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Ground motion amplification characteristics at Sharm El Sheikh Area, Using

HVSR method

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 Ground motion amplification characteristics at Sharm El Sheikh Area,
Using HVSR method

Amin E. Khalil

abstract

Earthquake ground motion characteristics are greatly influenced by both the natural
frequency and amplification coefficient at a given site. Numerous investigations showed
that, alluvial deposits my act as an amplifier for the earthquake ground motion and thus
increase its damaging potentials at certain place. This fact, together with the strategic
importance of the city, motivated the present work as a step for seismic hazard
assessments there.
The data were recorded at 7 sites, all around the city coast using K2 Altus
accelerograph. At each site, the ambient seismic noise was recorded for about 5
minutes. Then the data were analyzed using open source softwares; namely, Geopsy,
Jsesame and some other Scilab routines written by the author. The ratio provides
estimates for both amplification and fundamental (natural) frequency of the soil. It is
well known that, the amplification coefficient estimated using the H/V method is not
accurate and thus constraints to its measure are usually applied.
The obtained results of the present work will help in determining the amplification
characteristics of the city coast. Such results when combined with the estimates of
probable future earthquakes will help to approach the realistic hazard picture there.

Introduction Sinai sub-plate. As a result, the area is

Sharm El-Sheikh city lies at the
southernmost part of the Sinai
Peninsula, near the bifurcation between
the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba.
The city is characterized by its high
touristic potentialities. From the
morphological point of view, the city is
narrow coastal strip, which is bounded
by mountainous chain from the north
and the Red Sea from the south. The
soil of the city is generally recent
sediments, especially at the coastal
areas. Tectonically, the city lies near to
what is believed to be a triple junction,
where three plates interact namely; the
African plate, Arabian plate and the
seismologically and tectonically active.
Seismologically, the area lies at the
vicinity of the major earthquake of
Shedwan, which took place on March
31st 1969 (figure 1.) The magnitude of
this event is mb 6.1 which is analogous
to a magnitude Ms of about 6.7, with an
epicentral distance of about 41 km from
the city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Such
proximity, coupled with the soil structure
of the city, enlarge the earthquake
hazards there. Hence, it is needed to
estimate the detailed seismic hazard
parameters, to mitigate the future large
earthquakes in the city. This is the
motivation of the present work as it is
generally believed that, the site
response has the main effects on the
earthquake ground motion parameters.
The H/V method is widely used to
define the dynamic characteristics of the
site (Nakamura, 1989). The method
depends on the use of ambient noise
recordings at a site to determine both
the amplification and fundamental
natural frequency of the site. Spectral
ratio means the division of the spectrum
of the horizontal component (either the
E-W or N-S or the net of both) by the
spectrum of the vertical component.
The ambient seismic noise is a low
amplitude soil vibration, which resulted
from complex distribution of both natural
and man-made sources. These sources
may be of industrial origin or natural
phenomena, such as wind action and
microseisms. Such situation is usually
modeled as random distribution of
surface wave sources randomly
distributed along the earth’s surface.
The present work was carried out at
the coastal sites of Sharm El-Sheikh
City (fig. 2). The recordings of the
ambient seismic noise were conducted
at 7 locations at the eastern side of the
city using K2-Altus accelerograph. The
time windows used were approximately
5 minutes on the three components
records oriented in the N-S, vertical and
E-W directions.
Most of the sites selected lie at the
coastal side of the city. To the east of
the city, there exists Ras Mohammad
area. At some of such area surface
breaks were observed and are believed
to be related to Shedwan Earthquake in
March 1969. Such breaks may infer that
there may be damaging effects due to
large earthquakes near Shedwan area.
Geologic Setting
The city of Sharm El-Sheikh lies at
the southern most part of Sinai
peninsula. It’s located near the
bifurcation of the Red Sea into the Gulf
of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez. The
geology of South Sinai is characterized
by the presence of thick Pre-Cambrian
granites, which occupy the core of Sinai
Peninsula. Bordering the Sinai
Peninsula triangle are thick Quaternary
sediments, and raised coral reefs along
the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba,
where the coastal zone extending from
Sharm El-Sheikh to the south and Ras
Nasrani to the north, exists in these
raised terraces (Seleem et. Al., 2011).
Fig. (1). The distribution of earthquake
activity during shedwan earthquake.
 The area lies at the southern most
part of the so called Sinai massif. The
outcropped rock units range in age from
Pre-Cambrian to Quaternary, comprising
from oldest to youngest Pre-Cambrian
granitic rocks, Cretaceous Nubian
sandstone, Lower Miocene, Pleistocene
coral reefs and Quaternary sediments,
based on geologic maps of Sinai
1:250.000 published by the Egyptian
Survey and Mining Authority (EGSMA,
1994) (Seleem et. al. 2011).
Fig. 2. The sites where the ambient noise were
recorded at Sharm El Sheikh.
Geologic profile near the coast of
the city, at the area of Um Seed and
Ras Mohammad, was obtained from El-
Asmar (1997). He argued that, at the
area of Um Seed, the coastal plain is
differentiated into a staircase of four reef
terraces at elevations of - 1 m below sea
level (b.s.1.) to 0 m, 3-6 m, 10-12 m and
15-20 m a.s.1. At Ras Mohammad El-
Asmar (op. cit.) mentioned that the
situation is the same except that there
exist a terrace that is separate from
other terraces. His geologic profiles
explaining the above situation is shown
in fig. (3).
Fig. (3). Cross section for the coastal coral reefs
at Um Seed and Ras Mohammad near Sharm El
Sheikh city (After El-Asmar, 1997).
The reason for the above geologic
discussion is to get an idea about the
geology of the soil near the points where
the ambient noise was recorded. This is
somehow vital information since both
the fundamental frequency of the soil
and the amplification factor are
dependent on it.
H/V Method
A method which employs
microtremor data and has been
introduced for estimating the dynamic
characteristics of surface layers, in early
1950. Then the usage of this method
has received lots of criticism considering
the uncertainty about the the source of
microtremor. After an introduction of the
Nakamura’s technique (H/V or QTS
technique; Nakamura, 1989), many
people have paid a renewed great
attention for estimating the dynamic
characteristics of ground and structures
using microtremor, since clear and
reliable information were provided by
very simple and inexpensive noise
measurements (Nakamura, 2000).
The H/V technique was developed
by Nakamura (1989) with relating
borehole investigations together with
strong motion records analysis, on the
various geological site conditions. It was
hypothesized that, the vertical
component of ambient noise keeps the
characteristics of source to sediments
surface ground, is relatively influenced
by Rayleigh waves on the sediments
and can therefore be used to remove
both the source and the Rayleigh wave
effects from the horizontal components.
It is effective to identify the fundamental
resonant frequency of a sedimentary
layer, with implied amplification factors
that are more realistic than those
obtained from sediment to rock site
impedance ratios (Nakamura, 2000). It
has been shown by many researchers
(ex. Ohmachi et. al., 1991) that how
such H/V ratio of noise can be used to
identify the fundamental resonant
frequency and the amplification factor of
sediments.
Horizontal and vertical spectra on
the surface of the sedimentary basin (Hf,
Vf) can be written as follows.
(1)
(2)
where Ah and Av are the
amplification factors of the horizontal
and vertical motions of vertically incident
body wave. Hb and Vb are the spectra of
horizontal and vertical motion in the
basement under the basin (outcropped
basin). Hs and Vs are spectra of
horizontal and vertical directions of
Rayleigh waves. Th and Tv are the
amplification factors of horizontal and
vertical motions of the surface
sedimentary ground, based on seismic
motion on the exposed rock ground near
the basin. In general, the P wave
velocity is more than three-four times of
S wave velocity. In such sedimentary
layer, vertical component cannot be
amplified (Av=1) around the frequency
range where horizontal component
receives large amplification. If there is
no effect of Rayleigh waves, Vf ≈ Vb. On
the other hand, if Vf is larger than Vb, it
is considered as the effect of surface
waves. Then estimating the effect of
Rayleigh waves by Vf/Vb (=Tv), the
horizontal amplification can be written
as,
(3)
(4)
In equation (4), Hb/Vb ≈ 1. Hs/Hb and
Vs/Vb are related to the route of energy
of Rayleigh waves. If there is no
influence of the Rayleigh wave,
QTS=Ah/Av. If the amount of Rayleigh download from the internet. The results
wave is high, then the second term in obtained using both codes agree to an
the above formulation gets dominant acceptable extent. Samples of the H/v
and QTS = Hs/Vs, and the lowest peak spectra obtained are shown in figs. (4, 5
frequency of the Hs/Vs is nearly equal to ,6 ,7 and 8) whereas table (1) shows the
the lowest proper frequency Fo of Ah results of the fundamental frequencies
(see, Figure 6). In the range of Fo, Av=1. at the 7 sites used in the present work.
QTS shows stable peak at frequency Fo.
Even when the influence of Rayleigh
wave is large, Vs become small (which
results in a peak of Hs/Vs) around the
first order proper frequency due to the
multiple reflections of horizontal
motions. And QTS = Ah, if microtremors
of the basement Vb is relatively large
comparing to the Rayleigh wave. Briefly,
QTS represents the first order proper
frequency due to multiple reflection of
SH wave in the surface ground layer
and resulted amplification factor,
regardless of the influence degree of
Rayleigh waves. Detailed explanations
of the method may be found in Fig. (4). The Average H/V spectra (solid) and the
Nakamura (1996, 2000). average standard deviation (dashed) at site 1.

Estimation of H/V spectra

The data in the form of time series
recordings of the ambient noise were
obtained at 7 localities at Sharm El-
Sheikh area, South Sinai. Six of these
locations lie at the coastal area of the
city, while the 7th is located relatively
inward near Rewisat area. The time
series length is about 5 minutes. K2-
Altus accelerograph is the instrument
used for the recording of the present
work.
The data were analyzed using two
open source softwares, namely;
Jsesame and Geopsy. Both are free to Fig. (5). The Average H/V spectra (solid) and the
average standard deviation (dashed) at site 2.

Fig. (6). The Average H/V spectra (solid) and the
average standard deviation (dashed) at site 3.
Fig. (7). The Average H/V spectra (solid) and the
average standard deviation (dashed) at site 4.
Fig. (8). The Average H/V spectra (solid) and the
average standard deviation (dashed) at site 5.
Table (1). list of the fundamental frequency and
amplitude at the seven sites
Site Fundamental Amplitude
no. fequency
1 7.04 2.68
2 0.96 2.2
3 0.866 1.5
4 0.837 3.68
5 0.68 2.3
6 0.66 3.4
7 6.2 2
In figs(4 thru 8) the fundamental
frequencies are marked by the grey
vertical bands. Fundamental
frequencies for the sites not located
directly on the beach range from 0.66Hz
to 0.96 Hz, whereas fundamental
frequencies at the sites located on the
beach are relatively high reaching the
value of 7 Hz.
Summary and Conclusion
The present work is aiming towards
the identification of the fundamental
frequency and amplification at Sharm El-
Sheikh city south Sinai. Such goal is
obtained employing the H/V spectral
ratio method of Nakamura (1989). The
method depends on the use of ambient
noise recordings at a site to determine
both the amplification and fundamental
natural frequency of the site. Spectral
ratio means the division of the spectrum
of the horizontal component (either the
E-W or N-S or the net of both) by the
spectrum of the vertical component.
The method is applied at seven
localities at the eastern part of the city.
Six of the sites are located at the coast
while the 7th lie relatively inland near
Reweisat area. The result obtained
from the study shown in table (1). From
 the table it can be concluded that
Fundamental frequencies for the sites
not located directly on the beach range
from 0.66Hz to 0.96 Hz, whereas
fundamental frequencies at the sites
located on the beach are relatively high
reaching the value of 7 Hz.
Seleem, T. A., Parcharidis, I., Foumilis,
M, and Kourkouli, P, 2011. Detection of
ground deformation over Sharm El
Sheikh-Ras Nasrani Coastal zone,
South Sinai (Egypt), by using time series
SAR interferometry. J. of African Earth
Science. Vol. 59, 373-383.

References

El- ASmar, H. M., 1997. Quaternary

istotope stratigraphy and paleoclimate of
coral reef terraces, Gulf of Aqaba, south
Sinai, Egypt. Quaternary Science
Review. Vol 16, 911-924

Nakamura, Y. (1989), “A Method for

Dynamic Characteristics Estimation of
Subsurface using Microtremor on the
Ground Surface”, Quarterly Report of
Railway Technical Research Institute
(RTRI), Vol. 30, No.1.

Nakamura, Y. (1996),” Real Time

Information Systems for Seismic
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Nakamura, Y. 2000.. Clear identification

of fundamental idea of Nakamura
technique and its application. 12 WCEE.

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