On the rotational components of seismic motion

The surface motion during an earthquake is different from point to point depending on the propagation properties of the seismic waves. Rocking and torsion are thus present in the free field, in proportion to the spatial derivatives of the surface motion with respect to a given direction. These derivatives are inversely proportional to the apparent wave velocity in that direction, so the smaller the wave apparent velocity, the more important its contribution to the rotations. In this respect, a marked contribution to surface rotations from surface waves is expected. A mathematical model is presented, based on a detailed representation of soil impedance, an approximate identification of surface waves and a deconvolution of body waves in P and SV contributions. Through this model the surface motion obtained from the records of strong‐motion accelerometers can be expressed as a superposition of plane waves of known wavelengths. Rocking response spectra are computed and results are compared with previously published spectra. A sensitivity analysis is performed on some parameters of the model.