Simulation of pulse-like ground motions during the 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel earthquake with a new source model using corrected empirical Green's functions

Pulse-like near-source ground motions were observed by the local network during the 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel, Chile earthquake. Such ground motions can be quite damaging to a wide range of infrastructures. The primary objective of this study is to provide a source model that can explain such ground motions. The isolated nature of the pulses indicated that the rupture of some small isolated region on the fault contributed to the generation of the pulse. Therefore, we considered such regions and termed them as Strong Motion Pulse Generation Areas (SPGAs). We used the corrected empirical Green's function (EGF) method because this method has been successfully applied to near-source pulse-like ground motions in previous studies. We simulated synthetic waveforms using the frequency dependent quality factor Q=239f0.71 and empirical site amplification factors, which we obtained by applying a generalized inversion technique to local weak-motion data. The result indicated that the observed ground motions from the Mw 8.3 Illapel earthquake can readily be explained with a source model that involves two SPGAs with dimensions of several kilometers in spite of the huge rupture zone of the earthquake. The source model can reproduce velocity waveforms, acceleration Fourier amplitude spectra (FAS) and pseudoacceleration response spectra. It also reproduces the duration of strong ground motions quite accurately. No significant bias was found with respect to distance and frequency. In conclusion, the corrected EGF method is a very efficient tool to simulate near-source ground motions of a subduction earthquake when it is combined with higher stress-drop subevents whose sizes are adjusted to the observed pulse widths.