Hybrid attenuation model for estimation of peak ground accelerations in the Kutch region, India

The Kutch region of Gujarat in India is the locale of one of the most devastating earthquake of magnitude (M w ) 7.7, which occurred on January 26, 2001. Though, the region is considered as seismically active region, very few strong motion records are available in this region. First part of this paper uses available data of strong motion earthquakes recorded in this region between 2006 and 2008 years to prepare attenuation relation. The developed attenuation relation is further used to prepare synthetic strong motion records of large magnitude earthquakes using semiempirical simulation technique. Semiempirical simulation technique uses attenuation relation to simulate strong ground motion records of any target earthquake. The database of peak ground acceleration obtained from simulated records is used together with database of peak ground acceleration obtained from observed record to develop following hybrid attenuation model of wide applicability in the Kutch region: $$ \begin{aligned} \ln \left( {\text{PGA}} \right) &=- 2.56 + 1.17 \, M_{\text{w}} - \, 0.015R - 0.0001\ln \left( {E + 15} \right) \\ &\quad 3.0 \le M_{\text{w}} \le 8.2;\quad 12 \le R \le 120;\quad {\text{std}} . {\text{ dev}}.(\sigma ): \pm 0.5 \\ \end{aligned} $$ ln ( PGA ) = − 2.56 + 1.17 M w − 0.015 R − 0.0001 ln ( E + 15 ) 3.0 ≤ M w ≤ 8.2 ; 12 ≤ R ≤ 120 ; std . dev . ( σ ) : ± 0.5 In the above equation, PGA is maximum horizontal ground acceleration in gal, M w is moment magnitude of earthquake, R is hypocentral distance, and E is epicentral distance in km. The standard deviation of residual of error in this relation is 0.5. This relation is compared with other available relations in this region, and it is seen that developed relation gives minimum root mean square error in comparison with observed and calculated peak ground acceleration from same data set. The applicability of developed relation is further checked by testing it with the observed peak ground acceleration from earthquakes of magnitude (M w ), 3.6, 4.0, 4.4, and 7.7, respectively, which are not included in the database used for regression analysis. The comparison demonstrates the efficacy of developed hybrid attenuation model for calculating peak ground acceleration values in the Kutch region. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013