW4 for massively parallel time-domain simulations of earthquake ground motions in 3D earth models increases resolution and provides ground motion estimates for critical infrastructure risk evaluations. Simulations of ground motions from large (M ≥ 7.0) earthquakes require domains on the order of 100 to500 km and spatial granularity on the order of 1 to5 m resulting in hundreds of billions of grid points. Surface-focused structured mesh refinement (SMR) allows for more constant grid point per wavelength scaling in typical Earth models, where wavespeeds increase with depth. In fact, MR allows for simulations to double the frequency content relative tomore » a fixed grid calculation on a given resource. The authors report improvements to the SW4 algorithm developed while porting the code to the Cori Phase 2 (Intel Xeon Phi) systems at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As a result, investigations of the performance of the innermost loop of the calculations found that reorganizing the order of operations can improve performance for massive problems.« less

Toward Exascale Earthquake Ground Motion Simulations for Near-Fault Engineering Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johansen, Hans; Rodgers, Arthur; Petersson, N. Anders

Modernizing SW4 for massively parallel time-domain simulations of earthquake ground motions in 3D earth models increases resolution and provides ground motion estimates for critical infrastructure risk evaluations. Simulations of ground motions from large (M ≥ 7.0) earthquakes require domains on the order of 100 to500 km and spatial granularity on the order of 1 to5 m resulting in hundreds of billions of grid points. Surface-focused structured mesh refinement (SMR) allows for more constant grid point per wavelength scaling in typical Earth models, where wavespeeds increase with depth. In fact, MR allows for simulations to double the frequency content relative tomore » a fixed grid calculation on a given resource. The authors report improvements to the SW4 algorithm developed while porting the code to the Cori Phase 2 (Intel Xeon Phi) systems at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As a result, investigations of the performance of the innermost loop of the calculations found that reorganizing the order of operations can improve performance for massive problems.« less

Updates to building-code maps for the 2015 NEHRP recommended seismic provisions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Luco, Nicolas; Bachman, Robert; Crouse, C.B; Harris, James R.; Hooper, John D.; Kircher, Charles A.; Caldwell, Phillp; Rukstales, Kenneth S.

2015-01-01

With the 2014 update of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) as a basis, the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) has updated the earthquake ground motion maps in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures, with partial funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Anticipated adoption of the updated maps into the American Society of Civil Engineers Minimum Design Loads for Building and Other Structures and the International Building and Residential Codes is underway. Relative to the ground motions in the prior edition of each of these documents, most of the updated values are within a ±20% change. The larger changes are, in most cases, due to the USGS NSHM updates, reasons for which are given in companion publications. In some cases, the larger changes are partly due to a BSSC update of the slope of the fragility curve that is used to calculate the risk-targeted ground motions, and/or the introduction by BSSC of a quantitative definition of “active faults” used to calculate deterministic ground motions.

Refinements to the Graves and Pitarka (2010) Broadband Ground-Motion Simulation Method

DOE PAGES

Graves, Robert; Pitarka, Arben

2014-12-17

This brief article describes refinements to the Graves and Pitarka (2010) broadband ground-motion simulation methodology (GP2010 hereafter) that have been implemented in version 14.3 of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform (BBP). The updated version of our method on the current SCEC BBP is referred to as GP14.3. Here, our simulation technique is a hybrid approach that combines low- and high-frequency motions computed with different methods into a single broadband response.

Towards Coupling of Macroseismic Intensity with Structural Damage Indicators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kouteva, Mihaela; Boshnakov, Krasimir

2016-04-01

Knowledge on basic data of ground motion acceleration time histories during earthquakes is essential to understanding the earthquake resistant behaviour of structures. Peak and integral ground motion parameters such as peak ground motion values (acceleration, velocity and displacement), measures of the frequency content of ground motion, duration of strong shaking and various intensity measures play important roles in seismic evaluation of existing facilities and design of new systems. Macroseismic intensity is an earthquake measure related to seismic hazard and seismic risk description. Having detailed ideas on the correlations between the earthquake damage potential and macroseismic intensity is an important issue in engineering seismology and earthquake engineering. Reliable earthquake hazard estimation is the major prerequisite to successful disaster risk management. The usage of advanced earthquake engineering approaches for structural response modelling is essential for reliable evaluation of the accumulated damages in the existing buildings and structures due to the history of seismic actions, occurred during their lifetime. Full nonlinear analysis taking into account single event or series of earthquakes and the large set of elaborated damage indices are suitable contemporary tools to cope with this responsible task. This paper presents some results on the correlation between observational damage states, ground motion parameters and selected analytical damage indices. Damage indices are computed on the base of nonlinear time history analysis of test reinforced structure, characterising the building stock of the Mediterranean region designed according the earthquake resistant requirements in mid XX-th century.

Three-dimensional long-period groundmotion simulations in the upper Mississippi embayment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Macpherson, K.A.; Woolery, E.W.; Wang, Z.; Liu, P.

2010-01-01

We employed a 3D velocity model and 3D wave propagation code to simulate long-period ground motions in the upper Mississippi embayment. This region is at risk from large earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) and observational data are sparse, making simulation a valuable tool for predicting the effects of large events. We undertook these simulations to estimate the magnitude of shaking likely to occur and to investigate the influence of the 3D embayment structure and finite-fault mechanics on ground motions. There exist three primary fault zones in the NMSZ, each of which was likely associated with one of the main shocks of the 1811-12 earthquake triplet. For this study, three simulations have been conducted on each major segment, exploring the impact of different epicentral locations and rupture directions on ground motions. The full wave field up to a frequency of 0.5 Hz is computed on a 200 ?? 200 ?? 50-km 3 volume using a staggered-grid finite-difference code. Peak horizontal velocity and bracketed durations were calculated at the free surface. The NMSZ simulations indicate that for the considered bandwidth, finite-fault mechanics such as fault proximity, directivity effect, and slip distribution exert the most control on ground motions. The 3D geologic structure of the upper Mississippi embayment also influences ground motion with indications that amplification is induced by the sharp velocity contrast at the basin edge.

Simulation of broadband ground motion including nonlinear soil effects for a magnitude 6.5 earthquake on the Seattle fault, Seattle, Washington

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hartzell, S.; Leeds, A.; Frankel, A.; Williams, R.A.; Odum, J.; Stephenson, W.; Silva, W.

2002-01-01

The Seattle fault poses a significant seismic hazard to the city of Seattle, Washington. A hybrid, low-frequency, high-frequency method is used to calculate broadband (0-20 Hz) ground-motion time histories for a M 6.5 earthquake on the Seattle fault. Low frequencies (1 Hz) are calculated by a stochastic method that uses a fractal subevent size distribution to give an ω-2 displacement spectrum. Time histories are calculated for a grid of stations and then corrected for the local site response using a classification scheme based on the surficial geology. Average shear-wave velocity profiles are developed for six surficial geologic units: artificial fill, modified land, Esperance sand, Lawton clay, till, and Tertiary sandstone. These profiles together with other soil parameters are used to compare linear, equivalent-linear, and nonlinear predictions of ground motion in the frequency band 0-15 Hz. Linear site-response corrections are found to yield unreasonably large ground motions. Equivalent-linear and nonlinear calculations give peak values similar to the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake and those predicted by regression relationships. Ground-motion variance is estimated for (1) randomization of the velocity profiles, (2) variation in source parameters, and (3) choice of nonlinear model. Within the limits of the models tested, the results are found to be most sensitive to the nonlinear model and soil parameters, notably the over consolidation ratio.

Imprint of Rupture Directivity From Ground Motions of the 24 August 2016 Mw6.2 Central Italy Earthquake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Yefei; Wang, Hongwei; Wen, Ruizhi

2017-12-01

An Mw6.2 earthquake occurred in Central Italy on 24 August 2016. The objective of this study was to reveal the imprint of rupture directivity using the strong motion recordings. The strong motion stations were separated into two groups: southeast (SE) and northwest (NW). The effects of rupture directivity on the peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), and pseudo spectral acceleration (PSA) were investigated. The observed values of these parameters were compared with predicted values derived from ground motion prediction equations. The results showed that the residuals between the observed and predicted PGAs, PGVs, and PSAs at periods of T < 1 s were correlated significantly with azimuth angle and generally larger in the NW sector, reflecting that the observed PGAs, PGVs, and short-period PSAs in the NW sector were generally larger than observed in the SE sector. These phenomena are accordant with the theoretical law that the rupture directivity causes higher amplitudes in the forward direction compared with the backward direction. Finally, selected source rupture parameters were inverted using PGAs and PGVs. This revealed that the rupture was predominantly unilateral rupture, the major rupture was likely at an azimuth of 360°, and the length of the major rupture was proportional to 70%-100% of the total ruptured fault, confirming that rupture directivity caused the differences in the ground motions observed in the SE and NW sectors.

Conditional spectrum computation incorporating multiple causal earthquakes and ground-motion prediction models

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lin, Ting; Harmsen, Stephen C.; Baker, Jack W.; Luco, Nicolas

2013-01-01

The conditional spectrum (CS) is a target spectrum (with conditional mean and conditional standard deviation) that links seismic hazard information with ground-motion selection for nonlinear dynamic analysis. Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) estimates the ground-motion hazard by incorporating the aleatory uncertainties in all earthquake scenarios and resulting ground motions, as well as the epistemic uncertainties in ground-motion prediction models (GMPMs) and seismic source models. Typical CS calculations to date are produced for a single earthquake scenario using a single GMPM, but more precise use requires consideration of at least multiple causal earthquakes and multiple GMPMs that are often considered in a PSHA computation. This paper presents the mathematics underlying these more precise CS calculations. Despite requiring more effort to compute than approximate calculations using a single causal earthquake and GMPM, the proposed approach produces an exact output that has a theoretical basis. To demonstrate the results of this approach and compare the exact and approximate calculations, several example calculations are performed for real sites in the western United States. The results also provide some insights regarding the circumstances under which approximate results are likely to closely match more exact results. To facilitate these more precise calculations for real applications, the exact CS calculations can now be performed for real sites in the United States using new deaggregation features in the U.S. Geological Survey hazard mapping tools. Details regarding this implementation are discussed in this paper.

Calculation of broadband time histories of ground motion: Comparison of methods and validation using strong-ground motion from the 1994 Northridge earthquake

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hartzell, S.; Harmsen, S.; Frankel, A.; Larsen, S.

1999-01-01

This article compares techniques for calculating broadband time histories of ground motion in the near field of a finite fault by comparing synthetics with the strong-motion data set for the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Based on this comparison, a preferred methodology is presented. Ground-motion-simulation techniques are divided into two general methods: kinematic- and composite-fault models. Green's functions of three types are evaluated: stochastic, empirical, and theoretical. A hybrid scheme is found to give the best fit to the Northridge data. Low frequencies ( 1 Hz) are calculated using a composite-fault model with a fractal subevent size distribution and stochastic, bandlimited, white-noise Green's functions. At frequencies below 1 Hz, theoretical elastic-wave-propagation synthetics introduce proper seismic-phase arrivals of body waves and surface waves. The 3D velocity structure more accurately reproduces record durations for the deep sedimentary basin structures found in the Los Angeles region. At frequencies above 1 Hz, scattering effects become important and wave propagation is more accurately represented by stochastic Green's functions. A fractal subevent size distribution for the composite fault model ensures an ??-2 spectral shape over the entire frequency band considered (0.1-20 Hz).

A study of Guptkashi, Uttarakhand earthquake of 6 February 2017 ( M w 5.3) in the Himalayan arc and implications for ground motion estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srinagesh, Davuluri; Singh, Shri Krishna; Suresh, Gaddale; Srinivas, Dakuri; Pérez-Campos, Xyoli; Suresh, Gudapati

2018-05-01

The 2017 Guptkashi earthquake occurred in a segment of the Himalayan arc with high potential for a strong earthquake in the near future. In this context, a careful analysis of the earthquake is important as it may shed light on source and ground motion characteristics during future earthquakes. Using the earthquake recording on a single broadband strong-motion seismograph installed at the epicenter, we estimate the earthquake's location (30.546° N, 79.063° E), depth ( H = 19 km), the seismic moment ( M 0 = 1.12×1017 Nm, M w 5.3), the focal mechanism ( φ = 280°, δ = 14°, λ = 84°), the source radius ( a = 1.3 km), and the static stress drop (Δ σ s 22 MPa). The event occurred just above the Main Himalayan Thrust. S-wave spectra of the earthquake at hard sites in the arc are well approximated (assuming ω -2 source model) by attenuation parameters Q( f) = 500 f 0.9, κ = 0.04 s, and f max = infinite, and a stress drop of Δ σ = 70 MPa. Observed and computed peak ground motions, using stochastic method along with parameters inferred from spectral analysis, agree well with each other. These attenuation parameters are also reasonable for the observed spectra and/or peak ground motion parameters in the arc at distances ≤ 200 km during five other earthquakes in the region (4.6 ≤ M w ≤ 6.9). The estimated stress drop of the six events ranges from 20 to 120 MPa. Our analysis suggests that attenuation parameters given above may be used for ground motion estimation at hard sites in the Himalayan arc via the stochastic method.

A study of Guptkashi, Uttarakhand earthquake of 6 February 2017 (M w 5.3) in the Himalayan arc and implications for ground motion estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srinagesh, Davuluri; Singh, Shri Krishna; Suresh, Gaddale; Srinivas, Dakuri; Pérez-Campos, Xyoli; Suresh, Gudapati

2018-02-01

The 2017 Guptkashi earthquake occurred in a segment of the Himalayan arc with high potential for a strong earthquake in the near future. In this context, a careful analysis of the earthquake is important as it may shed light on source and ground motion characteristics during future earthquakes. Using the earthquake recording on a single broadband strong-motion seismograph installed at the epicenter, we estimate the earthquake's location (30.546° N, 79.063° E), depth (H = 19 km), the seismic moment (M 0 = 1.12×1017 Nm, M w 5.3), the focal mechanism (φ = 280°, δ = 14°, λ = 84°), the source radius (a = 1.3 km), and the static stress drop (Δσ s 22 MPa). The event occurred just above the Main Himalayan Thrust. S-wave spectra of the earthquake at hard sites in the arc are well approximated (assuming ω -2 source model) by attenuation parameters Q(f) = 500f 0.9, κ = 0.04 s, and f max = infinite, and a stress drop of Δσ = 70 MPa. Observed and computed peak ground motions, using stochastic method along with parameters inferred from spectral analysis, agree well with each other. These attenuation parameters are also reasonable for the observed spectra and/or peak ground motion parameters in the arc at distances ≤ 200 km during five other earthquakes in the region (4.6 ≤ M w ≤ 6.9). The estimated stress drop of the six events ranges from 20 to 120 MPa. Our analysis suggests that attenuation parameters given above may be used for ground motion estimation at hard sites in the Himalayan arc via the stochastic method.

Validation of Broadband Ground Motion Simulations for Japanese Crustal Earthquakes by the Recipe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwaki, A.; Maeda, T.; Morikawa, N.; Miyake, H.; Fujiwara, H.

2015-12-01

The Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (HERP) of Japan has organized the broadband ground motion simulation method into a standard procedure called the "recipe" (HERP, 2009). In the recipe, the source rupture is represented by the characterized source model (Irikura and Miyake, 2011). The broadband ground motion time histories are computed by a hybrid approach: the 3-D finite-difference method (Aoi et al. 2004) and the stochastic Green's function method (Dan and Sato, 1998; Dan et al. 2000) for the long- (> 1　s) and short-period (< 1 s) components, respectively, using the 3-D velocity structure model. As the engineering significance of scenario earthquake ground motion prediction is increasing, thorough verification and validation are required for the simulation methods. This study presents the self-validation of the recipe for two MW6.6 crustal events in Japan, the 2000 Tottori and 2004 Chuetsu (Niigata) earthquakes. We first compare the simulated velocity time series with the observation. Main features of the velocity waveforms, such as the near-fault pulses and the large later phases on deep sediment sites are well reproduced by the simulations. Then we evaluate 5% damped pseudo acceleration spectra (PSA) in the framework of the SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP) validation (Dreger et al. 2015). The validation results are generally acceptable in the period range 0.1 - 10 s, whereas those in the shortest period range (0.01-0.1 s) are less satisfactory. We also evaluate the simulations with the 1-D velocity structure models used in the SCEC BBP validation exercise. Although the goodness-of-fit parameters for PSA do not significantly differ from those for the 3-D velocity structure model, noticeable differences in velocity waveforms are observed. Our results suggest the importance of 1) well-constrained 3-D velocity structure model for broadband ground motion simulations and 2) evaluation of time series of ground motion as well as response spectra.

Simulated ground motion in Santa Clara Valley, California, and vicinity from M≥6.7 scenario earthquakes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Harmsen, Stephen C.; Hartzell, Stephen

2008-01-01

Models of the Santa Clara Valley (SCV) 3D velocity structure and 3D finite-difference software are used to predict ground motions from scenario earthquakes on the San Andreas (SAF), Monte Vista/Shannon, South Hayward, and Calaveras faults. Twenty different scenario ruptures are considered that explore different source models with alternative hypocenters, fault dimensions, and rupture velocities and three different velocity models. Ground motion from the full wave field up to 1 Hz is exhibited as maps of peak horizontal velocity and pseudospectral acceleration at periods of 1, 3, and 5 sec. Basin edge effects and amplification in sedimentary basins of the SCV are observed that exhibit effects from shallow sediments with relatively low shear-wave velocity (330 m/sec). Scenario earthquakes have been simulated for events with the following magnitudes: (1) M 6.8–7.4 Calaveras sources, (2) M 6.7–6.9 South Hayward sources, (3) M 6.7 Monte Vista/Shannon sources, and (4) M 7.1–7.2 Peninsula segment of the SAF sources. Ground motions are strongly influenced by source parameters such as rupture velocity, rise time, maximum depth of rupture, hypocenter, and source directivity. Cenozoic basins also exert a strong influence on ground motion. For example, the Evergreen Basin on the northeastern side of the SCV is especially responsive to 3–5-sec energy from most scenario earthquakes. The Cupertino Basin on the southwestern edge of the SCV tends to be highly excited by many Peninsula and Monte Vista fault scenarios. Sites over the interior of the Evergreen Basin can have long-duration coda that reflect the trapping of seismic energy within this basin. Plausible scenarios produce predominantly 5-sec wave trains with greater than 30 cm/sec sustained ground-motion amplitude with greater than 30 sec duration within the Evergreen Basin.

Azimuthal Dependence of the Ground Motion Variability from Scenario Modeling of the 2014 Mw6.0 South Napa, California, Earthquake Using an Advanced Kinematic Source Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallovič, F.

2017-09-01

Strong ground motion simulations require physically plausible earthquake source model. Here, I present the application of such a kinematic model introduced originally by Ruiz et al. (Geophys J Int 186:226-244, 2011). The model is constructed to inherently provide synthetics with the desired omega-squared spectral decay in the full frequency range. The source is composed of randomly distributed overlapping subsources with fractal number-size distribution. The position of the subsources can be constrained by prior knowledge of major asperities (stemming, e.g., from slip inversions), or can be completely random. From earthquake physics point of view, the model includes positive correlation between slip and rise time as found in dynamic source simulations. Rupture velocity and rise time follows local S-wave velocity profile, so that the rupture slows down and rise times increase close to the surface, avoiding unrealistically strong ground motions. Rupture velocity can also have random variations, which result in irregular rupture front while satisfying the causality principle. This advanced kinematic broadband source model is freely available and can be easily incorporated into any numerical wave propagation code, as the source is described by spatially distributed slip rate functions, not requiring any stochastic Green's functions. The source model has been previously validated against the observed data due to the very shallow unilateral 2014 Mw6 South Napa, California, earthquake; the model reproduces well the observed data including the near-fault directivity (Seism Res Lett 87:2-14, 2016). The performance of the source model is shown here on the scenario simulations for the same event. In particular, synthetics are compared with existing ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs), emphasizing the azimuthal dependence of the between-event ground motion variability. I propose a simple model reproducing the azimuthal variations of the between-event ground motion variability, providing an insight into possible refinement of GMPEs' functional forms.

Simultaneous inversion of intrinsic and scattering attenuation parameters incorporating multiple scattering effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogiso, M.

2017-12-01

Heterogeneous attenuation structure is important for not only understanding the earth structure and seismotectonics, but also ground motion prediction. Attenuation of ground motion in high frequency range is often characterized by the distribution of intrinsic and scattering attenuation parameters (intrinsic Q and scattering coefficient). From the viewpoint of ground motion prediction, both intrinsic and scattering attenuation affect the maximum amplitude of ground motion while scattering attenuation also affect the duration time of ground motion. Hence, estimation of both attenuation parameters will lead to sophisticate the ground motion prediction. In this study, we try to estimate both parameters in southwestern Japan in a tomographic manner. We will conduct envelope fitting of seismic coda since coda has sensitivity to both intrinsic attenuation and scattering coefficients. Recently, Takeuchi (2016) successfully calculated differential envelope when these parameters have fluctuations. We adopted his equations to calculate partial derivatives of these parameters since we did not need to assume homogeneous velocity structure. Matrix for inversion of structural parameters would become too huge to solve in a straightforward manner. Hence, we adopted ART-type Bayesian Reconstruction Method (Hirahara, 1998) to project the difference of envelopes to structural parameters iteratively. We conducted checkerboard reconstruction test. We assumed checkerboard pattern of 0.4 degree interval in horizontal direction and 20 km in depth direction. Reconstructed structures well reproduced the assumed pattern in shallower part while not in deeper part. Since the inversion kernel has large sensitivity around source and stations, resolution in deeper part would be limited due to the sparse distribution of earthquakes. To apply the inversion method which described above to actual waveforms, we have to correct the effects of source and site amplification term. We consider these issues to estimate the actual intrinsic and scattering structures of the target region.Acknowledgment We used the waveforms of Hi-net, NIED. This study was supported by the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo cooperative research program.

Strong ground motion prediction applying dynamic rupture simulations for Beppu-Haneyama Active Fault Zone, southwestern Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshimi, M.; Matsushima, S.; Ando, R.; Miyake, H.; Imanishi, K.; Hayashida, T.; Takenaka, H.; Suzuki, H.; Matsuyama, H.

2017-12-01

We conducted strong ground motion prediction for the active Beppu-Haneyama Fault zone (BHFZ), Kyushu island, southwestern Japan. Since the BHFZ runs through Oita and Beppy cities, strong ground motion as well as fault displacement may affect much to the cities.We constructed a 3-dimensional velocity structure of a sedimentary basin, Beppu bay basin, where the fault zone runs through and Oita and Beppu cities are located. Minimum shear wave velocity of the 3d model is 500 m/s. Additional 1-d structure is modeled for sites with softer sediment: holocene plain area. We observed, collected, and compiled data obtained from microtremor surveys, ground motion observations, boreholes etc. phase velocity and H/V ratio. Finer structure of the Oita Plain is modeled, as 250m-mesh model, with empirical relation among N-value, lithology, depth and Vs, using borehole data, then validated with the phase velocity data obtained by the dense microtremor array observation (Yoshimi et al., 2016).Synthetic ground motion has been calculated with a hybrid technique composed of a stochastic Green's function method (for HF wave), a 3D finite difference (LF wave) and 1D amplification calculation. Fault geometry has been determined based on reflection surveys and active fault map. The rake angles are calculated with a dynamic rupture simulation considering three fault segments under a stress filed estimated from source mechanism of earthquakes around the faults (Ando et al., JpGU-AGU2017). Fault parameters such as the average stress drop, a size of asperity etc. are determined based on an empirical relation proposed by Irikura and Miyake (2001). As a result, strong ground motion stronger than 100 cm/s is predicted in the hanging wall side of the Oita plain.This work is supported by the Comprehensive Research on the Beppu-Haneyama Fault Zone funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan.