Variations in Ground Motion Amplification in the Los Angeles Basin due to the 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest Earthquake: Implications for the Long-Period Response of Infrastructure

Coherent patterns and large variations in ground shaking amplification were observed in the Los Angeles basin during the 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake. In particular, 3 s to 6 s responses showed variations due to shallow basin geological structure that have implications for the response to large earthquakes of mid-rises, high-rises, long-span bridges, and fuel storage tanks, even if epicentral distances are several hundred kilometers. The Ridgecrest strong-motion data were recorded by seismic stations from the spatially dense Community Seismic Network, the Southern California Seismic Network, and the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program. The mainshock observations are compared at the same locations with ground motion simulations to examine the regions that experienced the largest shaking, and to investigate the geological sources of large-amplitude shaking. The simulations were computed for the two most commonly used regional community seismic velocity models, CVM-S4.26.M01 (‘CVM-S’) and CVM-H 15.1.0 (‘CVM-H’). Both observations and simulations are used in dynamic analysis with a finite-element model of an existing high-rise with 6-s fundamental horizontal periods, located in downtown Los Angeles. The geographical variation in maximum story drift, story-level shear force, and story-level moment values suggest that the excitation of a hypothetical high-rise located in an area characterized by the largest 6-s PSA values could be significantly larger than in a downtown Los Angeles location. Ground motion simulations using the CVM-H velocity model more closely predict the long-period site amplifications in greater Los Angeles, particularly in the south-central San Fernando Valley, than simulations using CVM-S.