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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Ground-motion attenuation and earthquake source scaling in eastern North America. Final report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:10145929

Predictions of ground motion within 200 km of earthquake sources are critical to the seismic design of nuclear facilities. This report provides data valuable for predicting ground motion and thereby improving existing models for eastern North America. The project team first investigated characteristics of ground-motion attenuation in the south central southeastern United States, building on previous results from the northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. To do this, they analyzed recordings of earthquakes and explosions and generated synthetic seismograms based on regional wave-propagation models. Secondly, investigators tested the validity of three different models of source-scaling relations that have been proposed for the stress-drop parameter. At issue is the fact that a model having increasing stress drop with magnitude predicts greater accelerations for large events than does a constant stress-drop model.

Research Organization:
Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Woodward-Clyde Consultants, Pasadena, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
OSTI ID:
10145929
Report Number(s):
EPRI-TR--100409-Tier-2; ON: UN92013659
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English