Prediction of the seismic manifestations of Vrancea earthquakes in Moscow

Abstract

According to the normative maps of the General Seismic Zoning in the Russian Federation, OSR-97, the Moscow metropolitan area is situated within the 5 point seismic zone. Of highest hazard priority for tall buildings in Moscow are the low-frequency vibrations proceeding from the deep sources of strong earthquakes that occur in the East Carpathians (the Vrancea zone, Romania) at a distance of approximately 1350 km from Moscow. Accelerations of the ground vibrations in Moscow are found from the analysis of seismic signals produced by Mw = 5.0 to Mw = 7.4 Vrancea earthquakes and recorded at the Moskva seismic station. Extrapolation of the parameters of the weak and moderate earthquakes towards stronger seismic events provides an estimate for the maximum expected horizontal accelerations of Ahor = 2.3 cm/s2 in case of the Mw = 8.0 Vrancea earthquake. The synthetic accelerogram of the maximum possible effect on the benchmark soils of Moscow is calculated. The displacements of the ground are multidimensional and not necessarily oriented strictly towards the seismic source. These inferences suggest that the MSK-64 macroseismic scale be corrected and the Construction Norms and Regulations, SNIP II-7-81*, be updated with regard to the hazard assessment of low-frequency seismic effects of 5 point and weaker seismic events including those caused by distant earthquakes. © 2010 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.