Masterprosjekt vår 2019 ved GEO - Mathilde Sørensen

Project description

Having a reliable method for evaluating the level of earthquake ground shaking as a function of magnitude and distance is an important prerequisite for evaluating the seismic hazard in a region. In many applications, ground motion is evaluated using a ground motion prediction equation (GMPE), which is an empirically derived relation between ground shaking, magnitude, distance and, potentially, other parameters. Deriving a GMPE requires a high- quality dataset of earthquake ground motions covering a wide magnitude- and distance
range.

Norway is a region of low to moderate seismicity, and earthquakes with magnitude larger than 5 are rare. There is thus a lack of ground motion data for high-magnitude events, which makes it challenging to derive a reliable GMPE for Norway. In regions of similar tectonics to Norway (e.g. in Eastern North America), this challenge has been addressed by supplementing the database of recorded ground motions with stochastically simulated ground motions for large magnitude events.

The aim of this project is to derive a GMPE for Norway. Stochastic simulation of ground motion will be used to supplement the ground motion database for Norway with large-magnitude events. The joint dataset of recorded and simulated ground motions will then be
used to derive a new GMPE through regression analysis.

Prereqesites

BSc in geophysics, or similar competence in math, physics and programming.

Felt-, lab- og analyse- arbeid:
Stochastic simulation of ground motion using EXSIM (freely available). Some Matlab programming will be required.

Proposed course plan during the master degree

GEOV219, GEOV355, GEOV357, GEOV359