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Model for Basin Effects on Long-Period
Response Spectra in Southern
California
StevenM.Day,
a)
Robert Graves,
b)
Jacobo Bielak,
c)
Douglas Dreger,
d)
Shawn Larsen,
e)
Kim B. Olsen,
a)
Arben Pitarka,
b)
and
Leonardo Ramirez-Guzman
c)
We propose a model for the effect of sedimentary basin depth on long-
period response spectra. The model is based on the analysis of 3-D numerical
simulations (finite element and finite difference) of long-period
共2–10 s兲
ground motions for a suite of sixty scenario earthquakes (Mw 6.3 to Mw 7.1)
within the Los Angeles basin region. We find depth to the
1.5 km/s S-wave
velocity isosurface to be a suitable predictor variable, and also present
alternative versions of the model based on depths to the 1.0 and
2.5 km/s
isosurfaces. The resulting mean basin-depth effect is period dependent, and
both smoother (as a function of period and depth) and higher in amplitude than
predictions from local 1-D models. The main requirement for the use of the
results in construction of attenuation relationships is determining the extent to
which the basin effect, as defined and quantified in this study, is already
accounted for implicitly in existing attenuation relationships, through (1)
departures of the average “rock” site from our idealized reference model, and
(2) correlation of basin depth with other predictor variables (such as
Vs
30
). 关DOI: 10.1193/1.2857545兴
INTRODUCTION
The entrapment and amplification of seismic waves by deep sedimentary basins pro-
duces important effects on seismic wavefields (e.g., King and Tucker 1984; Field 1996;
Joyner 2000) and response spectra (e.g., Trifunac and Lee 1978; Campbell 1997; Field
2000; Choi et al. 2005). These amplification effects are three-dimensional, and they are
difficult to quantify empirically with currently available strong motion data, especially
for periods longer than
1 second and sedimentary thicknesses exceeding 3kmor so
(Campbell and Bozorgnia 2008).
Numerical simulations of earthquake ground motion have the potential to comple-
ment empirical methods for the study of basin effects. A number of studies have simu-
lated 3-D seismic wave propagation in regional geological models that include basin
a)
Department of Geological Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego CA 92182
b)
URS Corporation, 566 El Dorado Street, Pasadena CA 91101
c)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213
d)
Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley CA 94720
e)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore CA 94550
257
Earthquake Spectra, Volume 24, No. 1, pages 257–277, February 2008; © 2008, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
structure (e.g., Frankel and Vidale 1992; Olsen 1994; Olsen et al. 1995; Pitarka et al.
1998; Graves et al. 1998). Moreover, the recent availability of comprehensive 3-D earth
models for southern California (e.g., Magistrale et al. 2000; Kohler et al. 2003; Suss and
Shaw 2003) has substantially advanced our capability for simulating ground motion in
that region (e.g., Olsen 2000; Komatitsch et al. 2004; Olsen et al. 2006). In the current
study, we simulate ground motions for a set of earthquake scenarios for southern Cali-
fornia, in an effort to quantify the effects of sedimentar y basins on long-period
共ⱖ ⬃ 2 seconds兲 response spectra. The study employs both finite element (FE) and finite
difference (FD) methods to compute ground motion from propagating earthquake
sources, using the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Community Velocity
Model (CVM), a 3-D seismic velocity model for southern California (Magistrale et al.
2000).
For the current investigation, we compute long-period ground motion in the SCEC
CVM for a suite of 60 earthquake scenarios. The 3-component ground motion time his-
tories from these scenarios are saved on a grid of 1600 sites covering the Los Angeles
region, including sites in the Los Angeles, San Fernando, and San Gabriel basins, as well
as rock sites in the intervening areas. The results from the study take 2 forms: (1) We
have saved and archived a library of time histories from the 60 scenarios. In cooperation
with the SCEC Community Modeling Environment project, these time histories are
available online, through a web interface specialized to engineering applications (http://
sceclib.sdsc.edu/LAWeb). These long-period time histories capture basin amplifications,
rupture-propagation-induced directivity, and 3-D seismic focusing phenomena. They are
suitable for the engineering analyses of large, long-period structures, and smaller struc-
tures undergoing large, nonlinear deformations. (2) The results of the simulation suite
have been analyzed to estimate response spectral amplification effects as a function of
basin depth and period. The resulting mean response has been characterized parametri-
cally and provided to the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) project (Power et al.
2008) to guide development of attenuation relations in the empirical (NGA-E) phase of
the project.
COMPUTATIONAL METHODS
The computational program was a multi-institutional collaboration requiring major
computing resources. In order to make effective use of supercomputing resources avail-
able to the respective collaborators, as well as to have cross-checks on the methodology,
we employed five independently developed 3D wave propagation codes to do the nu-
merical simulations. Four of these are FD codes (Olsen 1994; Larsen and Schultz 1995;
Graves 1996; Pitarka 1999). These four are very similar in their mathematical formula-
tion. Each uses a uniform, structured, cubic mesh, with staggered locations of the ve-
locity and stress components, and a differencing scheme that is fourth-order accurate in
space and second-order accurate in time. The codes differ in their computational ap-
proaches, their implementation of absorbing boundary conditions, and their implemen-
tation of anelastic attenuation. We used a FE code (Bao et al. 1998) for some of the
simulations. The FE code uses unstructured meshing, and is second-order accurate in
space and time.
258 DAYETAL.
Two of the FD schemes (Olsen, Graves) approximate a frequency-independent seis-
mic quality factor
共Q兲 by implementing anelastic losses using the coarse memory vari-
ables representation (Day 1998; Day and Bradley 2001; Graves and Day 2003). Another
(Larsen) uses a standard linear solid formulation that represents the absorption spectrum
with a single Debye peak. The fourth FD scheme (Pitarka) represents attenuation by the
method of Graves (1996), which is equivalent to mass-proportional Rayleigh damping
and results in
Q proportional to frequency (i.e., a red absorption spectrum). The FE
scheme also uses the mass-proportional Rayleigh damping approximation to represent
anelastic loss.
Comparison of results among these codes is useful for verifying the mathematical
soundness of the five simulation codes. Such comparisons also permit assessment of any
artifacts attributable to the absorbing boundary and attenuation implementations. Day
et al. (2001, 2003) carried out a set of test simulations using all five codes. The com-
parisons between FD and FE solutions are particularly informative, as they permit an
assessment of solution variability introduced by the model discretization. We show an
example of such a comparison in a later section. The comparisons verify that all five
codes are accurate for the class of problems relevant to this study.
These tests also enabled us to improve computational efficiency by modifying the
SCEC CVM to eliminate very low seismic wavespeeds. Computing time is sensitive to
the ratio of highest to lowest wavespeed present in the model, with low-wavespeed vol-
umes requiring finer meshing than high-wavespeed volumes to ensure a given accuracy
over a given bandwidth. The unstructured meshing possible with the FE method permit-
ted us to perform a few simulations that include the very low-velocity, near-surface sedi-
ments present in the CVM (
S velocity as low as 180 m/ s). We compared these with cal-
culations in which we put a lower threshold on the velocity model to exclude
S wave
velocity values in the CVM that fall below
500 m/ s (replacing the lower values with the
500 m/ s threshold value). The tests confirm that imposing this threshold (for the sake of
computational efficiency) has negligible effect within the target bandwidth of
0–0.5 Hz.
Olsen et al. (2003) carried out simulations of the 1994 Northridge, California, earth-
quake, using the SCEC CVM, with the same FD method used in the current study, and
their comparisons of synthetic and recorded ground velocities demonstrate the ability of
the numerical modeling procedures to capture basin amplification effects. Further vali-
dation is provided by comparison of synthetic (FD and FE) and recorded seismic wave-
forms of small southern Califor nia earthquakes. For example, Chen et al. (2007) find
that FD synthetics computed with the SCEC CVM model give a variance reduction of
greater than 60% in both phase-delay times and log of amplitude, relative to a standard
1-D model. Additional validation for the velocity structure used in this study is provided
by sonic log data, on the basis of which Stewart et al. (2005) estimate that uncertainties
in basin depth in the SCEC CVM introduce uncertainties in ground motion (up to 0.1
natural log units) that they judge to be small compared with typical error terms in
attenuation relations.
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 259
EARTHQUAKE SCENARIOS
We model sources on ten different faults, or fault configurations (for example, the
Puente Hills fault is modeled in 3 different segmentation configurations). For each fault,
we simulate 6 sources, using combinations of 3 different static slip distributions and 2
hypocenter locations. These are kinematic simulations: Rupture velocity, static slip, and
the form of the slip velocity function are all specified a priori.
The areal coverage for the 3-D models is the
100 km⫻ 100 km region outlined by
the large gray box in Figure 1. In all simulations, the boundaries of the computational
domain (i.e., absorbing boundaries) lie at or outside of this area and extend to a depth of
at least
30 km. For the FD calculations, a uniform grid spacing of 200 m was used. The
FE grid uses a variable element size, with near-surface elements as small as
30 m in
dimension.
Figure 1. Map of scenario events and model region. See Table 1 for fault names and event
magnitudes. Each rectangle is the surface projection of one of the faults, with the upper edge
shown as a solid line and the other three edges shown as dashed lines. The large gray rectangle
indicates the computational domain of the simulations.
260 DAYETAL.
We use the 10 faults listed in Table 1 for the scenario calculations. The fault surfaces
are simplified representations of the f ault geometry given by the SCEC Community
Fault Model, and our choice of rupture scenarios was guided in part by the geologic con-
siderations surveyed by Dolan et al. (1995). The surface projections of these faults are
also shown in Figure 1. The longitude and latitude coordinates in this table refer to the
geographic location of the top center of the fault, that is, the point on the surface that is
directly above the midpoint of the top edge of the fault. Strike, dip and rake follow Aki
and Richards’ (1980) convention. Length, width and depth are all given in km. The
depth refers to the depth below the surface of the top edge of the fault (0 corresponding
to a surface-rupturing event).
For each of the fault geometries, we generate 3 random slip distributions, as realiza-
tions of a stochastic model, for use in the simulations. The slip distributions are gener-
ated following some empirical rules for the size and distribution of asperities as given by
Somerville et al. (1999). The slip values on the fault are drawn from a uniformly dis-
tributed random variable, then spatially filtered to give a spectral decay inversely pro-
portional to wavenumber squared, with a corner wavenumber at approximately
1/L,
where
L is f ault length. Finally, the slip values are scaled to the target moment of the
scenario. As an example, Figure 2 shows the slip distribution functions generated by this
procedure for one of the faults (Compton, fault number 8 in Figure 1). The two hypo-
center locations (shown as stars in Figure 2) are defined as follows for each fault: Hy-
pocenter 1 is located at an along-strike distance of 0.25 of the fault length and at a
down-dip distance of 0.7 of the fault width (measured within the fault plane from the top
edge of the fault, not the ground surface). Hypocenter 2 is located at an along strike
distance of 0.75 of the fault length and at a down-dip distance of 0.7 of the fault width.
Table 1. List of fault rupture scenarios
Fault Lon Lat M
w
Length Width Strike Dip Rake Depth
r
1)smad −118.178 34.242 7.0 61 18 288 53 90 0 1.4
2)smon1
−118.479 34.039 6.3 14 14 261 36 45 1 0.63
3)hwood
−118.343 34.099 6.4 14 19 256 69 70 0 0.71
4)raym2
−118.128 34.139 6.6 26 17 258 69 70 0 0.89
5)ph2e
−118.004 33.904 6.8 25 27 268 27 90 3 1.1
6)phla
−118.228 34.003 6.7 21 26 293 28 90 3 1.0
7)phall
−118.102 33.967 7.1 46 27 289 27 90 2 1.6
8)comp
−118.344 33.843 6.9 63 14 306 22 90 5 1.3
9)nin
−118.202 33.868 6.9 51 16 319 90 180 0 1.3
10)whitn
−117.876 33.933 6.7 35 15 297 73 180 0 1.0
(1) Lengths in kilometers, times in seconds, angles in degrees
(2)
r
is slip duration (from Equation 1)
(3) Geographical and depth coordinates refer to center of upper fault edge
(4) Faults are Sierra Madre (smad), Santa Monica (smon1), Hollywood (hwood), Puente Hills (northern segment
is ph2e, southern segment is phla, combined scenario is phall), Compton (comp), Newport-Inglewood (nin), and
Whittier (whitn).
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 261
The slip velocity function for each simulation is an isosceles triangle with a base of
duration
r
. The value of
r
is magnitude dependent and given by the empirically derived
expression (Somerville et al. 1999):
log
10
r
= 0.5M
w
− 3.35, 共1兲
where M
w
is moment magnitude and
r
is in seconds. Values used for
r
are given in
Table 1. Rupture velocity is constant for all faults and all slip models. This value is set
at
2.8 km/s. The rupture starts at the hypocenter and spreads radially outward from this
point at the specified velocity. The simulated duration for each scenario is
80 seconds.
All simulations use the SCEC CVM, Version 2, except for modifications described
below to impose a lower limit on the velocities and add anelastic attenuation. The un-
modified model is described in Magistrale et al. (2000). The SCEC model is modified as
follows: We replace the SCEC model
S velocity with the value 500 m/ s whenever the
SCEC model value falls below
500 m/ s. Whenever this minimum S velocity is imposed,
the
P wave velocity is set equal to 3 times the S velocity (1500 m / s in this case). Den-
sity values follow the SCEC model without modification. The quality factors for
P and
S waves, respectively, Q
p
and Q
s
, are set to the preferred Q model of Olsen et al. (2003).
The 3-component time histories are saved on a
2km⫻ 2kmgrid covering the inner
80 km⫻ 80 km portion of the model area (Figure 3). No filtering is applied to the out-
put. The resulting synthetic data set contains 3-component records for 1600 sites (4800
time histories) for each scenario simulation. For all 60 scenarios, and all sites, we com-
pute response spectral acceleration (Sa), for 5% damping, as a function of period, for
Figure 2. The three slip distributions and two hypocenter locations (stars) used in combination
to provide sources for the six Compton Fault simulations. The distributions were generated by
the stochastic approach described in the text.
262 DAYETAL.
each component of motion. This is done for 26 periods in the range 2 – 10 seconds:
Spectral acceleration is computed at
0.2 second intervals between 2 and 5 seconds, and
at
0.5 second intervals between 5 and 10 seconds.
The earthquake scenarios in this study are limited to events on faults near or within
the main sedimentary basins of the Los Angeles region. We have excluded earthquake
scenarios for the more distant San Andreas fault, for which several earthquake scenarios
of Mw greater than 7.5 have been proposed (e.g., Working Group on California Earth-
quake Probabilities 1995). Olsen et al. (2006; 2008) simulate large San Andreas fault
earthquakes, finding unusually strong basin effects for some events. In particular, in their
simulations the sequence of basins south of the Transverse Ranges, between the San An-
dreas and Los Angeles, acts as a waveguide. The resultant channeling of seismic energy
into the Los Angeles region produces anomalously high amplitudes at some relatively
distant basin sites.
Figure 3. Map showing the grid of time-history output sites (dots). Sites shown as triangles are
those at which we cross-checked results from difference simulation codes.
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 263
COMPARISON OF FE AND FD SOLUTIONS
As noted above, the FD simulations used a uniform grid spacing of
200 m. Since
seismic velocities as low as
500 m/ s are present in the model, and the target frequency
band of the simulations is
0–0.5 Hz, the FD simulations resolve the minimum wave-
length with about 5 grid intervals. At this resolution, phase-velocity errors over homo-
geneous paths are typically very small (for the fourth-order staggered-grid FD method
used here), of the order of 1% or less (Levander 1988). However, it is difficult to trans-
late this measure of accuracy into accuracy of ground motion time histories calculated
over complex paths. To confir m that the FD simulations indeed predict ground motion
time histories accurately within our target frequency band, we repeated some of them
using the FE method, with a highly oversampled mesh (feasible because of the unstruc-
tured meshing capability of the FE method). The FE simulations employed node spacing
as small as
30 m in the low-velocity parts of the model. Thus, even accounting for the
approximate factor of two difference in points-per-wavelength requirement for a given
phase-velocity accuracy between the (fourth-order accurate) FD method and the
(second-order accurate) FE method, the FE simulations can be expected to have about
three times better resolution of the minimum wavelength in the basins. Figure 4 com-
pares three-component velocity time-histories for one of the scenarios (Newport-
Inglewood fault), as computed by FE and FD methods, respectively. The time histories
are for the 16 locations denoted by triangles in Figure 3. In nearly all cases the differ-
ences between the solutions are negligible, in that relative phase-delay times for the
dominant arrivals never exceed a few tenths of a second, and their amplitude differences
rarely reach 10%.
Figure 5 provides a quantitative comparison in the frequency domain. The figure was
constructed from smoothed (
0.1 Hz band averages) Fourier spectra of the 16 FD and 16
FE EW-component velocity time histories in Figure 4. The figure shows means and stan-
dard deviations (over the 16 recordings) of the natural logarithm of the FD to FE spectral
ratio, for each independent frequency band. The FD/FE bias is less than 10% (and scat-
ter less than 25%) for all frequencies in our target band of
0–0.5 Hz. Given the heavy
oversampling achieved for the FE solution, this ag reement provides strong evidence that
both methods have adequate resolution to be accurate throughout the target frequency
band. It also shows that there are no significant biases introduced by the different ways
in which the two methods model anelastic attenuation.
We have made similar comparisons for 10 such simulation pairs (i.e., comparing re-
sults from either a pair of FD codes or from an FD FE pair). Because the FD and FE
computational meshes are very different, sampling the SCEC CVM at different points
(and with much higher resolution in the near surface in the case of the FE grid), the
FE/FD comparison represents the worst case for achieving agreement between codes.
Simulations of the same scenario computed with different FD codes produce time his-
tories and spectra that are almost indistinguishable.
264 DAYETAL.
REFERENCE SIMULATIONS
To aid us in quantifying the effect of sedimentary basins on the computed ground
motions, we perform several auxiliary, or “reference,” simulations (using the same FE
and FD methods used for all the other simulations). For each of the 10 faults, we select
one rupture scenario, and repeat that simulation using the same source model, but re-
placing the SCEC CVM with a horizontally stratified (1-D) model. The stratified refer-
ence model corresponds to an artificially high-velocity, unweathered hard-rock site. This
reference velocity model was constructed by laterally extending a vertical profile of the
Figure 4. Comparson of finite element and finite difference solutions for one of the Newport-
Inglewood rupture-scenario simulations. Velocity time histories are shown for the 16 sites
shown as triangles in Figure 3. North-south (NS), east-west (EW) and up-down (UD) compo-
nent traces are given. The upper number of each pair on the left designates the station number,
as given in Figure 3. The lower number of each pair gives the peak velocity (for the component
having the largest peak), in cm/s.
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 265
SCEC CVM located at (−118.08333, 34.29167), in the San Gabriel Mountains. As
noted, surface
S velocities are ar tificially high 共3.2 km/ s兲 in the resulting model, since
this part of the SCEC model does not account for a weathered layer. The principal pur-
pose of the reference simulations is to provide a spectral normalization for the results
from the simulations done in the full SCEC CMV, as an approximate means of isolating
basin effects from source effects.
Figure 6 shows velocity time histories for a Newport-Inglewood scenario (source and
recording sites are the same as used for the FD/FE comparison shown in Figure 4). The
figure compares three-component velocities for the simulation done with the SCEC
CVM with the corresponding velocities for the reference simulation. The comparison
gives an idea of the importance of 3-D structure, which introduces effects that are espe-
cially pronounced at long period and late in the time series.
RESPONSE SPECTRAL AMPLIFICATIONS
Basin amplification effects result from interaction of the wavefield with basin mar-
gins, and depend in a complex, poorly understood manner on period, source location,
source distance, basin geometry, sediment velocity distribution, and site location within
the basin. The 60 scenarios provide synthetic data that can be used to improve our un-
derstanding of these effects. We take an initial step in this direction by attempting to
isolate the effects of period and local basin depth. To isolate these two effects, we aver-
age over sources. As response spectral values vary much more between ruptures on dif-
ferent faults than between ruptures on a given fault, we have computed averages using
only 1 of the 6 scenarios from each fault, giving us a 10-event subset of the simulations.
This subset misses a small amount of the variability in basin response present in the full
60-event suite, but allows us to work with spectral values normalized to the reference
Figure 5. Ratio of smoothed (over 0.1 Hz bands) Fourier spectra of the EW-component FD and
FE solutions shown in Figure 4. Solid circles are averages (over the 16 sites) of the natural
logarithm of the FD to FE spectral ratio, and error bars give the corresponding standard
deviations.
266 DAYETAL.
structure, without requiring 60 reference-structure simulations. Tests using a small num-
ber of additional events confirm that source effects have been adequately removed by
this procedure.
The synthetic time histories are band limited, and, although there is no abrupt spec-
tral cutoff at the
0.5 Hz limit, the synthetics rapidly become spectrally deficient above
this frequency. This limitation will have the effect of biasing response spectral estimates
downward at frequencies near, yet still below, the
0.5 Hz cutoff (since each response
spectral ordinate is a finite-bandwidth measure of ground motion), compared with values
that would be calculated from full-bandwidth time histories. We have made a quantita-
tive estimate of this bias by calculating response spectra from 25 recordings of the 1992
Figure 6. Comparison of time histories for one of the 3D (SCEC CVM) simulations (Newport-
Inglewood rupture scenario) with the time histories for the corresponding reference (1-D rock
model) simulation.
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 267
Landers, California, earthquake. We calculated the response spectra both before and af-
ter applying a low-pass filter to remove Fourier spectral components above
0.5 Hz.Ata
period of
2s(i.e., right at the upper frequency cutoff), the low-passed case has its re-
sponse spectrum biased downward by 45%. However, at
3speriod the bias is only 15%
and falls rapidly as the period lengthens further (e.g., to 4% at
4s). The actual bias in
our case will be even lower, as the synthetics do not have as sharp a spectral cutoff as we
created by filtering the Landers earthquake data. Further more, any bias will be further
reduced because our presentation is in terms of spectral ratios. That is, in all cases we
normalize the response spectra by dividing them by response spectra for reference so-
lutions that have the same Fourier spectral limits (and as a result have similar response-
spectral bias). The effectiveness of the normalization in removing the short-period bias
is difficult to quantify, but is qualitatively supported by the consistency and smoothness
with which the
2sspectra extrapolate trends defined at longer period (as seen in the
results to be presented later). Therefore, we present the normalized response spectra for
periods as low as
2s, but the ordinates at periods below 3sshould be interpreted with
caution; only at periods of
3sand longer do we have quantitative corroboration that the
response spectra are nearly unbiased (i.e., within
⬃15% tolerance).
METHOD
We first bin the sites according to the local basin depth D at a site, with D
j
denoting
the depth at site
j. For this purpose, we define the depth D to be the depth to a specified
S-wave velocity isosurface. We present results for the case
D=Z
1.5
, where Z
1.5
is depth
to the
1.5 km/s isosurface. Note, however, that in the SCEC CVM, the depths of dif-
ferent
S velocity isosurfaces are strongly correlated, and therefore very similar results
(apart from a scaling of the depth variable) are obtained using the 1.0 or
2.5 km/s iso-
surface (
Z
1.0
or Z
2.5
) instead of the 1.5 km/ s isosurface. The binning is represented
through a matrix
W. We define N
bin
bins by specifying depths D
q
bin
, q=1, ...N
bin
,atthe
bin centers, spaced at equal intervals
⌬D (i.e., D
q
bin
=共q −1/2兲⌬D, and then form W,
W
qj
=
再
1if共D
q
bin
− ⌬D/2兲 艋 D
j
⬍ 共D
q
bin
+ ⌬D/2兲
0 otherwise
冎
. 共2兲
For consistency with most empirical attenuation relations, we work with response
spectral values averaged over the two horizontal components. For the
ith event and jth
site, we form the ratio
Sa
ij
共T
k
兲/Sa
ij
ref
共T
k
兲, where Sa
ij
共T
k
兲 is the absolute spectral accel-
eration (geometrical mean of the two horizontal components) from SCEC-CVM event
i
at site j and period T
k
, and Sa
ij
ref
共T
k
兲 is the corresponding quantity for the corresponding
reference-model event. Then we form the source-averaged basin response factor
B共D
q
,T
k
兲 by taking the natural logarithm and averaging over all N
site
sites 共N
site
=1600兲, and over all N
ev
events, where in this case N
ev
is 10:
B共D
q
,T
k
兲 =
冉
N
ev
兺
j=1
N
site
W
qj
冊
−1
兺
i=1
N
ev
兺
j=1
N
site
W
qj
ln关Sa
ij
共T
k
兲/Sa
ij
ref
共T
k
兲兴. 共3兲
268 DAYETAL.
RESULTS
Figure 7 summarizes the results of this procedure (for 200 m bins). The upper frame
shows
B as a function of depth and period. The lower frame shows basin amplification
calculated by the same procedure, but replacing the spectral acceleration ratio
Sa
ij
共T
k
兲/Sa
ij
ref
共T
k
兲 at each site by the vertically incident plane-wave amplification factor
Figure 7. Top: Natural logarithm of basin amplification versus depth (to 1.5 km/ s S-velocity
isosurface) and period, calculated from 3D simulations. Bottom: Natural logarithm of basin am-
plification calculated by same procedure, but replacing the 3D results with 1-D plane-wave am-
plification f actors calculated using the local 1-D wavespeed and density profiles (from the
SCEC CVM) at each of the 1600 sites.
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 269
for that site. The latter factors were computed using a plane-layered structure specific to
each site, and corresponding to the SCEC-CVM shear wavespeed and density depth-
profiles directly beneath that site. The main results from Figure 7 are the following: (1)
Source-averaged basin amplification is period dependent, with the highest amplifications
occurring for the longest periods and greatest basin depths. (2) Relative to the very-hard
rock reference structure, the maximum amplification is about a factor of 8. (3) Com-
pared with 1-D theoretical predictions, the 3-D response is in most cases substantially
higher. (4) The 3-D response is also smoother, as a function of depth and period, than is
the 1-D prediction. We attribute the smoother depth and period dependence to the pres-
ence of laterally propagating waves in the 3-D case that smooth out the resonances
present in the 1-D case.
Figure 8 shows the standard deviations
s of the logarithm of amplification, as a func-
tion of depth and period, that is,
s
2
共D
q
,T
k
兲 =
冉
N
ev
兺
j=1
N
site
W
qj
冊
−1
兺
i=1
N
ev
兺
j=1
N
site
W
qj
兵ln关Sa
ij
共T
k
兲/Sa
ij
ref
共T
k
兲兴 − B共D
q
,T
k
兲其
2
. 共4兲
Most values fall between 0.5 and 0.6, and there is a mild tendency for s to increase
at the short-period end of our range. The differences are small, but some period-
dependence of this sort is what one might expect on the basis of simple physical argu-
ments. Short-period waves are subject to short-wavelength variations due to local focus-
Figure 8. Standard deviation of the natural logarithm of basin amplification, as function of
depth and period, from the 3D simulations.
270 DAYETAL.
ing and interference effects. Very long-period waves, in contrast, represent oscillations
that are coherent over large scale lengths and are influenced principally by large-scale
averages of the seismic velocity structure.
Figure 9 presents the basin-depth dependence of
B in the form of mean amplification
values (open circles) and their standard deviations (vertical bars) for each of 3 periods
(2, 4, and
8s). For depths 共Z
1.5
兲 in the range of roughly 500–1000 m, mean amplifica-
tion tends to decrease slightly with period, though the effect is small compared with the
scatter. This result is, at least qualitatively, in agreement with expectations from 1-D
theory: Shallow sediments will have diminished effect as the wavelength becomes long
relative to sediment depth. For depths exceeding about
2000 m, mean amplification in-
creases systematically with period. This is a 3-D effect: Higher-mode resonances present
in the 1-D case are smoothed out by lateral scattering, so that the longer-period reso-
nances dominate. Numerical values of
B are given in Table 2 for a range of representa-
tive periods and depths.
PARAMETRIC MODEL
It is useful to have a simple functional form that captures the main elements of the
period- and depth-dependent basin amplification behavior observed in the simulations.
One purpose of such a representation is to provide a functional form for representing
basin effects in regression modeling of empirical ground motion data. We constructed a
Figure 9. Natural logarithm of the basin amplification factor, as a function of depth to the
1.5 km/ s S velocity isosurface. Solid circles of a given color represent the mean amplification
factor for one response-spectral period, and the error bars give the standard deviations. For clar-
ity, only three periods (2, 4, and 8 s) are shown, out of the 26 periods calculated. Further nu-
merical results are given in Table 2. The dashed curves are the corresponding basin amplifica-
tion factors calculated from the parametric model (Equation 5a and 5b and Table 3) fit to the 3D
simulation results.
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 271
preliminary representation of this sort to provide guidance to the NGA development
teams. Our approximate representation,
B
˜
共D , T兲 takes the following form:
B
˜
共D,T兲 = a
0
共T兲 + a
1
共T兲关1 − exp共D/300兲兴 + a
2
共T兲关1 − exp共D/4000兲兴, 共5a兲
where
a
i
共T兲 = b
i
+ c
i
T, i = 0,1,2, 共5b兲
with T given in seconds and D in meters. This functional form is not itself based directly
upon physical considerations, but rather serves to summarize the practical results of the
simulations (which of course are themselves based on the physics of seismic wave
propagation). The particular function in Equation 5a and 5b was chosen because (i) it
allows for a basin-depth dependence with decreasing slope at increasing values of the
depth parameter, as required to capture the behavior shown in Figure 9, and (ii) it per-
mits the depth dependence to vary with period, as also required by Figure 9. The 6 pa-
rameters
b
i
, c
i
were calculated in a two-step procedure. Separate least squares fits (at
each period
T
k
)ofB
˜
共D , T
k
兲 to B共D
q
,T
k
兲) gave individual estimates of the a
i
共T
k
兲 values
for each period
T
k
. Then parameters b
i
and c
i
, for each i =0,1,2, were obtained by least-
squares fitting of these 26 individual
a
i
共T
k
兲 estimates. The resulting values are shown in
Table 3. We repeated the full analysis (normalizing, binning, and parameter fitting) using
the 1.0 and
2.5 km/s isosurfaces, respectively, as depth parameters (i.e., setting
D=Z
1.0
and D=Z
2.5
, respectively), and those results are also shown in Table 3.
Table 2. Mean (and standard deviation) of natural log of amplification, versus basin depth and
period
Z
1.5
(km)
Period (s)
23456810
0.3 0.54(0.66) 0.38(0.63) 0.44(0.57) 0.52(0.55) 0.59(0.54) 0.63(0.48) 0.63(0.48)
0.5 1.00(0.65) 0.89(0.55) 0.90(0.51) 0.94(0.53) 0.97(0.54) 0.94(0.51) 0.89(0.55)
0.7 1.16(0.72) 1.07(0.57) 1.04(0.54) 1.05(0.58) 1.08(0.59) 1.03(0.60) 0.98(0.63)
0.9 1.27(0.65) 1.23(0.54) 1.22(0.54) 1.25(0.58) 1.28(0.57) 1.21(0.57) 1.13(0.64)
1.1 1.34(0.66) 1.32(0.58) 1.35(0.53) 1.37(0.53) 1.36(0.51) 1.29(0.50) 1.21(0.56)
1.3 1.37(0.65) 1.37(0.57) 1.49(0.56) 1.56(0.57) 1.55(0.53) 1.47(0.49) 1.36(0.51)
1.5 1.45(0.66) 1.44(0.56) 1.57(0.57) 1.69(0.56) 1.71(0.51) 1.64(0.48) 1.51(0.48)
1.7 1.57(0.65) 1.57(0.56) 1.64(0.54) 1.76(0.54) 1.81(0.53) 1.77(0.52) 1.65(0.53)
1.9 1.64(0.62) 1.64(0.53) 1.73(0.51) 1.83(0.54) 1.92(0.53) 1.89(0.56) 1.80(0.58)
2.1 1.64(0.65) 1.63(0.58) 1.73(0.52) 1.84(0.53) 1.92(0.53) 1.91(0.53) 1.85(0.55)
2.3 1.62(0.59) 1.65(0.51) 1.75(0.54) 1.87(0.51) 1.97(0.52) 1.98(0.56) 1.96(0.59)
2.5 1.70(0.60) 1.70(0.52) 1.79(0.55) 1.94(0.50) 1.99(0.51) 2.07(0.55) 2.06(0.56)
2.7 1.90(0.55) 1.90(0.50) 2.07(0.53) 2.13(0.56) 2.15(0.54) 2.21(0.53) 2.21(0.51)
272 DAYETAL.
Three of the resulting amplification curves (obtained by evaluating Equations 5a and
5b), for periods 2, 4, and
8s, are shown as dashed curves in Figure 9. These expressions,
despite their simplicity, represent the mean predictions of the numerical simulations
quite well, and can serve as a starting point for modeling basin effects in empirical stud-
ies. Because they give a compact representation of complex wave propagation effects
captured by the numerical simulations, they provide a physical basis for extrapolation of
empirical models to periods greater than 2 or
3 seconds, where reliable data on basin
effects are especially scarce. The standard deviations
s of the simulation results, given in
Figure 9 and Table 2, provide appropriate estimates of the standard errors of prediction
for use with Equations 5a and 5b (the misfit of Equations 5a and 5b to
B is very small
compared with
s, and has negligible effect on the prediction error).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
We have characterized the source-averaged effect of basin depth on spectral accel-
eration using depth to the
1.5 km/s S velocity isosurface 共 Z
1.5
兲 as the predictor variable.
The resulting mean basin-depth effect is period dependent, and both smoother (as a
function of period and depth) and higher in amplitude than predictions from local 1-D
models. For example, relative to a reference hard-rock site, sites with
Z
1.5
equal to
2.5 km (corresponding to some of the deeper L.A. basin locations) have a predicted
mean amplification factor of approximately 5.5 at
3speriod, and approximately 7.8 at
10 s period.
The basin amplification estimates described here are intended to guide the design of
functional forms for use in attenuation relationships for elastic response spectra. In par-
ticular, they should be useful guides for extrapolating the period-dependence of basin
terms to periods longer than a few seconds, where empirical data provide little con-
straint. More direct, quantitative use of the results may become possible in the future,
however. The main requirement is that we first carefully assess the extent to which the
basin effect, as defined and quantified in this study, is already accounted for implicitly in
existing attenuation relationships, through (1) departures of the average “rock” site from
our idealized reference model, and (2) correlation of basin depth with other predictor
variables (such as
Vs
30
, i.e., the average S velocity in the upper 30 m). A preliminary
assessment of the reference model bias is presented in Day et al. (2005). They find that
the reference-model simulations under-predict the rock regression model of Abraham-
son and Silva (1997) by a factor of 2 at long period (
5 seconds, which is much too long
a period to be affected by any response spectral biases associated with bandwidth limi-
Table 3. Coefficients for basin amplification factor (Equations 5a and 5b)
Isosurface
Depth (km)
b
0
b
1
b
2
c
0
c
1
c
2
1.0 −0.609 2.26 0.421 0.083 −0.189 0.560
1.5
−1.06 2.26 1.04 0.124 −0.198 0.261
2.5
−0.95 1.35 1.84 0.132 −0.167 0.091
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 273
tations of the simulations, as discussed earlier). They argue that at the long periods con-
sidered, both source details and
Vs
30
will have minimal effects, and that this factor of 2
is likely representative of a seismic velocity shift (between the average engineering rock
site and the reference model) extending to depths of the order of half a kilometer or
more.
The NGA relationships all use
Vs
30
as a predictor variable. The correlation between
Vs
30
and basin depth is sufficiently strong to complicate the identification of the basin
effect in the residuals after having fit a regression model to
Vs
30
. Chiou and Youngs
(2006) tested the basin effect model proposed here (Equation 5) for three small (Mw
4-5) earthquakes in southern California, and found that the model compared very well
with spectral amplifications observed at over two hundred broadband stations of the
Southern California Seismic Network. However, they concluded that, because of the ba-
sin depth-
Vs
30
correlation, they would have had to remove the Vs
30
site term from their
NGA relationship in order to use the basin term. Doing so would make sense from a
physical standpoint, for the long periods
共3–10 s兲 considered here, because simple
wavelength arguments make it clear that
Vs
30
is unlikely to have significant physical ef-
fect at long period, and it is predictive of long-period response only to the extent that it
is statistically correlated with overall sediment thickness. However,
Vs
30
information is
widely available for strong motion recording sites, whereas
Z
1.5
(as well as Z
1.0
and Z
2.5
)
data are not available for all sites. Therefore, from a practical standpoint, Chiou and
Youngs (2008) found it expedient to develop their NGA model with
Vs
30
retained as a
predictor variable even at long period, to which they added a
Z
1.0
term to capture that
part of the basin effect not fully accounted for by the correlation between
Vs
30
and Z
1.0
.
The correlation of basin effects with
Vs
30
is discussed further by Choi et al. (2005), who
propose data analysis procedures for separating these effects.
For their NGA model, Campbell and Bozorgnia (2008) were able to empirically
identify a residual basin-depth effect after applying the
Vs
30
term in their model, but
only for sites for which
Z
2.5
⬍ 3km (corresponding to Z
1.5
⬍ ⬃1.5 km). For
Z
2.5
⬎ 3km, they found existing data too sparse to extend the empirical model and its
period dependence to greater sediment depth. Campbell and Bozorgnia’s NGA model
uses the parametric basin-effect model from the current study (Equations 5a and 5b) to
extrapolate the basin term into the
Z
2.5
⬎ 3kmregime.
Our parametric model is based on simulations for the southern California region.
That region is characterized by deep sedimentary basins with relatively low
S wa ve ve-
locity. Sedimentary basins in other regions can have significantly different characteris-
tics. For example, the San Francisco Bay region of California is characterized by later-
ally juxtaposed geologic blocks having relatively high
S velocity and relatively shallow
basins (e.g., Santa Clara basin). There is thus a need for additional region-specific stud-
ies of basin amplification effects, including empirical analysis as well as further
simulation-based analysis. In addition, simulations, including the ones done for this
study, should be used to assess the utility of other predictor variables besides basin
depth. As an example, Choi et al. (2005) have taken a step in this direction by examining
the effect on spectral amplification of source location relative to basin boundaries.
274 DAYETAL.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We benefited from helpful reviews by Roberto Paolucci, Charles Langston, and an
anonymous reviewer. This work was supported by Pacific Earthquake Engineering Re-
search (PEER) Center Lifelines Program (Tasks 1A01, 1A02, and 1A03), the National
Science Foundation under the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Commu-
nity Modeling Environment Project (grant EAR-0122464), and by SCEC. SCEC is
funded by NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-0106924 and USGS Cooperative Agree-
ment 02HQAG0008. The SCEC contribution number for this paper is 1101.
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(Received 1 July 2007; accepted 15 November 2007兲
MODEL FOR BASIN EFFECTS ON LONG-PERIOD RESPONSE SPECTRA IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 277
