Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and spectral accelerations for United Arab Emirates

In recent years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has experienced an unprecedented growth which is coupled with the increase in seismic activity in the surroundings. Previous studies presents significant variations in their results whereas some recent studies although very detailed focus on only few cities. This study reviews the results of previous studies and presents new findings for the whole of UAE based on the improved source model and use of next generation attenuation (NGA) equations. The peak ground accelerations, spectral accelerations and deaggregation of hazard for major cities are presented. Moreover, the breakdown of the range of mapped spectral accelerations (S <Subscript>0.2</Subscript> and S <Subscript>1</Subscript>) is proposed to form the basis for the development of site amplification factors in subsequent studies. The results of this study indicate almost similar values of ground motion compared to some recently published studies and smaller values compared to some earlier studies. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013