An empirical significant duration relationship for stable continental regions

An empirical predictive relationship correlating significant duration to earthquake magnitude, site-to-source distance, and local site conditions (i.e., rock vs. stiff soil) for stable continental regions is presented herein. The correlations were developed from data derived from 620 horizontal motions for stable continental regions (e.g., central and eastern North America: CENA), consisting of 28 recorded motions and 592 scaled motions. The data set encompasses the earthquake magnitude from 4.5 to 7.6 and the distance from 0.1 to 199 km. The non-linear mixed-effects regression technique was used to fit a predictive model to the significant duration data. Similar to the trend observed from active shallow crustal region motions, significant durations predicted for stable continental region motions increased with increasing earthquake magnitude and increasing site-to-source distance. In comparing the predicted durations for CENA motions with those for motions from active shallow crustal regions (e.g., western North America: WNA), it is shown that the differences in significant durations for the two regions are relatively minor for site-to-source distances less than about 100 km. Lastly, the significant durations predicted by the proposed model are shown to be in good agreement with durations of the motions recorded during the Mineral, Virginia earthquake of August 23, 2011.