Empirical nonlinear site response applicable to Greater Vancouver, British Columbia
Abstract
In Greater Vancouver, strong earthquake shaking has not been recorded to quantify expected nonlinear soil response. Earthquake horizontal to vertical spectral ratios (eHVSR) are evaluated at seismic stations located at the edges or deeper center of sedimentary basins in Mexico City, the Kanto basin and Anchorage with available weak-to-strong motion recordings that have similar linear site response to Greater Vancouver to constrain the expected nonlinear soil response for future large earthquakes affecting Greater Vancouver. The empirical results confirm that the very low fundamental frequency (f0 < 0.6 Hz) at deep Fraser River delta sites will be less affected by strong shakings and suggest that for Fraser River delta edge sites the amplification at the predominant frequency (f1) could increase up to 1.77 times with a strong event. This thesis’ empirical nonlinear site response research is being used to validate numerical site response analyses of Fraser River delta sites.