Simulating strong ground motion from complex sources by reciprocal Green functions

We have developed a method to calculate site and path effects for complex heterogeneous media using synthetic Green’s functions. The Green’s functions are calculated numerically by imposing body forces at the site of interest and then storing the reciprocal Green’s functions along arbitrary finite-fault surfaces. By using reciprocal Green’s functions, we can then simulate many source scenarios for those faults because the primary numerical calculations need be done only once. The advantage of the proposed method is shown by evaluation of the site and path effects for three sites in the vicinity of the Los Angeles basin using the Southern California Velocity Model (version 2.2, Magistrale et al., 2000). In this example, we have simulated 300 source scenarios for 5 major southern California faults and compared their responses for period longer then 3 seconds at the selected sites. However, a more detailed comparison with strong motion records will be necessary before a particular hazard assessment can be made. For the tested source scenarios the results show that the variations in the peak velocity amplitudes and durations due to a source scenarios are as large as variations due to a heterogeneous velocity model.