Applications of nonergodic site response models to ShakeAlert case studies in the Los Angeles area

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
By: , and 

Links

Abstract

In this study, we explore whether the Parker and Baltay (2022) site response models for the Los Angeles (LA) basin region can improve ground‐motion forecasts in the U.S. Geological Survey ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system (hereafter ShakeAlert). We implement the peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity site response models of Parker and Baltay (2022) in ShakeAlert via the earthquake information to ground‐motion (hereafter eqinfo2GM) module, which predicts ground motions from the estimated earthquake parameters of magnitude, rupture length, and location. The nonergodic site response models for the greater LA area were developed using ground motions from 414 M 3–7.3 earthquakes in southern California. We test nonergodic ground‐motion forecasts for five earthquakes in the LA area: the 1994 M 6.7 Northridge earthquake, the 2008 M 5.4 Chino Hills earthquake, the 2019 M 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake, the 2020 M 4.5 South El Monte earthquake, and a synthetic M 7.8 earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault from the ShakeOut scenario, which was the basis of a statewide emergency response exercise. From the test results, we find that with the nonergodic site response applied, ShakeAlert not only alerts larger areas but can also result in longer warning times in LA region. In addition, the modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) ground‐motion predictions generated by the ShakeAlert eqinfo2GM module are improved in accuracy when compared with the corresponding ShakeMap ground‐truth MMI when the nonergodic site response model is applied.

Study Area

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Applications of nonergodic site response models to ShakeAlert case studies in the Los Angeles area
Series title Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
DOI 10.1785/0120220145
Volume 113
Issue 3
Year Published 2023
Language English
Publisher Seismological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Earthquake Science Center
Description 20 p.
First page 1324
Last page 1343
Country United States
State California
City Los Angeles
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details