We present a set of ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) derived for the geometrical mean of the horizontal components and the vertical, considering the latest release of the strong motion database for Italy. The regressions are performed over the magnitude range 4 -6.9 and considering distances up to 200 km. The equations are derived for peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV) and 5%-damped spectral acceleration at periods between 0.04 and 2 s. The total standard deviation (sigma) varies between 0.34 and 0.38 log 10 unit, confirming the large variability of ground shaking parameters when regional data sets containing small to moderate magnitude events (M < 6) are used. The between-stations variability provides the largest values for periods shorter than 0.2 s while, for longer periods, the between-events and between-stations distributions of error provide similar contribution to the total variability.

To complement the new European Strong-Motion dataset and the ongoing efforts to update the seismic hazard and risk assessment of Europe and Mediterranean regions, we propose a new regionally adaptable ground-motion model (GMM). We present here the GMM capable of predicting the 5% damped RotD50 of PGA, PGV, and SA(T = 0.01 − 8 s) from shallow crustal earthquakes of 3 ≤ M W ≤ 7.4 occurring 0 < R JB ≤ 545 km away from sites with 90 ≤ V s30 ≤ 3000 m s −1 or 0.001 ≤ slope ≤ 1 m m −1. The extended applicability derived from thousands of new recordings, however, comes with an apparent increase in the aleatory variability (σ). Firstly, anticipating contaminations and peculiarities in the dataset, we employed robust mixed-effect regressions to down weigh only, and not eliminate entirely, the influence of outliers on the GMM median and σ. Secondly, we regionalised the attenuating path and localised the earthquake sources using the most recent models, to quantify region-specific anelastic attenuation and locality-specific earthquake characteristics as random-effects, respectively. Thirdly, using the mixed-effect variancecovariance structure, the GMM can be adapted to new regions, localities, and sites with specific datasets. Consequently, the σ is curtailed to a 7% increase at T < 0.3 s, and a substantial 15% decrease at T ≥ 0.3 s, compared to the RESORCE based partially non-ergodic GMM. We provide the 46 attenuating region-, 56 earthquake localities-, and 1829 site-specific adjustments, demonstrate their usage, and present their robustness through a 10-fold cross-validation exercise.

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Bora, and colleagues at section 2.6 of GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences for their invaluable contributions in understanding the mathematics involved, interpretation of our results, and the thorough internal review of the manuscript.

S U M M A R YTo study the applicability of the passive seismic interferometry technique to near-surface geological studies, seismic noise recordings from a small scale 2-D array of seismic stations were performed in the test site of Nauen (Germany). Rayleigh wave Green's functions were estimated for different frequencies. A tomographic inversion of the traveltimes estimated for each frequency from the Green's functions is then performed, allowing the laterally varying 3-D surface wave velocity structure below the array to be retrieved at engineering-geotechnical scales. Furthermore, a 2-D S-wave velocity cross-section is obtained by combining 1-D velocity structures derived from the inversion of the dispersion curves extracted at several points along a profile where other geophysical analyses were performed. It is shown that the crosssection from passive seismic interferometry provides a clear image of the local structural heterogeneities that are in excellent agreement with georadar and geoelectrical results. Such findings indicate that the interferometry analysis of seismic noise is potentially of great interest for deriving the shallow 3-D velocity structure in urban areas.

The basic seismic load parameters for the upcoming national design regulation for DIN EN 1998-1/NA result from the reassessment of the seismic hazard supported by the German Institution for Civil Engineering (DIBt). This 2016 version of the national seismic hazard assessment for Germany is based on a comprehensive involvement of all accessible uncertainties in models and parameters and includes the provision of a rational framework for integrating ranges of epistemic uncertainties and aleatory variabilities in a comprehensive and transparent way. The developed seismic hazard model incorporates significant improvements over previous versions. It is based on updated and extended databases, it includes robust methods to evolve sets of models representing epistemic uncertainties, and a selection of the latest generation of ground motion prediction equations. The new earthquake model is presented here, which consists of a logic tree with 4040 end branches and essential innovations employed for a realistic approach. The output specifications were designed according to the user oriented needs as suggested by two review teams supervising the entire project. Seismic load parameters, for rock conditions of v S30 = 800 m/s, are calculated for three hazard levels (10, 5 and 2% probability of occurrence or exceedance within 50 years) and delivered in the form of uniform hazard spectra, within the spectral period range 0.02-3 s, and seismic hazard maps for peak