Source Characteristics, Site Effects, and Path Attenuation from Spectral Analysis of Strong‐Motion Recordings in the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake Sequence

Research Article| June 05, 2018 Source Characteristics, Site Effects, and Path Attenuation from Spectral Analysis of Strong‐Motion Recordings in the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake Sequence Yefei Ren; Yefei Ren aKey Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration of China Earthquake Administration, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration, No. 29 Xuefu Road, Harbin, 150080, China, renyefei@iem.net.cnjoey052zy@163.comwhw1990413@163.comruizhi@iem.ac.cn Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Ying Zhou; Ying Zhou aKey Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration of China Earthquake Administration, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration, No. 29 Xuefu Road, Harbin, 150080, China, renyefei@iem.net.cnjoey052zy@163.comwhw1990413@163.comruizhi@iem.ac.cn Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Hongwei Wang; Hongwei Wang aKey Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration of China Earthquake Administration, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration, No. 29 Xuefu Road, Harbin, 150080, China, renyefei@iem.net.cnjoey052zy@163.comwhw1990413@163.comruizhi@iem.ac.cn Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Ruizhi Wen Ruizhi Wen aKey Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration of China Earthquake Administration, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration, No. 29 Xuefu Road, Harbin, 150080, China, renyefei@iem.net.cnjoey052zy@163.comwhw1990413@163.comruizhi@iem.ac.cn Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (2018) 108 (3B): 1757–1773. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120170290 Article history first online: 05 Jun 2018 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Yefei Ren, Ying Zhou, Hongwei Wang, Ruizhi Wen; Source Characteristics, Site Effects, and Path Attenuation from Spectral Analysis of Strong‐Motion Recordings in the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake Sequence. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 2018;; 108 (3B): 1757–1773. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120170290 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyBulletin of the Seismological Society of America Search Advanced Search Abstract This study used the spectral inversion technique to investigate the source characteristics, site effects, and path attenuation of S‐wave Fourier amplitude spectra recorded in the Mw 7.8 Kaikōura, New Zealand, earthquake sequence. For this purpose, we assembled a dataset comprising 2445 strong‐motion recordings, obtained at 126 GeoNet stations, of 148 earthquakes in this sequence with local magnitudes of 4.02–6.16. The seismic moment, corner frequency, and stress drop for each earthquake were estimated based on the inverted source spectra. Investigation of the characteristics of these source parameters revealed the following. (1) The seismic moment is inversely proportional to the cube of the corner frequency, implying that the Kaikōura earthquake sequence within the investigated magnitude range followed self‐similarity. (2) The stress drop varied predominantly from 0.2 to 6.0 MPa with a logarithmic mean of 1.25 MPa, and it did not show any evidence of dependence on magnitude size and focal depth. Investigation of the features of the site‐response functions of the 126 strong‐motion stations inverted in this study revealed the following. (1) Linear relationships between the site amplification and site characteristic parameters VS30 and Tsite at each frequency point of 0.5–3.0 Hz were regressed with correlation coefficients of 0.5–0.8, indicating that site amplification correlates moderately with both parameters. (2) Site amplification in the Wellington region exhibited strong correlation with the geological and geotechnical characterization, for example, the depth of the soil deposit. (3) Strong site amplification appeared considerable in the Christchurch Central Business District. The inverted S‐wave quality factor was regressed to 130.87f1.07 at frequencies of 0.5–20.0 Hz. No significant regional dependence of anelastic attenuation was identified in the study region. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.