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An empirical attenuation model of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) in the near field of a strong earthquake

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Abstract

Empirical methods are commonly employed to predict the PGA distribution of an earthquake and are widely used. However, current empirical methods assume the seismic source to be a point source, a line source, or a plane source, where the energy is concentrated and released uniformly. An empirical attenuation model of the near-field peak ground acceleration (PGA) was proposed that considers a nonuniform spatial distribution of seismic fault energy and its 3D scale. Then, this model was used to reconstruct the PGA distribution of the 2008 Wenchuan, China, Mw7.9 earthquake based on the data of a seismic fault model and ground acceleration records of the mainshock and aftershocks collected by seismic stations. The predicted PGA values show similar attenuation characteristics to the interpolated map of the PGA recorded by seismic stations. A comparison with the results of a finite-fault model developed by the USGS indicates that the proposed model can provide more details and give a more precise result in the near field. The analysis of landslides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake demonstrates that the PGA distribution estimated by this model can be used to validate the findings of other researchers.

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Availability of data and materials

There are four types of data used in this paper. They are ground acceleration of aftershocks and mainshock of the Wenchuan earthquake, landslide inventory triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake, PGA map published by USGS and a fault model of the Wenchuan earthquake. Ground acceleration data of aftershocks and mainshock of the Wenchuan earthquake were collected by the China Strong Motion Network Centre of China and cannot be released to the public. These data can be reached by linking https://www.iem.net.cn (last accessed September 6, 2019) after permission from the Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration. This landslide inventory includes a landslide area of 1150.8 km2 and a landslide number of 196,007 (Xu et al. 2016). It is a result of the joint efforts of many institutions and people. This inventory can be obtained by contacting the author directly. The estimated PGA distribution can be obtained from the website by linking https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usp000g650/executive, (last accessed December 14, 2019). The fault model of the Wenchuan earthquake was published by Shen et al. (2009). These data can be obtained from the supplementation of that article (https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo636, last accessed September 4, 2019).

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Acknowledgements

The ground acceleration data for this study were provided by the China Strong Motion Network Centre at the Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration. This work was financially supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) under Grant No. 2019QZKK0904 and the National Science Foundation of China under grants Nos. 41825018, 41790442 and 41672307. The work was also supported by the Application of Synthetic Aperture Radar-based Geological Hazard Analysis Technology on the Strategic Electricity Transmission Passage of Sichuan-Tibet Plateau (No. 52199918000C).

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) under Grant No. 2019QZKK0904 and the National Science Foundation of China under Grants Nos. 41825018, 41790442 and 41672307. The work was also supported by the Application of Synthetic Aperture Radar-based Geological Hazard Analysis Technology on the Strategic Electricity Transmission Passage of Sichuan-Tibet Plateau (No. 52199918000C).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Xianglong Yao, Shengwen Qi, Songfeng Guo, Xiaoling Huang, Bowen Zheng & Yu Zou

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xianglong Yao & Shengwen Qi

  3. Innovation Academy for Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Xianglong Yao, Shengwen Qi, Songfeng Guo, Xiaoling Huang, Bowen Zheng & Yu Zou

  4. China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Natural Resources, Beijing, 100083, China

    Chunling Liu

  5. National Institute of Natural Hazards, Ministry of Emergency Management of China, Beijing, 100085, China

    Chong Xu

  6. China Highway Engineering Consultants Corporation, Beijing, 100089, China

    Zhifa Zhan

Authors
  1. Xianglong Yao
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  2. Shengwen Qi
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  3. Chunling Liu
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  4. Songfeng Guo
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  5. Xiaoling Huang
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Contributions

XY processed the data and drafted this manuscript. SQ provided the research data and ideas and revised the manuscript. CL, SG, XH, CX, BZ, ZZ and YZ provided suggestions and helped revise the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shengwen Qi.

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Yao, X., Qi, S., Liu, C. et al. An empirical attenuation model of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) in the near field of a strong earthquake. Nat Hazards 105, 691–715 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04332-x

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