Basin and site effects in the U.S. Pacific Northwest estimated from small‐magnitude earthquakes

John Rekoske; Morgan P. Moschetti; Eric M. Thompson

doi:10.1785/0120210029

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Basin and site effects in the U.S. Pacific Northwest estimated from small‐magnitude earthquakes

John Rekoske·Morgan P. Moschetti·Eric M. Thompson

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Abstract

Earthquake hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) are increased by the presence of deep sedimentary basins that amplify and prolong ground shaking. To better understand basin and site effects on ground motions, we compile a database of recordings from crustal and intraslab earthquakes. We process 8028 records with magnitudes from 3.5 to 6.8 and hypocentral depths up to 62 km to compute Fourier amplitude spectra of ground acceleration for frequencies of 0–20 Hz. We compute residuals relative to the Bayless and Abrahamson (2019; hereafter, BA18) ground‐motion model and perform a series of linear, crossed, mixed‐effects regressions. In addition to estimating the bias, event, and site terms, we incorporate groupings for broad regionalized site response in three different regions (Seattle basin, Puget Lowland, non‐Puget Lowland), for effects from seismotectonic regime (crustal and intraslab sources), and for interactions between the regions and seismotectonic regimes. We find that the scaling of site response with respect to V S 30 (time‐averaged shear‐wave velocity from the surface to a depth of 30 m) and to basin depth indicators Z 1.0 and Z 2.5 (depths to the 1.0 and 2.5 km/s shear‐wave velocity horizons) is generally consistent with BA18; however, the region terms display strong spatial amplification patterns. For frequencies less than 5 Hz, the Seattle basin amplifies ground motions up to a factor of four, relative to the non‐Puget Lowland, with a maximum amplification around near 0.5 Hz. Sites in the Puget Lowland amplify low frequencies up to a factor of 2.5. At higher frequencies ( ⁠ f > 5 Hz ⁠ ), the Puget Lowland and Seattle basin show regional deamplification of ground motions, with the smallest average amplification factor of 0.65 occurring at 10.0 Hz. Although we observe slight differences in the seismotectonic regime terms, we find that the region terms are significantly more important for modeling earthquake hazard in the PNW.

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Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 41.991794° to 49.002357° latitude; -124.733174° to -116.463504° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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BibTeX RIS

John Rekoske, Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson. 2021-08-24. Basin and site effects in the U.S. Pacific Northwest estimated from small‐magnitude earthquakes. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120210029

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