An Empirical Model to Predict Topographic Effects in Strong Ground Motion Using California Small- to Medium-Magnitude Earthquake Database

Abstract

We develop a model to predict the effects of topography on earthquake ground motions using a database of small- to medium-magnitude earthquakes from California. The proposed model relies on a parameter called relative elevation that quantifies topography using the elevation of a site relative to its surroundings. We also investigate an alternative parameterization of topography called smoothed curvature. We study the bias in the residuals from the Chiou et al. (2010) ground motion model with respect to these parameters and fit a model to remedy those biases. We then compare these models by assessing their goodness of fit to the data. The proposed model for topographic effects is intended as a correction to the Chiou et al. (2010) small- to medium-magnitude earthquake prediction model.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ancheta

T. D.

Darragh

R. B.

Stewart

J. P.

Seyhan

Silva

W. J.

Chiou

B. S. J.

Wooddell

K.E.

Graves

R. W.

Kottke

A. R.

Boore

D. M.

Kishida

and Donahue

J. L.

2014. NGA-West2 database, Earthquake Spectra 30, 989–1005.

Assimaki

and Gazetas

2004. Soil and topographic amplification on canyon banks and the 1999 Athens earthquake, Journal of Earthquake Engineering 8, 1–43.

Assimaki

and Jeong

2013. Ground-Motion Observations at Hotel Montana during the M 7.0 2010 Haiti Earthquake: Topography or Soil Amplification?, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 103, 2577–2590.

Atik

L. A.

Abrahamson

Bommer

J. J.

Scherbaum

Cotton

and Kuehn

2010. The variability of ground-motion prediction models and its components, Seismological Research Letters 81, 794–801.

Bard

P.-Y.

1982. Diffracted waves and displacement field over two-dimensional elevated topographies, Geophysical Journal International 71, 731–760.

Boore

D. M.

1972. A note on the effect of simple topography on seismic SH waves, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 62, 275–284.

Boore

D. M.

1973. The effect of simple topography on seismic waves: implications for the accelerations recorded at Pacoima Dam, San Fernando Valley, California, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 63, 1603–1609.

Boore

D. M.

Harmsen

S. C.

and Harding

S. T.

1981. Wave scattering from a step change in surface topography, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 71, 117–125.

Bouchon

1973. Effect of topography on surface motion, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 63, 615–632.

10.

Bouchon

and Barker

J. S.

1996. Seismic response of a hill: the example of Tarzana, California, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 86(1A), 66–72.

11.

Burjánek

Edwards

and Fäh

2014. Empirical evidence of local seismic effects at sites with pronounced topography: A systematic approach, Geophysical Journal International 197, 608–619.

12.

Burrough

P. A.

van Gaans

P. F. M.

and MacMillan

R. A.

2000. High-resolution landform classification using fuzzy k-means, Fuzzy Sets and Systems 113, 37–52.

13.

Celebi

1987. Topographical and geological amplifications determined from strong-motion and aftershock records of the 3 March 1985 Chile earthquake, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 77, 1147–1167.

14.

Chiou

Youngs

Abrahamson

and Addo

2010. Ground-motion attenuation model for small-to-moderate shallow crustal earthquakes in California and its implications on regionalization of ground-motion prediction models, Earthquake Spectra 26, 907–926.

15.

Chiou

B.-J.

and Youngs

R. R.

2008. An NGA model for the average horizontal component of peak ground motion and response spectra, Earthquake Spectra 24, 173–215.

16.

Davis

L. L.

and West

L. R.

1973. Observed effects of topography on ground motion, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 63, 283–298.

17.

Durand

Gaffet

and Virieux

1999. Seismic diffracted waves from topography using 3-D discrete wavenumber-boundary integral equation simulation, Geophysics 64, 572–578.

18.

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (Esri), 2011. ArcGIS Desktop: Release 10, Redlands, CA.

19.

Geli

Bard

P.-Y.

and Jullien

1988. The effect of topography on earthquake ground motion: a review and new results, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 78, 42–63.

20.

Goldgof

D. B.

Huang

T. S.

and Lee

1990. Terrain analysis from curvature profiles, International Journal of Imaging Systems and Technology 2, 169–182.

21.

Griffiths

D. W.

and Bollinger

G. A.

1979. The effect of Appalachian Mountain topography on seismic waves, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 69, 1081–1105.

22.

Guisan

Weiss

S. B.

and Weiss

A. D.

1999. GLM versus CCA spatial modeling of plant species distribution, Plant Ecology 143, 107–122.

23.

Hartzell

Meremonte

Ramirez-Guzman

and McNamara

2014. Ground motion in the presence of complex topography: Earthquake and ambient noise sources, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 104, 451–466.

24.

Hatzfeld

Nord

Paul

Guiguet

Briole

Ruegg

J.-C.

Cattin

Armijo

Meyer

Hubert

Bernard

Makropoulos

Karakostas

Papaioannou

Papanastassiou

and Veis

1995. The Kozani-Grevena (Greece) earthquake of May 13, 1995, Ms = 6.6. Preliminary results of a field multidisciplinary survey, Seismological Research Letters 66, 61–70.

25.

Irvin

B. J.

Ventura

S. J.

and Slater

B. K.

1997. Fuzzy and isodata classification of landform elements from digital terrain data in Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, Geoderma 77, 137–154.

26.

Iwahashi

and Pike

R. J.

2007. Automated classifications of topography from DEMs by an unsupervised nested-means algorithm and a three-part geometric signature, Geomorphology 86, 409–440.

27.

Jones

K. B.

Heggem

D. T.

Wade

T. G.

Neale

A. C.

Ebert

D. W.

Nash

M. S.

Mehaffey

M. H.

Goodman

I. A.

Hermann

K. A.

Selle

A. R.

Bolgrien

Augustine

Pedersen

Lin

C. J.

Viger

J. M.

Chiang

Zhong

Baker

and Remortel

R. D. V.

2000. Assessing Landscape condition relative to water resources in the western United States: A strategic approach, in Monitoring Ecological Condition in the Western United States ( Sandhu

S. S.

, Melzian

B. D.

, Long

E. R.

, Whitford

W. G.

, and Walton

B. T.

, eds.), Springer Netherlands, 227–245.

28.

Kawase

and Aki

1990. Topography effect at the critical SV-wave incidence: possible explanation of damage pattern by the Whittier Narrows, California, earthquake of 1 October 1987, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 80, 1–22.

29.

Kramer

Steven L.

1996. Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 653 pp.

30.

Louie

J. N.

2005. Improving Next-Generation Attenuation Models with Shear-Velocity Measurements at all TriNet and Strong-Motion Stations in LA, NEHRP Final Technical Report 05HZGR0078, 43 pp.

31.

Louie

J. N.

2007. Shear-Wave Velocity Map for California: Collaborative Research with CGS, and UNR, NEHRP Final Technical Report 07HQGR0029, 98 pp.

32.

Louie

J. N.

Mayo

Hauksson

Reynolds

and Hall-Patton

2011. Shear-Velocity Measurements at CISN Stations along the Southern San Andreas Fault, NEHRP Final Technical Report G09AP00050, 98 pp.

33.

MacMillan

R. A.

Pettapiece

W. W.

Nolan

S. C.

and Goddard

T. W.

2000. A generic procedure for automatically segmenting landforms into landform elements using DEMs, heuristic rules and fuzzy logic, Fuzzy Sets and Systems 113, 81–109.

34.

Maufroy

Cruz-Atienza

Cotton

and Gaffet

2015. Frequency-scaled curvature as a proxy for topographic site-effect amplification and ground motion variability, Bulletin of Seismological Society of America 105, 354–367.

35.

Meunier

Hovius

and Haines

J. A.

2008. Topographic site effects and the location of earthquake induced landslides, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 275, 221–232.

36.

R Development Core Team, 2013. R: A language and environment for statistical computing, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, ISBN 3-900051-07-0, available at http://www.R-project.org.

37.

Rai

Rodriguez-Marek

and Yong

2012. Topographic effects in strong ground motion, Proceedings of the 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal, Paper number 3843.

38.

Rice

J. A.

2007. Mathematical statistics and data analysis, Duxbury Press, Pacific Grove, CA, 688 pp.

39.

Rogers

A. M.

Katz

L. J.

and Bennett

T. J.

1974. Topographic effects on ground motion for incident P waves: A model study, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 64, 437–456.

40.

Schmidt

and Hewitt

2004. Fuzzy land element classification from DTMs based on geometry and terrain position, Geoderma 121, 243–256.

41.

Shakal

A. M.

Huang

Darragh

Cao

Sherburne

Malhotra

Cramer

Sydnor

Graizer

Maldonado

and Wampole

1994. CSMIP Strong Motion Records from the Northridge, California, Earthquake of 17 January 1994, Report OSMS 94-07, California Division of Mines and Geology, Sacramento, CA.

42.

Spudich

Hellweg

and Lee

W. H. K.

1996. Directional topographic site response at Tarzana observed in aftershocks of the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake: implications for mainshock motions, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 86(1B), S193–S208.

43.

Trifunac

M. D.

and Hudson

D. E.

1971. Analysis of the Pacoima dam accelerogram—San Fernando, California, earthquake of 1971, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 61, 1393–1411.

44.

Tucker

B. E.

King

J. L.

Hatzfeld

and Nersesov

I. L.

1984. Observations of hard-rock site effects, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 74, 121–136.

45.

Yong

Martin

Stokoe

and Diehl

2013. ARRA-Funded VS30 Measurements Using Multi-Technique Approach at Strong-Motion Stations in California and Central-Eastern United States, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013-1102, 60 pp.

46.

Zevenbergen

L. W.

and Thorne

C. R.

1987. Quantitative analysis of land surface topography, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 12, 47–56.