Relevance Of H/V Spectral Ratio Technique For Bucharest City

Abstract

The level of ground motion caused by earthquakes is mainly controlled by three factors: source, path and site response. In many cases, site effects have been recognized as being responsible for the damage caused during earthquakes (e.g., Northridge, USA 1994; Kobe, Japan 1995; Athens, Greece 1999; Izmit, Turkey 1999) and special attention has been paid to modeling these effects. Thus in the last three decades, various methods for characterizing site effects have been developed and applied in different regions of the world in order to understand soil behavior during an earthquake. Due to its low cost and its simplicity, the most popular technique is the H/V ratio computed for ambient seismic noise data. The spectral ratio of the horizontal-to-vertical component of ambient seismic noise in most cases shows a peak whose frequency is related to the fundamental frequency of the site under investigation (Nakamura, 1989). ...