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Journal of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Microtremor response of the Cheongcheon dam in Korea

Ki Young Kim 1 3 Young-Gyu Park 2
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

1 Department of Geophysics, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea.

2 Office of Environmental Geology, Korea Rural Community Corporation, Euwang-si 437-703, Korea.

3 Corresponding author. Email: kykim@kangwon.ac.kr

Exploration Geophysics 47(2) 115-122 https://doi.org/10.1071/EG15019
Submitted: 3 March 2015  Accepted: 3 March 2015   Published: 29 April 2015
Originally submitted to KSEG 30 August 2014, accepted 24 February 2015  

Abstract

Microtremors were analysed using the reference-dependent horizontal spectral (H/H) method and the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (H/V) method to estimate site effects of the Cheongcheon earthen dam in Korea. Seismic vibrations were recorded on the dam’s crest, at the toe of the dam, and in a downstream borehole using three-component accelerometers. The H/H peaks for crest versus toe-of-dam accelerations occurred at 3.1, 6.7 and 13.1 Hz with ratios of 6.9, 11.4 and 8.9, respectively. The H/V peaks for the crest of the dam occurred at 3.0, 7.0 and 13.4 Hz with ratios of 6.7, 7.8 and 5.6, respectively. The peak near 3 Hz may correspond to depth to bedrock, whereas the other peaks at higher frequencies may reflect the geometrical effect of the dam or overtone responses to the thickness of dam fill overlying the clay core. For the toe data, from the H/V spectral ratio method, the basement boundary appeared as double peaks near 8 and 10 Hz with corresponding amplification factors of 5.2 and 6.2. These may indicate a gradual change in velocity across the basement boundary at ~10 m depth. The third resonance, which occurred at 15 Hz, may correlate with the refraction boundary at 5–6 m depth in the overburden layer. Both the frequencies and magnitudes of resonance derived from the H/H and H/V methods are reasonably well matched to the theoretical response curves computed by the reflection and transmission matrix and the two-dimensional finite difference methods.

Key words: amplification factor, earthen dam, horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio method, microtremor, reference-dependent horizontal spectral method, site effect.


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