Preliminary empirical scaling of pseudo relative velocity spectra in Serbia from the Vrancea earthquakes

First frequency-dependent empirical scaling equations of pseudo-relative velocity spectral amplitudes (PSV) of strong earthquake ground motions in the former Yugoslavia were introduced in the mid-1990s by Lee and Trifunac (1990) 15]. This followed the development of the Fourier spectral amplitudes (FS) scaling equations by Lee and Trifunac (1993) 17] in terms of earthquake source parameters, and the region-specific frequency dependent attenuation function given by Lee and Trifunac (1992) 16]. More recently, a new frequency-dependent attenuation function was developed for central and eastern Serbia for earthquakes of intermediate and large magnitudes and for large epicentral distances—exceeding 300 km—suggested by Lee et al. (2016) 19] that occur in the Vrancea source region in Romania. In this paper we use this frequency-dependent attenuation function to develop empirical scaling equations for PSV spectral amplitudes in Serbia. These scaling equations will form a basis for macro- and micro-zoning earthquake hazard studies in Serbia.