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Seismic hazard assessment in continental Ecuador

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Abstract

A seismic hazard assessment study of continental Ecuador is presented in this paper. The study begins with a revision of the available information on seismic events and the elaboration of a seismic catalog homogenized to magnitude Mw. Different seismic source definitions are revised and a new area-source model, based on geological and seismic data, is proposed. The available ground motion prediction equations for crustal and subduction sources are analyzed and selected for the tectonic environments observed in Ecuador. A probabilistic seismic hazard assessment approach is carried out to evaluate the exceedance probability of several levels of peak ground acceleration PGA and spectral accelerations SA (T) for periods (T) of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1 and 2s. The resulting hazard maps for continental Ecuador are presented, together with the uniform hazard spectra of four province capital cities. Hazard disaggregation is carried out for target motions defined by the PGA values and SA (1s) expected for return periods of 475 and 2475 years, providing estimates for short-period and long-period controlling earthquakes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to the following institutions that provided support on specific themes for the realization of this study, in working meetings held in Guayaquil (March 2014), Quito (March, April, and July, August 2014), and Madrid (September 2014): Centro de Investigaciones Científicas of the Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE of Ecuador, Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada of Ecuador, Instituto Geográfico Militar of Ecuador, Instituto Espacial Ecuatoriano, and Instituto Nacional de Investigación Geológico, Minero, Metalúrgico of Ecuador; they also express their gratitude to Dr. Roberto Aguiar, Dr. Chunga Kervin, and to the members of the Grupo de Investigación de Ingeniería Sísmica of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid: Yolanda Torres and Dr. Alicia Rivas. H. Parra works in the laboratories of the Grupo de Investigación de Ingeniería Sísmica of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, with a scholarship awarded by the Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of Ecuador; the reviews provided by the anonymous referees and especially the thorough and constructive review of Dr. D. Slejko, which the authors sincerely appreciate.

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  1. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus Sur UPM, Ctra. de Valencia, km 7.5, 28031, Madrid, Spain

    H. Parra, M. B. Benito & J. M. Gaspar-Escribano

  2. Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Av. Gral. Rumiñahui s/n, Sangolquí, Ecuador

    H. Parra

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  1. H. Parra
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Correspondence to M. B. Benito.

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Parra, H., Benito, M.B. & Gaspar-Escribano, J.M. Seismic hazard assessment in continental Ecuador. Bull Earthquake Eng 14, 2129–2159 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-016-9906-7

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