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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Engineering

Site Response Zones And Short-Period Earthquake Ground Motion Projections For The Las Vegas Basin, Barbara Luke, Ying Liu Nov 2008

Site Response Zones And Short-Period Earthquake Ground Motion Projections For The Las Vegas Basin, Barbara Luke, Ying Liu

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

A deterministic seismic hazard analysis was conducted to address the effect of local soil conditions on earthquake-induced strong ground motion in the Las Vegas Basin, Nevada (US). Using a large geological and geotechnical database, two response units were defined: a fine-grained unit, predominantly clay; and a coarse-grained unit, predominantly gravel. A moderate number of high-quality shallow shear wave velocity measurements were collected from which characteristic shear wave velocity profiles were developed for each response unit. An equivalent-linear one-dimensional site response model was used. The model was calibrated using a basin-wide, small-strain ground motion database. Calibration tests showed that ground motion …


Characterizing Anomalous Ground For Engineering Applications Using Surface-Based Seismic Methods, Barbara Luke, Wanda Taylor, Carlos Calderon-Macias, Xiaohui Jin, Helena Murvosh, Jeff Wagoner Nov 2008

Characterizing Anomalous Ground For Engineering Applications Using Surface-Based Seismic Methods, Barbara Luke, Wanda Taylor, Carlos Calderon-Macias, Xiaohui Jin, Helena Murvosh, Jeff Wagoner

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Shallow seismics are in demand today in tectonically active regions to characterize and classify sites for earthquake response studies. The surface-based seismic methods are the most widely used for this purpose. In developed areas, the passive-source methods, also known as microtremor methods, are popular because of their efficiency and because the available frequency content is appropriate to determine an average shear-wave velocity for the upper 30 m. This information is required by the International Building Code, which is used by many municipalities in the US and elsewhere.