Characterization of earthquake shaking severity in the town of Lorca during the May 11, 2011 event

Exceptional ground motions have been observed in the near-source region in relatively small and moderate earthquakes such as the Lorca earthquake of 2011. In the Mw 5.2 mainshock, horizontal peak ground acceleration reached 0.37 g at the LOR accelerograph station in the north-central part of the town. Maximum ground acceleration and velocity in this station was strongly polarised in the fault’s strike-normal axis, a feature interpreted as a near-field effect of rupture directivity. This quake hit the Lorca area causing serious structural damage, unevenly distributed in the urban area as result of a heterogeneous spread of building vulnerability and seismic shaking severity. This study investigates the characteristics of the earthquake shaking at the LOR station (on rock) and other 11 zones of Lorca with different site conditions. We have computed the 1-D transfer functions of the shallow structure at these 11 points with available local Vs models obtained with SPAC technique. These transfer functions were used to convolve the LOR accelerogram and simulate the ground motion which occurred at each site. A set of key engineering ground-motion parameters obtained here, indicate different shake levels at each site and all these values are clearly above the LOR station ones. These parameter values are in the range of typical expected values for European earthquakes with local intensity VIII. Their large values, especially those of acceleration response spectra and energy input spectra, more clearly for periods between 0.4 and 0.6 s, point out that the seismic demand has been quite high and help to explain the heavy damage spread on the town’s buildings.