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Evaluation of local site effect from microtremor measurements in Babol City, Iran

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Abstract

Every year, numerous casualties and a large deal of financial losses are incurred due to earthquake events. The losses incurred by an earthquake vary depending on local site effect. Therefore, in order to conquer drastic effects of an earthquake, one should evaluate urban districts in terms of the local site effect. One of the methods for evaluating the local site effect is microtremor measurement and analysis. Aiming at evaluation of local site effect across the city of Babol, the study area was gridded and microtremor measurements were performed with an appropriate distribution. The acquired data was analyzed through the horizontal-to-vertical noise ratio (HVNR) method, and fundamental frequency and associated amplitude of the H/V peak were obtained. The results indicate that fundamental frequency of the study area is generally lower than 1.25 Hz, which is acceptably in agreement with the findings of previous studies. Also, in order to constrain and validate the seismostratigraphic model obtained with this method, the results were compared with geotechnical, geological, and seismic data. Comparing the results of different methods, it was observed that the presented geophysical method can successfully determine the values of fundamental frequency across the study area as well as local site effect. Using the data obtained from the analysis of microtremor, a microzonation map of fundamental frequency across the city of Babol was prepared. This map has numerous applications in designing high-rise building and urban development plans.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to take this opportunity to express our profound gratitude to Yashar Tavangar, for constant cooperation throughout the duration of the project. The authors are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers that significantly helped in improving the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Babol University of Technology, P.O. Box 48, Babol, Iran

    Sadegh Rezaei & Asskar Janalizadeh Choobbasti

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  1. Sadegh Rezaei
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  2. Asskar Janalizadeh Choobbasti
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Correspondence to Sadegh Rezaei.

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Rezaei, S., Choobbasti, A.J. Evaluation of local site effect from microtremor measurements in Babol City, Iran. J Seismol 22, 471–486 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-017-9718-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-017-9718-5

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