Comparison Between Recorded and Derived Horizontal Peak Ground Accelerations in Jordan

The isoseismal map for the earthquake that occurred in the Jordan Valley on 11 July 1927 was analyzed and used to develop Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) Attenuation relation for Jordan needed for use in relevant seismic hazard evaluation procedures. Strong motion data of earthquakes that occurred in Jordan and Israel during the last 15 years were summarized. A comparison is made between recorded PGA's and those calculated using the derived Attenuation relations commonly used by experts in the region. The comparison showed that the derived relation is appropriate for estimating PGA values on alluvium foundations. The derived relation gave results close to those obtained using a relation introduced by Esteva in 1974. The 1982 relation of Ben-Menahem and co-workers gave reasonable predictions of PGA values for most geological formations of foundations, in general. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998