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EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTION OBSERVATION FOR PREDICTION OF LONG-

PERIOD STRONG MOTION IN LIMA, PERU

Conference Paper · November 2023

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 EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTION OBSERVATION
FOR PREDICTION OF LONG-PERIOD STRONG
MOTION IN LIMA, PERU

Hiroaki YAMANAKA1, Hiroe MIYAKE2, Koji MIYAKAWA3, Miwako ANDO4,

Gerson CARRASCO5, Carlos GONZALES6, Zenon AGUILAR7, Kosuke CHIMOTO8,
Nelson PULIDO9 and Hisao KONDO10
1
Dr. Eng., Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, [email protected]
2
Dr. Sci., Associate Professor, Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Japan,
[email protected]
3
Dr. Sci., Technical Specialist, Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Japan,
[email protected]
4
Dr. Sci., Technical Specialist, Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Japan,
[email protected]
5
Ba Eng., Graduate Student, Japan Peru Center for Earthquake Engineering Research and Disaster
Mitigation, National University of Engineering, Peru, [email protected]
6
Dr. Eng., Assistant Professor Japan Peru Center for Earthquake Engineering Research and Disaster
Mitigation, National University of Engineering, Peru, [email protected]
7
Dr. Eng., Professor, Japan Peru Center for Earthquake Engineering Research and Disaster Mitigation,
National University of Engineering, Peru, [email protected]
8
Dr. Eng., Associate Professor, Kagawa University, Japan, [email protected]
9
Dr. Sci., Chief Researcher, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience,
Japan, [email protected]
10
Dr. Sci., Chief Researcher, Geological Survey of Japan, The National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology, Japan, [email protected]

ABSTRACT: We have conducted an observation of earthquake ground motion for an

acquisition of basic data for building of models for sedimentary layers and earthquake
sources to predict long-period strong motion of anticipated earthquakes in Lima, Peru. The
observation instrument which consists of a 3-component accelerometer, a high-sensitivity
vertical velocity sensor and a data logger was carefully selected to observe long-period
motion. The instrument was tested at Tokyo to examine the performance from a comparison
with records by a broad-band seismometer. Long-period motion of a large distance event
was clearly identified in the records with applying a band-pass filter. Seven instruments
have been installed in the southern part of Lima. Examples of long-period motion recorded
during a distance event and results of seismic interferometric analysis using the continuous
records are shown in the paper.

Keywords: Long-period motion, Strong motion observation, Site effects, Seismic

interferometry, Lima, Peru

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1. INTRODUCTION

Peru is one of the earthquake-prone countries with many earthquake damage experienced in past events.,
such as the 2001 Arequipa earthquake1) and the 2007 Pisco earthquake2). Most of the past large events
occurred in the subduction zone along the Peru-Chile trench. Accordingly, seismic hazard was prepared
for a scenario earthquake which may occur along the trench3). The local site amplification of shallow
soil layers was estimated in the hazard maps4) using shallow S-wave velocity models5). The amplification
considered in the previous seismic hazard maps is limited in a frequency range higher than 1 Hz. It is
however known that long-period motion can be effectively radiated from a large earthquake. In particular,
long-period motion can be amplified by deep sedimentary layers in large basins in many countries, such
as the Kanto basin, Japan6). Such amplified long-period strong ground motion is crucial in the seismic
design of high-rise buildings and base-isolation buildings. Although strong motion observations with
many stations have been conducted in Lima region, Peru, characteristics of the long-period motion is
not sufficiently investigated. One of the difficulties is due to a lack of earthquake ground motion records
which are rich in long-period motion with an enough accuracy. Knowledge on the deep sedimentary
layers which are important in the characterization of the long-period motion has not been accumulated
in Lima, too.
We have conducted strong ground motion observation in Lima, Peru, with a special focus on an
estimation of the long-period ground motion. The strong motion observation in Lima is introduced in
this study with examples of observed records. We also examined the performance of the observation
instrument from a comparison with earthquake records observed with a broad-band seismometer
installed at Tokyo, before the installation in Lima. The results of the instrumental test are also reported
in this study.

2. INSTRUMENTS FOR LONG-PERIOD MOTION

One of the main purposes for the strong motion observation in this study is to obtain records of long-
period ground motions in the Lima region. In order to accumulate enough dataset of the long-period
motions in a few years we try to acquire continuous records due to distant events with large magnitudes
in this study. Ground motions of such an event is usually considered in conventional strong motion
observations. The continuous records of ground motion are also of important in an application of the
seismic interferometry for characteristics of long-period surface waves. Therefore, we selected a strong
motion observation instrument with a high sensitivity and a wide dynamic range to obtain ground
motions with large and small amplitudes.
The observation instrument in this study consists of a three-component accelerometer, a vertical
velocity sensor and a data logger. The three-component accelerometer used (Mitsutoyo, JEP6A3) is a
seismometer of a moving coil type with a large damping factor (h~26) and a natural period of 0.33 s 7).
We selected a type of the sensor with the highest sensitivity of 10 V/g. This seismometer has a flat
response (–3dB) to ground acceleration in a period range between 0.04 and 4.0 s. The velocity
seismometer is a vertical sensor (Sercel, L-22E) having a moving coil with a damping factor of 0.7 and
natural frequency of 2 Hz. The velocity sensor has a high sensitivity of 2V/kine, and is commonly used
in seismic activity monitoring and seismic explorations. Since the high-sensitive velocity sensor may be
clipped during the strong shaking, it is supposed to be used in the seismic interferometric analysis of the
continuous records to retrieve the Green’s function between two stations in this study. Although the
neural frequency is not long, the long-period component of the Green’s function can be sufficiently
calculated from the long-term cross-correlation in previous studies8). The four outputs from the two
sensors are continuously stored in the data logger (NF Keisokugiken Corp., HKS-9700) at a time interval
of 0.01 or 0.005 s in an SD card.

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3. TEST OBSERVATION OF INSTRUMENT

We have examined the performance of the above-mentioned instrument to observe long-period motion
through a comparison with earthquake records from an existing seismometer at Tokyo in a period from
March to November 2022. Our instrument was installed at a seismometer table located at an
underground floor of Earthquake Research Institute (ERI), the university of Tokyo as shown in Fig. 1.
The site is located in the central part of the Kanto basin covered with thick sedimentary layers over the
basement having an S-wave velocity of 3 km/s with a thickness of more than 3 km. This geological
setting allows us to make a performance test of the instrument in a short term of the measurements.
A broad-band instrument (Tokyo Sokushin Co., VSE311F) has been installed on the same table by
Earthquake Research Institute. This seismometer is a velocity sensor with a flat frequency response from
0.01 to 100 Hz. Therefore, we can examine the performance of our instruments from the comparison of
records from the broad-band instrument. Figure 2 shows the photo of the instruments installed at ERI.
The records of the broad-band seismometer have been continuously stored in a data logger (Hakusan
corp., LS8800) with a sampling interval of 0.01 s.

Fig.1. Locations of observation station (left) and photo for the installation (right) in the instrumental test
at ERI in Tokyo. Red circles indicate epicenters of earthquakes whose records were used in the test.

We selected segments for two earthquakes from the continuous records of our two sensors and the
broad-band sensor. The two earthquakes in Fig. 1 were used in the examination. EQ1 is an event with a
deep focal depth of 130 km and an Mj of 4.6. Since the event occurred just beneath the station, it is
supposed that S-wave wave is dominant in the long-period motion. The following data processing were
applied to the observed records from our instrument. The acceleration from JEP6A3 was integrated to
the ground velocity with the band-pass filtering in a frequency range of 0.02 to 20 Hz in the frequency
domain. The velocity sensor of L-22E decreases the amplitude at a frequency lower than the natural
frequency of 2Hz, because of the instrumental response of the sensor. We applied instrumental response
correction by multiplying the inverse of the frequency response to the spectra of the vertical records
from L-22E. After the same band-pass filtering, the corrected velocity could be obtained with the inverse
Fourier transform.
The processed ground velocities in the north-south and vertical directions from our two sensors are
compared with those of the broad-band sensor in Fig. 2. The waveforms of the ground velocities derived
from the accelerometer (PRU1) are very similar to those of the broad-band sensor (KERV). The vertical
velocity from the 2Hz velocity sensor (PRU2) are also similar to the others. The spectra of the ground
velocities are also compared in Fig. 3. The spectral shapes of the two horizontal components are identical
in a frequency range from 0.1 to 20 Hz. The vertical spectra for the three sensors are also the same to
each other. The uncorrected spectra for the records form the L-22E 2Hz sensor is also shown in the
figure. The long-period spectrum can be effectively retrieved with the instrumental correction.
We furthermore made a similar comparison of records from a distance large event. We selected an
earthquake with an Mj of 6.6 and a depth of 44 km near Taiwan for the examination. The epicentral
distance is about 2200 km at the site as shown in Fig. 1. The same data processing was applied to the

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records of the event. The velocities in the north-south and vertical components are rich in long-period
motion as can be shown in Fig. 4. The major part of the long-period velocities of the two sensors (PRU1
and KERV) are the same, such as the segment at a time of 1000 to 1500 s. However, the long-period
initial S-wave part of the horizontal component at a time of 700 s from our accelerometer is smaller that
of the broadband seismometer. The major part of the vertical trace (PRU2) from the 2-Hz sensor is
similar to the broad-band sensor. The amplitude before the initial S-wave part is very large indicating
an overestimation due to the instrumental correction. The spectra are also compared in Fig. 5. The long-
period spectra of our instrument are the same as the broad-band sensor at frequencies higher than 0.1
Hz. These comparisons clearly indicate that long-period ground motion due to a distant event can be
sufficiently observed with our instrument.

Fig.2 Comparison of ground velocities from our seismometers and broad-band sensor at ERI observed
in north-south and vertical components during EQ1.

Fig. 3 Comparison of Fourier spectra of ground velocities observed during EQ1 from our seismometers
and broad-band sensor at ERI observed in north-south, west-east and vertical components in left to right.

Fig.4 Comparison of ground velocities from our seismometers and broad-band sensor at ERI observed
in north-south and vertical components during EQ2.

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Fig. 5 Comparison of Fourier spectra of ground velocities observed during EQ2 from our seismometers
and broad-band sensor at ERI observed in north-south, west-east and vertical components in left to right.

4. OBSERVATION IN LIMA

We have installed the above-mentioned instrument at 7 stations in the Lima region, Peru since Aug.,
2022. The locations of the stations are shown in Fig.6. The instrument was placed in a metal box on the
surface at each station as displayed in the figure. Since one of the purposes of the observation is an
application of the seismic interferometry, we have selected the locations of the stations to have enough
coverage of the distances between every pair of the stations. The yellow lines are the stations pairs of
the individual two stations. Since the number of the instruments are limited, the station pairs are not
sufficient for the coverages of entire Lima area. Therefore, we concentrated in the southern part of the
Lima region as the first phase of the observation campaign. We will relocate them to the northern part
after a sufficient accumulation of earthquake data.
Figure 7 shows an example of the observed records from a distant earthquake. The earthquake
occurred at 01:38 on 28 July, 2023 in Ecuador as shown in Fig. 6. The depth and magnitude of the event
are 144 km and 6.1. The distance of the epicenter is about 1140 km from Lima. The original acceleration
records in the east-west direction at all the stations are contaminated with noises as can be seen in the
right panel of Fig.7. However, S-wave motions can be clearly identified in the accelerations filtered in
a frequency range of 0.1 to 2 Hz. The vertical filtered accelerations are also shown in the figure. The P-
wave and S-wave onsets can be also identified in the vertical motions at all the stations. Since the origin
time of the event is 6:38 in the local time, the traffic noises may be low at a time of the earthquake, the
band-pass filtering could be successfully applied to retrieve the long-period seismic signals.
We have also applied the seismic interferometry to the continuous records. The cross-correlation
functions were calculated from 1-hour data of the vertical acceleration records at two stations. Then, the
individual cross-correlation functions were stacked. The cross-correlation functions for all the station
pairs are plotted in Fig.8. The cross-correlations of the positive and negative delay times indicate the
Green's function propagating from one station to another and vice versa. We can see different amplitudes
of the positive and negative cross-correlations for many station pairs. This probably indicates that an
asymmetric distribution of microtremor sources, because the area is covered with the ocean in the west
and the mountains in the east.
The multiple filtering analysis was applied to the cross-correlations to investigate the dispersive
features of group velocities of Rayleigh waves. The example of the analysis is also shown in Fig.8. The
group velocity between CEPR and SERV is small at periods shorter than 1 s. This propagation path
corresponds to the central part of the basin. On the other hand, the group velocity is higher than 1500
m/s at all the periods for the path between BIRS and IMCA corresponding to the edge of the basin or
mountains in the west. The dispersion features are not so clear for the cross-correlation between CISM
and IMCA. We need to increase the cross-correlations in the stacking for a better quality of the dispersion.
These group velocities will be used to construct an S-wave velocity model of the deep sedimentary
layers in the Lima area.

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 Fig. 6 Location of strong motion stations in Lima, Peru with photo for instrument.

Fig. 7 Acceleration records (right) and filtered motions (middle) of east-west direction, and filtered
vertical motions (left) observed during an earthquake (28/Jul/2023) at stations in Lima. Band-pass filter
at frequencies from 0.1 to 2 Hz was applied.

Fig.8 Results of seismic interferometric analysis of vertical continuous records. Left is cross-correlation
and right is results of multiple filtering analysis.

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 5. CONCLUSIONS

We have conducted an observation of earthquake ground motion for an acquisition of basic data to
predict long-period strong motion of anticipated earthquakes in Lima, Peru. The observation instrument
which consists of a 3-component accelerometer, a high-sensitivity vertical velocity sensor and a data
logger was selected to observe long-period motion. The performance of the instrument was examined
from a comparison with records by a broad-band seismometer. Long-period motion of a distance large
event were clearly identified with applying a band-pass filter. We can retrieve ground motion in a
frequency range higher than 0.1 Hz with our instrument. Seven sets of the instrument have been installed
in the southern part of Lima to record continuous data. An example of the long-period motion recorded
during a distance event in Ecuador and results of the seismic interferometric analysis using the
continuous records are explained. These examples clearly indicate the high possibility to accumulate the
long-period ground motion data in a short term such as a half or a year in the Lima area.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A part of the research was supported with SATREPS (Development of Integrated Expert System for
Estimation and Observation of Damage Level of Infrastructure in Lima Metropolitan Area).

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