Seismic hazard analysis and local site effect of the 2017 Mw 7.3 Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran, earthquake

Hamid Zafarani (), Yaser Jafarian (), Alireza Eskandarinejad (), Ali Lashgari (), Mohammad Reza Soghrat (), Hassan Sharafi () and Masoud Afraz-e Haji-Saraei ()
Additional contact information
Hamid Zafarani: International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology
Yaser Jafarian: International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology
Alireza Eskandarinejad: Golestan University
Ali Lashgari: Semnan University
Mohammad Reza Soghrat: International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology
Hassan Sharafi: Razi University
Masoud Afraz-e Haji-Saraei: Office of National Regulations and Building Control

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2020, vol. 103, issue 2, No 9, 1783-1805

Abstract: Abstract A strong earthquake occurred on November 12, 2017, in Sarpol-e Zahab city, western Iran, with the moment magnitude ( $$M_{{\text{w}}}$$ M w ) of 7.3 and a focal depth of 18 km. The maximum horizontal peak ground acceleration of 0.69 g was recorded at the Sarpol-e Zahab station. Significant damages were observed in frame and masonry buildings, while the damage distribution was non-uniform throughout this small city. The preliminary site reconnaissance revealed that numerous engineering structures collapsed or considerably damaged in some regions, contrary with those non-structural masonry buildings in other regions which remained intact during earthquake. This paper represents a preliminary reconnaissance report prepared through the site visit done by the authors, a few days following the earthquake occurrence. Then, the data recorded by the strong ground motion stations in the affected city and the surrounding regions together with the geotechnical data gathered from the available boreholes in Sarpol-e Zahab are incorporated for probabilistic seismic hazard and local site effect analyses. The observed response spectra at two stations and distance-dependency of ground acceleration are compared with those predicted by some attenuation models. The results of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in the return periods of 475 and 2475 years are compared with the observed ground response and the design spectra recommended by the Iranian seismic code (for site classes Types I and II). Several geotechnical boreholes from the previous works in the affected area were analyzed through the equivalent-linear site response approach in order to obtain the seismic response at the soil surface. The results are then compared with the code design spectra for the site classes of Types III and IV. It is demonstrated that the calculated response spectra are generally larger than those recommended by the Iranian seismic code, especially for the 4–7 stories buildings.

Keywords: Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake; Seismic hazard; Site effect; Uniform hazard spectra; ground motion prediction equations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-020-04054-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:103:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11069-020-04054-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-020-04054-0

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().