Comparing stochastic point-source and finite-source ground-motion simulations: SMSIM and EXSIM

Abstract

Comparisons of ground motions from two widely used point-source and finite-source ground-motion simulation programs (SMSIM and EXSIM) show that the following simple modifications in EXSIM will produce agreement in the motions from a small earthquake at a large distance for the two programs: (1) base the scaling of high frequencies on the integral of the squared Fourier acceleration spectrum; (2) do not truncate the time series from each subfault; (3) use the inverse of the subfault corner frequency for the duration of motions from each subfault; and (4) use a filter function to boost spectral amplitudes at frequencies near and less than the subfault corner frequencies. In addition, for SMSIM an effective distance is defined that accounts for geometrical spreading and anelastic attenuation from various parts of a finite fault. With these modifications, the Fourier and response spectra from SMSIM and EXSIM are similar to one another, even close to a large earthquake (M 7), when the motions are averaged over a random distribution of hypocenters. The modifications to EXSIM remove most of the differences in the Fourier spectra from simulations using pulsing and static subfaults; they also essentially eliminate any dependence of the EXSIM simulations on the number of subfaults. Simulations with the revised programs suggest that the results of Atkinson and Boore (2006), computed using an average stress parameter of 140 bars and the original version of EXSIM, are consistent with the revised EXSIM with a stress parameter near 250 bars.