Estimates of Shear-Wave Q and κ0 for Unconsolidated and Semiconsolidated Sediments in Eastern North America

Measured and calculated values of the effective quality factor Qef and the site attenuation parameter κ0 for unconsolidated and semiconsolidated sediments in eastern North America (ENA) indicate that the latter is strongly dependent on sediment thickness. Estimates of κ0 for National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) BC site profiles (sediment plus hard rock) in the Mississippi Embayment and the Atlantic Coastal Plain were found to increase from about 9 to 31 msec for sedi- ment thicknesses ranging from 116 to 600 m. Stochastic simulations using the 175 m thick hypothetical NEHRP BC site profile used to estimate ENA ground motions in the nationalseismichazardmapsbytheU.S.GeologicalSurvey(USGS)indicatethat κ0 20 msec provides a smaller estimate of amplification that agrees more closely with the low-strain short-period site coefficients in the NEHRP Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Buildings and Other Structures (NEHRPProvisions) than the10msecvalueusedbytheUSGS.Alinearregressionofthe κ0 estimatescompiledin this study indicates that κ0 20 msec corresponds to a relatively thick BC sediment thickness of 460 116 m. These same stochastic simulations indicate that the rela- tivelyshallowUSGSsiteprofileprovidesestimatesofamplificationthataresmallerthan thelow-strainlong-periodsitecoefficientsintheNEHRPProvisions.Thedependenceof bothsiteattenuationandsiteamplificationonsedimentthicknesssuggeststhattheuseof a single reference site condition for hazard mapping might not be appropriate. Instead, theseresultsimplythateitheraregionalsetofreferencesiteprofilesshouldbedeveloped or that a more uniform site condition such as hard rock should be used to define a more stable reference site condition in ENA.

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