Local site effects estimated from ambient vibration measurements at the Nubian habitations area in Kurkur, Aswan, Egypt

• Published in: Arabian journal of geosciences Vol. 9; no. 12; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Fat-Helbary, R. E., Abdel-latief, A. A., Mostafa, Alaa, Arfa, M. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amplitudes; Area; Civil engineering; Construction planning; Design engineering; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth science; Earth Sciences; Earthquake resistance; Earthquakes; Geology; Lakes; Land use; Land use management; Original Paper; Resonant frequencies; Seismic activity; Seismic engineering; Settlements; Signal processing; Spatial analysis; Spatial distribution; Vibration; Egypt, Arab Rep., Kalabsha; Egypt, Arab Rep; Africa, Nasser L; Ambient vibration; Site response; H/V technique; Resonant frequency; Kurkur area
• ISSN: 1866-7511; 1866-7538
• DOI: 10.1007/s12517-016-2622-4

The Egyptian government proposed a general plan, aiming to construct new settlements for Nubians in south Aswan in different places around Nasser’s Lake, one of these settlements in Kurkur area. This area are affecting by near distance earthquakes from Kalabsha faults system. These earthquakes generated great site effects on the sedimentary layers that in turn significantly influenced earthquake ground motions in the area. The main objective of the current study is to estimate the effect of local geology on seismic motion in terms of fundamental resonance frequency (f 0 ) and the corresponding H/V amplitude values (A 0 ) using the Nakamura technique. Ambient vibration measurements were carried out at 40 sites that are representative for the different geological units beneath the area. The recorded signals were processed using the horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratio Nakamura’s technique. Analysis of spatial distribution of the fundamental frequencies (f 0 ) and the corresponding H/V amplitudes (A 0 ) showed that the f 0 value varies from 0.98 to 2.74 Hz, while A 0 varies from 2.2 to 6.6 within the study area. Output of this study is very important for solving the problems, which associated with the construction of various civil engineering purposes, for land-use planning and for earthquakes resistant structure design.