Item talk:Q57377

VS30 at three strong-motion recording stations in Napa and Solano Counties, California — Lovall Valley Road, Broadway Street and Sereno Drive in Vallejo, and Vallejo Fire Station — Calculations determined from S-wave refraction tomography and multichannel analysis of surface waves (Rayleigh and Love)

The August 24, 2014, moment magnitude (M_w) 6.0 South Napa earthquake caused an estimated $400 million in structural damage to the City of Napa, California. In 2015, we acquired high-resolution P- and S-wave seismic data near three strong-motion recording stations in Napa and Solano Counties where high peak ground accelerations (PGAs) were recorded during the South Napa earthquake. In this report, we present results from three sites—Lovall Valley Loop Road in Napa County (Northern California Seismic Network station, NCSN N019B) and Broadway Street and Sereno Drive (California Geological Survey station, CGS 68294) and Vallejo Fire Station (National Strong Motion Project station, NSMP 1759) in the City of Vallejo, California. To characterize the recording sites in terms of shallow-depth, shear-wave velocities (V_S), we used both surface waves (Rayleigh and Love) and body waves (S-wave) to evaluate the time-averaged V_S in the upper 30 meters of the subsurface (V_S30). We used two-dimensional (2D) multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) to evaluate V_S from surface waves, and a refraction tomography inversion algorithm, developed by Hole in 1992, to evaluate V_S from the body waves. As determined by the tomography and MASW analysis for Love waves, we found V_S30 near the strong-motion recording stations at Lovall Valley Loop Road, Broadway Street and Sereno Drive, and the Vallejo Fire Station to be from 711 meters per second (m/s) to 767 m/s, 455 to 673 m/s, and 490 to 583 m/s, respectively. We found that V_S30 determined from Love waves were higher than those determined from Rayleigh waves at the Lovall Valley Loop Road recording site (221 m/s higher) and at the Vallejo Fire Station site (62 and 48 m/s higher); however, V_S30 from Love waves was lower than those from Rayleigh waves at the Broadway Street and Sereno Drive site (78 m/s lower). We also found that V_S30 varied depending on the number of shot points used in our MASW analysis for both Love and Rayleigh waves. Furthermore, V_S30 values determined from S-wave refraction tomography are generally closer to those determined from MASW using Love waves than those determined using Rayleigh waves.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Tectonic and Geological Setting
• August 24, 2014, M_w 6.0 South Napa Earthquake
• Seismic Survey
• Seismic-Imaging Methods
• Refraction-Tomography Modeling
• Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASRW) and Love Waves (MASLW)
• V_S30 Calculations
• Results
• Summary
• Conclusion
• Appendixes