A study on the predominant period of long-period ground motions in the Kanto Basin, Japan

We analyzed seismic waveforms of moderate to large shallow earthquakes recorded in the Kanto Basin, Japan, to clarify the characteristics of long-period ground motions in deep sedimentary basins. Our analysis revealed a tendency of long-period ground motions to develop in limited periods up to around 7 s. In addition, we found a specific relation between the predominant period of long-period ground motions and the depth of bedrock. The predominant period tends to increase in proportion to bedrock depth until it reaches approximately 7 s; however, it becomes almost constant for bedrock depths greater than 2 km. These observations, in conjunction with numerical experiments performed in this study using realistic sedimentary basin structure models, indicate that the characteristic of long-period ground motions, excited by the basin-induced fundamental Love waves, is controlled strongly by the shallow sedimentary structure, if the bedrock depth exceeds approximately 2 km. This result might also be important in understanding and evaluating the characteristics of long-period ground motions in other deep sedimentary basins of the world for moderate to large shallow earthquakes.