Characteristic of Northern Thailand Seismic Stations from Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratios (HVSR) Analysis

Abstract

Several major cities in Northern Thailand are located on a sedimentary basin, which could amplify ground motion from future earthquakes as they lie along several active faults. To study the seismic response and natural periods of these basins, a Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) for each seismic station in Northern Thailand has been proposed. Several observed ground motion from moderate to small seismic events in and around Northern Thailand were used in this analysis. Several seismometers (TSA-100S, Trillium-120, PA-23, S-13 and KS 2000) of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) with triaxial digital accelerometer data were used. The 3 axis digital accelerometers (2-horizontal and vertical) were converted to Fourier amplitude spectral (FAS) in order to find basin natural period by Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR). This research investigates 6 stations in Northern Thailand with at least 10 observed ground motions for each station. We found that the natural period of three stations (CRAI, PAYA and PHRA) showed strong site amplification effect at low natural period (between 0.1 - 0.2 s with an amplitude larger than 2). The natural period of CMMT and MHIT stations were insignificant since CMMT and MHIT were located on the rocks. Lastly, we observed long natural period for CMCA station located in Chiang Mai basin around 2.50 s with an amplitude larger than 3. Furthermore, the computed site natural periods were compared with the average top 30 m shear wave velocity (Vs₃₀) based on the data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) to find the type of soil in each area.