An empirical equation of effective shaking duration for moderate to large earthquakes

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) 2015-01, Vol.75 (2), p.1779-1793
• Main Authors: Lee, Ya-Ting, Ma, Kuo-Fong, Wang, Yu-Ju, Wen, Kuo-Liang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amplitudes; Building construction; Civil Engineering; Construction; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earthquakes; Empirical equations; Environmental Management; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Ground motion; Hazards; Hydrogeology; Landslides; Landslides & mudslides; Liquefaction; Mathematical analysis; Natural Hazards; Original Paper; Seismic activity; Seismic phenomena; Shaking; Wave velocity
• ISSN: 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-014-1398-7

The duration of strong shaking is particularly important for assessing building performance, potential landslides and liquefaction hazards. The results of this investigation can potentially help reduce related fatalities and economic losses. In this study, we analyzed the acceleration seismograms of the Taiwan strong motion network to characterize the strong shaking duration associated with earthquake sources, propagation paths and site effects. This study proposes a new definition for the strong shaking duration called “effective shaking duration” (ESD), which considers the amplitude and radiation energy decays. We first consider the window of a time series during which the amplitude is ≥0.01 g, and we then defined the ESD as the length of the interval of the dissipated energy within 5–95 % of the total energy during this time frame. We calculated the strong shaking duration for 495 inter-plate events with magnitudes of M L  > 5.0 and focal depths