During a three year-period, the participants of a NATO Science for Peace project performed ambient noise measurements inside buildings in four European countries. This paper reports the results relevant to reinforced concrete (RC) buildings with height in the range 1-20 floors. The total number of such buildings surveyed is 244. The most striking feature is the similarity of the height-period relationships in the four countries, which allowed the treatment of the all measurements as a single database. We found no significant correlation with other variables, and calculated a regression that is very similar to other empirical height-period relationships and quite different from code provisions and theoretical models.

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Summary To constrain seismic anisotropy under and around the Alps in Europe, we study SKS shear-wave splitting from the region densely covered by the AlpArray seismic network. We apply a technique based on measuring the splitting intensity, constraining well both the fast orientation and the splitting delay. 4 years of teleseismic earthquake data were processed, from 723 temporary and permanent broadband stations of the AlpArray deployment including ocean-bottom seismometers, providing a spatial coverage that is unprecedented. The technique is applied automatically (without human intervention), and it thus provides a reproducible image of anisotropic structure in and around the Alpine region. As in earlier studies, we observe a coherent rotation of fast axes in the western part of the Alpine chain, and a region of homogeneous fast orientation in the Central Alps. The spatial variation of splitting delay times is particularly interesting though. On one hand, there is a clear positive correlation with Alpine topography, suggesting that part of the seismic anisotropy (deformation) is caused by the Alpine orogeny. On the other hand, anisotropic strength around the mountain chain shows a distinct contrast between the Western and Eastern Alps. This difference is best explained by the more active mantle flow around the Western Alps. The new observational constraints, especially the splitting delay, provide new information on Alpine geodynamics.

SUMMARY We infer seismic azimuthal anisotropy from ambient-noise-derived Rayleigh waves in the wider Vienna Basin region. Cross-correlations of the ambient seismic field are computed for 1953 station pairs and periods from 5 to 25 s to measure the directional dependence of interstation Rayleigh-wave group velocities. We perform the analysis for each period on the whole data set, as well as in overlapping 2°-cells to regionalize the measurements, to study expected effects from isotropic structure, and isotropic–anisotropic trade-offs. To extract azimuthal anisotropy that relates to the anisotropic structure of the Earth, we analyse the group velocity residuals after isotropic inversion. The periods discussed in this study (5–20 s) are sensitive to crustal structure, and they allow us to gain insight into two distinct mechanisms that result in fast orientations. At shallow crustal depths, fast orientations in the Eastern Alps are S/N to SSW/NNE, roughly normal to the Alps. This effect is most likely due to the formation of cracks aligned with the present-day stress-field. At greater depths, fast orientations rotate towards NE, almost parallel to the major fault systems that accommodated the lateral extrusion of blocks in the Miocene. This is coherent with the alignment of crystal grains during crustal deformation occurring along the fault systems and the lateral extrusion of the central part of the Eastern Alps.