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Three-Dimensional Site Effects at Mortandad Canyon, NM: I. Validation against ambient noise recordings of topography effects

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1829620· OSTI ID:1829620
 [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Observations from large earthquakes have shown that the presence of a strong topographic relief can significantly aggravate the catastrophic consequences of strong seismic motions. Structures on the tops of hills, ridges, and canyons, for example, have suffered systematically greater damage than similar structures at the hill bases or on level ground. Various earthquake recordings have confirmed the macroseismic observations, indicating systematic amplification of seismic motion over convex topographies, deamplification over concave topographic features, and complex amplification and deamplification patterns on hill slopes that result in significant differential motion. Despite the documented evidence of their role in elevating seismic risk, however, topography effects are not accounted for in the majority of seismic code provisions and microzonation studies, which are based instead on models of flat earth surface.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1829620
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-21-31073
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English