Vertical seismic compressional- and shear-wave (P-and S-wave) profiles were collected from three shallow boreholes in sediment of the upper Mississippi embayment. The site of the 60-m hole at Shelby Forest, Tennessee, is on bluffs forming the eastern edge of the Mississippi alluvial plain. The bluffs are composed of Pleistocene loess, Pliocene-Pleistocene alluvial clay and sand deposits, and Tertiary deltaic-marine sediment. The 36-m hole at Marked Tree, Arkansas, and the 27-m hole at Risco, Missouri, are in Holocene Mississippi river floodplain sand, silt, and gravel deposits. At each site, impulsive P- and S-waves were generated by man-made sources at the surface while a three-component geophone was locked downhole at 0.91-m intervals.
Consistent with their very similar geology, the two floodplain locations have nearly identical S-wave velocity (VS) profiles. The lowest VS values are about 130 m s−1, and the highest values are about 300 m s−1 at these sites. The shear-wave velocity profile at Shelby Forest is very similar within the Pleistocene loess (12 m thick); in deeper, older material, VS exceeds 400 m s−1.
At Marked Tree, and at Risco, the compressional-wave velocity (VP) values above the water table are as low as about 230 m s−1, and rise to about 1.9 km s−1 below the water table. At Shelby Forest, VP values in the unsaturated loess are as low as 302 m s−1. VP values below the water table are about 1.8 km s−1. For the two floodplain sites, the VP/VS ratio increases rapidly across the water table depth. For the Shelby Forest site, the largest increase in the VP/VS ratio occurs at 20-m depth, the boundary between the Pliocene-Pleistocene clay and sand deposits and the Eocene shallow-marine clay and silt deposits.
Until recently, seismic velocity data for the embayment basin came from eartquake studies, crustal-scale seismic refraction and reflection profiles, sonic logs, and from analysis of dispersed earthquake surface waves. Since 1991, seismic data for shallow sediment obtained from reflection, refraction, crosshole and downhole techniques have been obtained for sites at the northern end of the embayment basin. The present borehole data, however, are measured from sites representative of large areas in the Mississippi embayment. Therefore, they fill a gap in information needed for modeling the response of the embayment to destructive seismic shaking. 相似文献
We present an overview of our recent results on utilizing small earthquakes in the earthquake engineering practice. Site-specific ground motion time-histories of large earthquakes can be successfully simulated using recordings of small earthquakes which are often referred to as 'empirical Green's functions' in seismology. Another important practical problem is whether and how these observations can be used in seismic risk studies which are based on empirical attenuation relations for ground motion parameters. We study a possibility of extrapolating attenuation relations for small earthquakes, to larger magnitudes using the data from the Garner Valley downhole array in Southern California. Finally we introduce efficient ground motion processing techniques in frequency- and time-domains and apply them to site response estimation. 相似文献
The seismic ground motion of a test area in the eastern district of Naples is computed with a hybrid technique based on the mode summation and the finite difference methods. This technique allows us the realistic modelling of source and propagation effects, including local soil conditions. In the modelling, we consider the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, a good example of strong shaking for the area of Naples, which is located about 90 km from the epicenter.The detailed geological setting is reconstructed from a large number of drillings. The sub-soil is mainly formed by alluvial (ash, stratified sand and peat) and pyroclastic materials overlying a pyroclastic rock (yellow neapolitan tuff), representing the neapolitan bedrock. The detailed information available on mechanical properties of the sub-soil and its geometry warrants the application of the sophisticated hybrid technique.As expected, the sedimentary cover causes an increase of the signal's amplitudes and duration. If thin peat layers are present, the amplification effects are reduced, and the peak ground accelerations are similar to those observed for the bedrock model. This can be explained by the backscattering of wave energy at such layers, that tend to seismically decouple the upper from the lower part of the structure.For SH-waves, the influence of the variations of the S-wave velocities on the spectral amplification is studied, by considering locally measured velocities and values determined from near-by down-hole measurements. The comparison between the computed spectral amplifications confirms the key role of an accurate determination of the seismic velocities of the different layers.The comparison performed between a realistic 2-D seismic response and a standard 1-D response, based on the vertical propagation of waves in a plane layered structure, shows considerable difference, from which it is evident that serious caution must be taken in the modelling of expected ground motion at a specific site. 相似文献
The geography information system of the 1303 Hongton M=8 earthquake has been established. Using the spatial analysis function of GIS, the spatial distribution characteristics of
damage and isoseismal of the earthquake are studies. By comparing with the standard earthquake intensity attenuation relationship,
the abnormal damage distribution of the earthquake is found, so the relationship of the abnormal distribution with tectonics,
site condition and basin are analyzed. In this paper, the influence on the ground motion generated by earthquake source and
the underground structures near source also are studied. The influence on seismic zonation, anti-earthquake design, earthquake
prediction and earthquake emergency responding produced by the abnormal density distribution are discussed.
Foundation item: National important fundamental research “The Basic Research of Important Project in Damage Environment” and The important
project “The Seismic Hazard Assessment Research and Anti-earthquake Structure Research” from China Earthquake Administration
during the 10th Five-year Plan.
Contribution No. 04FE1008, Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration. 相似文献
Three sites in the UK are taken, representative of low, medium and high hazard levels (by UK standards). For each site, the
hazard value at 10−4 annual probability is computed using a generic seismic source model, and a variety of ground motion parameters: peak ground
acceleration (PGA), spectral acceleration at 10 Hz and 1 Hz, and intensity. Disaggregation is used to determine the nature
of the earthquakes most likely to generate these hazard values. It is found (as might be expected) that the populations are
quite different according to which ground motion parameter is used. When PGA is used, the result is a rather flat magnitude
distribution with a tendency to low magnitude events (\le 4.5 ML) which are probably not really hazardous. Hazard-consistent scenario earthquakes computed using intensity are found
to be in the range 5.8–5.9 ML, which is more in accord with the type of earthquake that one expects to be a worst-case event
in the UK.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. 相似文献
This article has two purposes. Firstly, a validation exercise of the modal summation technique for the computation of synthetic
strong-motion records is performed for two regions of Europe (Umbria-Marche and south Iceland), using a variety of region
specific crustal structure models, by comparing the predicted ground motion amplitudes with observed motions. It is found
that the rate of decay of ground motions is well predicted by the theoretical decay curves but that the absolute size of the
ground motions is underpredicted by the synthetic time-histories. This is thought to be due to the presence of low-velocity
surface layers that amplify the ground motions but are not included in the crustal structure models used to compute the synthetic
time-histories.
Secondly, a new distance metric based on the computed theoretical decay curves is introduced which should have the ability
to model the complex decay of strong ground motions. The ability of this new distance metric to reduce the associated scatter
in empirically derived equations for the estimation of strong ground motions is tested. It is found that it does not lead
to a reduction in the scatter but this is thought to be due to the use of crustal structure models that are not accurate or
detailed enough for the regions studied.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. 相似文献