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Simulation of strong ground motions of 1991 Uttarkashi (M 7) and 1999 Chamoli (M 6.6) earthquakes using modified hybrid technique

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Abstract

In the present study, 1991 Uttarkashi (M 7) and 1999 Chamoli (M 6.6) earthquakes that occurred on October 19, 1991, at 21:23:14 h and March 28, 1999, at 19:05:11 h, respectively, have been simulated using the modified hybrid technique. Hybrid technique is the combination of two existing techniques, i.e., envelope technique and composite source model technique. In the present modified technique, site amplification functions and kappa factor have also been incorporated. The simulated waveforms and their corresponding response and Fourier spectra for each site have been generated. In this study, simulation has been done at 11 and 9 recorded stations of Uttarkashi and Chamoli earthquakes, respectively. Important frequency- and time-domain parameters, i.e., Fourier spectra, response spectra, peak ground acceleration (PGA) and duration at stations, have been estimated and compared with the observed accelerograms. It has been observed that the simulated PGA (231 cm/s2) at the closest distance Bhatwari (22 km) matched with the observed one (248 cm/s2) for the Uttarkashi earthquake. The same has been observed at the nearest most station Gopeshwar (19 km) of the Chamoli earthquake. The simulated PGA (347 cm/s2) for this station has been found well matched with the observed PGA value (352 cm/s2). Similar matching has been observed for other stations also. The present technique is independent of velocity-Q structure of earth’s layered model and past events data of small earthquakes. This study brings light on the site effect and high-frequency decay parameter. This study can be very helpful in the estimation of seismic hazard in a specific region and designing earthquake-resistant buildings.

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Abbreviations

SGM:

Strong ground motion

PGA:

Peak ground acceleration

EGF:

Empirical Green’s functions

‘κ’:

Kappa

SH:

Sub-Himalaya

LH:

Lesser Himalaya

HH:

Higher Himalaya

ITSZ:

Indus–Tsangpo Suture Zone

STD:

South Tibetan Detachment

MCT:

Main Central Thrust

MBT:

Main Boundary Thrust

HFT:

Himalayan Frontal Thrust

CSM:

Composite source model

HVSR or H/V:

Horizontal-to-vertical ratio method

fm :

Maximum frequency

MoES:

Ministry of Earth Science

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which helped to improve the manuscript. The authors are indebted to all the organizations for their tremendous. AS is highly indebted to Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun, for providing the Wadia Fellowship for this study. Recorded waveform dataset has been downloaded from http://www.pesmos.in website.

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Earth Science (MoES), New Delhi (Government of India), recognized for funding the seismic network project in Garhwal Himalaya (grant no. MoES /P.O. (Seismo)/1(373A)/2019, dated 02/03/2020). SST and DK acknowledge the support of the grant received under RUSA 2.0.

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Anjali Sharma did the analysis part of this study and prepared all the figures and required maps using MATLAB and Grapher software. Prof. Dinesh Kumar wrote the code for the applied modified hybrid technique used in this study. Dr. Ajay Paul and Prof. S.S. Teotia gave valuable suggestions for improving the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anjali Sharma.

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Sharma, A., Kumar, D., Paul, A. et al. Simulation of strong ground motions of 1991 Uttarkashi (M 7) and 1999 Chamoli (M 6.6) earthquakes using modified hybrid technique. Acta Geophys. 71, 2573–2602 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-023-01125-1

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