Assessment of the correlation between site-specific nonlinear soil behavior for Japanese KiK-net stations and geological, geotechnical parameters

The geometry and soil conditions at a site can strongly influence the ground shaking induced by an earthquake and an important part of seismic hazard assessment is therefore to characterize such site effects. At stiff sites and for weak ground motions, the soil response behaves linearly, however, for larger ground motions and softer sites the site response becomes nonlinear and thus more challenging to assess. Because recordings of such strong shaking are rare, nonlinear soil parameters are often defined from laboratory measurements and numerical simulations. However, the increase of available ground motion data, in particular from sites with recordings from both weak and strong motions, has increased the possibility of deriving nonlinear site parameters directly from empirical data. In this study, we take advantage of the comprehensive KiK-net network in Japan, consisting of stations with recording instruments at both surface and at depth. We use the surface-to-depth ratios of each event recorded by each station, to systematically capture the empirical effects of nonlinear soil response on the local response. Station-specific parameters for the degree of nonlinearity and PGA thresholds for the onset of nonlinear behaviour are then derived and the statistical correlation between these parameters and a selection of geotechnical and geological indicators are investigated. Our results show that - although finding site parameters suitable for predicting nonlinear site effects remains challenging as the nonlinear soil-behaviour is largely site-specific - proxies describing the depth to bedrock, sediment thickness and characterization of the shallowest part of the soil layer display a certain degree of potential for prediction.