Upadhayay and Mori/ Int. J. Lsld. Env.
(2013), 1(1), 117-118
Comparison of H/V Ratios and Predominant Frequencies Inferred from
Microtremors and Earthquake Motions in Ehime Prefecture, Japan
Upadhayay B.1 and Mori S.2
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Khwopa College of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Bhaktapur, Nepal
2
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ehime University, Ehime, Matsuyama, Japan
* Correspondence to: Bigyan Upadhayay,
Department of Civil Engineering, Khwopa College of Engineering, Bhaktapur, Nepal
Tel: +977-1-6614794;
Fax: +977-1-6615202
E-mail: bigyan.upadhayay@gmail.com
Keywords: Microtremors; earthquake ground motions; H/V ratio; predominant frequency; topography
1 Introduction
Earthquake is one of the causes of natural disasters that
can damage lives and infrastructures. These damages mainly
occur due to ground motion, ground failure, and fault
displacement. Ground motion is the major factor of
earthquake damages. Intensity and duration of ground
motions depend upon various factors such as magnitude
and source of earthquake, seismic wave medium, and
geographical and geological condition of a site. The
microtremors measurements are widely used as a tool to
estimate seismic site characteristics, as the microtremors
observations are much easier and economical than
conventional geophysical methods in field and in laboratory
as well as earthquake observations, and also suitable for
spatial variability of seismic site characteristics. Horizontal-
to-Vertical (H/V) spectrum ratio of microtremors has been
widely used as a technique for seismic site characteristics
evaluation (Nakamura, 1989 and 2000).
The primary aim of this study is to find out the
relationship between microtremors and earthquake ground
motions. For this study, the comparison between
microtremors and parts of earthquake motion such as
earthquake microtremors before P-wave arrived (MtEq),
P-wave, S-wave and late coda wave have been made
(Upadhayay and Mori, 2010). The secondary aim is to study
the effect of irregular topography on ground motions
recorded at earthquake observation sites, and correlation
of that effect on both microtremors and earthquake motions
(Upadhayay and Mori, 2010).
2 Study Area and Methodology
Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku Island is selected as the study
area. In this prefecture, a total of 29 earthquake observation
stations were deployed by National Institute for Earthquake
Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), which include
16 K-Net and 13 KiK-Net sites. Among them a total of 19
sites were selected for this study. Two strong earthquakes:
2000 Tottori Ken earthquake (Mj = 7.3 and depth 11 Km)
and 2006 Oita Ken earthquake (Mj = 6.2 and depth 146
Km) were selected for the study.
The whole recorded data was considered as entire
motions and recorded earthquake motion was divided into
Comparison of H/V Ratios and Predominant Frequencies Inferred from Microtremors and Earthquake Motions in Ehime 117
parts of earthquake motions such as earthquake
microtremors before P-wave arrived (MtEq), P-wave, S-
wave and late coda wave. The time window for each part
of the earthquake motions was considered as 10.24 seconds.
Microtremors measurements are performed on the
basement as well as around earthquake observation stations.
Recorded microtremors data are divided into segments of
20.48 seconds, and noiseless segments are extracted and
then combined for data analysis. The Fourier spectrum and
H/V ratio of selected data were obtained. Comparisons
between microtremors and earthquake motions were made
in terms of H/V ratio and predominant frequency. The
discrepancies of predominant frequencies and their
amplitudes that inferred from microtremors and earthquake
ground motions were discussed in terms of cliff effects.
3 Results and Discussions
Fig. 1 shows the comparison of H/V spectral ratio of
microtremors and those of the parts of earthquake motions
at Niihama site. The shape of H/V ratio of microtremors
showed better consistency with those of the entire motions
at many sites and amplitude of H/V ratio of entire motions
was slightly greater than microtremors. The amplitudes of
H/V ratio of P-wave and microtremors were noticeably
different from each other. The H/V ratio of S-wave was
greater than those of microtremors. The H/V ratio of late
coda appeared to correlate better with those of microtremors
over almost whole frequency band at most of the sites and
differed only slightly at the remaining sites. The H/V ratio
of microtremors showed the consistency with all parts of
the earthquake motions at many sites, but entire motions
and late coda wave exhibited better consistency compared
to the other parts of the earthquake motions.
Fig. 2 shows the scatter plots showing the relationship
between predominant frequencies inferred from
microtremors and those of earthquake motions. The
predominant frequency of the entire motions of earthquakes
showed good correlation with the predominant frequency of
microtremors at low frequency range, and became higher
than microtremors at higher frequency range. The coefficient
of correlation between the predominant frequency of
Prefecture, Japan
Vol. 1 No. 1 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LANDSLIDE AND ENVIRONMENT
microtremors and earthquake microtremors varied in two
different earthquake motions. It showed good correlation with
Tottori Ken earthquake. The predominant frequency of late
coda of both earthquake motions showed better correlation
with microtremors than other parts of earthquake motions.
The H/V ratio and predominant frequency of
microtremors and parts of earthquake motions showed the
significant topographic effects at six earthquake observation
sites which are nearby irregular topography. The H/V
spectral ratio of microtremor and earthquake motion at site
where no influence of topography, appears trough/dip, but
at the sites, which are near the topographic irregularities,
the trough or dip disappeared. The presence of peak
amplitude of H/V ratio of microtremors and earthquake
motions at higher frequency range indicated the
amplification of ground motion due to presence of
topographic irregularities.
4 Concluding Remarks
From this study, the following conclusions are made. The
H/V ratio and predominant frequency of microtremors show
consistency with all parts of earthquake motions at many
sites and, especially the entire motions and late coda exhibit
better correlation than other parts of earthquake motion.
The shape and predominant frequencies of both
microtremors and earthquake ground motions at the sites,
which are nearby the topographical irregularities, reveals
the effect of topography on the ground motion
characteristics. This suggests that the H/V spectral ratios
of microtremors is a useful tool to evaluate seismic site
characteristics of all type of soil site, and can be used for
118 Comparison of H/V Ratios and Predominant Frequencies Inferred from Microtremors and Earthquake Motions in Ehime
Prefecture, Japan
October, 2013
Fig. 1 Comparison of H/V ratio of microtremors
and Oita Ken Seibu earthquake motions at Niihama
Fig. 2 Scatter plots showing relationship between
predominant frequencies from microtremors and
Oita Ken Seibu earthquake motions
evaluation of seismically vulnerable area. Also, the
seismograph at or near the topographical irregularities
should not be regarded as the seismograph on level ground
and there is needed to consider the effect of such
irregularities.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express appreciation to the
laboratory members for their great support during the
microtremor measurements.
References
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estimation of subsurface using microtremor on the
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Nakamura Y. (2000). Clear identification of fundamental
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Upadhayay B. and Mori S. (2010).Differences between H/
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microtremors in Shikoku, Japan. Proceeding of 13th
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Upadhayay B. and Mori S. (2010). Cliff effects on
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