Scaling of ground motions from Vrancea (Romania) earthquakes

This paper evaluates the scaling of ground motions recorded from nine intermediate-depth earthquakes produced in the Vrancea seismic zone in Romania. The considered ground motion database consists of 363 horizontal recordings obtained on soil classes B and C (according to Eurocode 8). An analysis of the inter-and intra-event spectral accelerations is performed in order to gain information regarding the magnitude and distance scaling of the Vrancea ground motions. The analyses reveal a significant influence of the earthquake magnitude and focal depth on the distance scaling and different magnitude and distance scaling for the two soil classes. A linear magnitude and distance scaling is inferred from the results for the range of magnitudes 5.2 <= MW <= 7.1. The results obtained are checked through stochastic simulations and the influence of the stress drop and kappa values on the ground motion levels is assessed. In addition, five ground motion models which were tested in other studies using recordings from Vrancea earthquakes are analyzed in order to evaluate their corresponding host stress drop and kappa. The results show generally a direct connection between the host kappa values and the host stress drop values. Moreover, all the ground motion models depict magnitude dependent host kappa and stress drop levels.