A horizontal ground-motion model for crustal and subduction earthquakes in Taiwan

In this study, a new horizontal ground-motion model is developed for crustal and subduction earthquakes in Taiwan. A novel two-step maximum-likelihood method is used as a regression tool to develop this model. This method simultaneously considers both the correlation between records and the biased sampling because of random truncation. Moreover, additional ground-motion data can be considered to derive more reliable analysis results. The functional form of the proposed ground-motion model is constructed using the response spectrum of the reference ground-motion scenario and different scalings of the source, path, and site to illustrate the ground-motion characteristics. The variabilities in the ground-motion intensity that result from different events, stations, and records are developed individually to derive a single-station sigma. The proposed ground-motion model may be useful for predicting ground-motion intensity and performing site-specific probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in Taiwan.