Location

St. Louis, Missouri

Presentation Date

12 Mar 1991, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Abstract

The influence of geological and geotechnical factors on potential ground motions in Memphis due to a 65km distant hypothetical M=7 New Madrid earthquake has been investigated. From the study of the seismotectonic environment and the seismicity of the region, the characteristics of the "design earthquake" are selected. A seismological model of the radiation/attenuation of the earthquake source and of the generated waves is used to generate synthetic bedrock ("hard rock") accelerograms, which are then propagated through a deep deposit of "soft-rock" to obtain input base excitations for the near-surface soil profiles. A representative soil profile for Memphis is selected from a large number of borelog data. Propagation of the generated seismic waves through this soil profile is modeled with state-of-the-art formulations to obtain the seismic motions at the ground surface. Effects of nonlinear inelastic versus equivalent linear analysis, and undrained versus partially drained condition have also been investigated. Results are presented in the form of site-specific response spectra and a proposed design spectrum.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Meeting Name

2nd International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Document Version

Final Version

Rights

© 1991 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

File Type

text

Language

English

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Mar 11th, 12:00 AM Mar 15th, 12:00 AM

Study of Site Response at Memphis Due to a Large New Madrid Earthquake

St. Louis, Missouri

The influence of geological and geotechnical factors on potential ground motions in Memphis due to a 65km distant hypothetical M=7 New Madrid earthquake has been investigated. From the study of the seismotectonic environment and the seismicity of the region, the characteristics of the "design earthquake" are selected. A seismological model of the radiation/attenuation of the earthquake source and of the generated waves is used to generate synthetic bedrock ("hard rock") accelerograms, which are then propagated through a deep deposit of "soft-rock" to obtain input base excitations for the near-surface soil profiles. A representative soil profile for Memphis is selected from a large number of borelog data. Propagation of the generated seismic waves through this soil profile is modeled with state-of-the-art formulations to obtain the seismic motions at the ground surface. Effects of nonlinear inelastic versus equivalent linear analysis, and undrained versus partially drained condition have also been investigated. Results are presented in the form of site-specific response spectra and a proposed design spectrum.