New Relationships between Vs, Thickness of Sediments, and Resonance Frequency Calculated by the H/V Ratio of Seismic Noise for the Cologne Area (Germany)

Noise measurements were carried out in the Cologne area (Germany), and the resonance frequency of each site was estimated from the main peak in the spectral ratio between the horizontal and vertical component. For 32 of these sites, the thickness of the sedimentary cover was known from boreholes, and a clear correlation between resonance frequency and sediment thickness was observed. A formula that correlates cover thickness with frequency of the main peak in the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio was derived. In addition, a best-fitting shear-wave-velocity distribution with depth, vs ( z ), as well as a relationship between average shear-wave velocity Vs and thickness of the sedimentary cover, was calculated. By using all of the noise measurements and applying the derived relationships, we obtained a subsoil classification for the Cologne area.