• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.810-823
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• 2009

One of the critical factors in accurate determination of earthquake source parameters, and in prediction of seismic hazards is the detailed information related to the site amplification characteristics. The site amplification characteristics of the broad-band seismic stations in Korea were estimated as a function of frequency in the range of 0.2 to 20 Hz. A total of 1275 seismograms recorded from 43 earthquakes observed from 2003 to 2008 in the southern Korean Peninsula were used. It was found that the site amplification ratios for 28 stations estimated from the inversion of the ground motion model were approximately concordant with those obtained from the horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratio except for some stations. The spectral site amplification characteristics obtained in this study did not show any considerable spatial distribution. It revealed to be largely correlated with the degree of weathering rather than the basement rock type. Considering the spectral site amplification ratio, 28 broad-band stations were classified into four groups and the characteristics of each group were described in the text.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.6 s.65
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• pp.486-494
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• 2006

The horizontal to vertical (H/V) ratio technique in spectral domain is a common useful technique to estimate empirical site transfer function. The technique, originally proposed by Nakamura, is proposed to analyse the surface waves in the micrortremor records. The purpose of this paper is to estimate spectral ratio using observed data at the seismic stations distributed within Southern Korean Peninsula from the Fukuoka earthquake including 11 aftershocks. The results show that most of the stations have fairly good amplification characteristics in low frequency band. However, some of the seismic stations show one (resonant frequency specific to the site) or several local peaks of amplification factors with narrow high frequency band. Even though the site amplification characteristics are important information, we should be careful to analyse the observed ground motions from the seismic stations which have several very high amplification peaks for the deconvolution of seismic source and attenuation parameters.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.225-242
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• 2008

The site effect for 23 broadband seismic stations in the southern Korean Peninsula was estimated by using the spectral ratio of coda waves. In principle, the site effect means the pure amplification below the station excluding effects of seismic source and attenuation in the wave transmission. However, the site effect determined in this study is equivalent with the relative site amplification factor to the mean amplification for all stations. A total of 500 three-component seismograms from 35 earthquakes, of which magnitude ranged from 2.5 to 5.1 occurred from January, 2001 to January, 2007 was used to obtain the site amplification factor. The site amplification factors were estimated for the frequency bands centered at 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 Hz. It was found that the factors for two horizontal components of transverse and radial records were concordant with each other in the all frequency bands. However, the factor for the vertical component was found to be systematically lower than those for two horizontal components. The factors obtained in the low frequency band below 2 Hz ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 in all seismic stations except for KMA and KIGAM stations in Bagryeongdo (BRD1 and BRD2) of which factor showed high value above 1.5. Some stations such as SEO, SNU, HKU, NPR, and GKPI showed high value above 1.5 in the high frequency band from 5 to 20 Hz. Especially, the factors of GKP1 station represented extremely high value ranging from 1.8 to 7.8. Also, the factors for stations of KWJ, SND, and ULJ showed low value below 0.5. The spatial distribution for the relative amplification factor represented a tendency of being approximately lower in north-eastern area than south-western area in the southern Korean Peninsula.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.203-218
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• 2010

The site categorization and corresponding site amplification factors in the current Korean seismic design guideline are based on provisions for the western United States (US), although the site effects resulting in the amplification of earthquake ground motions are directly dependent on the regional and local site characteristic conditions. In these seismic codes, two amplification factors called site coefficients, $F_a$ and $F_v$, for the short-period band and midperiod band, respectively, are listed according to a criterion, mean shear wave velocity ($V_S$) to a depth of 30 m, into five classes composed of A to E. To suggest a site classification system reflecting Korean site conditions, in this study, systematic site characterization was carried out at four regional areas, Gyeongju, Hongsung, Haemi and Sacheon, to obtain the $V_S$ profiles from surface to bedrock in field and the non-linear soil properties in laboratory. The soil deposits in Korea, which were shallower and stiffer than those in the western US, were examined, and thus the site period in Korea was distributed in the low and narrow band comparing with those in western US. Based on the geotechnical characteristic properties obtained in the field and laboratory, various site-specific seismic response analyses were conducted for total 75 sites by adopting both equivalent-linear and non-linear methods. The analysis results showed that the site coefficients specified in the current Korean provision underestimate the ground motion in the short-period range and overestimate in the mid-period range. These differences can be explained by the differences in the local site characteristics including the depth to bedrock between Korea and western US. Based on the analysis results in this study and the prior research results for the Korean peninsula, new site classification system was developed by introducing the site period as representative criterion and the mean $V_S$ to a depth of shallower than 30 m as additional criterion, to reliably determine the ground motions and the corresponding design spectra taking into account the regional site characteristics in Korea.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2009

Site amplification should be considered in order to estimate Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI), seismic source and attenuation parameters with a greater degree of reliability. The horizontal to vertical (H/V) ratio technique, originally proposed by Nakamura (1989), has been applied to analyze the surface waves in microtremor records. Recently, its application has been extended to the shear wave energy of strong motion in order to study the site transfer function. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the H/V spectral ratio using the observed data from 9 seismic stations distributed within the Southern Korean Peninsula, from the Odesan earthquake (2007/01/20). The results show that most of the stations have more stable amplification characteristics in a low frequency band than in a high frequency band. However, each seismic station showed its own characteristic resonant frequency and low and high frequency. The resonant frequency at each station should be estimated carefully, because the quality of seismic data is dependent on the resonant frequency. It can be obtained more reliable results of seismic source and attenuation parameters, if seismic ground motions which deconvolved from site transfer function is used. The site amplification data from this study can be used to generally classify the sites within the Southern Korean Peninsula.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.4 s.44
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• pp.29-42
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• 2005

Total 350 borehole profiles were selected from the database of borehole logs in Seoul, for the site-specific seismic evaluation at two 4km${\times}$4km plain areas. Equivalent-linear site response analyses for the selected 350 sites were conducted based on shear wave velocity (Vs) Profiles, which were determined from the N-Vs correlation established using borehole seismic testing results in the inland areas of Korea. Most sites were categorized as site classes C and D based on the mean Vs to 30 m in depth (Vs30) ranging from 250 to 550 m/s. The she periods of the plains in Seoul ranging between 0.1 and 0.4 sec were significantly lower than those of the western US, from which the site coefficients in Korea were derived. For plains in Seoul, the site coefficients, Fa's and Fv's specified in the Korean seismic design guide, underestimate the ground motion in short-period (0.1-0.5 sec) band and overestimate the ground motion in mid-period (0.4-2.0 sec) band, respectively, because ol the differences in the geotechnical conditions between Seoul and the western US, although the Fa's in several sites overestimate the motion due to the base Isolation effect resulted from the soft layer in soil deposit.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.17-35
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• 2016

Earthquake-induced disasters are often more severe in locations with soft soils than firm soils or rocks due to differences in ground motion amplification. On a regional scale, such differences can be estimated by spatially predicting subsurface soil thickness over the entire target area. In general, soil deposits are generally deeper in coastal or riverside areas than in inland regions. In this study, a coastal metropolitan area, Incheon, was selected to assess site effects and provide information on seismic hazards. Spatial prediction of geotechnical layers was performed for the entire study area within the GIS framework. Approximately 7,000 existing borehole drilling data in the Incheon area were gathered and archived into the GIS Database (DB). In addition, surface geotechnical data were acquired from a walkover survey. Based on the built geotechnical DB, spatial zoning maps of site-specific seismic response parameters were created and presented for use in a regional seismic strategy. Site response parameters were performed to determine site coefficients for seismic design over the entire target area and compared with each other. Site classifications and subsequent seismic zoning were assigned based on site coefficients. From this seismic zonation case study in Incheon, we verified that geotechnical GIS-DB can create spatial zoning maps of site-specific seismic response parameters that are useful for seismic hazard mitigation particularly in coastal metropolitan areas.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2001

본 노문은 임의형상의 퇴적층을 갖는 반부한 영역내에서 SH하가 경사지게 입사할 때의 지진응답을 연구하였다. 그리고 비균질 퇴적층인 반무한 영역에서 파의 증폭을 다루었다. 사용한 수치해석 방법으로는 유한요소법과 경계요소법을 결합하여 수치해석하였다. 반무한 영역에서 자유장 응답과 정해를 비교 분석한 결과 잘 일치하여 검증되었다. 불규칙한 형상의 비균질 퇴적층을 갖는 부지에서의 지진응답 해석은 본 연구에서 개발한 수치해석 방법으로 가능하다. 따라서 임의 층상구조를 갖는 연약층에서의 SH파 증폭과 임의 각도와 입사하는 SH파에 대한 지진응답을 해석하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.25-34
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• 2012

In order to verify that the recently proposed two-parameters site classification system and the corresponding site coefficients are suitable for the local geological conditions in Korea, a comparison was conducted with current Korean seismic code, Eurocode-8, NYC DOT seismic code. The design spectrum of the current Korean seismic code is significantly amplified in the long-period range, whereas the other response spectra, including the proposed two-parameters approach, are significantly amplified in the short-period range, which is a typical geological condition in Korea. In addition, based on the results of site response analyses in the specific $10km{\times}10km$ area of Gyeongju, spatial distributions of site coefficients from site-specific seismic response analyses were compared with the proposed site coefficients, as well as those specified in the current Korean seismic code. The site coefficients ($F_a$ and $F_v$) from the current Korean seismic codes show significantly high spatial error distributions compared with those specified by the two-parameters site classification system. Therefore, the proposed system is suitable for regions of shallow bedrock including the Korean peninsula.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.203-210
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• 2013

To look into site characteristics of the Hwacheon borehole seismic station, we analyzed property of earthquake and microtremor recorded on surface and borehole seismometers. Acoording to analysis result of microtremor, the surface-to-borehole energy ratio was approximately 15 times greater during the daytime than during the nighttime, and the surface-to-borehole ratios of spectral amplitudes as frequency increases. For earthquake data, amplitude spectra and dominant frequency were computed using surface and borehole data. As a result, small earthquakes with short distance recorded on surface seismometer peaked at 8 Hz, 46 Hz. This result corresponds to resonance frequencies (7.4 Hz, 46 Hz) calculated by H/V spectral ratio. We confirmed amplification effect by site characteristics of overburden. Background noise level was approximately 20,000 times smaller at borehole seismic station than surface seismic station. These results provide strong evidence for the superior recording of earthquakes using borehole seismometers instead of surface seismometers.