| Abstract: | We investigate the dependence of the S-wave high-frequency spectral-decay parameter, κ (“kappa”) — a measure of wave attenuation — on ground-motion amplitude. 21 three-component accelerograms from two adjacent sediment sites in the town of Lefkas, western Greece, are used, representing 17 earthquakes with magnitudes Mw 4.7–7.0 and hypocentral distances 12–93 km. Recorded peak horizontal ground accelerations (PGA) and velocities (PGV) are 22–540 cm/s2 and 1.3–54.5 cm/s.Fourier amplitude spectra are computed for S-wave windows, and the frequency range is visually determined where the high-frequency spectral decay can be approximated by a straight line on the linear-log plot; its slope (and hence κ) is computed by linear regression. κ is found to depend on hypocentral distance as κ=0.108+0.058R (r=0.518).As PGV increases from 1.3 to 54.5 cm/s, κ0 (κ at 0 km, characterising inelastic attenuation in the site's subsurface geology) varies between 0.060 and 0.160 s. κ0 is found to correlate very strongly with log MGA (r=0.645) (MGA — mean horizontal acceleration in the S-wave window) but also with log PGA (r=0.447) and log PGV (r=0.627). We attribute this behaviour to sediment non-linearity (shear-modulus degradation), resulting in the decrease of the site's dominant-resonance frequency (from about 3.5 to 2.4 Hz) and leading to the increase of κ0. Our results imply that at sediment sites, an important contribution to κ comes from wave attenuation (damping) in the softest sediments and show that κ0 is amplitude dependent, thus being a measure of sediment non-linearity. |
