Updated Seismic Hazard Assessment Evaluation for the City of Aqaba, Jordan

Abstract

This study aims to determine seismic hazard in Aqaba city which is located in the southern part of Jordan at the Gulf of Aqaba. Nineteen active seismic area sources are considered in this study. The seismic sources within a circle of 300 km radius covering the faults to determine the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) and Response Spectra curves for different return periods (475, 975, and 2475 years) for nine selected sites in Aqaba city was considered. These nine sites represent different soil profiles of the city. It is resulted that 95% of the seismic hazard of the studied area is due to the sources lies within the influence circle (i.e., 300 km). The calculated PGA value for 10% of being exceeded in 50 years (i.e., return period=475 years) is 0.3g, meanwhile it is considered in the Jordan Building Code for Seismic Resisting Design (JBC) as 0.2g. Furthermore, the PGA for 5 % (return period=975 years) and 2% (return period=2475 years) are 0.45g and 0.52g, respectively. The results for soil profiles hard rock (SA), and stiff soil (SD) for periods 0, 0.2, and 1 second were 0.3g, 0.7g, 0.2g, and 0.35g, 0.79g, 0.2g (for return period of 475 years) respectively. It is noted that the maximum spectral acceleration is 0.87g at Aqaba southern coast for stiff soil profile, while its minimum value is 0.7g at the northern part of Aqaba for stiff soil profile for return period 475 years.