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Simulation of Strong Ground Motion of the 2009 Bhutan Earthquake Using Modified Semi-Empirical Technique

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Abstract

On 21st September 2009 an earthquake of magnitude (M w 6.1) occurred in the East Bhutan. This earthquake caused serious damage to the residential area and was widely felt in the Bhutan Himalaya and its adjoining area. We estimated the source model of this earthquake using modified semi empirical technique. In the rupture plane, several locations of nucleation point have been considered and finalised based on the minimum root mean square error of waveform comparison. In the present work observed and simulated waveforms has been compared at all the eight stations. Comparison of horizontal components of actual and simulated records at these stations confirms the estimated parameters of final rupture model and efficacy of the modified semi-empirical technique (Joshi et al., Nat Hazards 64:1029–1054, 2012b) of strong ground motion simulation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are highly thankful to the anonymous reviewers and Editor Dr. Fabio Romanelli for their valuable suggestions. Accelerograms data used in this study obtained from http://www.pesmos.in are thankfully acknowledged. The work presented in this paper is an outcome of the sponsored project from Science and Engineering Research Board, DST, with project reference no. ECR/2016/000737 and from Ministry of Earth Sciences project reference no. MoES/P.O.(Seismo)/1(42)/2009. The authors sincerely thank Dept. of Geophysics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Dept. of Earth Sciences IIT Roorkkee for providing basic facilities for this research work. The author Dr. Parveen Kumar sincerely acknowledged Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geophysics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    Sandeep & S. K. Sah

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India

    A. Joshi, Sohan Lal &  Kamal

  3. Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, India

    Parveen Kumar

  4. Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Vandana

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  1. Sandeep
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Correspondence to Sandeep.

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Sandeep, Joshi, A., Lal, S. et al. Simulation of Strong Ground Motion of the 2009 Bhutan Earthquake Using Modified Semi-Empirical Technique. Pure Appl. Geophys. 174, 4343–4356 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-017-1663-2

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