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Stochastic simulation of high-frequency ground motions based on seismological models of the radiated spectra

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OFFICE OF EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOES AND ENGINEERING, 345 MIDDLEFIELD ROAD, MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA 94025

Abstract

Theoretical predictions of seismic motions as a function of source strength are often expressed as frequency-domain scaling models. The observations of interest to strong-motion seismology, however, are usually in the time domain (e.g., various peak motions, including magnitude). The method of simulation presented here makes use of both domains; its essence is to filter a suite of windowed, stochastic time series so that the amplitude spectra are equal, on the average, to the specified spectra. Because of its success in predicting peak and rms accelerations (Hanks and McGuire, 1981), an -squared spectrum with a high-frequency cutoff (f_m), in addition to the usual whole-path anelastic attenuation, and with a constant stress parameter () has been used in the applications of the simulation method. With these assumptions, the model is particularly simple: the scaling with source size depends on only one parameter—seismic moment or, equivalently, moment magnitude. Besides peak acceleration, the model gives a good fit to a number of ground motion amplitude measures derived from previous analyses of hundreds of recordings from earthquakes in western North America, ranging from a moment magnitude of 5.0 to 7.7. These measures of ground motion include peak velocity, Wood-Anderson instrument response, and response spectra. The model also fits peak velocities and peak accelerations for South African earthquakes with moment magnitudes of 0.4 to 2.4 (with f_m = 400 Hz and = 50 bars, compared to f_m = 15 Hz and = 100 bars for the western North America data). Remarkably, the model seems to fit all essential aspects of high-frequency ground motions for earthquakes over a very large magnitude range.

Although the simulation method is useful for applications requiring one or more time series, a simpler, less costly method based on various formulas from random vibration theory will often suffice for applications requiring only peak motions. Hanks and McGuire (1981) used such an approach in their prediction of peak acceleration. This paper contains a generalization of their approach; the formulas used depend on the moments (in the statistical sense) of the squared amplitude spectra, and therefore can be applied to any time series having a stochastic character, including ground acceleration, velocity, and the oscillator outputs on which response spectra and magnitude are based.

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