Characteristics of Free-Field Vertical Ground Motion during the Northridge Earthquake

Abstract

Characteristics of response spectra of free-field vertical ground motion recorded during the 1994 Northridge earthquake are examined. Dependence of vertical and horizontal response spectra, and their ratio, on the site-to-source distance is investigated through development of attenuation relationships for vertical and horizontal spectral ordinates. The database includes 123 response spectra of the motions recorded at 41 alluvial sites. Vertical-to-horizontal (V/H) response spectral ratio is found to be strongly dependent on period and distance of site to the seismic source. V/H spectral ratio largely exceeds the commonly assumed value of 2/3, at short periods in the near-field region. The main characteristics of V/H spectral ratio for the Northridge earthquake are found to be qualitatively similar to those observed in the 1989 Loma Prieta, California, and in several other earthquakes recorded over the SMART-1 array in Taiwan. These characteristics are very likely to be universal.