Search results for "microtremor"
showing 10 items of 13 documents
Cluster analysis to support microzonation studies
2015
In recent times the use of microtremor techniques for subsoil investigation increased significantly. The use of HVSR (Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio)technique for seismic microzoning studies allows in many case to obtain detailed reconstruction of the roof of the seismic bedrock and to identify areas with similar seismic behaviour. Two different algorithms of clusteringhave been tested on a HVSR datasets acquired for studies of seismic microzoning in various Sicilian urban centers. HVSR data were previously properly processed to extract frequency and amplitude of peaks by a code based on clustering of HVSR curves determined in sliding time windows.To select an optimal set of time win…
Geomorphological and geophysical investigations to study the landslide affecting the archaeological site of abakainon
2016
In recent years, a detailed archeoseismological investigation has been carried out in the necropolis of Abakainon in order to identify traces of an ancient earthquake. Although the identification of seismic damage was undoubtedly attributed to the 1st century AD earthquake, it was hypothesised that the level of damaging observed in the necropolis, as well as the counter slope tilting of the tomb basements may have also caused by a seismo-induced landslide, which produced locally an amplification of the seismic shaking. In order to identify the landslide, on which the Greek site lies, detailed geomorphological and geophysical surveys have been carried out. The research was directed to the ac…
Integration of constrained electrical and seismic tomographies to study the landslide affecting the cathedral of Agrigento
2014
The Cathedral of Saint Gerland, located on the top of the hill of Agrigento, is an important historical church, which dates back to the Arab–Norman period (XI century). Unfortunately throughout its history the Cathedral and the adjacent famous Archaeological Park of the 'Valley of the Temples' have been affected by landslides. In this area the interleaving of calcarenites, silt, sand and clay is complicated by the presence of dislocated rock blocks and cavities and by a system of fractures partly filled with clay or water. Integrated geophysical surveys were carried out on the north side of the hill, on which the Cathedral of Agrigento is founded, to define lithological structures involved …
Assessment of a geological model by surface wave analyses
2016
A set of horizontal to vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) and multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) measurements, carried out in the Altavilla Milicia (Sicily) area, is analyzed to test a geological model of the area. Statistical techniques have been used in different stages of the data analysis, to optimize the reliability of the information extracted from geophysical measurements. In particular, cluster analysis algorithms have been implemented to select the time windows of the microseismic signal to be used for calculating the spectral ratio H/V and to identify sets of spectral ratio peaks likely caused by the same underground structures. Using results of reflection seismic lines, ty…
Integration of HVSR measures and stratigraphic constraints for seismic microzonation studies: the case of Oliveri (ME)
2014
Abstract. Because of its high seismic hazard the urban area of Oliveri has been subject of first level seismic microzonation. The town develops on a large coastal plain made of mixed fluvial/marine sediments, overlapping a complexly deformed substrate. In order to identify points on the area probably suffering relevant site effects and define a preliminary Vs subsurface model for the first level of microzonation, we performed 23 HVSR measurements. A clustering technique of continuous signals has been used to optimize the calculation of the HVSR curves. 42 reliable peaks of the H/V spectra in the frequency range 0.6–10 Hz have been identified. A second clustering technique has been applied t…
OpenHVSR - Processing toolkit: Enhanced HVSR processing of distributed microtremor measurements and spatial variation of their informative content
2018
Abstract The investigation of seismic ambient noise (microtremor) in spectral ratio form, known as the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio technique, is extremely popular nowadays both to investigate large areas in a reduced amount of time, and to leverage a wider choice of low cost equipment. In general, measurements at multiple locations are collected to generate multiple, individual spectral ratio curves. Recently, however, there has been an increasing interest in spatially correlating informative content from different locations. Accordingly, we introduce a new computer program, “OpenHVSR – Processing Toolkit”, developed in Matlab (R2015b), specifically engineered to enhance data proc…
Seismo-stratigraphic model of “La Bandita” area in the Palermo Plain (Sicily, Italy) through HVSR inversion constrained by stratigraphic data
2018
Ambient noise Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) technique is commonly used approach to obtain 1D models of the shear-wave velocity in the shallow surface of an investigated area. However, obtained models can have a wide margin of uncertainty if inversions have not been appropriately constrained by detailed stratigraphic information. An application of HVSR inversion constrained by lithostratigraphic data is presented in order to verify the effectiveness of this technique for purposes of geological and geophysical reconstruction of a sedimentary basin in a densely urbanized area. This is often the case of seismic microzonation studies, in which almost all the information derives fr…
Site effects assessment through historical and instrumental data integration
2006
ABSTRACT This work illustrates the historical data contribution to the analysis of the microtremor survey results carried out in May 2003 in the city of Palermo by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia and the Dipartimento di Geologia e Geodesia – University of Palermo. The microtremor survey has been carried out within the project SESAME (Site EffectS assessment using AMbient Excitations) funded by the European Commission, devoted to test the effectiveness of the seismic noise, and in particular of Nakamura technique, in the site effects assessment. The Nakamura technique singles out zones characterized by a near-surface geology suitable to produce site effects, by exploiting …
On the stationarity of the horizontal to vertical noise spectral ratio
2015
The Horizontal to Vertical Noise Spectral Ratio (HVNSR) method is nowadays widely used to estimate the resonance frequencies of geological structures. In the HVNSR method, seismic noise is considered as a stationary stochastic process. However, especially in industrialized/urbanized area, this is a very strict assumption seldom occurred. Several sources of noise can generate non stationary and anisotropic microtremor fields. To investigate the stationarity of microtremor, we have carried out several long-term measures of seismic noise with broad-band seismic sensors, in areas where the main source of anthropogenic noise is well known. The signals acquired have been analyzed both in frequenc…
Contribution of the cluster analysis of HVSR data for near surface geological reconstruction
2015
The use of HVSR technique allows in many cases (Bonnefoy-Claudet et al. 2006) to obtain detailed reconstruction of the roof of the seismic bedrock (Di Stefano et al. 2014) and to identify areas with similar seismic behaviour. Theoretical considerations (Nakamura 1989) and experimental tests showed that amplification of horizontal motions between bottom and top of a sedimentary cover is well related to the ratio between the spectra of the horizontal and vertical components of the ground velocity (Nakamura 2000). This ratio is a measure of ellipticity of Rayleigh wave polarization, overlooking Love and body waves contribution. Assuming that subsoil can be represented as a stack of homogeneous…