Attenuation characteristics of peak ground motions in the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake

The peak horizontal acceleration and velocity of observed records from the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake are compared with those predicted from empirical attenuation relations that were derived to be applicable to near-source areas. We found that the observed peak values matched well the empirical attenuation relations. The observed peak vertical accelerations were about half the peak horizontal accelerations when less than 100 cm/s/s. But, the observed peak vertical accelerations tended to be more than half the horizontal ones beyond 100 cm/s/s, and al some sites on soft soil, the peak vertical accelerations were greater than the peak horizontal accelerations. On the other hand, most of the observed peak vertical velocities were about 40% of the peak horizontal velocities independent of the peak amplitudes. At Port Island in Kobe City, remarkable non-linear behavior of soft soil was observed in the vertical array records. The high-frequency shear waves decreased due to liquefaction and the peak horizontal accelerations decayed at the surface. On the contrary, vertical ground motion was amplified by the strong contrast of P-wave velocity in the surface soils. This fact may be one of the causes for greater peak vertical acceleration than peak horizontal acceleration.