Evaluation of existing ground motion attenuation models for the application in Peninsular Malaysia
Loading...
Date
2014
Authors
Tze Che, Van
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Peninsular Malaysia is considered a low seismicity region. A ground motion
attenuation model that can best estimates peak ground acceleration (PGA) is essential
prior in conducting seismic hazard assessment. With the scarcity of historical data,
an attenuation model is difficult to be developed for Peninsular Malaysia. Therefore,
the present research focuses on the comparison of 28 ground motion attenuation
models with actual ground motion records in Peninsular Malaysia. These models are
developed for subduction earthquakes and shallow crustal earthquakes in both active
tectonic regions and stable continental regions. A total of 318 seismic records from
42 distant subduction and strike-slip Sumatra earthquakes with moment magnitude
ranging from 5.2 to 9.0 spanning in a distance range of 284 km to 1292 km were
obtained from 19 seismic stations operated by Malaysian Meteorological Department
(MMD). Field survey was carried out to characterise the soil condition at those
seismic stations using multi-channel analyses of surface waves (MASW).
Normalised root mean squared error (RMSENor) values were calculated to provide
quantitative measure of how well attenuation models predict ground motions. The
result shows that Nabilah and Balendra (2012), Fukushima and Tanaka (1990) and
Megawati and Pan (2010) models predict PGA close to the recorded data with
Nabilah and Balendra (2012) having the lowest RMSENor value for distant
subduction earthquakes. Suitable attenuation models for Peninsular Malaysia based
on actual data utilised in this study in predicting ground motions for distant strikeslip
earthquakes are Si and Midorikawa (2000) and Somerville et al. (2004) models.