## 4 Discussion  
It is constructive to analyze and compare the attenuation characteristics between the Pazarck earthquake (M\({}_{\text{s}}\) 7.8) in Turkiye and the Wenchuan earthquake (M\({}_{\text{s}}\) 8.0) that occurred on May 12, 2008, in China. The strong-motion records of the Wenchuan earthquake  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Site Type** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Bedrock Site**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Soil Site**} \\ \hline
**Fault Distance (km)** & **Horizontal** & **Vertical** & **Horizontal** & **Vertical** \\ \hline
0–50 & 1 & 1 & 1.23 & 1.45 \\
51–100 & 1 & 1 & 1.28 & 1.15 \\
101–150 & 1 & 1 & 1.34 & 1.06 \\
151–200 & 1 & 1 & 1.41 & 1.03 \\
201–250 & 1 & 1 & 1.48 & 1.03 \\
251–300 & 1 & 1 & 1.56 & 1.05 \\
301–350 & 1 & 1 & 1.65 & 1.09 \\
351–400 & 1 & 1 & 1.74 & 1.13 \\ Average Value & 1 & 1 & 1.46 & 1.12 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 7: Table of site amplification factors for different soil types.  
Figure 7: (a) Comparison of horizontal PGA attenuation curves for bedrock and soil sites; (b) comparison of vertical PGA attenuation curves for bedrock and soil sites.  
were provided by the China Earthquake Networks Center. A total of 337 horizontal strong-motion records from 174 stations were collected for regression analysis [22]. Among them, there were 33 records from bedrock sites and 304 records from soil sites, including Class II and Class III sites. The distribution of PGA values with respect to the fault distance for the Wenchuan and Pazarck earthquakes is shown in Figure 8a. Comparatively, the Pazarck earthquake had a richer set of bedrock site strong-motion records compared to the Wenchuan earthquake. Multiple sets of near-fault strong-motion records were obtained for the Pazarck earthquake, including 34 horizontal acceleration records within a fault distance of smaller than 5 km, while only three records were obtained for the Wenchuan earthquake. This highlights the invaluable nature of the abundant strong-motion records obtained from the Pazarck earthquake, particularly for the study of attenuation relationships and near-field seismic characteristics for different site categories.  
The values of the parameters of the horizontal PGA attenuation equation for the Wenchuan earthquake are presented in Table 8, and the attenuation curves for the Wenchuan and Pazarck earthquakes are displayed in Figure 8b. Figure 8b reveals that for distances greater than 5 km, under the same fault distance conditions, the attenuation values of the Wenchuan earthquake are larger than those of the Pazarck earthquake, and the difference between the two increases with an increasing distance. At a fault distance of 20 km, the PGA of the Wenchuan earthquake was approximately 1.26 times that of the Pazarck earthquake; at 50 km, it was roughly 1.66 times; at 100 km, it was almost 2.16 times; at 200 km, it was approximately 2.86 times; and at 300 km, it was roughly 3.3 times. This was chiefly due to the higher magnitude of the Wenchuan earthquake compared to the Pazarck earthquake, which resulted in a significantly greater release of energy. In addition, the PGA attenuation rate of the Wenchuan earthquake was slower than that of the Pazarck earthquake, which was predominantly attributed to the differences in regional geological and tectonic settings, as well as variations in quality factors. For fault distances smaller than 5 km, the PGA attenuation curves of the Wenchuan and Pazarck earthquakes were very close. This was attributed to two factors: first, the saturation phenomenon of seismic parameters during large earthquakes, and second, the lack of near-fault strong-motion records for the Wenchuan earthquake, which likely led to the underestimation of the PGA values near the fault.  
Figure 8: (**a**) Scatter plot of PGA values for different soil types in the Wenchuan earthquake and the Pazarck earthquake; (**b**) comparison of attenuation characteristics between the Wenchuan earthquake and the Pazarck earthquake.