Analysis of accelerograms—Parkfield earthquake

Integrated velocities and displacements show that near the fault at Cholame the surface motion exhibited a transient horizontal displacement pulse of approximately ten inches amplitude and one and one-half seconds duration, normal to the fault. Although 50 per cent of ground acceleration was recorded at the fault, the ground motion attenuated rapidly with distance and at ten miles from the fault the maximum acceleration was reduced to one-tenth of its near-fault value. The ground motion also changed its character with distance, losing its pulse-like directional characteristic and becoming isotropic. Computed response spectra are presented and the large spectrum ordinates for this shock of relatively small magnitude and moderate destructiveness indicate that in an engineering sense the Parkfield ground motion is in a different class from such large destructive ground motions as El Centro 1940, Tehachapi 1952, and Olympia 1949