A study of Kem County earthquake

Kern County 지진에 대한 연구

The purpose of this study is to evaluate compatability of seismic source characteristics of the Kern County earthquake to those of Korean Peninsula seismotectonics. The compatability could be used to make Korean type response spectrum from the strong ground motions observed from the assingned earthquake. The July 21, 1952, Kern County, California, earthquake is the largest earthquake to occur in the western U.S. since 1906, and the repeat of this event poses a significant seismic hazard. The Kern County event was a complex thrusting event, with a surface rupture pattern that varied from pure leftlateral strike-slip to pure dip-slip. A time dependent moment tensor inversion was applied to ten observed teleseismic long-period body waves to investigate the source complexity. Since a conventional moment tensor inversion(constant geometry through time) returns a non-double-couple source when the seismic source changes(fault orientation and direction of slip) with time, we are required to use the time dependent moment tensor which allows a first-order mapping of the geometric and temporal complexity. From the moment tensor inversion, a two-point seismic source model with significant overlap for the White Wolf fault, which propagates upward(20 km to 5 km) from SW to NE, fits most of the observed seismic waveforms in the least squares sense. Comparison of P, T and B axes of focal mechanisms and focal depths suggests that seismic source characteristics of the Kern County earthquake is consistant with those of Korean Peninsula Seismotectonics.

본 연구는 한반도의 지진지체구조 특성에 부합되는 내진설계용 부지응답 스펙트럼 작성을 위한 유사지진 선정에 관한 연구이다. Seismic Moment Tensor를 이용 파형을 Inversion한 결과에 의하면 지진원 특성상, Kern Conty 지진(1952년 7월 21일, 리히터 규모 ML = 7.2)은 한반도 지진지체구조 특성에 부합되는 현실적으로 유사한 외국의 지진들 중의 하나로서, 선정된 Kern Conty 지진으로 부터 발생한 강지진동 자료를 전산처리하여 표준응답 스펙트럼과 일반적 특성을 비교하여 보는 일도 의미있는 일이라고 할 수 있다.