Empirical ground-motion relations for subduction-zone earthquakes and their application to Cascadia and other regions

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
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Abstract

Ground-motion relations for earthquakes that occur in subduction zones are an important input to seismic-hazard analyses in many parts of the world. In the Cascadia region (Washington, Oregon, northern California, and British Columbia), for example, there is a significant hazard from megathrust earthquakes along the subduction interface and from large events within the subducting slab. These hazards are in addition to the hazard from shallow earthquakes in the overlying crust. We have compiled a response spectra database from thousands of strong-motion recordings from events of moment magnitude (M) 5-8.3 occurring in subduction zones around the world, including both interface and in-slab events. The 2001 M 6.8 Nisqually and 1999 M 5.9 Satsop earthquakes are included in the database, as are many records from subduction zones in Japan (Kyoshin-Net data), Mexico (Guerrero data), and Central America. The size of the database is four times larger than that available for previous empirical regressions to determine ground-motion relations for subduction-zone earthquakes. The large dataset enables improved determination of attenuation parameters and magnitude scaling, for both interface and in-slab events. Soil response parameters are also better determined by the data.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Empirical ground-motion relations for subduction-zone earthquakes and their application to Cascadia and other regions
Series title Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
DOI 10.1785/0120020156
Volume 93
Issue 4
Year Published 2003
Language English
Publisher Seismological Society of America
Description 27 p.
First page 1703
Last page 1729
Country Canada, United States
State British Columbia, California, Oregon, Washington
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