Study for Seismic Microzoning in Damascus City,Syria, from Strong Motion Simulation Considering
Local Site Amplification
Lecturer: Hussam Eldein Zaineh
Affiliation: Tokyo Institute of Technology
Data: 2013/4/22
Time: 15：40-16：40
Abstract:
Damage patterns in past earthquakes show that the local site conditions have a major
effect on the level of ground shaking. Seismic microzonation, which is a methodology formapping the seismic hazard at local scales to incorporate the effects of local site conditions,can provide input for urban planning and for assessment of the vulnerability of the building
stock for different hazard levels. Site characterization, which is an essential component for
microzonation, was performed for Damascus city based on short-period microtremor
exploration technique. The phase velocities were estimated at each site from the verticalcomponents of recorded microtremor data by using the Spatial Autocorrelation method.
Then, Genetic Simulated Annealing Algorithm technique was applied for inversion of thephase velocities to estimate 1-D S-wave velocity structures beneath the sites. The inverted
VS profiles are not uniform in Damascus city and the city can be divided into three different
regions. The inversion results show that the depth to the engineering bedrock (~750 m/s) isvery shallow along the foothills of Mt. Qasyoun in the north-west. Then the depth increases
towards the east and south-east of Damascus city. The maximum depth to the engineering
bedrock was observed in the southern part of the city. The resultant profiles also show thata shallow soft layer (~200 m/s) appears only in the eastern part of the city as well as thecentral part along Barada River. To validate the results of the inversions, the spectral ratios
between the horizontal and vertical components (H/V) of the recorded microtremor data at
the central seismometer were compared with the computed ellipticities of thefundamental-mode Rayleigh-waves based on the respective VS structure.
Site amplification factors were calculated by following one-dimensional shear wave

propagation theory for vertical incident S-wave using the inverted VS structure. To validate
the applicability of the NEHRP site classification in the case of Damascus city, averagedsite amplification was compared with the averaged S-wave velocity for the top 30 and 10
meters of soil (VS30 and VS10). VS10 shows a better correlation with the averaged site
amplification than VS30. That indicates VS10 as a better proxy for site amplification in thecase of Damascus city. We also compared the site amplification with the topographicconditions. We performed a multiple regression analysis with the averaged amplification
factor as the criterion variable and defined by different independent parameters (Elevation,Slope, Distance from rivers, and Site classification). A fairly good correlation between theaveraged site amplification and Elevation as well as Distance from rivers was found in thecase of Damascus city. These relationships can be used for seismic hazard assessment inDamascus city even though they need to be improved.
The seismic hazard potential for Damascus city is mainly controlled by earthquakes along
Serghaya Fault which is a branch of Dead Sea Fault System. Through the last 2000 years,
many destructive earthquakes occurred in the region and caused much causality inDamascus city and its vicinity; one of the most destructive events occurred in November,1759 with a magnitude of ~7.4. Strong ground motions due to the November 1759
Earthquake along the fault of Serghaya, were estimated with a numerical simulation
technique. In the simulation, the Kostrov-like slip-velocity function was used as an input tothe discrete wave number method to simulate the strong ground motions in a broadband
frequency range. In order to model the incoherent rupture propagation which can excite
large high-frequency waves, random numbers are added to arrival time of circular rupture
front. For source modeling of the 1759 Earthquake, MMI intensities calculated from thesynthetic ground motions are compared with the observed values by Ambraseys &Barazangi (1989). The calculated intensities are in good agreement with the observed
ones at the most sites that validate appropriateness of the proposed source model.
A grid system with 1.0 km * 1.0 km cells was adopted in Damascus city. We simulated theground motions at the top layer of VS = 1600 m/s at each grid point using the mostappropriate source model of the 1759 Earthquake. The peak ground velocities at theground surface (PGVS) were calculated by considering the effects of shallow soil layers
overlain the layer of VS = 1600 m/s. The microzonation maps with respect to peak ground
velocity at ground surface (PGVS) were estimated for Damascus city. The highest valuesof PGVS were obtained at the central and eastern parts of the city and the smallest values
were obtained at the southern parts of Damascus due to the local site effects. We thenfollowed the equivalent linear approximation of nonlinear response to estimate the freesurface ground motions at different sites in Damascus city. Acceleration response spectrawere estimated and compared with the design response spectra defined by the Syrian
building code. The simulated high frequency (1.0 – 6.0 Hz) ground motions for the sites inthe Damascus city are higher than the design requirements defined by the code. We also
simulated the ground motions at two sites in the epicenter region of the 1759 Earthquake.
Acceleration response spectra were calculated and compared with the design
requirements defined by the Syrian codes. The simulated high frequency ground motions
for sites in the focal region are bigger than the design requirements in the case of thenear-fault factors are not considered. That demonstrates the appropriateness ofconsidering the near-fault factors for a site near focal region as introduced by the newbuilding code.