An earthquake spectra parameters near the new capital administrative city, Egypt

Abstract

AbstractSeven Strong Motion stations recorded an earthquake of Mw 3.8 on December, 31 2018 on the Cairo- Suez southern road. The furthest NUB station is about 302 km from the epicenter, whereas the closest KOT station is 10 km away. This event is considered the first recorded acceleration event near the new capital administrative city. The KOT station has the highest recorded acceleration, measuring 16.38 Gal. The peak ground velocity (PGV), peak ground displacement (PGD), and Pseudo acceleration values for the same station are calculated to be 0.00109 m/s, 0.114 cm, and 0.0731 g, respectively. An intensity map was created for this event as a questionnaire gathered information from Facebook and EMSC. In the vicinity of Qattamiya Observatory, the maximum observed intensity is (IV). According to the geological information and average shear wave velocity calculated from previous studies, We classified the station sites into soil types B, C, and D. We correlated them with the HVSR analysis obtained from S-wave earthquake data. The maximum amplification factor (A0) was found for a BANH station equal to 5.8 and equivalent to the Fundamental frequency (F0) of 3 Hz. The minimum amplification factor was found to be for stations of ISM & NUB with A0 equal to 2.8 and 1.6, respectively, while Fundamental frequency (F0) was 0.7 and 2 Hz, respectively. At the KOT station, the response design spectrum indicates a maximum value of 70 Gal. The new Egyptian capital administrative city is strongly advised to set up an early warning system and structural earth monitoring to manage the risk assessment of any potential seismic activities in the future.