Skip to main content
Log in

Effect of seismic super-shear rupture on the directivity of ground motion acceleration

  • Technical Papers
  • Published:
Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration Aims and scope Submit manuscript

    We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

    Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.

Abstract

The effect of seismic super-shear rupture on the directivity of ground motions using simulated accelerations of a vertical strike-slip fault model is the topic of this study. The discrete wave number/finite element method was adopted to calculate the ground motion in the horizontal layered half space. An analysis of peak ground acceleration (PGA) indicates that similar to the sub-shear situation, directivity also exists in the super-shear situation. However, there are some differences as follows: (1) The PGA of the fault-normal component decreases with super-shear velocity, and the areas that were significantly affected by directivity in the PGA field changed from a cone-shaped region in the forward direction in a sub-shear situation to a limited near-fault region in a super-shear situation. (2) The PGA of the fault-parallel and vertical component is not as sensitive as the fault-normal component to the increasing super-shear velocity. (3) The PGA of the fault-normal component is not always greater than the fault-parallel component when the rupture velocity exceeds the shear wave velocity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews DJ (1976), “Rupture Velocity of Plane Strain Shear Cracks,” Journal of Geophysical Research, 81(32): 5679–5687.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews DJ and Harris RA (2005), “The Wrinkle-like Slip Pulse is not Important in Earthquake Dynamics,” Geophysical Research Letters, 32: L23303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews DJ and Harris RA (2006), “Reply to Comment by Y. Ben-Zion. The Wrinkle-like Slip Pulse is not Important in Earthquake Dynamics,” Geophysical Research Letters, 33: L06311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archuleta RJ (1984), “A Faulting Model for the 1979 Imperial Valley Earthquake,” Journal of Geophysical Research, 89(B6): 4559–4585.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakun WH, Stewart RM and Bufe CG (1978), “Directivity in the High-frequency Radiation of Small Earthquakes,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 68: 1253–1263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benioff H (1955), “Mechanism and Strain Characteristics of the White Wolf Fault as Indicated by the Aftershock Sequence; Earthquakes in Kern County, California during 1952,” California Division of Mines Bulletin, 171: 199–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard P and Madariaga R (1984a), “A New Asymptotic Method for the Modeling of Near Field Accelerograms,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 74(2): 539–557.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard P and Madariaga R (1984b), “High Frequency Seismic Radiation from a Buried Circular Fault,” Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 78:1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boatwright J and Boore DM (1982), “Analysis of the Ground Accelerations Radiated by the 1980 Livermore Valley Earthquakes for Directivity and Dynamic Source Characteristics,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 72(6A): 1843–1865.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouchon M, Bouin MP, Karabulut H, Toksöz MN, Dietrich M and Rosakis AJ (2001), “How Fast is Rupture during an Earthquake? New insights from the 1999 Turkey Earthquakes,” Geophysical Research Letters, 28(14): 2723–2726.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchon M, Toksöz N, Karabulut H, Bouin, MP, Dietrich M, Aktar M and Edie M (2000), “Seismic Imaging of the 1999 Izmit (Turkey) Rupture Inferred from the Near-fault Recordings,” Geophysical Research Letters, 27(18): 3013–3016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchon M and Vallée M (2003), “Observation of Long Supershear Rupture during the Magnitude 8.1 Kunlunshan Earthquake,” Science, 301(5634): 824–826.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burridge R (1973), “Admissible Speeds for Plane-strain Shear Cracks with Friction but Lacking Cohesion,” Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 35: 439–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Das S (2007), “The Need to Study Speed,” Science, 2007(317): 905–906.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Das S and Aki K (1977), “A Numerical Study of Two-dimensional Spontaneous Rupture Propagation,” Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 50: 643–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunham EM and Archuleta RJ (2004), “Evidence for a Supershear Transient during the 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 94(6B): S256–S268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunham EM, Favreau P and Carlson JM (2003), “A Supershear Transition Mechanism for Cracks,” Science, 299(5612): 1557–1559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eberhart-Phillips D, Haeussle PJ, Freymueller JT, Frankel AD, Rubin CM, Craw P, Ratchkovski NA, Anderson G, Carver GA, Crone AJ, Dawson TE, Fletcher H, Hansen R, Harp EL, Harris RA, Hill DP, Hreinsdóttir S, Jibson RW, Jones LM, Kayen R, Keefer DK, Larsen CF, Moran SC, Personius SF, Plafker G, Sherrod B, Sieh K, Sitar N and Wallace WK (2003), “The 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake, Alaska: A Large Magnitude, Slippartitioned Event,” Science, 300(5622): 1113–1118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanks TC and Kanamori H (1979), “A Moment Magnitude Scale,” Journal of Geophysical Research, 84(B5): 2348–2350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haskell NA (1964), “Total Energy and Energy Spectral Density of Elastic Wave Radiation from Propagating Faults,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 54(6A): 1811–1841.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haskell NA (1966), “Total Energy and Energy Spectral Density of Elastic Wave Radiation from Propagating Faults. Part II. A Statistical Source Model,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 56(1): 125–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirasawa T and Stauder W (1965), “On the Seismic Body Waves from a Finite Moving Source,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 55(2): 237–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu Jinjun (2009), “Rupture Directivity of Near-fault Ground Motion and Super-shear Rupture,” PhD Dissertation, Institute on Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration, Harbin, China. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu Jinjun and Xie Lili (2011), “Review of the State-ofthe Art Researches on Earthquake Super-shear Rupture,” Advances in Earth Science, 26(1): 39–47. (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasahara K (1984), Earthquake Mechanics, Earthquake Publishing House, Beijing, China, pp. 248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oglesby DD, Dreger DS, Harris RA, Ratchkovski N and Hansen R (2004), “Inverse Kinematic and Forward Dynamic Models of the 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake, Alaska,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 94(6B), S214–S233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson AH and Apsel R (1982), “Finite Faults and Inversion Theory with Applications to the 1979 Imperial Valley Earthquake,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 72(6A): 1969–2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson AH, Orcutt JA and Frazier GA (1984), “The Discrete Wavenumber/finite Element Method for Synthetic Seismograms,” Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 77: 421–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson DP, Brough C and Das S (2006), “The Mw 7.8, 2001 Kunlunshan earthquake: Extreme Rupture Speed Variability and Effect of Fault Geometry,” Journal of Geophysical Research, 111: B08303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmedes J and Archuleta RJ (2008), “Near-source Ground Motion Along Strike Slip Faults: Insights into Magnitude Saturation of PGV and PGA,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 98(5): 2278–2290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Somerville PG, Irikura K, Graves RW, Sawada S, Wald D, Abrahamson NA, Iwasaki Y, Kagawa T, Smith N and Kowada A (1999), “Characterizing Crustal Earthquake Slip Models for the Prediction of Strong Ground Motion,” Seismological Research Letters, 70(1): 59–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Somerville PG, Smith NF, Graves RW and Abrahamson NA (1997), “Modification of Empirical Strong Ground Motion Attenuation Relations to Include the Amplitude and Duration Effects of Rupture Directivity,” Seismological Research Letters, 68(1): 199–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spudich P and Archuleta R (1987), “Techniques for Earthquake Ground Motion Calculation with Applications to Source Parameterization of Finite Faults,” Bolt, B.A. ed., Seismic Strong Motion Synthetics, Orlando, Florida, Academic Press, 265 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spudich P and Cranswick E (1984), “Direct Observation of Rupture Propagation during the 1979 Imperial Valley Earthquake Using a Short Baseline Accelerometer Array,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 74(6): 2083–2114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spudich P and Frazer N (1984), “Use of Ray Theory to Calculate High-frequency Radiation from Earthquake Sources Having Spatially Variable Rupture Velocity and Stress Drop,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 74(1): 2061–2082.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spudich P and Xu LS (2003), “Software for Calculating Earthquake Ground Motions from Finite Faults in Vertically Varying Media, in International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering Seismology,” W. H. K. Lee, H. Kanamori, P. C. Jennings, and C. Kisslinger (editors), Academic Press, New York, Part B, ch. 85-14, pp. 1633–1634.

  • Wells DL and Coppersmith KJ (1994), “New Empirical Relationships among Magnitude, Rupture Length, Rupture Width, Rupture Area, and Surface Displacement,” Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 84(4): 974–1002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia KW, Rosakis AJ and Kanamori H (2004), “Laboratory Earthquakes: The Sub-Rayleigh-tosupershear Rupture Transition,” Science, 303(5665): 1859–1861.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xia KW, Rosakis AJ and Kanamori H (2005a), “Supershear and Sub-Rayleigh-intersonic Transition Observed in Laboratory Earthquake Experiments,” Experimental Techniques, 29(3): 63–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xia KW, Rosakis AJ, Kanamori H and Rice JR (2005b), “Laboratory Earthquakes along Inhomogeneous Faults: Directionality and Supershear,” Science, 308(5722): 681–684.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jinjun Hu.

Additional information

Supported by: Basic Science Research Foundation of IEM, CEA under Grant No. 2011B02; 973 Program under Grant No. 2011CB013601; National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 51238012, 9121530113; International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China under Grant No. 2012DFA70810

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hu, J., Xie, L. Effect of seismic super-shear rupture on the directivity of ground motion acceleration. Earthq. Eng. Eng. Vib. 12, 519–527 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-013-0193-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-013-0193-x

Keywords

Navigation