Uncertainty and Spatial Correlation of Earthquake Ground Motion in Taiwan

In this work we analyzed characteristics of aleatory variability with regard to intra-event and inter-event components in the prediction of peak ground acceleration in Taiwan and the spatial (site-to-site) correlation of ground motion residuals. The characteristics are very important for an assessment of seismic hazard and loss for regionally located building assets (portfolio) and spatially distributed systems (lifelines) and Shake Map generation. The strong-motion database collected by the TSMIP network in Taiwan, which includes about 4650 records from 66 shallow earthquakes (M-L > 4.5, focal depth < 30 km) occurred in 1993 - 2004, was used for this purpose. The results of the analysis show that the ground motion correlation structure is highly dependent on local geology and on peculiarities of the propagation path (azimuth-dependent attenuation). Thus, a single generalized spatial correlation model may not be adequate for all of Taiwan territory or similar large areas.