Profiling the Quito basin (Ecuador) using seismic ambient noise

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, with more than 2.5 M inhabitants, is exposed to a high seismic hazard due to its proximity to the Pacific subduction zone and active crustal faults, both capable of generating significant earthquakes. Furthermore, the city is located in an intermontane piggy-back basin prone to seismic wave amplification. To understand the basin's seismic response and characterize its geological structure, 20 broad and medium frequency band seismic stations were deployed in Quito's urban area between May 2016 and July 2018 that continuously recorded ambient seismic noise. We first compute horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios to determine the resonant frequency distribution in the entire basin. Secondly, we cross-correlate seismic stations operating simultaneously to retrieve interstations surface-wave Green's functions in the frequency range of 0.1-2 Hz. We find that Love waves travelling in the basin's longitudinal direction (NNE-SSW) show much clearer correlograms than those from Rayleigh waves. We then compute Love wave phase-velocity dispersion curves and invert them in conjunction with the HVSR curves to obtain shear-wave velocity profiles throughout the city. The inversions highlight a clear difference in the basin's structure between its northern and southern parts. In the centre and northern areas, the estimated basin depth and mean shear-wave velocity are about 200 m and 1800 ms(-1), respectively, showing resonance frequency values between 0.6 and 0.7 Hz. On the contrary, the basement's depth and shear-wave velocity in the southern part are about 900 m and 2500 ms(-1), having a low resonance frequency value of around 0.3 Hz. This difference in structure between the centre-north and the south of the basin explains the spatial distribution of low-frequency seismic amplifications observed during the M-w 7.8 Pedernales earthquake in April 2016 in Quito.

Automated summary

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is at high seismic risk due to its proximity to seismic zones. A study conducted in the city investigated the seismic response of an intermontane basin. Differences in the basin's structure between its northern and southern parts were found to explain the observed low-frequency seismic amplification during a previous earthquake.