Observation of aftershocks of the 2003 Tokachi-Oki earthquake was conducted in the southern part of the Tokachi basin in Hokkaido, Japan for estimation of local site effects. We installed accelerographs at 12 sites in Chokubetsu, Toyokoro, and Taiki areas, where large strong motion records were obtained during the main shock at stations of the K-NET and KiK-net. The stations of the aftershock observation are situated with different geological conditions and some of the sites were installed on Pleistocene layers as reference sites. The site amplifications are investigated using spectral ratio of S-waves from the aftershocks. The S-wave amplification factor is dominant at a period of about 1 second at the site near the KiK-net site in Toyokoro. This amplification fits well with calculated 1D amplification of S-wave in alluvial layers with a thickness of 50 meters. In addition to the site effects, we detected nonlinear amplification of the soft soils only during the main shock. The site effects at the strong motion site of the K-NET at Chokubetsu have a dominate peak at a period of 0.4 seconds. This amplification is due to soft soils having a thickness of about 13 meters. Contrary to the results at the two areas, site effects are not significantly different at the stations in the Taiki area, because of similarity on surface geological conditions.

No abstract

Aftershock observations of the 2004 Mid Niigata Prefecture earthquake were conducted in the central part of Ojiya city, the Niigata prefecture, central Japan, to investigate local site effects. We installed eight accelerographs in the vicinity of the K-NET and JMA stations in the area. The stations of the aftershock observations are situated under different geological conditions including one installed in a mountainous area on Tertiary layers to serve as a reference site. We examined the ground-motion characteristics of the records for a Mj 6.1 aftershock focusing on local site effects. The amplification, at a period of less than 1 sec, is the largest in the vicinity of the K-NET station. The amplification at periods longer than 2 sec is larger in the western part of the city than those in the east. We estimated the S-wave velocity structure in the sediments above the basement with an S-wave velocity of 3.4 km/sec from the inversion of phase velocities measured by the array observations of vertical microtremors. We discuss the amplification factors using the S-wave velocity profile and show that shallow soils over the layer with an S-wave velocity of 0.49 km/sec are responsible for the amplification at periods shorter than 0.4 sec. Deeper sedimentary layers are needed to explain amplification at periods of 1 sec.

No abstract

No abstract