Procedure to estimate maximum ground acceleration from macroseismic intensity rating: application to the Lima, Perú data from the October-3-1974-8.1-Mw earthquake

Post-disaster reconstruction management of urban areas requires timely information on the ground response microzonation to strong levels of ground shaking to minimize the rebuilt-environment vulnerability to future earthquakes. In this paper, a procedure is proposed to quantitatively estimate the severity of ground response in terms of peak ground acceleration, that is computed from macroseismic rating data, soil properties (acoustic impedance) and predominant frequency of shear waves at a site. The basic mathematical relationships are derived from properties of wave propagation in a homogeneous and isotropic media. We define a Macroseismic Intensity Scale IMS as the logarithm of the quantity of seismic energy that flows through a unit area normal to the direction of wave propagation in unit time. The derived constants that relate the IMS scale and peak acceleration agree well with coefficients derived from a linear regression between MSK macroseismic rating and peak ground acceleration for historical earthquakes recorded at a strong motion station, at IGP’s former headquarters, since 1954. The procedure was applied to 3-October-1974 Lima macroseismic intensity data at places where there was geotechnical data and predominant ground frequency information. The observed and computed peak acceleration values, at nearby sites, agree well.