Sensitivity Tests of Topographic Effects on 3D Simulated Ground Motions in Reno, Nevada

Date: 4/25/2019

Time: 06:00 PM

Room: Grand Ballroom

The availability of cheap computational power has enabled the construction of 3d physics-based models that facilitate the exploration of geologic basins effects on the duration and destructiveness of earthquake shaking. As the resolution of these simulations improves, surface topography may have increasingly pronounced effects on ground motion. In order to examine the consequences of topographic features in a real basin, we have constructed two material property models of the Reno basin in Northern Nevada. A framework using Python, pySW4, Dask, HDF5,and sklearn streamlines the construction of these material models as binary rfiles at 25m resolution. While both models include basin geometry determined by gravimetry, one contains topographic extent while the other is an flat earth model with the same basin thicknesses. Our previous work has explored this basin using recorded events and 3 Hz synthetics generated with SW4. Even at these frequencies many of the synthetic seismograms showed significant mismatches when compared to recordings. This new work examines the role of topography in explaining some of these effects.

Presenting Author: Eric Eckert

Authors